Could Prayer Cause Catastrophe?

[Revan]

After a post on Open Salon I've made a rather interesting "discovery". Something I've found quite interesting is, has anyone noticed how in the USA, the Southern States that are of course known for high rates of prayer (in other words, a LOT of churches, namely of the "Bible Thumpers") are also extremely high for rates of tornadoes and other catastrophes?
Here's an example in the form of highest amounts of tornadoes.
On the left is an image of what is generally known as the "Bible Belt", on the right is an image of Tornado Activity between 1950-1998 of F3-F5 tornadoes. The darkest red is obviously the highest amount of tornadoes.


See how they practically line up to one another? Quite interesting? Also please note that the image of the Bible Belt is also known as Dixie Alley NOT Tornado Alley when it comes to tornadoes and is best known for violent, longspan tornadoes.

Then you've also got things like Hurricane Katrina that hit the Mississippi, and other things. Yet oddly enough, California? Nevada (Las Vegas for example)? Barely anything hits them half the time.

So....what do you think?

[theJosephDean]

I'll spare my comments for the sake of not adding fuel to a religious debate, but I will say that as an atheist, this made me giggle HARD. ^_^

[NickT]

I'm an atheist, and this also makes me giggle hard, but air does not form allegiances. >>;

[Edit] Oh, and CA's like one giant fault line >>; [/Edit]

[Nomad187]

lmfao this made me giggle too. and I am an athiest too. this proves epic fail for religion

[xCrazyInsanity]

Gotta wonder why them religious folk congregate in dangerous places.

[Steve712]

I giggled too. :P

Anyhow ...

That's a testable hypothesis ... let's look at other regions of the world which are known for a large population of devout religious people. For example, let us look at Central and Northern Alberta.

Do tornadoes occur there? Occasionally, although not often; when I lived there there was a damange-causing tornado in the province every few years or so. The most severe thing which happened regularly were thunderstorms, which are, in any case, common in parts of the prairies which are not reputed for having a large devoutly religious population.

How about Ireland? They had an entire civil war whose foundation was very religious and they recently passed an anti-blasphemy law. Their weather is almost never severe, although I have heard that it is often cloudy.

There you are; hypothesis debunked.

Love the idea. xD Made me smile. Good work.

[theJosephDean]

Originally Posted by Steve712

I giggled too. :P

Anyhow ...

That's a testable hypothesis ... let's look at other regions of the world which are known for a large population of devout religious people. For example, let us look at Central and Northern Alberta.

Do tornadoes occur there? Occasionally, although not often; when I lived there there was a damange-causing tornado in the province every few years or so. The most severe thing which happened regularly were thunderstorms, which are, in any case, common in parts of the prairies which are not reputed for having a large devoutly religious population.

How about Ireland? They had an entire civil war whose foundation was very religious and they recently passed an anti-blasphemy law. Their weather is almost never severe, although I have heard that it is often cloudy.

There you are; hypothesis debunked.

You could have also just said that by saying that believing in God magically results in horrendous weather, then atheism can't hold true

[Steve712]

Originally Posted by theJosephDean

You could have also just said that by saying that believing in God magically results in horrendous weather, then atheism can't hold true

Hell, it's not just that; meteorology wouldn't be able to hold true if that was the case.

[D_Alejandro]

Not to rain on everyone's parade, but there is no logic to this. At all. You don't see Vatican City and a lot of European religious hot spots pelted by natural disasters, do you? I'm NOT religious, but this is just silly....

[xCrazyInsanity]

That's the point?

[IsItSo]

Originally Posted by Revan

Yet oddly enough, California? Nevada (Las Vegas for example)? Barely anything hits them half the time.

For one thing, California and Nevada have enormous fundie populations - they're just not part of the traditional "Bible Belt." Also, haven't you ever heard of wildfires?

[Shevanel]

[Phoenix]

Excellent case of "correlation does not imply causation."

[Revan]

Originally Posted by Steve712

I giggled too. :P

Anyhow ...

That's a testable hypothesis ... let's look at other regions of the world which are known for a large population of devout religious people. For example, let us look at Central and Northern Alberta.

Do tornadoes occur there? Occasionally, although not often; when I lived there there was a damange-causing tornado in the province every few years or so. The most severe thing which happened regularly were thunderstorms, which are, in any case, common in parts of the prairies which are not reputed for having a large devoutly religious population.

How about Ireland? They had an entire civil war whose foundation was very religious and they recently passed an anti-blasphemy law. Their weather is almost never severe, although I have heard that it is often cloudy.

There you are; hypothesis debunked.

Oh my dear friend...dear dear friend. Did I say simply weather? No I said catastrophe, and it's in your attempt to debunk my hypothesis. There was an entire civil war whose foundation was very religious. Civil War = catastrophe or at least suckiness. I'm just saying, religion often more times than not = problems. Whether war, or just ill-begotten fate that God decides to give them tornadoes, hurricanes, wars, earthquakes, etc. And yes I do realize I just said God, but that's quite simple, because I believe in God but do not follow a religion nor do I pray. I simply believe there's a God or higher being and leave it at that

Oh and btw, Alberta is the second highest on this scale for tornadoes.

[Meropspusillus]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

Excellent case of "correlation does not imply causation."

Exactly. This is just completely ridiculous. I was going to make some sort of longer argument, but this doesn't really merit it.

[Totoro]

Pure coincidence, though i do find it funny =\

[Revan]

Originally Posted by Felismargarita

Exactly. This is just completely ridiculous. I was going to make some sort of longer argument, but this doesn't really merit it.

-_- You're silly. IT's called a joke topic for heaven's sake >_>

[Hoppip]

It's a lie from the conversative media that cool air currents mix with hot to form tornadoes... Obviously what we got here FELLAS is an influx of prayers smackin' into downward beams of God's grace.

*spits*

[Emberstone]

I have been saying this for years.

At the same time that they get the higest concentration of violent storms in america, their fundementalist cult preachers like pat robsertson, popoff, falwell, and oral roberts (teehee, oral) constantly claim that natural disasters are gods way to punish the wicked.

maybe if these so called prophets would realize that in america, god is concentrating all of his punishments for people who believe a corrupt, greed based mockery of chrisanity, then maybe they would learn to sit down, shut up, and beg for firgiveness for all the child molesting, embezzellment, and outright ignorant hatred that comes out of fundementalist chrisanity.