(Be patient - there's a story first - then the question)
I won the grand prize! Yep. I completed a form for an online contest when the Doogie Houser TV show was first being sold as a boxed set. If you remember the show, Doogie ended each episode by typing a lesson learned into his computer journal. Per the rules, I created the journal entry for one particular day, selecting a date since the show went off the air. I won $2000.00 for creating Doogie's entry on 9/11.
My wife (now ex-wife) was always praying for some intervention that would help us financially. This fit the bill.
"Now," she said, "are you still going to tell me you're not sure there's a God? He sent us this money!"
"No, " I replied, "I came up with a clever lines of writing and the judges selected mine as the best entry. I earned the prize."
"Well then, God helped you write the entry."
"ARRRGH!"
Okay, I didn't groan like that. But how can you respond to make a person truly understand an agnostic point of view, when the event that occurs appears to support THEIR point of view?
I disagree with her and agree with you. You wrote it, they liked it, done!
Also when someone normally wins something, many lost. Does God somehow like the winners better? How does that work for the losers. Do they now know God likes them less? How about when mom dies of cancer and someone else makes a recovery. Does god dislike your family?
I'm with the majority of people here who say just agree with "Yes, dear," or "whatever" and move on. You know the truth and it seems she was trying to egg you on into a discussion you obviously didn't want.
I can see this happening to me in the near future at family events...
It's hard with someone you love and care about, in this situation she's purposefully being mean, so I would just reiterate that I wrote it not, God. But I'm also a passive person (sometimes...passive aggressive) so I'd probably go "whatever" and drop it. Usually I'm a lot nicer about stuff and would let it go but something like that would definitely irritate me.
No!!! Stand up and confront the craziness.
Unless you can demonstrate unambiguously to the other party that the something good would have happened without the presence of supernatural intervention, you can't. Don't even try. That goes double when it's your wife.
"Ah, yes dear, we have indeed been smiled upon," is a far better out. You haven't agreed to anything supernatural, even though it sounds like it.
You know what they say: "It has been proven that a man will die sooner than his wife. This is especially true after mentioning her waistline."
It could just as easily have been the Flying Spaghetti Monster. If you're not familiar, the FSM is the make believe entity that takes the place of god in those conversations.
Also, remember that it was created as an argument to the Kansas State Board of Education decision to permit teaching intelligent design.
You don't even try. You just say "Yes dear" and leave it at that. In that situation you had 2 strikes against you, 1 she was a firm believer, and 2 she was your wife, end of story.
Was. Past tense. Good for you!