@Randem

What the hell is wrong with people? Seriously. This is just another example of why religion is bad:

The half-dozen activists — Twyman, a former Miss Washington DC, the owner of a small construction company and two volunteers at a local soup kitchen — joined hands, bowed their heads and intoned a heartfelt prayer.

“Lord, come down in a mighty way and strengthen us so that we can bring down these high gas prices,” Twyman said to a chorus of “amens”.

“Prayer is the answer to every problem in life… We call on God to intervene in the lives of the selfish, greedy people who are keeping these prices high,” Twyman said on the gas station forecourt in a neighborhood of Washington that, like many of its residents, has seen better days.

“Lord, the prices at this pump have gone up since last week. We know that you are able, that you have all the power in the world,” he prayed, before former beauty queen Rashida Jolley led the group in a modified version of the spiritual, “We Shall Overcome”.

“We’ll have lower gas prices, we’ll have lower gas prices…” they sang.

Look, I’m going to be really fair and objective here. I am an atheist, but what if I’m wrong? Let’s assume that the god everyone is praying to is actually real, and not just some imaginary friend with a big beard who lives in the sky somewhere.

Well, doesn’t he have a master plan? Hasn’t he already decided what is best for his people? And shouldn’t we interpret that to mean that “God” feels like the increased price of gasoline is the only thing that will make people stop using it?

But, for sake of argument, I’m going to be even more gracious. Let’s assume that his worshipfulness can actually be swayed from a universal master plan by nothing more than the pleadings of a few people on this planet. It’s egotistical to think, I know, but let’s run with it…

Well, if that is indeed the case, and if “God” is willing to let a few people (out of the 7 billion on this earth) change his mind about the master plan, then how do we know that there aren’t an equal or greater number of people elsewhere who are praying for increased gas prices? Maybe some oil execs praying for a good financial report at the shareholders meeting. Maybe some arab nations whose entire economy rests on the revenue from their petroleum industry.

How do we know there’s not some world-wide competition underway, right now, between the red team (those who want higher prices) and the blue team (those who want lower prices)? I mean, if you’re going to suspend your disbelief enough to buy into an almighty invisible man with a master plan who feels his own will is less important than the will of some egotistical members of his cosmic science project… well… it’s really not much of a stretch to add the prayer-off competition to that enormous ball of bullshit.

Okay, now how about if we inject some reality? What if these people, instead of wasting their time talking to an invisible man, put the same amount of organization and energy into writing car companies and asking for solar-powered vehicles?

Tags: gas, gas prices, prayer, religion

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 7:55 am and is filed under religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.