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Feim Dauti
Mrs.Butorac
Honors English Foundations I
15 April 2016

The Recovery of Dale Black

Dale Black is a boy whos life was all changed when he was part of an unsurvivable
plane crash and came out alive. Before this event Dale was a huge fan of planes, things like the
types of planes the aerodynamics, how they worked. His mentor Chuck taught Dale everything
he needed to know about flying. He knew everything about them and couldnt wait to drive one
and get a license for it. Dale spent months and years with his mentor trying to master how to
drive it in order for him to guarantee he gets his license. He passed his flying test and continued
to fly with his mentor and friend Chuck. One day Dale wanted to fly and so he did this time a
surprise guest. Gene Bain was a police officer and chief pilot and he decided to see how Chuck
had taught his student. Gene jumped in as pilot Dale as co-pilot and Chuck sat in the back. They
started the plane and began going on the runway thats when Dale and Chuck noticed that Gene
had gone off the runway too early. The plane engines whined and that when it was too late to do
anything. Their was a tall monument that they had fatally crashed into. So after this crash Dale
was hospitalized and doctors were surprised on how he made it out alive. They observed that his
body had taken serious injuries that could never be healed to their original state and he was lucky
to be alive. Throughout the book it shows how his life, family, and friends are affected by it.

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Although there are sources leading to the fact that medical miracles are false there is much more
evidence supporting the adherence of religious healings and miracles .
Sources show that religion doesnt cause miracles but its just a scientific phenomenon.
The reason being is that modern medicine is not perfected, it is simply a science that keeps on
improving. So in some occasions medicine and equipment just prove themselves ineffective.
Another reason is that the doctor can miss some things when observing the patient's injuries. An
important factor in the patient's body can go unseen. Such as if their injuries are better or worse
than they are seen as, like if a broken bone could have discretely tore a major muscle.. Various
sources support this claim including Livescience. Livescience explains that "Many people
continue to believe in miracle cures despite no good evidence that they occurred. When modern
medicine fails to heal, many desperate people turn to unproven or "alternative"
healers."(LiveScience) This source believes that religion doesn't play a role in these miracles
and it's just unexpected "misunderstandings" and "poor logic"(LiveScience). For example
according to Livescience a man that was wounded in Afghanistan was put in a comatose state,
and after the doctors failed to bring him back, he went through religious healing practice which
showed positive progress overtime. At first his wife thought of this religious healing as
legitimate. But the Doctors had stated that "medicine in not an exact science."(LiveScience) and
"Patients may get better or worse for any number of reasons."(LiveScience) So it was not proven
that the religious practice had no effect on the patient. The Doctors then continued to state that
"doctors can only go by the patient's conditions at the time of the evaluation." So in other words
the injured man could have naturally improved seconds after his evaluations and the doctors
wouldn't notice because they have to diagnose the patient at the exact time of this evaluation. So

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in Flight to Heaven Dale's prayers and religious practice could have unaffected the healing
process. This is because after Dale was told his arm wouldn't heal without surgery so he waited
and prayed for improvement but there was none seen. The waiting lasted for weeks and months,
Dale prayed endlessly. But soon after it showed improvement. Was this improvement from
praying. Or perhaps the body had time to heal itself and it had gone under the Dr.Graham's radar
undetected.
Evidence shows that religious belief and practice has the ability to heal injured people as
a way of miracle healings. When Dale first realises the severity of his injuries he begins to
rethink what his life has to offer and how much he had taken it for granted. He begins to value
god and his beliefs more. Dale starts talking with his grandpa about faith and religion directly
stating how he should Pray. Pray alone, pray with elders, and pray with your friends(Black).
So specifically what his grandpa is saying is just to pray often and enough because at one point
those prayers can be answered by god. Another thing Dales grandpa told hit to do was to Read
your Bible because God will show you the way through words and verses.(Black) One final
thing that his grandpa told him to do was to do exactly what god says in the Bible So his
grandpa is saying overall that you should pray, read the Bible, and to do what God says to do in
the Bible at an Attempt to make God happy. Many people believe that a belief in faith and
religion does have an effect on healing. Praying which could likely be the cause could lead to the
effect of healing the permanent injuries. There have been recorded evidence of actual
improvement to visually and audibly impaired people after they had evangelistic meetings in
rural Mozambique(Deem) So specifically it states that after religious practice God has used his
power to help the injured people. There have also been many other cases regarding these

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healings after "the patient received prayer for healing."(Casdorph). These cases consist of
cancers, diseases, surgery,etc. These improvement were proven to be from prayer and "The
probability of natural remissions seems remote" (Casdorph). Another example of miracle
happenings would be to an 18 year old boy that was involved in a car crash. This car crash
shattered this boy's left hand, heavily broken jawbone, and swelling and damage of the brain. He
arrived to the E.R. alive but in a very bad condition. Once partially healed and conscious the boy
was thinking about how his God had let this type of occurrence to happen. Similar to Dale the
boy was stating phrases like How could you allow this to happen? How could you let this
happen?(CBN) of course referring to God. In the story Dale goes through a stage of anger
towards his god and repeats similar phrases just like the boy. The boy in the crash healed much
more than the doctors expected. They had thought that he would remain partially disabled in his
brain and the hand he had crushed. But through constant therapy they observed that the boy had
recovered from all his injuries. The boy believed that this miracle happened so he could carry on
the word of his god. Before this tragedy happened he was a very religious man who well
deserved a second chance. He himself had not known that a drunk driver was there on that day to
hit him with his car. The boy believed that god had spared his life for it was no consequence of
his that caused him to get hurt. Similar to Dales story God had given him a second chance
because even though the police said it was his fault he knew that Gene had affected the plane
causing it to crash. God knew this as well and decided that Dale was much too innocent to die.
When Dale acquires these injuries from his plane crash he trys to appreciate what God
has done for him and attempts to worship and thank God as much as he can. This is because he
wants to apologise to God for his un-appreciation towards him and how Dale had taken God's

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abilities for granted because it was God's ability that let him live through the crash. This can
inspire people to appreciate their faith and to pay attention to what their faith has done for them.
This appreciation doesnt only cover Christianity but also other religions. Everybody should be
able to and want to thank and appreciate what God has done for them. People shouldn't want to
do good things for themselves but instead to make God happy. This story could also inspire
people to shoot for any goal no matter what. Near the end of the book when Dale had healed but
remained somewhat disabled with his shoulder and foot he still went on one final flight just like
he said he would. He achieved this goal through sheer determination and took many risks in
order to do so. People should be inspired by this true example of what success looks like through
the eyes of a goal setting individual. People should use this example to set goals for themselves
to achieve whatever they would like to achieve. From a psychological standpoint people set goal
in order to keep them on task or just to keep them in line for what they want to achieve. When
Dale decided to wait for his arm to heal instead of doing the imediat surgery it pulls in this
scientific aspect of risk, probability and what the human body has the power to do. The scientific
standpoint plays a great aspect for Dale's injuries. As stated before not everything in the medical
field is perfect. Things can very much go unnoticed. But it is supported through various sources
that religious healings and miracles are true especially when an individual praises and respects
their faith. Therefore it is proven that religion supports the effect on healing and miracles and the
scientific aspect is unlikely.

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Works Cited
Black, Dale, and Ken Gire. Flight to Heaven: A Pilot's True Story. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany
House, 2010. Print.
Casdorph, Richard. "Ten Healing Miracles." Is There A God. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016
CBN. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
Deem, Rich. "Prayer for Healing: What Does Science Say?by Rich Deem." Prayer for Healing:

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Medical 'Miracles' Not Supported by Evidence." LiveScience. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.