Wouldn't an atheist say, "If there were a God, wouldn't he be evil?"
Correction: I suddenly recall an atheist who DID say that to me, though many years ago.

Yes. It would be more interesting to know if he had no pulse b/c of asystole, v-fib, or some other condition and in what percentage of cases that arrhythmia resolves without medical intervention or some time after the interventions they tried. The article implies "post hoc ergo propter hoc", something they wouldn't do over something else, e.g. if the pulse had returned just after they opened the door.

If I were talking to them in person, though, I certainly wouldn't challenge their scientific claims.

My feelings of relief and joy for this mother are overwhelming.

As the mother of a (now young adult) child who should not be alive (rare genetic disorder)...I can only say that my belief in God has been constantly reinforced over the course of the last 22 years. And, I'm happy to report, this belief I have in the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, has done nothing to diminish my admiration for Ayn Rand. :) I've enjoyed, and shared, Ms. Rand's philosophy since I was sixteen years old.

What is that saying about there are no atheists in foxholes? I doubt there is an atheist who can hold their dying child in their arms without secretly hoping there is something more than secular humanism.

Thank you! I'm enjoying the huge smile this visual brought me!

Here we go again, Robbie. By definition, an atheist doesn't believe in God, so an atheist wouldn't say God is evil.

Actually, quite common occurrence when people fall into cold water and drown. There is nothing miraculous here. What happens is the cold reduces the metabolic processes. In essence, it put the body into a suspended mode. As the body returns to its normal temperature it is possible to revive them with little or no impairment. Why do people automatically attribute a religious explanation when there is a rather mundane Scientific one.

I think there is a scientific basis for it. As well as having the surround sound of his mother's voice. They say coma patients can respond to sounds.

Maybe god's influence was to illuminate the human that hit the kid with the paddles after CPR, and started his heart right as his mother was praying.

The truly amazing thing is the body's ability to recover like this. On my first dive after certification, my elderly father-in-law drowned (face down, regulator out). I got to him after maybe 10-15 minutes after losing him. Very hard to find someone floating a little ways away in heavy swells. Got him back to the boat in another 10-15 minutes. In this case his heart never stopped, I suspect, because he moved when I smacked him. At like 70, he recovered in no time, with lungs half full of water. His first words: "Do you have my camera. Don't tell my wife."

Coincidence? How many other mother's prayers went unanswered at that same moment around the world? How many other hearts resumed beating without the assistance of prayer?

I think pretty much as do you on this subject.

I believe Jesus will return quite unexpectedly at an appointed time. Scripture says that.
When I hear some crackpot say Jesus will appear at such and such a date, I am quite certain that is a time when Jesus will most definitely NOT appear.
If you don't care for what I just wrote, so be it.
I'm easy.

I can't answer that. Perhaps some people have continued purpose in the long game.

Some allege that he sent his son as an ambassador a couple thousand years ago. If there were one or more such superhuman (as opposed to supernatural) beings, such occasional good publicity via rare intervention might be all such a being is willing (or perhaps able) to do. The adjectives of omniscient and omnipotent to describe such a superhuman could never be proven, even if such a superhuman's existence were proven (which is highly debatable at this point). I am willing to keep open the possibility of such a superhuman being, but for now, I just don't know. As for the current pope, I will be nice and say that I agreed with far more that John Paul II said and did than I do with Francis.

Then why intervene?

I'm of the opinion that God sets the stage and then leaves man to meet his own destiny (free will). Its the only rational explanation I can see why bad things happen for no apparent reason.

Well it would be less scary and a million times more convincing if he just showed up in person. Perhaps at the Vatican where he could show the pope what a good father is by swiftly spanking him...in public.

Maybe God has realised the need for good publicity.

I love a happy ending :) (but why didn't God just keep him from falling in, or getting trapped, or going out on the ice, or leaving the house that day?) :)