Biggest storm ever to make landfall hits the Philippines. (One storm... can't conclude... global warming... yada yada yada... one after one after one after one...)
More than one million people fled in search of safety ahead of category-five super typhoon Haiyan, which caused mudslides, flash flooding and a storm surge with waves of up to 30 feet. One expert said that the storm's winds had the potential to "obliterate poorly constructed homes."
...
"We lost power and all roads are impassable because of fallen trees," he said. "We just have to pray."Why, exactly? Pray, that is. To get god to change his mind? To convince him to rewind and not blow the storm there in the first place? Raise the dead, of which there now appear to be ten thousand or more; or spare a few that he'd had on his kill list but hadn't yet got around to? Keep one hut standing, one old lady alive, trapped for days, so people can call it a miracle, god in his mercy?
If god has plans for us all, and is perfect, knows us before we're born, and none happens but that he wills it, why exactly? Pray, that is. One capricious dude, he must be, prayer works if it does. As Yoda the spiritual would put it.
Me, I think god did it because my state recently approved gay marriage. Kinda bad aim, for sure, off by a few thousand miles; but he has a lot on his mind, what with other states lining up to do the same thing. Besides which, it seems to be a favorite m.o. since biblical times: kill a bunch of innocents to send a message to the guilty. Which is another reason why praying seems a little presumptuous. If you believe in god, you have to believe that this is exactly what he wanted to happen, exactly as it happened.
[Image from linked article]
