Last Tuesday, a Butler teenager and hockey player was pinned underneath a 1.5 ton slab of concrete that fell from a retaining wall. The soccer ball he had been playing with at recess had landed nearby, and Master Robert had come to retrieve it. The boy is fine, having sustained only minor injuries. Rescue crews worked for 90 minutes, eventually utilizing a crane to lift the slab away.

I take issue with the subsequent statements by the boy and his doctor.

A teenager who was trapped under a 3,800 pound concrete slab was released from Children’s Hospital today.

Both he and his doctor said his survival was a miracle.

Not an uncommon reaction to a disaster, at least in our culture. In fact, most recipients of good fortune credit God for it, from national award winners to other kinds of hockey players.

The 1980 Winter Olympics Men’s Ice Hockey game was won by the team nobody expected to win. Perhaps because the God-fearing USA won against the atheistic USSR, the event was called the “Miracle on Ice.”

In the case of Robert Maust and his concrete friend, and in the case of the “Miracle on Ice,” attributing success to God is simply not giving credit where it’s due.

The USA’s hockey team beat the USSR’s hockey team because they played better hockey. No hand of God was necessary; it was men, people, mortal human beings.

Although Robert Maust and his doctor credit the supreme being for saving Robert’s life, Dr. Barksdale clarifies things a bit:

…Robert’s injuries could have been far worse if he had panicked. “He kept his cool under there, when most people would have panicked,” Barksdale said.

So, in actual fact, it was Robert’s ability to stay calm and trust the well-trained, capable, dedicated human beings coming to his rescue that saved him.

I suppose it’s possible that God took time out of his busy schedule arranging the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in order to soothe Robert Maust’s nerves. If that’s the kind of God you’re comfortable praying to, believing in and giving money to, don’t let reason and logic stand in your way.

If you ask me, this particular “miracle” was provided by human beings.

Related posts:

1. Where to Go When You Gotta Go
2. The first good Penguins idea so far
3. Go Zombies!
4. Taxpayers to waste money on technology; film at 11
5. Going For a Swim