The Power of Prayer--Spring Edition

Spring is Here

Here in America's Heartland it is tornado season, that lovely time of year when the grass starts to grow, the leaves start to appear on the trees, and tornadoes start falling from the skies.  These "acts of God" will inevitably lead to property damage, injury, death, and the praising of the great sky fairy.

After every natural or man-made disaster here in the US we hear at least one person on the news talking about how their god saved them from the disaster.  The statement usually goes something like:

 

We were huddled together in our bomb shelter praying to Jeebus and he spared us.  God saved us from the evil tornado or we wouldn't be standing here today.

 

There are so many things wrong with statements like this.

 

• People who make such statements always praise God for sparing them from the tornado that their god sent, yet don't blame him for taking all of their stuff away and destroying their house?
• God showed his mercy by sparing them, so does he also show his sadism when he injures and kills children with the same storm?
• Since God shows his love by saving them, does this mean he hated their friends and neighbors whom he didn't save?
• If God spares a person but destroys a church doesn't this mean he hated the church?

When someone survives a disaster it merely means that he or she was in the right place at the right time.  When that same person is later killed by something else are we to believe that their god didn't like them anymore?

During tornado season I will rely on science to warn me, and on construction and common sense to help me survive if I am in the path of one of these things.  The people who think prayer will help them are more than welcome to film themselves standing in the path of the storm praying.  They can then use the video of the storm side-stepping them to make me believe.

Disagree?  Why?  Prove it?