The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : No Atheists on Flight 1549?

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No Atheists on Flight 1549?

By Robert Stacy McCain on 1.16.09 @ 12:47AM

"Miracle" and "omen" are good words to describe the survival of everyone aboard Flight 1549, but I like Michelle Malkin's choice: "Providential." What other word can describe the life-saving fact that a plane struck by such a near-certain disaster just happened to be piloted by a recognized air-safety expert?

The pilot of Flight 1549 was Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III, 57, of Danville, Calif. . . . who runs a safety consulting firm in addition to flying commercial aircraft. . . .
Sullenberger had been studying the psychology of keeping airline crews functioning even in the face of crisis, said Robert Bea, a civil engineer who co-founded UC Berkeley's Center for Catastrophic Risk Management.
Bea said he could think of few pilots as well-situated to bring the plane down safely than Sullenberger.
"When a plane is getting ready to crash with a lot of people who trust you, it is a test.. Sulley proved the end of the road for that test. He had studied it, he had rehearsed it, he had taken it to his heart."

The passengers aboard the plane reportedly prayed as they made their descent toward the Hudson River. It would appear, however, that their prayers were answered before they ever boarded the plane.

View all comments (30) | Leave a comment

Critical Thinker| 1.16.09 @ 9:08AM

What is this nonsense? What about talking about how disaster was averted because we have effective emergency response systems in place as well as apparently very good interagency coordination? Perhaps instead of relying on prayers and happenstance, we should have all pilots trained in crisis management courses?

William D Huff| 1.16.09 @ 9:39AM

The comment and situation posed by "Critical Thinker " is "post - facto". Emergency response can only take place after an emergency.

Deborah| 1.16.09 @ 10:25AM

The whole thing does seem rather providential. Everything going right after all seemed lost. This is a very good story in what is increasingly a world where it seems only negative stories are in the news. Let's all be thankful for this excellent pilot and crew and those who were there to pluck them from the icy river. I know I said a prayer or two for them all when I first heard the news.

I see nothing to fight about here.

Critical Thinker| 1.16.09 @ 10:26AM

"post-facto" meaning after the fact? Then isn't every comment about this story "post-facto"? Yes, there was an emergency and there was an excellent system in place to deal with it to prevent further problems even after the plane landed in the Hudson. I was simply saying I think the focus should be more on those systems (and the training and skill of pilots) rather than providence. If the author is using the term providential in the sense that includes divine interference, I would ask why this unprovable higher power allowed the mishap in the first place.

Undertoad| 1.16.09 @ 11:33AM

He might have created a gentle wind to float that flock of geese slightly higher. But He needed to create a problem that He could see in advance would lead to prayer, so that He could rescue the lot, and take credit for it.

Conclusions: A) there is a God; B) He's an a-hole.

Entity| 1.16.09 @ 11:47AM

Hah ! The provocative title of the article itself can open up a whole new can of worms, that of the delusional superstition of religious nonsense. Prayer is no more effective than believing in a lucky cloverleaf. The aircraft survived the impact because the pilots kept their composure and skillfully flew it down to the water as it should in such a circumstance. Training, skill, experience and professionalism resulted in the positive outcome. Prayer has nothing to do with it.

lobo| 1.16.09 @ 1:26PM

"Critical Thinker" is a well known psycholib-troll over at newsbuster.org. You can always count on him to come up with the stupidest, most vile angle on ANY story.

Robert Stacy McCain| 1.16.09 @ 1:27PM

Am I the only one becoming very curious about these commenters? Is there not a single theist among the AmSpec readership who might feel the impulse to defend the concept of Providence? Or might the title be changed to The Secular Spectator without giving offense?

Critical Thinker.butnotunique| 1.16.09 @ 1:33PM

Honestly I've never been to newsbuster.org, I just found this website and wanted to comment and first thing I thought of was critical thinker (as I believe many religious people are lacking in this capacity). So even if I am a critical thinker, I'm definitely not original or unique. Robert McCain- why don't you defend the concept of providence? I'm an atheist but Undertoad is pretty convincing....and hilarious.

ruth| 1.16.09 @ 2:56PM

Thank you for your post, RSM, I enjoyed it. Deborah's correct; there's noting to fight about here, unless you have a chip on you shoulder and you are looking for a fight.

unoriginal Critical Thinker| 1.16.09 @ 3:12PM

Agreed, nothing to fight about here. But Ruth, any chance that this could be a forum for an important and civilized dialogue about whether these stories should be attributed to divine intervention?

ruth| 1.16.09 @ 4:38PM

I take the post at face value. Either you believe or you don't. I do. Freedom of Speech, UCT. Last time I checked, it was still allowed.

Deborah| 1.16.09 @ 5:31PM

Hey RSM --

I think the Biblical quote, "The Lord works in mysterious ways" is applicable here. He uses catastrophes and difficulties to point to a larger truth. He is here. He is with us. I believe that, and regardless of those who don't, that doesn't make what happened any less of a miracle.

New York City and the nation at large needed something good to happen as an outcome of a serious problem. He was saying -- you have the tools, through your people and your knowledge, to overcome adversity. That's real Hope. We can make it. I believe that, and atheists can believe what they want. They won't discourage me.

ruth| 1.16.09 @ 7:24PM

The atheists can spit and snarl all they want. They always seem so unhappy--it doesn't recommend their belief system.

Bob Onit| 1.16.09 @ 11:30PM

ACritical Thinker | 1.16.09 @ 9:08AM
What is this nonsense?

You must be kidding....right?
After the events of 911, do you seriously
think emergency response teams and their preparedness prevails over the providence of GOD. The better response might be, pray and keep your powder dry. In other words prepare but don't forget to pray as well. Americans we need to pray to GOD once again, to help our struggling country and economy.
I gladly would take HIS help anytime right now
and I'm not in a plane crash.

Uncommonsense| 1.17.09 @ 12:16PM

We have no argument or explanation for flight 1549 except the one that is rooted in our Book as it says that the god of this world is the devil. Does that surprise you? That’s the reason for sickness and death and plane crashes.

Therefore if you argue against His Book (you know who you are) then even the apologist C.S. Lewis(God rest his soul) could never pry open your closed mind. By far those who criticize scripture don’t know it well. They have closed themselves off to it so that even if it might be true, they want to never find out. They, therefore, choose to live in darkness.

Meanwhile, we give credit and glory to the one who intervened into flight 1549 because His children prayed and asked Him to do so. And it is He who will take back this world from His enemy.
Meanwhile He waits so all that will come, have come. If you continue to push His slandered name away then He will let you have what you will. He will not force you to join Him because He’s a gentleman. I continue to laud Him today for what He did with flight 1549!

ruth| 1.17.09 @ 1:46PM

There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who believe nothing in life is a miracle, and those who believe everything in life is a miracle. I've cast my lot with the latter. Thank you, God.

Apollos| 1.17.09 @ 11:31PM

"A man is his own worst dupe. For what he desires to be true, he generally believes to be true." Dosthenes (Greek Orator)

"You will understand that my atheism was inevitably based on what I believed to be the findings of the sciences and those findings, not being a scientist, I had to take on trust, in fact, on authority." -C. S. Lewis

"Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe--a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which our modest powers must feel humble." Albert Einstein

"There are proportionately as many atheistic truck drivers as there are atheistic scientists." -Richard Bube (Chairman of the department of materials science at Stanford)

"When I began my career as a cosmologist some twenty years ago, I was a convinced atheist. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that one day I would be writing a book purporting to show that the central claims of Judeo-Christian theology are in fact true, that these claims are straightforward deductions of the laws of physics as we now understand them. I have been forced into these conclusions by the inexorable logic of my own special branch of physics." (Frank Tipler, Professor of Mathematical Physics and author of "The Physics Of Christianity".

Consider the enormity of the problem. Science has proven that the universe exploded into being at a certain moment. It asks, what cause produced the effect? Who or what put the matter and energy in the universe? Was the universe created out of nothing, or was it gathered together out of pre existing materials? And science cannot answer these questions".

Therefore, when a person refuses to come to Christ it is never just because of lack of evidence or because of intellectual difficulties: at root, he refuses to come because he willingly ignores and rejects the drawing of God's Spirit on his heart. No one in the final analysis really fails to become a Christian because of lack of arguments; he fails to become a Christian because he loves darkness rather than light and wants nothing to do with God. [William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics, (Revised edition, Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1994), pp. 35-36.]

Apollos| 1.17.09 @ 11:35PM

"For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountain of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.

"There is a strange ring of feeling and emotion in these reactions [of scientists to evidence that the universe had a sudden beginning]. They come from the heart whereas you would expect the judgements to come from the brain. Why? I think part of the answer is that scientists cannot bear the thought of a natural phenomenon which cannot be explained, even with unlimited time and money. There is a kind of religion in science, it is the religion of a person who believes there is order and harmony in the universe, and every effect must have its cause, there is no first cause...

"This religious faith of the scientist is violated by the discovery that the world had a beginning under conditions in which the known laws of physics are not valid, and as a product of forces or circumstances we cannot discover. When that happens, the scientist has lost control...

"Consider the enormity of the problem. Science has proven that the universe exploded into being at a certain moment. It asks, what cause produced the effect? Who or what put the matter and energy in the universe? Was the universe created out of nothing, or was it gathered together out of pre existing materials? And science cannot answer these questions".

Dr. Robert Jastrow
Professor of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College (1981-1992)
Professor of Geophysics at Columbia University
Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the George C. Marshall Institute
Director Emeritus of Mount Wilson Observatory and Hale Solar Laboratory
Member of the NASA Alumni Association

Seymour| 1.18.09 @ 11:38PM

We have been "..fearfully and WONDERFULLY made" (Psalm 139:14) and " in the image and likeness of God" (Genesis 1:26). The result of this is man's ability to use his God-given skills to put together the components of a beautiful machine like the A320 and make it respond to the pilot's commands. The skillful and focussed use of that WONDERFULLY made brain of Capt. Sullenberger under pressure and against all the odds, also the talents of the rescuers saved 155 lives. Was this not all God's work?

Chris mankey| 1.19.09 @ 1:01PM

“It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly.”- Albert einstien.

So why are you "systematically repeating" the lie that Albert Einstein "believed in god" or in anyway supports your position .

Chris mankey| 1.19.09 @ 1:13PM

The atheists can spit and snarl all they want.

The "atheists" aren't spitting and snarling. They just want credit to go to the PILOT and not to an unprovable, probably nonexistent entity call "god" . Plenty planes crash and kill everyone on board. Does god get the credit for those too! Did he forget to "guide " the pilots on those days?

They always seem so unhappy--it doesn't recommend their belief system.

I'm perfectly happy, bigot. Your irrational hatred of people who don't agree with you "it doesn't recommend your belief system. "

ruth| 1.19.09 @ 7:23PM

Chrissy, you are the irrational hater. People like you won't be happy until you destroy religion. Even then, as morose, hopeless atheists, you'll still be miserable. Another loser who doesn't believe in God. Like I said before, your angry, spitting post doesn't recommend your belief system.

Kat| 1.19.09 @ 7:25PM

We've got a hot one!! Another atheist full of rage. What's got your goat, Chris?

ruth| 1.19.09 @ 11:05PM

Einstein quote, "Atheists miss the wonder of the world." 'nuff said, Chrissy.

Phil| 10.1.09 @ 5:13PM

I received your letter of June 10th. I have never talked to a Jesuit priest in my life and I am astonished by the audacity to tell such lies about me. From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist.

- Albert Einstein, letter to Guy H. Raner Jr, July 2, 1945, responding to a rumor that a Jesuit priest had caused Einstein to convert from atheism; quoted by Michael R. Gilmore in Skeptic, Vol. 5, No. 2

Kathy| 1.25.09 @ 12:38AM

A reckoning is coming soon, we all must chose life eternal in heaven, or life eternal in hell. Life is eternal where you spend it is your choice and your choice alone. Good Luck.