INEVITABLY, in the wake of tragedies such as the Colorado movie theatre massacre of 12 people, and the horrific attack on the Sikh temple on Sunday which left six dead, idiots pop up all over the place to make stupid claims about survivors living to tell to tell the tale because of “God’s intervention”.
Well, one woman who survived the Colorado attack and had the courage later to say that her survival, and that of her boyfriend Chris, had bugger all to do with divine intervention is now facing the full wrath of the God Squad.
After the shooting, Carli Richards, 22, wrote on her blog:
I was saved by natural selection, and tear gas. That’s right – tear gas …
Saved by God? Bullshit!: Carli pictured after the Colorado shooting with her mum and boyfriend Chris.
A tear gas canister, thrown by the lone attacker James Eagan Holmes, landed at the feet of Carli and her boyfriend. They responded by both running for their lives. She said:
I dropped my purse on the way out with all of my cards – insurance, ID, bank card – as well as my cell phone and car keys in it. But the instinct to keep running overpowered any other thought in my mind. ‘Fight or flight’ is an extremely basic human survival instinct to me, but apparently it wasn’t to some of the others.
Carli, who suffered 20 gunshot wounds and was one of the 70 people injured, added:
I hope to not offend anybody by saying this, but I wasn’t touched by an angel, I wasn’t ‘blessed’ – I had a good head on my shoulders and I used it. It actually worries and saddens me that most people do not possess such basic animalistic survival instincts, that so many of them curled up on the floor and kissed their own butts goodbye.
People can believe in whatever they want to, and perhaps the universe or a higher power or something else said ‘hey, it’s not her time’ but I’d like to give credit where credit is most certainly due, and thank the ones who need to be thanked the most because I don’t think they get enough credit sometimes.
If the medical personnel had not been absolutely amazing, I would not be in the shape I am now.
She clearly made the point that:
Carli Richards took a picture of the wounds she suffered
I am not trying to talk down to anyone who thanks their higher power for this miracle (and I will agree that that’s a very appropriate word for this) at all, so please do not take it as such because that’s not what this is about.
Despite that, Carli has become the object of a hate campaign. This morning I received a press release from the newly-formed Secular Woman, saying that Carli Richards, in her first interview with a secular organisation:
Offered encouragement to other atheist women: ‘Be proud of who you are. Self respect is something that has been a very important part of my own personal growth and development, as well as overcoming many big obstacles … Stand your ground, be assertive, treat others as you would want to be treated, and be gracious.
Secular Woman’s press release added:
Caring, competent doctors, nurses, and emergency medical staff made prayer unnecessary, but blogging after the incident that no higher power had saved her, she received a backlash of vitriol from readers offended by her non-religious interpretation of events.
Said Secular Woman Vice President of Operations Mary Ellen Sikes:
Carli’s courage and goodwill shine through whether she is reflecting on a terrifying experience, crediting humans over gods, or dealing with hate mail. We couldn’t be more delighted or honored to welcome Carli into the Secular Woman community.
Freethought Blogs has a perfect contrast to Carlie Richards. This guy said God saved him because he was praying.
The Secular Woman interview is under embargo until tomorrow, so you will not be able to immediately access it.
What a great lady. This is such good news not just that she survived but that she puts it down to her own survival instincts and common sense.
As to the god-squad morons hate campaign, why should anyone be surprised.
How shameful of them. Evil and shameful
I looked at her blog. Nothing special, I’d say. She’s just an ordinary person thrown into an extraordinary situation. What’s actually happening is that everyone else is using her to advance their own agenda – Freethinker included.
I have to agree with Lazy Susan, thought I’d also point out that as sad as it was what she went through, and as intolerable as a campaign of hate from the religious right is as they continually try to shut down freedom of expression, what did she expect? She was pretty hateful from the outset. She claimed that she survived because she was smarter than the people who got shot to death, and that for some reason the deceased victims “curled up on the floor and kissed their butts goodbye”. That’s utterly callous.
@JohnMWhite … but she’d be right.
There does seem to be an annoying degree of superiority in what she said, even if she was right!
This blog takes the proverbial though:
http://au.christiantoday.com/article/one-victims-story-of-miracle-inside-the-colorado-shooting/13761.htm
God knew what was going to happen, so he made a little channel in her brain to carry the bullets away from her vital areas. Even the surgeon is impressed:
“It is an odd thing to have a surgeon show a bit of wonder. Professionally, these guys own the universe, it seems, and take everything in stride. He is obviously gifted as a surgeon, and is kind in his manner. ‘It couldn’t have gone better. If it were my daughter’ he says quietly, glancing around to see if any of his colleagues might be watching him, ‘I’d be ecstatic. I’d be dancing a jig.’ He smiles. I can’t keep my smile back, or the tears of joy. In Christianity we call it prevenient grace: God working ahead of time for a particular event in the future. It’s just like the God I follow to plan the route of a bullet through a brain long before Batman ever rises. Twenty-two years before.”
Wow – I’m convinced!
@Matt Westwood – how do you know she would be right? How many people got shot in the head or chest before even having the chance to turn and run? And diving onto the floor during a shooting spree in a theatre isn’t exactly a terrible strategy. She got lucky, that’s it, and she’s being a smug prick about it in the most horrendous of circumstances. She doesn’t deserve to be torn apart for pointing out that god was no help, but her attitude and cruelty does her no favours.
Of course, the religious are just as callous, though usually in a more earnest and honest manner. They’re just too self-centred to understand how saying “yay, god saved this girl, she’s good as new, it’s a miracle” is a slap in the face to everybody who lost someone in a tragedy like this, or to the surviving victims who don’t fully recover.
Apologies I just had to share this whole article. Its just hilarious for its ridiculousness and crass banality. I ask why didn’t the BGRRT get to all those events listed at the bottom BEFORE the events happened?
MINISTRIES
Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains offering hope amidst tragedy at Colorado theatre shooting
Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains are already on-site in Aurora, CO, where a gunman opened fire on a theater full of moviegoers in the early hours of the morning.
Chaplains were already in Colorado responding to wildfires in and around Colorado Springs and Fort Collins. This allowed them to respond immediately to the shooting in Aurora, according to an online report on the BGEA website.
News reports indicate that 71 people were shot, at least 12 victims have died, and 59 were injured as a result of the shooting.
“Words can’t begin to describe the pain of this situation,” said Jack Munday, director of the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team. “We are grieving alongside the families of those killed and wounded in this senseless and horrific tragedy.
“Please pray for all of those who have been affected,” added Munday. “We will be there to offer emotional and spiritual care, and the hope and compassion of Jesus Christ, in the aftermath.”
Previously, Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains have deployed following shootings in Tucson, AZ. (2011); Cumbria, U.K. (2010); Maryville, IL., Carthage, N.C., Oakland, CA, and Binghamton, N.Y. (2009); Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL. (2008); Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, VA, Crandon, WI., and Arvada, CO. (2007); and the Red Lake Indian Reservation in MN (2005).
http://au.christiantoday.com/article/billy-graham-rapid-response-team-chaplains-offering-hope-amidst-tragedy-at-colorado-theatre-shooting/13738.htm
The big picture here is that no matter what this woman says, the fact that she does not relate her quick actions to some divine being she will be attacked by the religious peoples for not acknowledging their belief that this being saved her…it is that simple. Offer a logical assessment and they will snarl with hate for not believing in magic.
I’d argue this case is not ‘that simple’. While it is true that if she had been meek and polite about it she’d get a pretty similar reaction, saying the people who got killed were just too stupid to move because they were waiting on god saving them is bound to cause a pretty strong reaction anyway because it is totally crass.
@RabbitOnAStick: Wonderful. Not only do these clowns think they are doing some good rushing around praying to their murderous God but people seem to accept that they are. Whom do they think allowed the slaughter to happen in the first place.
I don’t think we can be too smug in the UK. I remember some years ago hearing one of the Thought for the Day bores saying that he was “on call” to deliver a TOFD comment in the event of an unexpected tragedy. I feel I must have imagined that – it is too glutinously smug to be true – but I don’t think I did.
ROAS: Did you catch this one as well?
http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2012/07/31/billy-graham-god-should-destroy-america/
I don’t agree with Hitchens that Billy Graham is an evil, duplicitous liar: I just think he’s a buffoon!
And speaking of buffoons:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/06/pat-robertson-says-those-_n_1749532.html
people who are atheists, they hate God, they hate the expression of God, and they are angry at the world, angry with themselves, angry with society and they take it out on innocent people who are worshipping God.
Eh?
So, according to that exemplar of bigotry and ignorance Pat Robertson, it was the atheists what done it. The more we hear from the repellent Robertson the better. His kind of bigotry and stupidity makes him a perfect recruiting agent for those who want the reason, freedom and independence of mind of atheism.
As for Billy Graham, he became a cariacture of himself a long time ago.
So according to Pat Robinson I hate something that doesn’t exist. Bizarre!
As for Carli, while it’s good to hear that at least one person doesn’t have the brain dead idea that a supernatural being saved their life (while being perfectly happy with all the other people dying), she does come across as a bit smug. Maybe it’s the reporting that we should blame and her words have been taken out of context?
Whatever, by not giving a god the kudos for having saved her life, the religious robots will hate her.
Broga: As we all know, no Christian has ever gone on a shooting spree! Why do people still broadcast this rubbish of Robertson’s?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_700
The 700 Club is the flagship television program of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing in syndication throughout the United States and also available worldwide on CBN.com. The 700 Club can be seen weekdays in 96 percent of U.S. television homes, and has an average daily audience of nearly 1 million viewers. (No reference given.)
I suppose that the world would be so much simpler if all of “our” people were really sensible and logical and all of “their” people were all totally barking. Of course real life is never that simple. Having gone through such a traumatic experience it is maybe understandable that her thoughts are a bit screwed up. It is possible that after some reflection she will realise that some of her remarks were extremely insensitive, though no more so than those who think that they were favoured by God.
Giving full credit to surgeons is spot on though. If I was a surgeon who had saved someone’s life, I would be somewhat miffed if that person then went on to thank God. I suppose it would be unproffessional to point out to them that it was I who saved their life, God would have just let them effing die.
The captcha code is FAP7, pause for schoolboy sniggering.
“God knew what was going to happen, so he made a little channel in her brain to carry the bullets away from her vital areas.”
The imbecile Pat Robertson and his godbots overlook the fact that their chum in the sky could have done something to the brain of the shooter instead, and prevented the whole tragedy.
We keep hearing about how Christianity instills morals and “God is Love” yet any time somebody dare speak of how they manage to be a decent human without religion, or they survived a tragedy without praying the God Squad descends like a pack of rabid wolves.
Hang on, is this the god that created the earth and the whole universe in a week? Is this the god that sort of sent his offspring to sort of but not really die for the sins of all mankind? This same god it seems is unable to stop sick individuals hell bent on violent destruction. Some god. Is there another that might actually do something? All the gods so loved by the deluded are a dismal and complete failure.
Trouble is in the USA for every 15 people like Carli who use common sense to survive …..there are 85 fundies who trust in the sky daddy to save them.
Good luck to her and well done for speaking her mind. I just hope she doesn’t read freethinker.
northern light said:
(Trouble is in the USA for every 15 people like Carli who use common sense to survive …..there are 85 fundies who trust in the sky daddy to save them.)
I don’t think their (fundies) ranks are that great and that there are many more non-believers who wish to just stay silent, avoid a confrontation.
Throughout my life and the thousands of peoples i have interacted with on many fronts and lifestyles, Art, Video, Construction…the believers were a small %. (and I was one of them at the time)
One construction site i worked on,(after my born again Atheist) owned by a Christian (one of the worst people I worked for in way of worker rights).
Out of 30 workers only about 2-3 were Christians, and they knew not to babble their crap on the job-site.