Mammon not God saved lives in New Zealand earthquake? Bunk.

Here's a story on the New Zealand earthquake and the fact that there were no fatalities reported. It points out that developed nations experience fewer fatalities than poorer nations because they have better build buildings which are less likely to collapse on people.

To make his point he tries to be cute and suggest that its money and man's ingenuity rather than God who saved the lives.

It’s an “absolute miracle” that no deaths have yet been reported from the earthquake that struck New Zealand early yesterday, says Bob Parker, mayor of the stricken city of Christchurch. You can see what he means – but Mammon may have had more to do with it than God. For it underlines how wealthy countries and communities suffer much less from a given natural disaster than poor ones.

I wonder who gave people the brains, ability, knowledge and understanding of the design of the universe to build better buildings? Maybe God? Wasn't it in fact the Christian understanding of reason and the design of the universe which resulted in the scientific and economic development of the West? (See Rodney Stark and "The Victory of Reason.'') The author suggests that God had nothing to do with the New Zealand situation and by implication the economic development of the West and the construction of better building. And what are the implications of his comments? If God does exist is He by implication somehow responsible for what's happened in less developed nations and not man?

What one sees here is the materialist mindset. God is irrelevant and absent from the operation of this world. It's all about man and his ingenuity.