Praying for atheists month – April 2010
12 April 2010 by Stardust
Did all you atheists know that there is a whole month the god botherers are dedicating just to pray for us to jump aboard the crazy train of delusion? I didn’t know about this till I saw it on an old classmate’s Facebook profile! The god believers have dedicated a whole month “and beyond” to “Pray for an Atheist”.
Listen you god believing fools, it ain’t gonna do any good. Your god doesn’t exist and no matter how hard you wish, no matter how many magical incantations you say, there will still be an ever-growing population of atheists in this world.
Here is what the Facebook, Pray for an Atheist page says:
Do you believe God can do amazing things through prayer? We want you to select an atheist friend or relative and pray for them by name each day during the month of April, 2010 (and beyond!). It’s easy and could make an eternal difference for someone you love.
Are you ready? Follow these simple steps.
Join
Become a fan of the Pray for an Atheist Page by clicking the button at the top of the page.Not only will you be more likely to see it through if you do, but connecting will help us keep you informed with updates, progress, celebrations, and resources.Select
Think about the people you know personally. Is there a friend, a classmate, a coworker, or a relative who would benefit from this kind of prayer? Choose those you will pray for.Understand
You can pray more effectively if you understand how people become atheists and the kinds of beliefs they do hold. Books like The Making of an Atheist by Jim Spiegel and the FREE resources on this site and elsewhere can help you better understand the person you’ll be praying for.Intercede
How do atheists become Christians? For college professor Holly Ordway, author of Not God’s Type, it was the prayers of people in a local church that led to her conversion. Now she helps lead that same church in prayer for other atheists. You can intercede through prayer for an atheist friend or relative in your life.Encourage
Don’t go it alone. We created this fan page and the social network at www.shareanddefend.ning.com so people praying for atheists could connect with and encourage each other. When you see God move, come back and share your story on the wall. Need a boost? Find encouragement by reading how God is working in and through the lives of other Christians praying for atheists.
How do Christians become Atheists? They start using their brains and thinking for themselves and realize that this prayer and imaginary friend nonsense is just plain silly.
12 April 2010, on 11:27 pm
Look at this bullshit comment
“”Atheism is not at all a consequence of intellectual doubts,” stated Spiegel, professor of philosophy and religion at Taylor University in Upland, Ind. “These are mere symptoms of the root cause – moral rebellion. For the atheist, the missing ingredient is not evidence but obedience.”
12 April 2010, on 11:38 pm
We should Atheists Really Hope That Believers Come To Their Senses Month.
13 April 2010, on 8:46 am
Wow, that comment is bullshit. Is he saying that intellectual doubts are symptoms of moral rebellion? The idea is just so fucking void of any sense!
These dimwits really have us figured out, dont they? Now that they know the missing ingredient, converting us should be easy! Obedience is a pretty good selling point, dont you think?
13 April 2010, on 8:57 am
I’d like to have an entire month where we are free from all these people. No one knocks on my door, no one hands me tracts while I’m waiting for a bus, no one asks me if I’m saved.
13 April 2010, on 11:41 am
I suspect that all the bible thumpers consider me to be a lost cause. Over the past few years, I’ve been more vocal about my contempt for the skydaddy fairy tale. Yet, I am unaware of any folks praying for me to change my godless ways. However, I must say that it is a huge relief to have a sermon free commute in the morning.
13 April 2010, on 11:47 am
sorry for being a douchebag, i dont know what came over me. im just pissed about lou dobbs getting deported
13 April 2010, on 12:09 pm
^^ Yeah, Star…
):
That rather inane quote, in your above comment, is no surprise coming from a so-called professor of…erm…”Philosophy and Religion”; being, IMO, in particular, that the “Philosophy” portion of his title has, WAY more than likely, next to nothing to do with what’s ACTUALLY taught; considering the school’s heavy duty Fundie Christian agenda.
Here’s the Home page link to “Taylor U. (integrating Faith and Learning)” in “Upland.Indiana” (or is it…”UpYourAss.Indiana”?
http://www.taylor.edu/
Right off the bat, as you’ll probably notice, there’s a C.S. Lewis event being advertised on the opening page.
And now, if I might add…”with all due respect”, Star (cough!)?…
):
I really ‘dig’ your choice of the “Praying Mantis” photo & caption; knowing the nature of the female Mantis’s propensity to, LITERALLY, eat the male immediately after mating…
“Yum, yum! Burp!”…
On that note (pardon my usual linking propensity?), check out this nice little YouTube tidbit…
(Another example, of course, of such kind & loving “Intelligent Design”, huh?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYp_Xi4AtAQ
And of course, RE the total disdain of sex, so obvious, throughout the Bible’s (AND Koran’s) outrageous sadomasochistic bullshit, here are a couple of reminders of my (purposely impudent) assertion…
“Christopher Hitchens on Totalitarianism”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lgL2sbAEjY&feature=related
And, this one…in line with all the ongoing RCC outrage…a brief portion from a very interesting 2009 UK debate (also, part of a past GifS Post):
“Stephen Fry on Catholic obsession with sex”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkGFpxRq-dg
13 April 2010, on 12:40 pm
A cursory examination of Spiegel’s hypothesis shows that he uses scripture as evidence. Great, another whole book full the “There is a God because The Bible says so. The Bible says so because there is a God”. Circular reasoning at it’s finest. Yawn.
He quotes the Psalm “A fool says in his heart there is no God”. As psychological evidence.
To me this is grander evidence that Bleeevers need to rely on fallacious apologetics for their beliefs.
13 April 2010, on 1:48 pm
“A number of atheists have expressed their strong objections to the idea of Christians praying for them, according to James S. Spiegel, author of The Making of an Atheist.”
I would have to call BS on that claim, as well. I’ve never met an atheist that cares whether they’re prayed for or not (outside of the desire that the person praying do something better with their time). I think this is a subtle play on the idea that “atheists” are really “satanists”; why would any atheist have a “strong objection” to being prayed for, when most atheists just consider prayer to be wishful thinking? It would only be objectionable if prayer were an activity that actually accomplished something. This is about equivalent to the idea that atheists are angry at god.
13 April 2010, on 2:48 pm
Can we start a “making fun of believers everywhere” month?
13 April 2010, on 3:17 pm
Neslock:
Note the weasel word “number”. He can’t name one. I suppose a request for evidence would go unheeded. Anytime I read anything that’s supposed to be “proof” for a belief, I’m always on the lookout for “some scientists” or “a number of people”.
He’s just setting up a strawman; making up a position he doesn’t agree with and attacking his own made up arguments. Again, if xians can’t see the intellectual dishonesty prevelant in his claims, It just helps me realize how much reason has to be set aside for “faith”.
13 April 2010, on 3:20 pm
Guys like Spiegel will forever have jobs writing about things the Bleevers want to hear. He’d never do anything honest like, actually listening to someone’s reason for thinking there’s probably not a god or gods rather than making up something he likes the sound of.
13 April 2010, on 5:13 pm
Prayer …
http://img.moronail.net/img/1/4/14.jpg
13 April 2010, on 5:16 pm
Well remember, we are all only atheists not because of the implausibility of a god but because we’re angry at Gawd!!
This facebook prayer crap reminds of a similar situation my wife and I were talking about earlier. A friend of ours had to have an emergency surgery recently and is dealing with some pretty serious aftercare issues. She has two young children and a husband. We keep in touch with her and several of her relatives on facebook. She and several of her relatives are fairly to quite religious so there have been of course several calls for prayer. At first people would simply state their intention to pray. Then the prayers started getting posted, some quite specific to the point of ridiculousness, such as asking god to “enter her bowels and release them.” I had to read that several times looking for any hint of irony. One thing I kept noticing, though: those in a position to offer actual, physical assistance, such as cooking meals or watching the kids, yet were unwilling to do so were the ones making the biggest fuss about praying. That made me think of a bumper sticker: “Praying for someone – So much more convenient than actually doing anything to help them.”
13 April 2010, on 5:16 pm
I guess I’m a “bleever” so I don’t know whether or not I belong here, but here it goes: What is sad is (logic, evidence, etc… aside) you’re mocking someone who honestly believes that they are doing something good for someone else. “Think about the people you know personally. Is there a friend, a classmate, a coworker, or a relative who would benefit from this kind of prayer?” If the Christian believes that a unbeliever will go to Hell, or at minimum will face oblivion at death rather than Heaven, why do you mock the Christian for praying for the unbeliever? Do you mock someone who gives to charity, because that money will likely go to pay some administrative fee or go into some despots pockets, and thus represents a futile effort? Mocking actions taken out of love for one’s neighbor is pretty sad, regardless of the truth or falsity of the belief.
13 April 2010, on 5:42 pm
Welcome Ray, right on! Prayer is just wishful thinking, and in many cases selfish beggary. (also it’s simply talking to oneself)
Bleever Bob, First of all, there is no proven benefit to prayer. Friends, coworkers, classmates, relatives all benefit from my ACTIONS and physical help, not some mental telepathy signals I am sending to some invisible being in some other dimension, begging him to do something instead of standing idly by watching all the bad stuff happen in people’s lives.
Why do we mock the believer when he fears that we are going to spend an eternity in a terrible place for merely not being able to believe due to lack of evidence that this Sky Boss really exists? It’s because of how smugly you all think that you have some superior knowledge over us, when in fact you do not. You simply choose to follow some ancient mythology, invented my human beings as a coping device for things they could not explain nor understood. Humans cling to this afterlife belief because they are afraid of death. Christianity is basically a death cult, looking to an unproven afterlife while thinking that this earthly life is somehow not good enough to have lived.
Do I mock someone who gives to charity? No..I would be mocking myself because I give to charity. Christians do not have the monopoly on charity. Christians do not have the monopoly on morality, Christians do not have the monopoly on love and kindness.
From what I have seen in my few decades I was a Christian, and continue to see now from the Churches in our society, most Christians give two shits about charity. Most give just enough in the plate to relieve their guilt and go on with their lives same as the atheist. We all live mainly for ourselves and for our families. Your church offerings go mostly to the comfort of the congregation, your sound equipment, comfy building, and entertainment for yourselves and your “social club.”
I personally don’t care what you believe as long as it doesn’t affect me and as long as you keep it to yourselves. Keep your religion out of our secular government and our secular schools. But what pisses us off is when you have prayer days for those who believe differently, wanting to change people instead of accepting us for who we are.
13 April 2010, on 5:48 pm
Bob:
What is sad is (logic, evidence, etc… aside) you’re mocking someone who honestly believes that they are doing something good for someone else. “Think about the people you know personally. Is there a friend, a classmate, a coworker, or a relative who would benefit from this kind of prayer?”
I think you missed the point. We’re upset because they feel that our position is a negative one and wish to assign their beliefs to us. That is not doing good for someone else.
If the Christian believes that a unbeliever will go to Hell, or at minimum will face oblivion at death rather than Heaven, why do you mock the Christian for praying for the unbeliever?
We mock them for holding such a position without evidence in hopes that fence-sitters will think twice about a godless world. Sorry if our bombast is too potent, but that’s how we’re delivering it. If someone told you that what you think will cause you to burn in fire forever, you may get a little pissed too. Especially when they make up positions and belief
Do you mock someone who gives to charity, because that money will likely go to pay some administrative fee or go into some despots pockets, and thus represents a futile effort?
If you or someone else are knowingly giving to charities that use donations “to pay some administrative fee or go into some despots pockets”, why do you do it? I give to Plan USA, a secular organization that publishes what it does with donations every year to members. I know where my money is going. I research stuff, not give blindly because some organization claims to be “charitable”.
Mocking actions taken out of love for one’s neighbor is pretty sad, regardless of the truth or falsity of the belief.
Again, we’re mocking them for holding our position in the negative in the first place. This “movement” may encourage Bleevers to continue to think that not holding the same beliefs they do is a bad thing. It’s not.
And just because you believe in a god or gods doesn’t mean you don’t belong here.
13 April 2010, on 5:48 pm
Then the prayers started getting posted, some quite specific to the point of ridiculousness, such as asking god to “enter her bowels and release them.”
Well, that is not a pretty thing to imagine!
Hey KR! Nice to see you! You need to surprise us with a post soon!
13 April 2010, on 5:49 pm
*make up positions and beliefs for us.*
Lost that part
13 April 2010, on 6:11 pm
*make up positions and beliefs for us.*
That is one of my biggest beefs with religion. It’s not enough for many god believers to hold their own beliefs and opinions, but they want to force them on us. The god believer praying to a god to “intervene” to force us to believe is like the mobster going to the Godfather and saying “give them an offer they can’t refuse”…and in this case of god belief it is threat of burning in torment in some eternal torture center for simply not believing in a god who never shows himself.
13 April 2010, on 6:24 pm
I’m sure that I couldn’t reply to your excellent piece any better than the late “George Carlin.”
“I’ve often thought people treat God rather rudely, don’t you? Asking trillions and trillions of prayers every day. Asking and pleading and begging for favors. Do this, gimme that, I need a new car, I want a better job. And most of this praying takes place on Sunday, His day off. It’s not nice! And it’s no way to treat a friend. But people do pray, and they pray for a lot of different things, you know, your sister needs and operation on her crotch, you brother was arrested for defecating in a mall. But most of all, you’d really like to fuck that hot little redhead down at the convenience store. You know, the one with the eye patch and the clubfoot? Can you pray for that? I think you’ have to. And I say, fine. Pray for anything you want. Pray for anything, but what about the divine plan?
Remember that? The Divine Plan. Long time ago God made a Divine Plan Gave it a lot of thought, decided it was a good plan, put it into practice. And for billions and billions of years, the Divine Plan has been doing just fine. Now, you come along, and pray for something. Well suppose the thing you want isn’t in God’s Divine Plan? What do you want Him to do? Change His plan? Just for you? Doesn’t it seem a little arrogant? It’s a Divine Plan. What’s the use of being God if every run down schmuck with a two dollar prayer book can come along and fuck up Your Plan?
And here’s something else, another problem you might have: Suppose your prayers aren’t answered. What do you say? “Well, it’s God’s will.” “Thy Will Be Done.” Fine, but if it’s God’s will, and he’s going to do what He wants anyway, why the fuck bother praying in the first place? Seems like a big waste of time to me! Couldn’t you just skip the praying part and go right to His Will? It’s all very confusing.”
13 April 2010, on 6:30 pm
Tony D, classic Carlin. Love it!
13 April 2010, on 6:47 pm
Stardust:
My huge gripe is that these people think there is something wrong with us to need their interference in the first place. It encourages others of their ilk to continue to think inside their tiny box. Like I told Bleever Bob, they’re not doing something nice for us.
What if they were praying for gay people to turn straight? Black people to become white? Blue-eyed people to become hazel-eyed? They may think they’re doing something “nice”, but there’s nothing wrong with the position they don’t like the sound of in the first place.
Saying that non-believers need assistance only encourages discrimination.
13 April 2010, on 6:53 pm
Saying that non-believers need assistance only encourages discrimination.
Ryan W, exactly.
13 April 2010, on 7:26 pm
Bleever Bob — It has been my experience that intentions mean nothing. What matters are actions, results. When people presume to pray for me, they are engaging in an act of supreme arrogance that I find offensive. Something happens when they do that. They put themselves in a position of superiority to me — and they believe it to be MORAL superiority. They feel they have something — their belief in god and Jesus Christ — that I need in order to be a good person, and without that, I am not a good person. Without even stating it directly or out loud, this is what they are saying. What’s the result of that prayer? To me, nothing. I don’t believe in prayer. But to those doing the praying, there are PERCEIVED results. If I still do not convert and remain an unbeliever, they believe that I have rejected god. God has not failed to move me to accept him — they believe god has worked hard on me as a result of their prayers (more arrogance), but that *I* have stubbornly rejected god. So the blame, so to speak, is on me. Let’s say I have a change of heart and convert. What then? Well, then all the credit goes to god for working on me, speaking to me, moving me to see the light. More importantly, the credit goes to THEM for being so good as to have prayed for me. THEY saved me.
The act of praying for someone — especially for someone who has not ASKED for it — is the height of arrogance. It is an obnoxious imposition of one person’s PERSONAL BELIEF on another person who does not share that belief and has no interest in it. It is also the act of someone who believes he or she is not in need of any improvement. No, that person is fixed, saved, and now in a position to bless and save the lowly, sinful, godless unbelievers with his or her prayers.
Spare me. I don’t want anyone’s prayers. If someone feels the need to pray for me, I would appreciate that person keeping it to him- or herself. In fact, if you believe the magic book followed by Christians, so would Jesus. He very clearly instructed his followers to keep their prayers to themselves, to go to their closets and pray where no one could see or hear them. Do they listen to that? Do they follow that instruction? Of course not. They want prayer everywhere — in school, in civil meetings, in government functions, everywhere for everyone, and they want to make damned sure that their brand — Jesus Christ — is mentioned (a form of religious product placement). In the end, Jesus Christ is just a hood ornament for Christians, who routinely ignore his words in favor of their own agendas. He is just an excuse for them to show how good and righteous they are, to lift themselves to a position of superiority over others. He is also a hook on which to hang their prejudices and hatreds, where they will be justified by the goodness of Jesus Christ.
Religion is called a personal belief for a reason — it’s PERSONAL. Oh, how I wish the religious would keep it that way. I wish they would keep it where it belongs — in their homes, their churches and in their heads. Please keep it out of my face.
13 April 2010, on 11:42 pm
I like that people are mentioning all the arrogance involved. It’s one of the things I find so pernicious about religion: It’s so rampant, they don’t recognize it.
Others have said plenty about how prayer can be arrogant, so I feel I should bring up one of my usual points: Faith is a monument to pride, arrogance, and hubris. It’s the act of declaring oneself to be the supreme arbiter of the universe, and the belief that gods bow to the faithful’s definitions of them.
I prefer the humility involved in science.
13 April 2010, on 11:54 pm
LMAO and honored that we would get a whole month dedicated to us! This means there is now enough of us that we must be making an impact in their lives that they now are admitting that we exist. If they want to waste their time thinking about us, let them. Maybe in their reflection about us, a few of them will actually have an epiphany and realize the irony as they come to their senses.
14 April 2010, on 12:01 am
14 April 2010, on 12:25 am
Bob, as I suggested above, prayer, even if well intended, is more often not simply a way of seeming to do something without really having to do something. The sick friend I mentioned above has a relative who lives within a two hour drive. Instead of driving down to visit, offering to take her kids to school, cook for them, help out with some housework, etc, all the relative is doing is soliciting prayers. There are plenty of things she could do to offer very real, tangible support, instead she can post a request for prayers on facebook and offer a sense of accomplishment.
14 April 2010, on 11:38 am
Wow, BronzeDog, King Retard and me all commenting on GifS. Is it 2005 again?
Maybe it’s just me coming out of my self-induced blogospheric exile.
14 April 2010, on 1:28 pm
Wow, BronzeDog, King Retard and me all commenting on GifS. Is it 2005 again?
I hope this is a “sign” that things are picking up again. Gotta get back to the old GifS and get rowdy!
14 April 2010, on 2:55 pm
I used to post here under the handle “Rockstar Ryan”. I dropped the pseudonym because it was too “I’m 19 and I’m in a band” rather than “I’m 30 and work 9-5″. And ever since I “came out” as a non-believer I don’t really care who sees my Nternet footprint.
Some of us guys that were hardcore bloggin’ 4-5 years ago have recently recalled the fond days of thought provoking discussion and relentless troll-beating. Unfortunately, life interfered with our internet time.
I’m still a rowdy motherfucker though. Are Sean and Bob still posting?
14 April 2010, on 3:40 pm
Rockstar Ryan!!!! How are you! This is like a reunion!
Ryan, Sean sadly passed away in October 2006. Bob posted about it here. (Bob is Sean’s BIL) Bob surprises us with a post occasionally. It’s mainly me and KA now, Naomi, Jimmer once in awhile. Trying to get King Retard to post something! Hear that KR???
Haven’t heard from Eve in a long time even via email.
14 April 2010, on 5:15 pm
Ryan — You mentioned “coming out” as a non-believer. I did that a couple of years ago. I’m interested in finding some people who’ve had that experience and discussing it. I’d like to compare notes. I’m interested in any consequences that might have occurred as a result. You can find me on Facebook if you have an account there, or if you’d like, email me at raygarton@mail.com.
14 April 2010, on 5:54 pm
I’m doing well thanks
I’ve got more time on my hands since leaving the music business in September, so it’s time to unleash some logic on the world again.
I didn’t know that about Sean and am sad to hear that. I never met him IRL, but sometimes we get to know folks pretty well online. I’m sure he’s truly missed.
When a few of us in the ‘05 Gang got together on the evil Facebook, we talked about the fun we had beating on trolls and the thanks we got from people who appreciated us articulating what they felt. We’re back for now.
15 April 2010, on 1:07 am
The thing I find the most annoying about the whole thing is the thinly veiled donkey-punch of starting the whole non-sense on April Fools Day (very specifically–notice they didn’t simply say “April 1st”) and then having the supreme temerity to claim they are doing this “out of love” for the fools.
As Kurt Vonnegut stated so elequently in Cats Cradle “Please, a little less love and a little more common decency.”
As for Spiegel’s claim that atheists refuse to believe because of their distaste for obedience–well, he’s right, in a sense. Particularly when I’m asked to be obedient to something that has no observable evidence to support it’s existance and said being is patently immoral from any post-enlightenment perspective.
15 April 2010, on 9:49 am
Prayer… an empty exercise to a non-existant diety. Hey ‘believers’ pray for yourselves, that you discover reality! I don’t need or want your empty gestures…………
15 April 2010, on 10:54 am
I guess, as Stardust intimated, this is turning out to be a sort of “old home” week?
I’ve been noticing the sudden gathering of comments from some totally new and old returning GifSters.
A welcoming (special?) “Hi” to Ray Garton, for one; and…let’s see…
Bronze Dog (whom I somewhat vaguely remember), Ryan W, Alan.
As long as I’m name dropping, thanks especially to Stardust, KA, ‘old’ Bob, and very recently, our erstwhile wandering trucker “correspondent”(?), Naomi; all of whom have kept this Site going since the days of Sean.
And of course, the knowledgeable maintenance man behind the curtain?…Ron?
Jimmer, fritzy and King Retard, Captain Al, Karen, Michael, etc., of course, have been hanging about pretty regularly. Pardon me if I missed anyone.
I’m getting a bit nostalgic here, I guess…
I started commenting, as I recall, back in the Spring of 2006, when Sean was still with us as a main-stay.
So much has happened since those days!
(Both “Yikes! AND D’uh!”…?)
Stardust’s mention of Eve, reminds me; whatever happened to her? And, does anyone know what happened to Raindogzilla (RDZ)? Not much comes up, RE him, on a quick Google search_beyond late 2006.
Yeah…not to get maudlin, but…”Life!…” (You fill in the rest?).
Anyway, it’s ‘good’ to see things picking up again around here. I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that it was beginning to look like “GifS” was possibly on the brink of fading into the sunset. Zama, zama…
15 April 2010, on 11:35 am
ChuckA,
It seems like no one reads independent news items anymore. If it’s more than 160 or 140 characters, kids these days don’t have the attention span to read it.
17 April 2010, on 7:43 am
All mocking aside, as long as the believers are just praying and not voting or flying planes into buildings, I’m okay with it. I frankly don’t care what believers do as long as they leave me alone to my “sinful” ways.
19 April 2010, on 9:09 pm
Don’t know about you. The earth hasn’t moved for me yet and look, it’s the 18th of April already. April has 30 days, so there’s still 12 days of Pray for athiests month remaining and adding to the proof that “Nothing Fails Like Prayer”. Maybe gawd is busy doing something else, ‘coz Athests would have to come down its list of importance. Perhaps its curing cancer or fixing amputees. Not holding my breath though..Maybe gawd is feeding starving kids..Come to think of it, obviously not.
20 April 2010, on 6:59 am
Ahhhhh..
What a nice group of comments. Old time memories and all.
Sweet.
Make yourselves at home. We have a need for all the minds that can conjure up such good feelings.
23 April 2010, on 3:02 am
[...] by Cory Tucholski on April 23, 2010 Here is a great example of irony: Did all you atheists know that there is a whole month the god [...]
From the Moderator: Listen troll….It’s not irony that we did a post on you religious nutters special day for us, it’s that you just don’t get that you are completely wasting your time and you would rather spend time praying for us than actually going out to help those in need (as your one and only commenter so far has pointed out). Guess we hit a nerve.
27 April 2010, on 4:41 pm
I just heard of this ridiculosity since I avoid Facebook. I felt compelled to post as I’ve been having an atheist movement of my own the last few weeks. Maybe the combined telepathic energy subconsciously encouraged me to do more research and realize that I’ve actually been Atheist for several years? It sure is miraculous timing!
27 April 2010, on 4:56 pm
Andy, praise Gawd! LOL! It is indeed a miracle!