Comments on: Bridge Collapse

By: burgeskl

burgeskl — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 19:23:37 +0000

Jonas Green – from New York City?

By: Friendly Atheist » Incorrect Explanation #23749 for the Bridge Collapse

Friendly Atheist » Incorrect Explanation #23749 for the Bridge Collapse — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 16:14:12 +0000

[...] of now, there’s no official explanation for the Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis. And the most rational explanation is poor [...]

By: Michael Bolton

Michael Bolton — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 16:05:48 +0000

An act of God? His reason?
How about:

Talitha said, “Maybe he let it fall because he wanted all the people of Minneapolis to fear him.” “Yes, Talitha,” I said, “I am sure that is one of the reasons God let the bridge fall.”

read the full article here:

Desiring God: Putting My Daughter to Bed Two Hours After the Bridge Collapsed — by John Piper

By: Maria

Maria — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 05:00:16 +0000

Um… the expression “act of God” is a common insurance term having nothing to do with God. I find this expression so ordinary, I can’t see any humor in it, much less any points that can be made from it.

I agree, if you look at the definition it’s the same as “an act of nature”. the word “God” in this sense is just used to imply something beyond our control, like nature, not a literal “God”. It’s just wording……..

By: Jeannette

Jeannette — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:32:40 +0000

I really didn’t mean for it to be this big of a deal, and I didn’t mean for it to be “fodder for Hemant’s blog”. I was speculating. As someone who also travels over the bridge often (I go the University) and a humanist I would never cheapen people lives. I was shocked, and saddened, but that doesn’t mean we have to think just about the death aspect of the tragedy. We atheists need to kill the view on us that because we don’t have “God” in our world, that means we don’t value life, or won’t be charitable.

By: Bjorn Watland

Bjorn Watland — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:18:29 +0000

Political fallout indeed, the RNC is coming to town, remember?

By: Jonas Green

Jonas Green — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 01:15:12 +0000

I haven’t seen the story of calling the Bridge collapse an “Act of God” yet (outside of Hemant’s post) but regardless it reminds me of two events:

1. The recent collapse of a section of the Big Dig in Boston, which killed one person. That led to a suit against the city.
and
2. The Hurricane Katrina, where the levies failed.

If the Hurricane was an “Act of God/Nature” in legalese at least the failure of the levies had more to do with bad engineering , as I believe both the Boston and Minneapolis cases are.

The Political fallout will be interesting to follow.

By: Norm

Norm — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 22:43:45 +0000

Whatever the legal definition of “Act of God” is, what happened Wednesday doesn’t fit it. It was an act brought about as a result of a series of decisions made by a bloc of people who forgot that taxes are the price we pay for a functioning civilization. Specifically a governor and his partisans who have voted down many initiatives over the past several years that would have raised money to fix Minnesota’s ailing infrastructure, including a broadly bipartisan transportation bill earlier this past session. I hope this serves to sink Pawlenty’s political career to the bottom of the Mississippi, where many of the victims of his neglect are now lying.

By: Bjorn Watland

Bjorn Watland — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 19:05:22 +0000

I don’t think we’ll ever hear if insurance companies refuse to cover damages or not. It’s not big enough of a story. Plus, I think the “Act of God” argument is voided if a responsible party can be determined, but as far as I’ve read, people are saying it’ll take “years” to determine the cause of collapse. There should be pretty good video around the bridge, from security, and traffic cameras. There should be plenty of evidence. Maybe reports from the workers who were on the bridge would be most helpful, maybe someone noticed something wrong during the six weeks of construction. Then again, maybe it was just all the vibration, which caused collapse. Is the state then responsible?

By: Calvin Moore

Calvin Moore — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 18:28:51 +0000

Act of God? Why then can people purchase flood insurance if flooding is ALSO considered an “act of God”? And is God really in the business of collapsing bridges? WHY do we pay for car insurance if when something outside of our control happens–an accident!–we’re not going to be covered? I seriously doubt these insurance companies will become bankrupted for covering these damaged vehicles. I guess we’ll have to depend on Oprah yet again.