Rival Churches Ignore Human Ingenuity

I do my best to tolerate religious beliefs when those beliefs are tolerable, but sometimes it's just too much. Three rival churches are competing over which version of God should take credit for rescue of the Chilean miners.

"God has spoken to me clearly and guided my hand each step of the rescue," said Carlos Parra Diaz, a Seventh-day Adventist pastor at the San Jose mine. "He wanted the miners to be rescued and I am His instrument."

Yards from where he spoke Caspar Quintana, the Catholic bishop of Copiapo, prepared an altar to celebrate an outdoor mass for a small congregation of miners' relatives and phalanx of TV cameras. "God has heard our prayers," said the bishop. "I have received comments of encouragement from all over the world. Let us give thanks."

A litte bit further up the hill of Camp Hope, the improvised settlement of miners' families, rescuers, government officials and media, an evengelical preacher, Javier Soto , wandered from family to family with a guitar and songs of praise. "He listens to the music," said the pastor, gesturing to the azure sky.

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Diaz, an intense 42-year-old dressed in black, claimed to be the first cleric at the mine and said it was no coincidence an exploration probe reached the trapped men - 17 days after the August 5 collapse - while he was praying above.

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Diaz stole a march over his rivals by obtaining permission to give a 10-minute talk to the assembled 33 families before their nightly briefing by government officials. "I do macro work. I am pastor to all." The other churches, he said, did "micro" work.

The pastor claimed his Catholic rival had trekked up to the bleak, muddy site just three or four times. Bishop Quintana, after concluding a mass in which TV cameras outnumbered worshippers, declined to be drawn on the subject of competition but said he had received supportive emails from all over the world. "What matters is that God is acting through human ingenuity to rescue these men."

PZ Meyers said it best,

Maybe we should just shut down the machinery, withdraw all the tools and the laborers, and have Mr Diaz, Mr Quintana, and Mr Soto stand above the men and use their magic to complete the rescue. That would be impressive.

Have you ever accomplished something you were proud of after a long, grueling process? Have you ever sketched a really good drawing, or learned a difficult song on an instrument? You earned that. That took hours and hours and hours of practice. That was you. Did you ever say to yourself "I didn't do anything, and I'm not responsible for accomplishing this because God controlled my every action"?

Because that's exactly what these people are saying. It wasn't technology that saved those miners, or the bravery and ingenuity of human beings. It was three religious men in a dick waving contest, convinced that they're helping by talking to themselves. It makes me sick.