When we see people survive cataclysmic natural disasters, or even simple car accidents, we are almost always confronted by the religious amongst us, attributing the survival as being, "A Miracle", brought about by an interventionist god protecting these survivors, alone.

Now, just as a matter of enquiry, I was wondering if any religions have ever done a statistical analysis of unlikely events of survival, and broken down the results to identify whether those claimed to have been miraculously saved, shared any particular attributes?

I mean, if you really want to believe in an interventionist god, it would be worth knowing if he favours one group of people over another.

Does he intervene to save christians, or muslims, or moonies?
Does he ignore religious groupings altogether and choose people by worth, or potential, like, that guy always gives to charity, so I will save him, but that other guy spends his money on prostututes and alcohol and drugs, so he can die, or that baby will grow up to be a rapist, but that other one will cure diseases, so I will save him, that sort of thing.

So, do any theists know of any evidence which may give us a clue as to just why god performs these miracles that they claim?

If they do not have any evidence, can they explain what criteria they use to claim the occurrence of miracles? I for one am a little confused on this issue, even though I have heard the claim many times in my lifetime, I can discern no pattern or reason to it.

No thanks, just thinking about lourdes makes me sad.
As a child, I felt there was something inherently cruel and evil about those images of the infirm and dying queing up to be accepted or rejected by god as being worthy of receiving a miracle.

I recall it was one of my first times actually thinking about the stuff that we were being told, and concluding it was not good.
As a kid you tend not to over analyse things, but the pervading feeling I kept getting was that this stuff is pretty sick.

mozzaok wrote on Apr 5^th, 2010 at 10:56am:

Now that's a very good point.

Who weeps for those whom 'god' rejects as unworthy of a miracle?

Who tells the cancer-ridden 10 year old, writhing in pain, that "god just doesn't love you enough"?

Do the faithful just stare and turn their faces away? Maybe they hope that through medical science there will soon be a cure for the evil of disease that afflicts the young child... And deep down, I'm sure, they know that this kind of hope is not in vain.

soren - hahahah

helian - that's a good query. course, there is an answer

Many writers on heaven, from Philo of Alexandria onwards, are inclined to stress the intellectual delights of heaven. Philo seems to think that all the saved will be able to indulge in philosophy seminars, making heaven a kind of Oxford graduate college, like All Souls. My own favourite is the image of some medieval rabbis, who saw heaven as a vast, quiet, peaceful library, where books jumped down from the shelves when you nodded to them, and soft-footed librarians dispersed cooling mint drinks.


http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/johnson_04_10.html

Other, er, writers imagine booze and girlies...

A FREAK wave saved a man's life after he plunged off The Gap at Watsons Bay last night.

The 45-year-old man who fell 200m was washed back on to dry land unharmed shortly after 9pm.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/freak-wave-saves-man-in-suicide-spot/story...

AND

Forty years on, Vatican tells Beatles: We love you, yeah, yeah, yeah


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1265220/Forty-years-Vatican-tells-Beatles-We-love-yeah-yeah-yeah.html#ixzz0kqP98TJ1