Do Any of You Get Sick of "Miracle" Stories in the News?

[LAGC]

Case in point:

SEATTLE -- Olivia Clark lived for only one hour. Doctors didn't even expect her to survive birth. So, her family has a hard time understanding why the King County Medical Examiner has to review her death and charge $50.

"With Olivia, there was so much love in that room and we knew it was going to be such a short time," says her grandmother, Diana Clark. "That was probably the most joyous hour that I've experienced."

Her grandparents say Olivia was polycystic and, as a result, her lungs never developed. So, her short life was a miracle.

http://www.ktvb.com/news/regional/113283139.html

Does anyone else object to the media's liberal use of the term "miracle?"

No, God making your child polycystic is NOT a miracle. Why should a child be born just to have to suffer? What kind of "miracle" is that?

[Lint Head]

1. YES.

[Drale]

2. Wait so does that mean if you are murdered

they charge your family 50 bucks for an autopsy? That sounds like the America of the right wing to me.

[dkf]

3. Let them have their moment of peace

Its no burden to me.

[Bad Thoughts]

4. What are the alternatives?

Shaking their fists at an unjust deity?

Grumbling over the contingencies of biology?

If they spent every minute giving their love to that precious, fleeting life, they can call it whatever they want.

[dimbear]

5. Miracles aren't necessarily good. They are just very unusual.

When the dinosaurs looked up and noticed the asteroid approaching bringing with it their destruction, all agreed it was a miracle.

[darkstar3]

6. I can't believe I, of all people, am about to say this, but:

Look at the context. The reporter/writer didn't use the word, the family did. Now, inclusion of such a sentiment expressed by the grandparents is, in my mind, superfluous and mildly problematic, but I don't think it was the writer's own usage.

Now, aside from this case, I do find myself annoyed when a media personality refers to a fortunate accident or circumstance as a miracle. As an example: Just recently a group of tornadoes tore through my state, but in my own city no one was injured directly from the storms, and the talking head on TV repeatedly called it a miracle with no prompting from anyone else. I found that tasteless.

[edhopper]

14. Yes

They were using the term to come to grips with the tragedy and not fall into feelings of complete despair.
I do not not take it that they thought there was divine intervention. Just coping with it.

Now when one person survives a terrible accident that kills dozens and they call that a miracle. WTF.

[Smarmie Doofus]

7. I do. I don't see a huge gap between belief in "miracles"....

... and burning people alive because you think they're "witches".

[jwirr]

8. I certainly do not - my daughter was not supposed to be born alive

and then she was only supposed to live until she was 30 and she is now 54 and her doctors tell me that she could live to be 75. Of course I will be the first to admit that being cared for at home and having good health care has been the means of this survival.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

9. Yes.

I hate it when they confuse the use of skilled medical science with a "miracle".

[laconicsax]

10. Absolutely.

Skilled person A uses their skill, saves life/prevents death and God gets the credit.

Large group suffers tragedy, one person walks away and God was watching over them (but not the victims).

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

[trotsky]

11. This is the perfect example of how religious moderates enable and empower the extremists.

"No, no, we mustn't be rude and tell these people it wasn't a miracle. Let them have their beliefs!"

OK, so following that reasoning, we mustn't tell Randall Terry that murdering abortion doctors is wrong. And we certainly shouldn't be telling Fred Phelps that he's wrong to hate homosexuals. I mean, let them have their beliefs, right?

[Jokerman]

12. +1

[brendan120678]

13. - 1.

There is a HUGE difference between allowing folks to believe in miracles from God and allowing people to believe that murder and hate is acceptable.

Is allowing the family of this baby girl to believe her short life was a miracle negatively impacting you - or anyone else - in any way at all?

[trotsky]

15. Sure there's a huge difference.

But once you've declared religious beliefs special and sacrosanct and immune from any kind of disagreement, let alone criticism, how do you justify criticizing them ever - even if those beliefs directly harm others? And what about hate - does hate actually harm someone if it is not acted upon? Does a Phelps gang protest in Topeka, KS negatively impact you in any way at all?

[brendan120678]

18. Hate in itself cannot harm anyone UNTIL it...

is acted upon.

Once that hate is acted upon...by all means, go ahead and criticize away. I'd be right there with you.

[trotsky]

19. You seem to have glossed over my first question.

I'm sure it was unintentional.

[cleanhippie]

17. So please explain where the line is between simple greiving mechanisms and delusion?

Sure, this family was grieving and that was the only way they knew how to deal with it. But where does the line exist that separates simple grieving from delusion?

[Iggo]

16. I only like it when it's used in a sports story.

Like a miracle comeback.

[Jim__]

20. We should create a dictionary in which all the offensive words have been edited out.

After all, the story that you cited wasn't really a "miracle" story. It was a story about a death tax. Apparently the grandparents of the dead infant used the offensive word. For now, we can probably tolerate such usage from the ignorant. But, there's no reason the writer had to include that word in his story. All acceptable words could be gathered together is "The Newspeak Dictionary" and writers, playwrites, novelists and such, would be greatly "encouraged" to select their words from this dictionary.



And, as probably required: :sarcasm:

[trotsky]

21. Of course, no one here has suggested we eliminate certain words...

or criminalize their use.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled strawman.

[WolverineDG]

22. Why don't you contact Skinner

& ask that "miracle" be put on the DU no-no list? :eyes:

Of all the things to whine about---what grieving people chose to call what happened to their granddaughter!

And, btw, the "miracle" was that the child lived for 1 hour without functioning lungs, not that God "made" her polycystic. Try holding your breath for as long as you can. I doubt it will even come close to 60 minutes.

dg

[LAGC]

23. The way I read that story...

It sounded like the reporter was putting words in the parents' mouths.

The article never said the parents considered it a "miracle," its just the way it was reported in the edit room.

I don't have a problem with people seeing subjective "miracles" everywhere, I just wish the news media was more objective, that's all.

[trotsky]

24. How gracious it was of your god, then...

to allow this newborn infant to struggle and suffer gasping for oxygen for an hour before finally dying of asphyxiation rather than being stillborn and not have to suffer at all!

[jdp349]

25. This incident seems like the opposite of a miracle...

[cynatnite]

26. Nope...

They use it as an adjetive to describe something they're glad for. I seriously don't care that it's used so much. If that helps them believe in their god who is watching me even when I'm taking a shower, more power to them. Doesn't bug me at all.

Just keep the conversion attemps away and stop making law out of your myths. That's all I ask.

[Deep13]

27. Yes, especially when it is to minimize something horrible.

It was a miracle that I didn't get on that plane! Yeah, but a hundred other people did get on and it crashed anyway.