If the Governor of Georgia holds a press conference asking the Federal Government to use it’s secret weather control machines to make it rain, and it rains the next day, does that mean the Feds have weather control machines ?
Well if we’re going to quote scripture,
Matthew 4:7
Maybe it was a Native American rain god. Just because we killed most of their worshippers doesn’t mean they went away.
Seems to me that the more people prayed for rain, the less likely it would be for God to be inclined to honor that request. After all, he’s God, and he can do whatever the hell he pleases. If he made it rain every time some poor shlub or another whined about a lack of it, that would make Him a pretty weak God, wouldn’t it? So let 'em go hang, I say. Pray to Santa Claus, he’s more in the gift-giving line.
[QUOTE=AskNott]
Assuming that some Georgians will not pray when the guv says to, won’t the rain fall on them, too? :dubious:
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Nope. Only a supernatural being could
oooooooh…
-Joe
It wouldn’t be proof to me. More importantly, if it does rain, whose god gets the credit? Perdue’s god or the god of one of the other denominational representatives? Maybe they decided together to make it rain?
This is what I never got about prayer. Isn’t god supposed to have some kind of divine plan for everyone and everything? If so, what difference does it make if He already has a plan? If God’s divine plan was to dry out Georgia, it always has and always will be, so what difference does it even make?
[QUOTE=Flyhalf]
It wouldn’t be proof to me. More importantly, if it does rain, whose god gets the credit? Perdue’s god or the god of one of the other denominational representatives? Maybe they decided together to make it rain?
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Just to be sure, I’m putting in a word with Thor.
[QUOTE=spoke-]
Just to be sure, I’m putting in a word with Thor.
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Now you’re just being facetious - everyone knows that the Invisible Sky Pixie with The Big Book (you know, the one that borrowed from other traditions from the previous couple thousand years of myth) is the one with the power to actually do things.
He just chooses not to.
Make of that what you will.
-Joe
I am pleased to report that (as forecast before Sonny did his rain chant) it is raining in Atlanta. Just a weak drizzle, though. Pray harder, Sonny, you bastard! What did we elect you for?
Believers don’t need such proof. Non-believers need more than the known randomness of weather patterns falling in someone’s favour to be considered as anything even close to the possibility of “proof” of anything at all, even of meteorology.
[QUOTE=Captain Amazing]
Matt. 5:45 “he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”
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The rain it raineth every day
Upon the just and unjust fella,
But mostly on the just, because
The unjust hath the just’s umbrella.
I heard about this on NPR while I was driving to work this morning. One of the people (possibly the governor) said “We’ve tried everything else.” Or words to that effect.
My immediate thought was: Well, did you try human sacrifice? Huh? Didja? Huh? Huh?
[QUOTE=begbert2]
Only if any time a prayer does not come true, it is absolute, universally accepted proof that God does not exist.
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That’s the rich thing about religion, isn’t it?
If you pray and it doesn’t happen, it’s not in god’s will.
If you pray and it does happen, it proves god.
And if you pray to “test” god, then that’s immoral and it won’t happen anyway.
Try getting a believer to see that as illogical.
[QUOTE=erie774]
I should have been clearer, sorry. What if the weather was clear and there was no chance of precipitation in the forecast? I didn’t mean yesterdays prayer vigil per se, I meant a day like that (warm, no clouds, etc.).
I wouldn’t accept it as “proof” of God but it would definitely make me look at what was considered a natural weather phenomenon.
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Well, what I would say is that it would be intriguing.
Radio waves, for example, would seem like divine communication to someone who didn’t know about them if you traveled back in time.
The idea of human minds collectively ‘wishing’ something and then it coming to pass isn’t something I’d dismiss as impossible, just not currently explainable.
**Leaping **to “god,” however, would be as baseless as primitives doing so @ a radio.
[QUOTE=erie774]
Would that be considered proof that there is a God or would it still be chalked up to a coincidence and fluke weather pattern creating an unprecedented meteorological event?
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It would be n = 1 of an experiment. Repeat it a few dozen times, and if the results reach statistical significance, I’ll be impressed and consider it evidence.
When someone prays for snow in Phoenix in July and it comes, then I’ll take note.
It’s weather. It’s notoriously unpredictable.
Besides, farmers in India pray for the monsoon every year. If Georgia prays to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior and Punjab prays to Sri Krishna and both get rain against all odds, does that put us in a real conundrum because it “proves” the existence of both Gods?
It’s weather. It’s notoriously unpredictable.
Besides, farmers in India pray for the monsoon every year. If Georgia prays to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior and Punjab prays to Sri Krishna and both get rain against all odds, does that put us in a real conundrum because it “proves” the existence of both Gods?
[QUOTE=Der Trihs]
If the Governor of Georgia holds a press conference asking the Federal Government to use it’s secret weather control machines to make it rain, and it rains the next day, does that mean the Feds have weather control machines ?
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Well it wouldn’t be much of a secret then, would it?
[QUOTE=Anaamika]
It’s weather. It’s notoriously unpredictable.
Besides, farmers in India pray for the monsoon every year. If Georgia prays to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior and Punjab prays to Sri Krishna and both get rain against all odds, does that put us in a real conundrum because it “proves” the existence of both Gods?
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Just so you know, I prayed for a doublepost.