Already on Facebook, co-workers on my friends list, as well as a few other theists on my friends list, are attributing this to being a miracle of god and saying : Prayers going out to them, prayers going out for them being found, etc.

Hmm, strange that this whole miracle could have been avoided if the all knowing, all-seeing, all powerful one had prevented this from taking place to begin with.

I am very happy they made it out alive, but it was no fucking miracle.

i'm not going to nitpick people's language.  if my daughter was found after ten years i'd probably be using expressions like "miracle" and "thank god" too, and i wouldn't give a shit how it read to the rrs message board.  we have to accept that there are some situations where emotion trumps rationality, and this is one of them.  expecting a grieving community, now experiencing incredible relief after a decade, to formulate a rational worldview in their reactions is just snide.

i don't like it when theists use tragedies to get in a quick shot with their pseudophilosophical arguments and, quite frankly, i don't like it when atheists do it either.  these girls lost ten years of their lives--some might say the best ten years.  they're going to be severely challenged in the world in innumerable ways.  one of them even lost her mother during that time.  where the idea of god figures or doesn't figure in this equation is so irrelevant i have no words to express its insignificance.  let them rejoice in church.  let them praise god publicly.  let them react however the fuck they want to react and those of us who have never experienced anything so monumentally horrific, let's keep our fucking mouths shut for once and just stand in awe of what has happened, in all its positive and negative extremes.

FYI this is more a criticism of the editing habits of news media, every time they get A roll and B roll it is almost as if the reporter/editor, is afraid of getting fired if they don't use a clip of someone saying "God" or "miracle". So please don't talk to me about "using" people.

And please don't tell me theists wouldn't be posting on the net "This wouldn't have happened to you if you believed in my  god" if it were one of our kids. Or do you forget all the shit they say about us? See to me it is fair game, because what is more important arn't the words, but the facts.

And again, we are not talking about live face to face context, we are talking about what they say and we say all the time. I simply think it is stupid to sweep the argument under the rug.

It is disturbing that some well intended people would think that pointing out reality is "using" someone. But when slimeballs like Sylvia Brown and John Edwards con victims, we are the closed mined ones. This would be like screaming at a doctor who advises you not to simply pray for a new liver and seek a transplant.

And McDonalds is all over this event like white on rice, "This tragedy brought to you by the McRib".

CONTEXT,

You are STUPIDLY taking this out of context. No theist or atheist I would call moral or sensitive, would disrupt a private moment in person. My blasphemy is about how STUPID human logic is in gap filling in such situations.

You are doing the same thing theists do.

Skeptic "Bad shit happens and there is no magic to it"

You, "Yea but do you have to say it now"

Me, "Yes, just like the earth is not flat, and just like I don't want you running that red light."

You "ASSHOLE"

Now I defy you to show me how any superstition has in reality done anything for humanity other than to act as a placebo?

My mom is a Catholic, in two weeks she is going to have heart surgery. I have not told others not to say prayers for her, and if she wants to see a priest before I am not going to stop her. But to say I should not say anything about it outside her earshot is petty, and does not progress human knowledge.

Why the fuck should I apologize for saying religion does not explain shit?

Seriously, those victims were victims of rape, not a magic man with a pitchfork or the "mysterious ways" of a bearded man in a white robe.

To coddle that is to demean their suffering, to allow the credulous to believe that it is ok for their fictional parent to treat us humans as mere property with no say as to how we are treated. That horrible use of logic allows the superstitious to make excuses to do nothing. It is maintaining and fostering the intellectual dangerous mind slavery.

It has allowed men in many cultures around the world to blame the victim for what she wore, or where she went or what she said. India still has a huge problem with rape because of superstition and cultural norms.

It also ignores the truth of valuing the knowledge of why rape happens in order to learn from it and prevent it. Rape is about power and control and we see this cruelty in other primates too. We also see the natural reaction of that primate or human when they get raped. By coddling their superstition you allow them to ignore real solutions that can help the victim cope and empower women.

Compassion isn't ignoring reality nor does it make me cruel for stating fact vs fantasy. Girls and women are not the property of any fictional being, nor are they raped because of a fictional villain. Cruel is thinking it is ok to have a boss who can do what he wants at the cost of your physical and mental harm.

So do you want to help the real victims, or do you want to placate the insecurities of the credulous?

oh boy, here come the caps.  i'm about to get told by big bad Brian37.

again, so the fuck what?  theists and atheists both do retarded and intelligent things.  if a theist says sometimes it's better not to chime in on an issue and make it about ideology, then i'd say that theist is acting intelligently.  therefore i will happily emulate him or her.

you really are the king of inept analogies.

and why is there anything wrong with a placebo necessarily? 

i don't expect you to apologize for shit.

i think that judgment is best left up to the individual suffering.  thankfully, in this case they're still living, so i'm sure if talk of "miracles" in their case bothers them so much, they are more than capable of speaking for themselves. 

oh, so THAT'S the whole answer?  bingo!  we have it!  the india expert has spoken.

from what i've seen over the past 6 years, you know all of dick about indian "superstitions."

your problem, brian, is you lose particulars in universals.  you don't know these castro fuckers' motives or even if they were religious.  stop the fucking hysterics. 

the real victims in this case have already been helped.  now they can be their own voices.

we're all credulous to a degree, brian.  even you.

You jumped on me for "using them". Now you also stupidly say that suffering is special because of the type of suffering?

My point in bringing up rape was because that was what the story was about. But it could be about murder, or PSTD in war, or watching someone die in a car accident. The point is that SUFFERING is not special, not my mom, or my sisters or theirs. Dont accuse me of "using" religion when the media edits the clips to make a billboard, and dont lecture me about using them when they themselves use it as a billboard.

Rape, murder, assault, war, all of it are a result of evolution. Now the only context you'd be right about when talking about any human horror, is IN THE MOMENT face to face with the person who has suffered. But merely discussing it outside their earshot is not a crime.

If they are going to use human suffering to promote their superstition, then please tell me why I shouldn't use it as a teachable moment to expose people to reality?

When I die, I won't give one shit about what anyone says about me, because I won't have the ability to care. And I doubt any loved one is going to be focused on what people say outside their earshot the moment they are morning me in person.

FACTS of nature and biology are WHY I publicly object. But you are dead wrong about trying to falsely paint me as uncaring. I care enough about humanity to face them with reality. I cant tell you what to do, so please don't presume that you know what is best for me to do.

It is sad to me that you seem to care more about merely being offended than you should about the actual crimes committed.

Now you think I do not know what I am doing, I do, and you seem to miss the bigger picture that this is NOT about one case, but the entirety of humans and their bad use of logic, that leads them to comfort themselves with falsehoods. And you placate theists emotions rather than help them.

Now as I have said before, CONTEXT matters and you falsely assume or have painted a picture in your own head that I am a heartless dick. No, and for the reasons I stated, but that stupidly gets lost on you.

The truth can be harsh, but it is far better to face it than to wallow in superstition.

Now let me make this clear to you and to anyone reading this. I am not deluded in thinking that the world will conform to me. I also would not leave a theist bleeding in the street because I hate what they claim. I have not disowned my theist family or friends either, and if I had a kid who decided they wanted to believe, or marry a believer, my first duty is to love them. That does not mean I have to lie to myself or to others or sugar coat reality to placate their insecurities.

I do this because our world is poisoned with bad use of logic. I do this because humans can do better than view the world through the prism of myth. I do this because I care. It would not have helped humanity if Galileo simply said, "Better not upset people with the truth".

Now if you cant understand me now, I don't know anything else I can say. Not liking my delivery does not mean I am heartless or don't care.