Saturday, April 30, 2011

Surviving a Tornado

From CNN:

The same tornado, Amin said, virtually destroyed the tiny town of Phil Campbell, which has a population of little more than 1,000.

Those who survived the disaster thanked God or simple luck.

Just a quick note about the obvious: How can you tell the difference between God's interference and blind luck? I'll sit back and wait for my answer.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Praying for Rain in Texas

I'm for this. I'm for it raining so hard in Texas that the whole fucking state washes into the gulf of Mexico.

Seriously. . .

The Govenor of Texas, Rick (Jimmy Bobby) Perry, has proclaimed an official state wide 3 days of prayer for rain in Texas to put out the wild fires. Texas is a very big state as you know so with that kind of power behind a prayer it ought to work, right?

And yet. . .

There is not one shred of evidence that prayer works. This after numerous controlled experiments. I know, I know, I know. . . I just keep ruining the whole magical prayer thing with this fact. Notice how people actually LOVE controlled experiments when it makes for neater gizmos like air conditioning or iPhones but choose to NOT like controlled experiments when it gets in the way of believing in magic. Typical cherry picking

But let's assume that prayer does send a message to a super being. Why does more people praying help? Why three days? Why not 4 or 2? Why not pray for the wisdom to provide more money and fire equipment for your apparently outmatched fire department? To pray like this, to ask for rain from a perhaps benevolent creator is really weird to me. What then if it doesn't rain? What do you conclude? Prayers didn't get through? You and your whole stupid state are not worthy? God has a plan but you're not part of it?

I know of people praying for cures for the sick and dying. Those aren't answered either and still the praying goes on.

What a fucking waste of time. Maybe the great apes evolved from us instead of the other way round. You don't see them wasting their time like this. Oh wait, that would bring up the whole evolution thing and that's not allowed in Texas either.



From Plognark.com

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