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 A church sign from Sunday in a town on Long Island, New York.
October 30th, 2012
04:54 PM ET
Online conversations around Sandy feature God, prayer and atheismBy Conor Finnegan, CNN (CNN) - As millions of Americans begin to clean up from Superstorm Sandy, many will turn to insurance companies to cover damages caused by an “act of God.” It’s legalese for natural disasters. Some of the online conversation around Sandy have treated it as such an act, with the term “prayer” trending on Facebook on Monday, as the nation awaited the storm’s landfall. We noticed four themes emerging that touch on God and religion on Facebook, Twitter and in CNN.com’s comments sections: 1. God bless: It was a message expressed by well-wishers around the world. Those spared by Sandy took to social media to show their support and sympathy as the images proliferated of New York’s flooded streets and New Jersey’s eroded beaches. Despite different faiths and nationalities, the upshot was the same: Our prayers are with you. From Facebook:
From Twitter:
2. Thank God: For those caught in Sandy’s path, the conversation was different. More than 7.5 million in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast were without power on Tuesday. Those who could post online expressed gratitude, with “thankful” the 8th most shared term on Facebook by Tuesday morning. And from Twitter:
3. God’s wrath: A small minority saw Sandy as God’s judgment. This Tweet is from a leader of Westboro Baptist Church, the Kansas congregation known for its anti-gay pickets at military funerals:
We found these on Facebook:
4. God does not exist: Some used Sandy to question religion or at least the idea of blaming the storm on God, employing science, humor and venom. A back and forth between believers and nonbelievers sparked a tense conversation in the comments section on CNN.com. From Facebook:
From Twitter:
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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In 1996, the Smithsonian Institute issued a statement addressing claims made in the Book of Mormon, stating that the text is primarily a religious text and that archeologists affiliated with the institute found "no direct connection between the archeology of the New World and the subject matter of the book". The statement further describes that there is genetic evidence that the Native American Indians are closely related to peoples of Asia, and that archeological evidence indicates that the Native Americans migrated from Asia over a land bridge over the Bering Strait in prehistoric times. The statement said that there was no credible evidence of contact between Ancient Egyptian or Hebrew peoples and the New World, as indicated by the text of the Book of Mormon. The statement was issued in response to reports that the name of the Smithsonian Institute was being improperly used to lend credibility to the claims of those looking to support the events of the Book of Mormon.
The National Geographic Society, in a 1988 letter to the Institute for Religious Research, stated "Archaeologists and other scholars have long probed the hemisphere's past and the society does not know of anything found so far that has substantiated the Book of Mormon."
Of course there are other basic beliefs of Mormonism that have only faith as their foundation.
And you know what? Some of Mormonism is supposedly based on Christianity – which is unfounded as well and based on really old fables. That's a lot of folklore for anyone to take seriously.
Why would I worship a god that causes terrible events like Sandy? What a jerk.
Humans worship what they fear.
Relativity is Maxwell's Equations with Time taken independant of Space, thereby eliminating the basis of the big bang notional hypothesis.
How so, JPT – i'm not buying the bullshit.
@live4him. You wrote atheist ignore facts. The truth is we ignore the facts that people like you make up in their heads.
Living 4 is a sham. He's a troll who's posted here on numerous occasions. He's not worth the time.
So, where did the singularity come from?
Tom-Pot Kettle
The jersey shore has become what it was – a piping plover sanctuary. I'm sorry people – the Jersey Shore is a barrier Island...taking over by mallrats
Poor Johnny Tard.
@Live4Him – I could make the same argument of, where did the thing that created singularity come from? From your perspective it would be, where did the thing that created the god that created singularity come from? It's a never ending argument
You can no more convince a bible-addicted moron of the fallacy of their belief system than you can convince a heroin addict to stop using. Logic and reason are wasted on them - their svengalis innoculate them against logic and reason as part of their indoctrination, just as with any cult. They blindly follow a right-wing which uses them as shills, bilssfully ignorant of the fact that the men pulling the strings are atheists, for example Karl Rove, Ayn Rand and the Koch Brothers.
You and reality don't seem to be on familiar terms. Perhaps a little research first, honorable conclusiuon second, comment last.
Start with Evidence That Demands A Verdict (if you have the guts).
Well said, Patrick. Well said.
You can no more convince an atheist to stop being such a d*ck than you can a tiger to stop eating meat. It's all they know how to do.
@laodegan I bet you'd like to suc god's d*ck...... seeing as you like to use that word so much.
Why do churches have lightning rods? Just sayin'
For ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Even those in church.
If there was a Big Bang, there was a singularity. If there was a singularity, there was a force that created that singularity. This force could not have a beginning without violating the fallacy of ad infinitum (i.e. goes on to infinity).
Turtles all the way down?
All you've done is show that there's a mystery, but we already knew that. That we don't know an answer does not prove any god or not.
Says who? You? You have no idea what may or may not have created the force that initiated the big bang. You choose to shrug your scrawny little shoulders and say, "Oh, well, I'm just too stupid to study more about it. So, I say that goddidit."
I don't choose to resort to such easy, lazy-azz answers. I am fine with not knowing every answer. In fact, I'm far more comfortable not knowing than waving my hankie and saying, "La di day, nobody knows so it must have been GOD."
Which is precisely what you're doing, ya dink.
And you know this to be a fact? Or are you just trying to rationalize your irrational belief in an invisible man in the sky?
But we certainly know the God of Abraham was a hoax. That's pretty obvious.
@Moby: Scientist agree that the origins of the singularity are beyond natural explanation. i.e. supernatural. Thus, this is strong evidence for a god.
No, they don't. Why do you lie?
@Tom: Please reread my post. Did you see the logic fallacy that I mentioned?
Do you have a list of scientistS that you can cite? You do know that it's not sufficient to cite just one. I assume from your post that you MEANT TO say "scientists" rather than "scientist", but who can tell when the matter concerns lying sacks like you?
Again, just because we don't know an answer does not mean that "goddidit." That's stupid. That'd be like somebody saying that since we don't know how gravity works it must be due to invisble unicorn poop.
@Tom: You're a funny one! You claim to understand science, and yet you don't understand the singularity. All natural forces (i.e. matter, energy and time) break down. Isn't it interesting that the Bible starts off with the creation of these three elements?
Nobody's claiming there wasn't a cause, dumbazz. You're the one assuming the cause was some supernatural sky-daddy, dear. Where's your proof?
So what? You think that's evidence of some invisible god? Why? Do you so lack imagination that you have to invent some jolly white giant?
@Moby: I agree. However, just because we don't know the answer means we MUST include the possibility that there is a god that created it – if we are to remain objective.
@Tom: At this point in my argument, I'm NOT claiming that the cause is God – but only that the possibility that God did it must be evaluated. You seem to want to rule it out, even while claiming to be scientific (i.e. following the evidence).
Then it's a draw, dumbazz. You have no proof there's a god. None. I can't show proof there isn't one.
The trouble is, dear, that the burden of proof is on you, since you're the one claiming existence.
Hey, guess what? There are tiny little particles that pop into and out of existence all the time. When the Universe first came into being it was really really small just like those particles. There is nothing in the laws of physics that prevent the Universe from just popping into existence and then expanding.
"You seem" You lying sack of sh!t. You attempt to pretend I stated something I did not.
You deserve every epithet in the book, you dishonest piece of crap.
@Spencer7171: You're referencing the String Theory (i.e. M-Theory or one of the similar alternatives). However, this is a theory without supporting evidence. The scientists are still looking for the evidence.
Live4him is correct. There must be a first cause. this is agreed upon by philosophers and most scientist. Now, there may be a disagreement on the hypothesis of 'what' the first cause was, but there must have been an agent that trancended the cosmos and is what caused it to exist. This is referred to as the 'transcedent causal agent'. This does not prove it is the God of the bible, but this is exactly how Moses and other biblical authors described Him without any scientific information. Truth, or merely a good guess? That's what we each have to decide for ourselves. You science minded people make fun of our faith, and that's ok, but you have a faith as well. You deny that God did it and then make a statement of faith by saying "we don't know what caused it, but we have 'faith' that science will one day figure it out.
If you can't be honest, you're not worth my time. I never said there was no possibility of a god, you lying pos. I said there is no evidence of one. You have yet to prove me wrong. So instead of admitting that you have nothing in the way of evidence, you attempt to mischaracterize my stance. Why am I not surprised? Fundies like you can't tell the truth. No wonder so many people are disillusioned about organized religion. Thanks for proving my susp icions.
Sure, god is a possibility, but not the only one which is what your post claims.
Fyck off, Johnny one-note.
ad infinitum is not violated by your premise. If a force compresses energy to a singularity, then the force stops when the singularity expands (Big Bang – you said so yourself) The force is not infinite here. It has a beginning and an end. The question you are trying to resolve is,will the force return to re-compress to a singularity. That is a cyclical force, not infinity. Does the cycle happen infinite times, not likely as changes may occur upon every new cycle. The force could change in nature. Notice the "maybe"s and "could"s on my part: neither me nor you know the answer.
Steve, no scientists "have faith" that science will figure it out. They might hope or even believe that, but they don't have faith in that. It's called mystery and it's a good thing. God believers just shift the mystery of the first cause onto an agent that can be described by some myth or other but doesn't have any proof at all. If that's your thing, then go for it, but don't mischaracterize the other side's position.
Live4Him, To claim that because we haven't yet discovered exactly what created the universe leaves 'god' as a possibility would require that we also open up unicorns, fairies, santa clause, or dirt as possibilities. Totally nonsensical, wishful thinking. Embrace Humanism and work to be a decent human being just because it's the right thing to do.
Just an FYI....
The world of Islam went from being the intellectual center of the world in science and discovery during its "Age of Enlightenment," the 300-year period from 800 AD through 1100 AD to where it is today, when the Middle East has given us nearly no Nobel Prize winners and is full of strife and poverty. Why? Because they turned away from scientific exploration and embraced religion. Why would they give up the wonders they had developed? Because idiot religious leaders like Imam Hamid al-Ghazali declared that "mathematics is the work of the devil." These people invented math, but the idiotic religious meme of anti-intellectualism destroyed their Age of Enlightenment and helped collapse their entire civilization to make it what it is today, basically useless.
Let people believe that storms like this are gods will. They will never change their mind, only time and education is going to do that. Me, I prefer to think of this as an unfortunate event that can easily be scientifically explained and probably has a lot to do with global warming rather than brought on by a loving and caring god.
You are correct. It is useless to reason with them. Just tell them flat out they are wrong. End of story. Why waste time.
Of course, we will know when we die.
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
Amazing how we can have so much scientific "proof", that the world was created from nothing. Not to get theoretical, but if matter is neither created nor destroyed, than how can we exist without some overall Creator. Additionally, as science has shown in the past, the Earth has been cooling and heating in patterns for years, and yes, even before mankind played a role. While mankind does have an influence on the Earth, we cannot prevent the Earth from its normal patters and cycles that have been active for millions of years – that said, it is in the hands of God
Perspective B, wrote, "Let people believe that storms like this are gods will"
How quaint is your perspective? Heard that many times I did. As such ambiguations go, grass will always seem greener on one's other sides or they will be gloomiest just before the day's dawning. I do not allow myself to be set as being lowly indicative in my emtional stance but I try to see God in His allround emotionalism. God's laughter cannot be found in Scriptures yet only dreamt of. God is only found whole in one's own version, Our talking about God should not be scripturally held down! Neither should we undelightedly be scorned or scorning. God is no saint! Never was! Might never want be!
Lettuce Love
Let Us Love,
G.O.D.
For all of the praying that goes on, especially on social media these days, why does this stuff still happen? You cannot pray away a hurricane. You can pray away death and destruction. You cannot pray away anything. The earth has been around for a very long time, and I'm betting that since there have been oceans, there have been hurricanes. People just live in areas that are affected by hurricanes. In this case, a very densely populated area was hit by an unusual hurricane. Just like with Katrina, it wasn't the severity of the storm, it was where people chose to live that made a difference. I think we as humans need to develop real coping skills rather than relying on prayer to solve our problems. As inhibitors of this volatile planet, we should expect the unexpected, that's just part of life.
We live; we die. Why? What is the meaning of life? To watch tv/movies?
Life is pretty amazing; it hardly seems random.
Love, laughter, friends, beauty, children, the perfection of the earth, the perfection of the human body (DNA?).
There is good; there is evil. It's not imaginary.
I think we should be more inhabitors and less inhibitors, you know
Until anyone offers the world empirical evidence for their deity, no rational, skeptical thinker will ever be required to take them any more seriously than the boy who just saw Santa up on his chimney.
Atheist would just pretend that evidence doesn't exist.
No pretense needed. Prove there's any evidence. Then we'll talk. Oh, and attempt to figure out how to pluralize a noun, witless.
I do not really expect someone to believe me, a preacher, or the Bible itself on it's own authority. However, when one hears the truth , there is a subtle spiritual phenomenon called an inward witness that accompanies it. That is the third Person of the Trinity, the One who wrote the Bible trying to convince you of it's validity. People submit to that "voice" or they don't for whatever reason. But they are held accountable for their response.
and all this time i thought god promised never to flood the world again after the noah debacle.
He had his fingers crossed.
Yep. The entire world hasn't flooded since.
The story of Elijah demonstrates God's use of weather to torment people after the flood.
Hail Satan! True enlightenment through your lusty ambitions!
Some encouragement to the Christians on here.
"For the foolishness of God is wiser than men. God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. " 1 Corinthians 1
The Bible told us that the gospel would be lost on the "wise" of the world. But "claiming to be wise they became fools." Romans 1:22
Caleb, that's really clutching at straws and an insult to people who take the trouble to think things through. Then again, Christianity is all about not thinking, so not really surprising.
so being willfully ignorant is the preferred state of being? that really doesn't show the devout in a good light does it...
Brilliant. Don't listen to smart people. Listen to your book of lies.
its not clutching at straws at all. It is an encouragement to Christians to continue in the faith. For us who believe the Bible it makes sense but I understand that you have little regard for the Bible and understand that you don't regard my statement highly. It is not meant as an insult but a reminder to Christians that the gospel is foolish to those who don't believe it
I agree with Caleb. I find it interesting that the more access we have to the gifts Gid has given us to create unimaginable things and to solve problems thought before to be unsolvable....instead of using these new resources, technologies and wonders to help others and to do His work, we become more isolated, more arrogant, and more distant from our Creator. In the face of the unexplainable and the uncontrollable is a wondrous God who loves each of us and will freely offer His mercy and goodness at the end of our very short existence here. Its very difficult to remain steadfast and faithful in the eye of any storm (whether natural or man-made), but remember broad is the road and wide is the gate that leads to eternal destruction. Narrow is the road and small is the gate that leads to eternal happiness. Work to stay close to God here and He will be your eternal reward in Heaven.
There shouldn't be any talk about God, prayer and atheism here. People are free to do what they want. And they should be. Why are we dragging an unnecessary logic here with Sandy. Whoever believe in god, then them believe in it. Who ever prays, let them pray. Whoever doesn't believe in god, let them not believe in god. Why we have to make an issue about everything?
Why do we even start such a discussion? People are free to believe in whatever they want. Then why we question everything? Why you want to know if it is right or wrong? People do and act in the way they wish and believe. What's wrong with believing in God? What's wrong in praying for the ones who are suffering? What's wrong in being a non-believer and trying to do something. There is nothing wrong about anything. People are different and they act different. Why we have to label "Right" or "Wrong"?
Prayer is a kind of hope. Prayer is a wish. There is nothing wrong about it. People who say that Sandy is God's wrath are wrong. It is not. And I know majority of the believers concur with this. Stop this irrelevant fight and let's hope for the safety of everyone on east coast.
Peace.
Ignorance is dangerous.
It's not all good. Condoning irrationality is dangerous and damaging to the society.
Great point, blogo.
Kafir, Blogo... Couldn't have said it better myself.
Religious people are insane, infected with a mental virus which they pass on to their offspring.
Called "meme" as coined by Richard Dawkins.
Religion is the cure for normal human psycosis.
Amen!
Religion is a form of psychosis, Toover.
Thank you Steve for stating the fact. Too many of the young people in our country are blinded by the b.s. their ignorant parents pass onto them.
are we born a certain religion or are we taught to be certain religion?
Prizewise is a proud supporter of the American Red Cross, a portion of all of our proceeds will go to Hurricane Sandy relief. You can win a gift card or other prize for your support of Prizewise here: https://prizewise.com/social-media. A portion of proceeds from any purchase directed through the Prizewise site will help the American Red Cross efforts in Hurricane Sandy.
Seriously? This is an article? *facepalm*
Let believers be believes and non-believers be non-believers. All that matters now, is that people stuck in the storm get the help they need.
Southern Baptists do most of the food aid in these disasters. Obama says be cool and take care of yourself, 'cause we are not helping.
John, source for your claim?
@Toothless Tarver – Of course Southern Biapgots are taking care of their own when it happens in the Babble Belt. I don't see them running around the country. And get real with your Obama slam. Care to show a direct quote like that? Yeah, I didn't think so.
Sars-Google Sothern Baptists feed hurrican victims and see the Red Cross press release; please in the future do your own research, I am not here to be your secretary.
God created this world just by speaking, so controlling nature is not a problem for him
Work is overrated.
Yes I believe he said "abracadabra"
No wait is was "open sesame"
No the universe was sneezed into existence by the Great Green Arkleseizure.
Why would he punish so many innocent people? Get a life and burn your book. Believe in people not fairy tales.
The word delusional is getting way over used here. Group think is hard at work here.
"delusional insanity"
Why is a god a dog when spelled backwards?
Dog is Man's closest genome relative.
Both god and dog are man's best friends!
Dogs have done far more good for man than god ever has. God doesn't exist.
Actually, chimps are man's closest genetic relevant, but it doesn't change the accuracy of your assertion that "faith" is simply the act of believing what you're told without making even the most tiny attempt to verify it for yourself.