[In the fifth century BCE,] a friend pointed out an expensive display of votive gifts to Diagoras and said, “You think the gods have no care for man? Why, you can see from all these votive pictures here how many people have escaped the fury of storms at sea by praying to the gods who have brought them safe to harbor.” To which Diagoras replied, “Yes, indeed, but where are the pictures of all those who suffered shipwreck and perished in the waves?”
Diagoras was indicted for profaning the mysteries, but escaped. A search was put out for him throughout the Athenian empire, which indicates that the charges were serious, but he was not found.
(Jennifer Hecht, Doubt: A History, p. 10)
And yet, I still hear that exact same argument today.
I read a comment or post on a blog (perhaps this one) that called this the Argument from Incomplete Devastation. I think one of the most common forms is “I had cancer, but God healed me!” Well, why did you get cancer to begin with?
They get cancer because it is :
1) a test from god (ala Job)
2) the devil did it (i.e. god allowed the devil to do it)
It is too bad that god created Lucifer in the first place knowing full well what Lucifer was going to do…same goes for that pesky serpent in the Garden…
Unfortunately people are a still very quick to claim “It was God that done it!” for good outcomes but not so quick for the bad. Two examples I can think of are my wife’s aunt being convinced that the cause of a friend’s of her cancer going into remission was because of prayer and nothing to do with the the treatment she was receiving from various doctors. The second is when my father was diagnosed with cancer and was given 2-5 years, unfortunately he only got as far as six months. Now this could only be for two reasons, either god thought may father was a sinner and caused him to die early or doctors can’t always get it right with conditions that aren’t completely predictable.
Maybe they should get the Pope to become a doctor as he claims he’s infallible so these type of mistakes wouldn’t be made!