No Miracle in Chile? I Dare Say!

Apparently, not everyone believes in miracles. After the incredible moment of the last Chilean miner being pulled out of the mine, it is difficult to comprehend that anyone would be so blind as to not see the epicness of this entire trial. While not to go as far as not at least feeling joy and empathy for these miners, the Chicago Sun Times blogger, Robert Ebert opposes the miracle in this situation. Robert Ebert writes:

I'm not a miracle. And neither are the Chilean miners. We are all alive today for perfectly rational reasons. Yet there is a common compulsion to describe unlikely outcomes as miraculous -- if they are happy, of course. If sad, they are simply reported on, or among the believing described as "the will of God." Some disasters are so horrible they don't qualify as the will of God, but as the work of Satan playing for the other team.

 Like so many of us, I watched with joy as the miners emerged from their tomb, one after another. In a year of sadness, it was a blessed moment. One can sympathize with those who called it a miracle, but actually it was the result of perfectly understandable engineering techniques. The construction of the mine itself, so deep in the earth, was a much more impressive feat, but no one thought to describe that as a miracle.

While we are all entitled to our own opinions, is it really not a miracle that 33 men survived 17 days on 48 hours worth of  rations with no contact to the outside world so many of us take for granted? Or that their camaraderie, careful planning and cheerful outlook from 69 days trapped underground in that 'impressive feat' of a mine was not a miracle? The fact that no one came up significantly mentally or physically harmed after two months of bare provisions is not a miracle within itself? It may not be my place, but given the chance, I would ask Mr.Ebert to re-evaluate.