Miracles

Ingrid Betancourt was liberated from the FARC guerillas who were holding her yesterday. I was certainly happy to hear this news. A strong blow to the FARC is likely good for Colombia, and Latin America as a whole. Still, this rescue brings up a problem I frequently have with the use of language in the modern world.

From the CBC article: Betancourt exclaimed, "God, this is a miracle." and those words were echoed by Amanda Howes, the niece of one of the freed U.S. hostages, who said the rescue "redefines the word miracle."

Really? This was a miracle? I would say it had much more to do with the intelligence gathering of the Colombian security services, and with the professional training and actions of the soldiers involved in the planning and execution of the operation. There was no divine intervention in order to pull it off, and calling it a miracle diminishes the hard work of real people that went into a successful operation. Amanda Howes is certainly right that if we call this a miracle, it really does redefine the term.

This terminology comes up again and again when accidents are less severe than we think they should be. Planes crash in a rich country airport, no one dies, and a few people escape with broken bones and bruises. “Oh it’s a miracle” people exclaim. No. It’s not. Decades of engineering innovation, assessment of past accidents, training of pilots and ground crew, as well as emergency responders are what is responsible for the lack of catastrophe.

Next time you hear someone say that something is miraculous, take a second to think about it. Could there be a different explanation than divine intervention? Look for a person or process to thank, and thank them instead. Just think of what your job satisfaction would be like if every time you accomplished something, an invisible, untouchable, uncontactable creator being got the credit.