Man "deflects" bullet.

[Post Modern Girl]

Police say a man’s wedding band deflected a bullet and likely saved his life. Police Sgt. Jeffrey Scott says two men walked into Register’s shop at The Antique Market on Saturday and asked to see a coin collection.

When Register retrieved the collection, one of the men pulled a gun and demanded money. A shot was fired as Register threw up his left hand, and his wedding ring deflected the bullet, police said. His wife Darlene Register says the bullet managed to go through two of his fingers without severing the bone.

A part of the bullet broke off and is in his middle finger - the other part is in his neck, lodged in the muscle tissue. She said she gives God all the credit. Police were searching for the robbers, who Scott said “stole a substantial amount of cash.” The whole thing still sounds quite messy.

http://veryweirdnews.com/just-like-wonder-woman/

Ok... doesn't this story start out like the ring actually deflected the bullet? Oh no, it just shattered it into various other parts of his body ...
And why, o, why did he lift his hand to STOP A BULLET? Seriously. Did he really believe that his hand would stop a small metal object travelling at least 800 feet per second?!
Why couldn't he have just ducked like any other sensible and rash human being?

[AngelikDemonik]

Well, when someone has a gun fired at them, they don't have much time to act. I too would probably hold up my hand like a blazing fool. It's a natural reaction. If someone throws a ball at you, you put up your hand to block it. *Shrug* I do at at least =D

And I think what they meant about the ring deflecting the bullet, is that it caused it to deflect up into his neck. Based off of where it landed in his neck, it's a lot better than his heart and lungs.

[Delkaetre]

I would imagine that the band deflected a good part of the force, as it prevented the bullet from killing him- and probably sent the bullet into other parts of the body rather that straight to wherever it was aimed. That's a deflection, even if the bullet didn't survive intact or avoid him entirely. As to why he threw a hand up rather than ducking.... when you're being shot at, you're probably not at your most sensible.

The bit that annoys me is the attributing it to god rather than physics, random chance, or luck.

[ugh...]

Neo, you are the one.

[Post Modern Girl]

Originally Posted by ugh...

Neo, you are the one.

Haha awww that is funny.

[Drake Dun]

I seriously doubt that the ring did much deflecting. I don't have the math at my fingertips or anything, but I have played around with guns, and it sounds all wrong. I wonder how they even go about arriving at such a conclusion, short of just whipping it out of their asses.

Originally Posted by Delkaetre

The bit that annoys me is the attributing it to god rather than physics, random chance, or luck.

The nine times out of ten when somebody pulls a trigger while pointing the gun at another person's head and the result is a need to repaint the walls, that's chance. The one time out of ten when the shmuck somehow gets off with a critical injury, that's the hand of God. See how that works?

Drake

[Methadrine]

Set up the exact same parameters, fire the shot, and the 'hand of God' is debunked.

[Cen0bite]

Originally Posted by Methadrine

Set up the exact same parameters, fire the shot, and the 'hand of God' is debunked.

exactly.

Gah! I hate it when people say stuff like that is a miracle or something..or, "The hand of God" deflected it. Seriously, if God would have helped, He would have deflected the bullet elsewhere, and not let it go into the man at all. Jeez..

[Duane]

The Hand of God??? I agree with Cen0bite, if he existed, he would've deflected it into a wall, or something else so no one was injured.

[KontanKarite]

Essentially, if God was real in the sense that we all perceive such a being to be, it's pretty sad that something as simple as a human would figure out a better way to a similar ends.

So if a human could stop the bullet without it hurting people, imagine what "God" could do. If that was the hand of god, it's rather lame, really.

[CptSternn]

That is one take. How do we know the hand of God isn't something more worldly.

For example, if a tree falls and stops flood waters from destroying your house, is that the hand of God?

I would argue that the hand of God doesn't have to be an actual supernatural occurance, rather it can be seen in those one-in-a-million things that happen, like the one above.

Having personally experienced such, and seen such, I agree something like this is quite definitely the word of the big man upstairs.

Of course, thats my take - everyone is free to have their own views on this sort of thing...

[Dark Clarissa]

I was wondering if his ring was gold? Gold is a soft metal, so how much deflecting it would be able to do, I have no idea. Perhaps the bullet was just crap quality ...lol

[Drake Dun]

Originally Posted by CptSternn

For example, if a tree falls and stops flood waters from destroying your house, is that the hand of God?

God has trees for hands? No wonder he's so pissed off all the time.

I notice the faithful don't ask whether the flood was the hand of God. Except when they want to connect it somehow to the perceived evils of a total stranger's sex life.

I would argue that the hand of God doesn't have to be an actual supernatural occurance, rather it can be seen in those one-in-a-million things that happen, like the one above.

He sure is good at hide and seek. The way he does things, it's totally undistinguishable from cooincidence! It's almost like he's not even there! Isn't he impressive?

Having personally experienced such, and seen such, I agree something like this is quite definitely the word of the big man upstairs.

And you determine that... how? I wonder especially how you distinguish the hand of God from the hand of Bael, Elvis, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Of course, thats my take - everyone is free to have their own views on this sort of thing...

They're just not free to have those views correspond to reality in equal degree.

Drake

[Clockwork]

Originally Posted by Drake Dun

The nine times out of ten when somebody pulls a trigger while pointing the gun at another person's head and the result is a need to repaint the walls, that's chance. The one time out of ten when the shmuck somehow gets off with a critical injury, that's the hand of God. See how that works?

Who's to say it wasn't? She's allowed to believe what she'd like, anyway. Perhaps the man was lucky, or perhaps he's favored.

Originally Posted by Cen0bite

Gah! I hate it when people say stuff like that is a miracle or something..or, "The hand of God" deflected it. Seriously, if God would have helped, He would have deflected the bullet elsewhere, and not let it go into the man at all. Jeez..

Originally Posted by Duane

The Hand of God??? I agree with Cen0bite, if he existed, he would've deflected it into a wall, or something else so no one was injured.

Are you God? Supposing He exists, how do you know precisely what He would do?
Just because you can't see the long-term effects of any event, it doesn't mean you should wave it off as foolishness.

Originally Posted by CptSternn

I would argue that the hand of God doesn't have to be an actual supernatural occurance, rather it can be seen in those one-in-a-million things that happen, like the one above.

I agree. You can't always see just what strings He's pulling, so why assume there's always a bright beam of light from the sky involved or something.

Originally Posted by Drake Dun

And you determine that... how? I wonder especially how you distinguish the hand of God from the hand of Bael, Elvis, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster...

...They're just not free to have those views correspond to reality in equal degree.

Drake Dun, quit being a fucking asswipe.

[Godslayer Jillian]

I imagined something around
"POW bitch! I'm invincible!"

[Cen0bite]

Originally Posted by Godslayer Jillian

I imagined something around
"POW bitch! I'm invincible!"

..rofl!...

[Drake Dun]

Originally Posted by Clockwork

Drake Dun, quit being a fucking asswipe.

I'll tell you what. Give me something like a response to the point quoted below, and I'll knock it off, or at least tone it down.

Originally Posted by DrakeDun

And you determine that... how? I wonder especially how you distinguish the hand of God from the hand of Bael, Elvis, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

It doesn't have to be a particularly good response, or one that I agree with. It just has to be coherent and responsive to my point.

Drake

[Drake Dun]

By the way, I was recently sent a URL apropos to this thread.

http://www.whydoesgodhateamputees.com/important.htm

Drake

[Dark Clarissa]

Originally Posted by Drake Dun

By the way, I was recently sent a URL apropos to this thread.

http://www.whydoesgodhateamputees.com/important.htm

Drake

Ok before I say anything further, I'd like to clarify, I'm not christian. Although I do have very strong spiritual beliefs and I do believe that positive effects can take place in a person's life through meditation, magick, positive thought.

So although I don't believe in an omnipotent christian "god", I still find the logic behind this site a little off. Just because someone doesn't do something for you doesn't mean that they don't exist. I mean if you had a major problem in your life that is caused by the local conditions in your community you may write to your local politician. BUT you may decide to go straight to the "head honcho" and write directly to the Prime Minister or President of your country. However, the chances of them actually doing anything to change the problem you have highlighted are almost nil. Just because they didn't do anything doesn't mean that they don't exist. It just means that they don't want to do anything or that the letter never got through to them, or a combination of other things.

Ergo, just because someone doesn't pick up the phone doesn't mean that they're not home, it just means they don't want to talk.

[Beneath the Shadows]

I once deflected a concrete sidewalk with my skull.

After three days of intense pain, the sidewalk died.

[Methadrine]

*ponders* A god that can allow a storeclerk to live, but denies the lives of all of those who died when someone decided to plunk down a bomb at Hiroshima doesn't sound like a nice guy to me. On the other hand, maybe he took revenge on us by letting the country that has incorporated Christianity into itself have such a moron for President.

..Or maybe the god died a long time ago and the DoG (Department of God) is run by chimps. That would make some sense actually.

(disclaimer: all of the above might be sardonic humor. Might...)

[Drake Dun]

Originally Posted by Dark Clarissa

So although I don't believe in an omnipotent christian "god", I still find the logic behind this site a little off. Just because someone doesn't do something for you doesn't mean that they don't exist.

The immediate point is simply that all these stories of divine intervention crumble to dust when you consider that they only occur in cases in which natural causes are also a possible candidate. God hears the prayers of the occasional person stricken with pneumonia or even cancer, but mysteriously stops listening with the supplicant is an amputee.

To borrow something that was said above...

Originally Posted by Clockwork

You can't always see just what strings He's pulling, so why assume there's always a bright beam of light from the sky involved or something.

This is no defense. The problem isn't that there isn't always a beam of light - or a regrown limb. The problem is that there never is. That by itself doesn't mean that there's nobody home, but it does mean that other proofs must be adduced.

The move from check to checkmate only occurs when those other proofs also fail.

Drake

[Godslayer Jillian]

Originally Posted by Dark Clarissa

Just because someone doesn't do something for you doesn't mean that they don't exist.

But when the quality of this entity is one that does something for you and then doesn't, why should his existence not be questioned?

Just because they didn't do anything doesn't mean that they don't exist.

They have done something. You live in their decisions, you see them on TV, you might know people that have met him and they talk of it with the same concreteness they would talk about just any other celebrity (without recurring to exalted metaphors and mystified language to be able to 'convey' the experience), and most importantly, although it could be costly and it might take time, but you have a guarantee that you can meet these people on a personal basis.
Can we do this with Zeus? Mithras? YHWH?

[Dark Clarissa]

Fair enough comments, perhaps a world leader isn't the best analogy. But surely it still follows that just because someone doesn't answer a "prayer", this in itself is not proof of non-existence.

Like I said, I don't believe in an omnipotent "one" god, I've come to this conclusion based on other reasoning. I just found the reasoning of this particular site a bit flawed. :-)

[Tam Li Hua]

Wow, that's pretty amazing!

As for holding their hand up, yeah, I'd say that's a natural reaction. Very few of us are Clint Eastwood-like in our reactions when someone draws a gun on us.

As for whether or not it was God, who's to say it wasn't? It's enough of a bizarre coincidence that I can see where the lady would think that, so I don't see how that's a bad thing in the least. [Besides, given that no one can prove or disprove the spiritual realm, we might as well let the lady believe what she wants, right? After all, her thinking it's a divine miracle isn't hurting anyone. ]