Recently the governor of Georgia, a fellow named Sonny Perdue (is that a Southern name or what) gathered a bunch of politicos at the state Capitol in Atlanta to pray for rain for his drought-stricken state.
Quote: “It is time to appeal to HIM who can and will make a difference”. A choir sang a hymn in the background.
The next day, rain fell but of course weathermen were predicting rain for that day a week ago.
I could not let this event take place without making some comments!!!
Praying for rain is as old as the earliest civilizations; it just makes sense. Pagans had their rain gods, our American Indians did a rain dance around the fire to bring on rain, hell I think every civilization through the ages had a rain god and a ritual to inspire the gods to make rain.
The only protestors at the “pray-in” were members of the Atlanta Freethought Society which objected to holding a “religious service” on government property; remember separation of church and state.
Anyway, my initial reaction was to remind those who prayed that they are no different than the pagans of old in their prayers to a superior power to help them overcome their dilemma; they may pray to different gods but since no one has ever proven the existence of any god, they are praying to the same invented delusion that they all hoped and hope actually exists.
On a more philosophical level we have the issue of an all powerful and all good god that allows bad things like tsunamis to kill thousands, hurricanes, tornados, floods, disease and drought to occur even when he can stop them? How can he be all good?
On another level, what if he has sent the drought to punish those who live in Atlanta? Should they repent like the Jews did for thousands of years until they figured out that their god just didn’t give a shit about them and probably did not exist so if you don’t take care of yourself, no one else, including god, will.
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