Surviving Belief

I don’t know if I am more humored or saddened when I hear or read survivors of disasters such as last week’s path of horrific tornadoes across the south claim that their lives were spared by God’s answering their prayers:

"We were saying our prayers as it was coming down the street. There was a rumbling and this loud woosh," [University of Alabama student Shaylyndrea Jones] said.

"Sky [Lisa Rice’s 21-year-old daughter] said, `We're going to die.' But, I said, `No, just pray. Just pray, just pray, just pray,'" Lisa Rice said.

"We just started praying," [Shelby] Lester said. "The house was swaying."

Of course we’ll never know how many of the hundreds who died in the storms also prayed right before they were killed – they’re dead. Superstition Religion is a selective source of comfort for believers. Random chance is a much more reliable explanation for how we get through this world.