“Give your prayers to the people on Willis Island and those on the mainland.
Posted by vanna, Wednesday, 2 February 2011 9:30:09 AM”

There is no-one on Willis Island. The couple of folk doing a stint of duty there have been evacuated; And if they hadn’t been, they would be evacuated by now - one way or another.

As for the mainland - anyone anywhere between Cooktown and Brisbane would have reason to have thoughts of the devil, rather than their personal God, about to confront them; Cairns and Innisfail people especially.

The owners of property built on the sand dunes of the Gold Coast might be giving some prayers to their favourite sea-god when the cyclonic surge rolls in on the southern skirts of Yasi.

If there is a God - of any persuasion - he sure has the ability to get grumpy, even with little children, too.

Yes, and what a good question. Who is responsible for this hell that's coming? ( natural/man-helped...cyclone or gods will )

I cant wait for the religious points of view concerning this one:).....and the AWG anti-its all good.......people that are soooo sure;)

BLUE

colinsett,

It appears that there is a belief that prayer is just for oneself. Prayer can also be for others.

Cyclones are a natural event, and quite important in transfering energy from the equator to lower latitudes. People have to live with them, but anyone who has an arrogant or flippant attitude towards cyclones has obviously never been in one of any size.

They can be teriffying and very dangerous, and prayer can go to those people who are caught in them.

If people facing a cyclone were offered a choice of a church full of believers praying for their deliverance or a platoon of tradesmen able to shore up their shelters, which would they choose?

Then again,after the danger had been survived, the believers would probably claim that it was only their prayers that caused the tradesmen to arrive on time, and, as is often the case with the claims of the faithful, that is a claim that cannot be disproved and so must be true.

Trav, Tuesday, 1 February 2011 9:21:10 PM

I haven’t had time to keep up with this Forum but I think you have Para quoted me or someone else as saying this, ‘Atheists don’t NECESSARILY say that no gods exists’. To which you answered, “Agreed but MOST do” (Your emphasis in both cases)

What I actually said was this, “Atheists do not say a god does not exist just that there is no evidence to suggest one of the 3 or 4,000 purported to have existed does indeed exist.”

Most Atheists do not make a blanket statement that a god does not exist.

Have you a study, which shows that ‘most’ Atheists say in blanket terms that a god does not exist?

And then you added, “It is clear that many atheists consider David’s definition is bunk”

Yes, some might but pedants exist in all fields of endeavour. Maybe you should have a read of a piece by PZ Myers about the definitions of Atheism. It is quite a mirror for the pedants and those stuck in dictionary definitions, to look at themselves in.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/02/why_are_you_an_atheist.php

Enjoy

David

Thanks for an interesting read, David, but it's still only the -rather strident- opinion of one man.
"If I ask you to explain to me why you are an atheist, reciting the dictionary at me, you are saying nothing: asking why you are a person who does not believe in god is not answered when you reply, "Because I am a person who does not believe in god." And if you protest when I say that there is more to the practice of atheism than that, insisting that there isn't just makes you dogmatic and blind."
The last sentence could of course be rewritten:
"And if you protest when I insist that there is more to the practice of atheism than that, saying that there isn't just makes me dogmatic and blind."