Also tornadoes to a Red State like Oklahoma, which is about 95% Xtian? The Religiously Impaired™ see only what they want to see.

Remember; the working class of France are often still cigarette smokers...I'm guessing it was a careless match....an un-snuffed cigarette...

@Robecology then why no divine intervention to prevent such a "tragedy"? Somebody did something bad to let "his" wrath unfold and cause irreparable damage.

@JGal Whadoyamean "his".....here's a pic of god on the ceiling of the Church in Venice...

[res.cloudinary.com]

@Robecology either way, someone did something bad to let this happen. Ok, I'll answer my own question. According to Father James Martin on americanmagazine.org, God was there to show 'us' that s/he loves 'us' as much as a firefighter who runs into a building on fire to save it. I want blame damnit!

@JGal The structure itself was made of many hundreds of years old wood. The fire did them a favor.....it expedited the rebuilding. You can bet there'll be a lot of "pressure treated" wood this time around...maybe even polyester/carbon compound beams that are fire-proof. Let's not look to "blame"...or to assert any mythological cause. It happened. It will be fixed.

@JGal With friends like that who needs enemies?

I'm sure the fire is a test of faith. French people have become quite secular and the new people are mostly Muslim so God wants to see where He stands,

@brentan that's exactly what I was looking for! God is punishing those who aren't doing it right.

It's called confirmation bias, or shooting an arrow into the wall and painting a bull's-eye around it.

@GuyKeith confirmation bias as its finest