Post hoc, ergo...

...propter hoc.  Literally "after this, therefore because of this".  It's the assumption that because A happened, and then B happened, that A caused B.  Of course it may have done, but simply because the one followed the other does not prove it to be so. There must be many millions of people who say their prayers every day and many of them ask God, or the Virgin Mary, or whoever, for certain specific things.  And it is inevitable that every now and then, what they ask for will happen.  But the question is, is this proof that their prayers have been answered, or was the thing, whatever it is, going to happen anyway?  Mother Theresa is on her way to being made a saint, mainly on the basis that two people who prayed for her intervention have been apparently miraculously cured of what would otherwise have been fatal conditions. Now if people want to believe that, that's OK with me, but keep in mind that it is purely a question of belief - not proof.