Can God make it rain?

So here is a serious question for all my Christian friends.
Do you think that God is responsible for natural disasters?

On the morning of Nov 1 1775, a series of 3 earthquakes devastated the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. The earthquakes caused fires, clouds of dust and smoke to cover the entire city. The few who did survivors managed to escaped to the edge of the city and to the water front. Than an hour later, the waters rose and a tsunami who's effects were felt on the other side of the earth swallowed and destroyed the rest of the roman catholic city.

That day marked the deadliest earthquake of all time.
That day also happened to be All Saints day.

This sent shock waves across Europe. Theologians believing it was intentional, struggle to justify this act of God as it was viewed upon as a manifestation of anger. Widespread fear and terror among the general population of Europe ensued as they tried to understand what the Lisbon's inhabitants had done to merit this.

But not everyone was fooled, famous thinkers of the time like Voltaire felt differently. In fact, it was this situation and thinking that was directly responsible for the invention of the seismograph and sparked the European age of enlightenment.

Than in 2004, only hours after Jesus' birthday, one of the deadliest tsunami ever recorded took place in the Indian Ocean. Over 280,000 people were killed, millions more were displaced.

Soon after, protesters hit the streets with signs. The ever so sensitive fundamentalists claimed this was the work of God. He was apparently angry with the gay rights movement that was gaining momentum.

When the 2010 earthquake leveled Haiti, I listened closely to find out how the zealous would spin this for political leverage. It didn't take long for the proverbial phone to ring.

Televangelist Pat Robertson, host of the 700 club decided to jump on his soapbox and offer the following.



He said "Haitians need to have a great turning to god. They were under the heel of the French, you know Napoleon the third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said 'We will serve you if you will get us free from the prince. True story."

What he is referring to is the early 19th century. Haiti's people were slaves, for over 300 years. They decided enough was enough and fought back to free themselves. So according to Pat, it was Satan who freed the Haiti people and future generations from slavery. And this freedom, apparently made his God angry.

He goes on to say "Ever since they have been cursed by one thing after another."

But Pat forgets to mention that it was the defeat of Napoleon that allowed Thomas Jefferson to negotiate and sign the Louisiana purchase. The Louisiana purchase doubled the United States.

So are these people right, does god cause devastating natural disasters?
According to a poll on believe.net 50% of Christians agree with him and
they cite the new and old testament as proof.

The Deluge, one of the biggest natural disaster in the bible was the work of god.
He claims to take credit for human suffering so that his great works can be demonstrated. Controlling the rain, lightning, thunder, snow, whirlwind, cold, frost, flood, clouds "that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth. He causeth it to come, whether for correction, ... or for mercy, he controls every detail, even the fall of a sparrow.""

God seems to be in complete control. He can cause disasters or he can prevent it.
He promises the faithful that such disasters and evil will not befall them.
He implies that he has the power to prevent such things and stated that only the faithful are protected against flood and fire. Against evil and harm, he is their only shield and safety.

Apparently this promise did not apply to Job though. The faithful believer that God handed to the devil to torture, kill his livestock, burn his land. This was a result of a bet between God and the Devil.

The Bible goes on to claim that God punishes sinners while on earth, than hands them over to Satan after death. (Good cop / bad cop?)

Than last but not least,

In the old testament God says he is the creator of ALL good and ALL evil.
And SPECIFICALLY takes responsibility for earthquakes, citing that he expresses his angry this way.

So there you have it folks, God came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and he's almost out of bubblegum.

D.A.R.E

New age of commercials

I was watching Sesame Street while vacationing in Key Largo yesterday. I was shocked to see the muppets do a 15 minute skit on a product called the Ipogo. The skit was filled with convincing shots of a phone that the main character fumbled with. Closeups that left the wifi, time and battery indicator symbols on the phone completely identifiable, which all had a striking resemblance to the Iphone's symbols and placements. Than the sock puppets broke out in song. "There's an app for that" they exclaimed over and over as they danced around the set.

I am not convinced this is simply satire. Companies rely on subliminal (or not so subliminal) advertising to sell there product. And it is nothing new. You can trace it back to the 1920's.

But now with the ever changing world around us and the introduction of the internet, this is become more and more relevant. Online programing like Hulu and Netflix are making commercials obsolete, forcing marketers to become more creative and innovative to get there product seen.

Movies could easily gross more in selling advertising space than at the box office. Screenplays being built around advertising could be the norm. Plots ruined as they cut to irrelevant situations to plug.
Scripts will soon be written for the sole purpose of product placement.