Thy Will Be Done ... well duh.

I read a story about a priest in Joplin who lived through the May 24th, killer tornado there. Naturally, he prayed, since that's the only tool he's got in his box, and he thinks that this is what saved him. His prayer, according to his hero in the mirror version of the story, was to constantly repeat the phrase "thy will be done" as he took cover in the bathtub. Well duh, if there is an all-powerful god then he doesn't need this priest's permission to do what he is going to do anyway. Therefore to pray to god telling him to do what he is already doing right now, and presumably planned to do is beyond ridiculous.

Now I know some people will say, "you missed the point". This guy humbly resigned himself to his fate and that's what God wants us to do. Well it hardly matters whether people resign or not. God could kill people who resigned themselves or spare them, just as he can kill or spare people who do not resign themselves. If it is your fate then it is going to happen and there is really no resigning to even do because it would still happen, even if you protest that you don't want it to.

Besides, I can't be the only one who suspects that this priest is trying to compare himself to Jesus in the Gethsemane. Recall that he also resigns himself to be crucified (which was the whole point of him coming to Earth, according to Christian doctrine). Do you still think the priest was being oh so humble by comparing himself favorably to Jesus?

Joplin Tornado called "The Beast" after book of Revelation?

In keeping with the doomsday theme over the past couple days, apparently there was a major tornado in Joplin, MO, and apparently it is being called "The Beast", which sounds like a reference to the Book of Revelation. If that were true, however, one would expect it to kill either 666 or 616 people, depending upon the variant translations which give those number. Most people are not aware that the oldest versions of this rather questionable book of the bible quote a figure of 616.

More interesting is that, according to news stories, plenty of people in Joplin think that God and prayer saved them. The same God who sent the tornado and killed others who were likely devout and busy mumbling the same scared prayers into their hands, decided that certain people were more worthy to save than others.

In any event, if this tornado was the long awaited "Beast" of the Book of Revelation, then it is certainly underwhelming. The Beast was supposed to kill way more people than that, and not just in a modest size down.

In any event my sympathies do go out to the people of Joplin. Nobody deserves such senseless tragedy. If there were an all-good, all-powerful god pulling the strings, then such things would most assuredly never happen. The fact that they do tells us that humans will have to learn to help our fellow man to cope and recover as best we can. That doesn't require belonging to any particular religion. None of them have a monopoly on compassion. Humanism is arguably a better approach, because it is a secular philosophy that doesn't waste time with imaginary dieties and prayers to supernatural forces. Instead it dispenses with the prayers, rolls up its sleeves, and gets to work.

Thanks to the secular miracles of science and modern technology, we have radars, and other forecasting systems which can help us reduce the dangers of these kinds of storms, and then more quickly and effectively respond in the aftermath.