Baby Limbs and Theodicies

Whenever people survive some kind of near-death situation or disaster, someone will use the M word. This has been taken to silly proportions in the Chilean miner rescue with 3 rival churches claiming credit for the m______.

There is the standard response about this which is to think about all the other people who weren’t saved. It is correct but easy for us to ignore, what with our cognitive biases in singling out individual survival story. Here’s the sharpest example I’ve seen:

AT the time Mary MacKillop answered the prayers of a woman dying of leukaemia, there was a lot of static in the air. In China 43 million people were dying of starvation in one of the world’s worst famines.

Thirty years later in the 1990s, when MacKillop answered the prayers of a woman dying of lung cancer, 3.8 million were dying in the Congo wars, 800,000 in the Rwanda genocide, a quarter of a million in the Yugoslav wars. [Source]

However, the pithiest counter to this comes from a recent Amateur Scientist podcast, from which I transcribe. I really think this bit of brilliance should be the death of all m______ arguments:

Dr: Oh, I’m just kidding, you are fine. Your arms aren’t. Well I can’t say that till we find them, there’s no telling what condition they’re in but don’t worry. I’m sure we will find them!
Patient: Can they be reattached?
Dr: Oh, absolutely! But they probably won’t work anymore.
[...snip...]
Patient: Oh God, I’m gonna die here…
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP
Dr: I’ve got another text. Hey, this is great news! There’s been another accident!
Patient: That’s awful!
Dr: No, you don’t understand. A baby died!
Patient: What is wrong with you?
Dr: Don’t you get it man? It was a baby with two arms. Two perfectly healthy baby arms…It’s a miracle…
Patient: You monster!