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 Texas public officials organize a pray-in for rain
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard

USA
3739 Posts

Posted - 07/24/2006 :  21:17:24  Show Profile  Visit marfknox's Homepage  Send marfknox an AOL message Send marfknox a Private Message
quote:
LUBBOCK, Texas, July 24 (UPI) -- Public officials in Lubbock, Texas, are organizing a day to pray for rain.

"Nobody is going to tell God what to do and what not to do, but we are in a serious drought in West Texas and since he is the man who controls the rain clouds, we're asking him for his mercy and his help," Mayor David Miller told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.


http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Quirks&article=UPI-1-20060724-18503500-bc-us-prayer.xml

What a waste.

"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong

Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com

Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 07/24/2006 :  21:36:16   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
Even the Romans had enough sense to build aqueducts.

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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pleco
SFN Addict

USA
2998 Posts

Posted - 07/25/2006 :  04:43:04   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit pleco's Homepage Send pleco a Private Message
A group of people should head out there and pray to some other deity (preferably Satan) for rain too. Then when it eventually does rain, they can try to decide who sent the rain.

by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart.
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie

USA
4826 Posts

Posted - 07/25/2006 :  04:52:05   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Valiant Dancer's Homepage Send Valiant Dancer a Private Message
Why does the Hepburn movie "The Rainmaker" leap to mind?


Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils

Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion
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moakley
SFN Regular

USA
1888 Posts

Posted - 07/25/2006 :  09:41:31   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send moakley a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by marfknox

What a waste.

But I'm sure there is a connection. After all the last paragraph clearly states the effectivenes of their previous prayer efforts.
quote:
Officials have tried prayers before and say they were answered. In January 2004, after a year of drought, the city and county set aside a Sunday to pray for rain and got the second-wettest year since records have been kept.


Life is good

Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous
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Chippewa
SFN Regular

USA
1496 Posts

Posted - 07/25/2006 :  10:19:25   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Chippewa's Homepage Send Chippewa a Private Message
"Be careful what you pray for, you just might get it"....(I predict floods.) Then they'll have to pray for a drought.

Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.

"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.)
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Baxter
Skeptic Friend

USA
131 Posts

Posted - 07/25/2006 :  11:03:33   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Baxter a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by pleco

A group of people should head out there and pray to some other deity (preferably Satan) for rain too. Then when it eventually does rain, they can try to decide who sent the rain.



Nah, Satan's not a deity.
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pleco
SFN Addict

USA
2998 Posts

Posted - 07/25/2006 :  12:23:14   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit pleco's Homepage Send pleco a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Baxter

quote:
Originally posted by pleco

A group of people should head out there and pray to some other deity (preferably Satan) for rain too. Then when it eventually does rain, they can try to decide who sent the rain.



Nah, Satan's not a deity.



Actually a definition of deity is:

any supernatural being worshipped as controlling some part of the world or some aspect of life or who is the personification of a force

by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart.
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard

USA
3834 Posts

Posted - 07/25/2006 :  13:30:18   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send beskeptigal a Private Message
Where's Pat Robertson when you need him claiming the drought is God's punishment for lying and cheating by Texas Republicans and for executing innocent people convicted on shabby evidence? We need a counter religious figure to make the pronouncement. How about we just put it out as an Internet rumor?
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pleco
SFN Addict

USA
2998 Posts

Posted - 07/25/2006 :  13:46:55   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit pleco's Homepage Send pleco a Private Message
Funny thing is, no one would believe that, while they would much more willingly accept that a god caused it to rain...

by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart.
Edited by - pleco on 07/25/2006 13:47:17
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Randy
SFN Regular

USA
1990 Posts

Posted - 07/25/2006 :  14:47:13   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Randy a Private Message
A few years ago, Abilene, Texas (widely known as the belt buckle of the bible belt) was going through a significant drought effecting area farmers, the local economy, etc. About everyone there and their dog was calling for a city wide prayer vigil. That went on for weeks and weeks.

Then, of course, one day a great big deluge rain came; maybe a five or six incher that afternoon.
Headlines in the local newpaper shouted something like, "Miracle Rain, Prayers Answered". Yeah, sure thing.

On down the front page, tuck in the corner, was a small two paragraph article stateing the gully washer destroyed the local cotton crop.

Jumpin' jesus, you could wade through the irony.

How sweet it must be, in a airhead sort of way...being a religious zombie -- no need to think or reason. You get to pick or disregard every thing that crosses your path to glorify your great big gaseous space daddy.

"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."

"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson
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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 07/25/2006 :  15:13:31   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message
Still glad I don't live in TX.


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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pleco
SFN Addict

USA
2998 Posts

Posted - 07/25/2006 :  16:49:54   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit pleco's Homepage Send pleco a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Randy
How sweet it must be, in a airhead sort of way...being a religious zombie -- no need to think or reason. You get to pick or disregard every thing that crosses your path to glorify your great big gaseous space daddy.



After Katrina I would hear some people say how blessed we in Mobile, AL were that we didn't get a direct hit. I then would ask why god didn't bless the folks in Mississippi and Louisiana like he did us. I never got an answer to that one, other than the old cop out "god works in mysterious ways."

by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart.
Edited by - pleco on 07/25/2006 16:51:05
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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 07/25/2006 :  17:19:06   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message
I remember as a very little kid in San Diego in the 1950's, I sometimes would perform what I thought of as an "Indian Rain Dance." I would hop around in a circle, whooping and flapping my hand against my mouth for several minutes, then conclude my performance by firing an arrow into the air. (My belated apologies to Native Americans for this ignorant, insensitive travesty. But I was exceedingly proud of my 1/32 Indian blood.)

The very first time I tried this, the arrow came down in precise unison with the first burst of heavy rain. I figured that was some kind of "proof of concept," so I repeated such ceremonies for years, every time I thought the weather was too hot and dry.

Judging from my youthful reaction to my own "miracle," if rain follows soon after the West Texans pray for it, they'll be doing this every year.


Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.
Edited by - HalfMooner on 07/25/2006 17:20:38
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 07/25/2006 :  18:41:31   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
I have a bit of a similar story, HalfMooner. As a kid, I used to think people could "feel" me staring at them. So I would stare at them, at the back of their heads, and would wait to see if they turned around to look behind them. Most of them did after some amount of time, so I took this as positive evidence.

Ironically, I would do this in Church.

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 07/26/2006 :  04:52:17   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Ricky

I have a bit of a similar story, HalfMooner. As a kid, I used to think people could "feel" me staring at them. So I would stare at them, at the back of their heads, and would wait to see if they turned around to look behind them. Most of them did after some amount of time, so I took this as positive evidence.

Ironically, I would do this in Church.

You know, I think we've discovered how religions begin.


Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.
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