There’s a phrase that never fails to piss me off and trigger an episode of violent facepalming.
“If God exists, why are there lightning rods on churches?”
Because this world is not ruled by God, but by Satan (Matthew 4:8; John 12:31, 14:40, 15:11), because belonging to the church that celebrates the true God puts you under all kinds of hazards due to Satan’s vitriolic hatred of him (John 15:20, 16:2; Matthew 10:16-25) and his Church (1 Peter 5:8), and because Jesus himself made moves to protect his students against Satan’s wrath (John 17:15), so following his general advice is very wise, because the prince of this world would like nothing better than to have the Church carelessly tempting God (Matthew 4:5-7).
Christians don’t believe that believing in the true God is a “get out of jail free” ticket, something that can allow you to break the natural laws because you have divine protection. They actually believe that being faithful to Christ is closer to a death sentence than a protective shield in this world, but without accepting the possibility of martyrdom they are not really following Jesus. However, they are also advised not to tempt fate carelessly by doing things against natural laws that are likely to result in harm, and are especially advised against thinking that they are protected by God because they are his chosen people, because, as John the Baptist said, God can take a piece of rock and turn it into his chosen people if he so wishes (Matthew 3:9). If God allowed Jesus to be slandered, ridiculed, spat on, flogged and crucified, and his disciples and apostles persecuted, tortured and murdered, why would he prevent lightning from hitting a church building? God’s existence doesn’t preclude the existence of evil in this world, because this world is ruled by God’s sworn enemy. If God could use his power to vanquish evil this world wouldn’t even exist, and how it was allowed to exist in the first place and fall under the domain of Satan is a mystery. Instead, God can only provide an alternative to this world, and he can point to it, show the way. Salvation of the soul does not mean immunity to physical harm; in fact, it usually invites physical harm.
So yeah, I’m not a Christian and I know all this. And atheists pride themselves with being smart? My-oh-my.