One has to wonder how many of them are already packed up and ready to evacuate.

"Trust in God, but hedge your bets."

An email I just sent out....

To: [email protected]

 5And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

 6But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

 7But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

 8Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

Because of your ignorance of your own religion, and your inability to practice as your own bible lays out, I challenge you to prove you actually believe the nonsense you push onto society.  Please send me a video tape of you on the beach with whatever true believers you can round up.  Stand in a line that ensures the eye wall will hit you, and make the winds dissipate so as to protect us from the wrath that your god conceived and allowed.

http://www.rationalresponders.com/ike

Here's hoping they really stand out on the beach when it hits. Make a great Darwin Award.

Wonder how the TV crew knew to be there as they began a-prayin' ? Smells like publicity stunt to me.

Interesting side note:

The pastor of this church officiated at Jenna Bush's wedding but is pro-Obama...

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/26/pastor_who_officiated_at_jenna.html

All they need is Palin .... her and yahweh have a love thing ....

Two things...

1.  Josephine was the next named storm behind Ike, however a few days ago it had become a non factor and had dissipated.  Today however, after the churchgoers have prayed for Ike to dissipate, Josephine has resurfaced.  We saw the first report about the resurfacing of Josephine, 2 hours after we saw the prayers to make Ike dissipate.  We were joking here in the RRS house that maybe God needs people to go into their closet and pray versus praying in public because he has a hard time focusing when the sounds of the city are around.  God thought the prayers were to bring back the storm that dissipated, not to make Ike dissipate.  And for the record, Ike's max sustained winds were about 100 when the prayers were offered, let's keep tabs on how well they worked out. 

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/local/ike_forecast_to_hit_galveston_at_category_3_strength_09-11-2008.html

"The disorganized mass, the remnants of Tropical Storm Josephine, was moving northwest and conditions were "marginally conducive for additional development of the system."  That's where Ike was a week and a half ago," Griffin said. "Computer models bring it to South Florida in about five days."

2. Meet 1969 Darwin Award Nominee....

     (August 1969) On Autust 15, 1969, Hurricane Camille claimed 143 victims along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.. Most were guilty only of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, unlike twenty who perished while attending a beachfront "Hurricane Party."

Despite evacuation warnings delivered by earnest emergency teams, their festivities continued unabated. The party-goers defiantly declared that the concrete foundation and the second-floor location of their party provided plenty of protection from the impending hurricaine.

Their confidence proved to be tragically misplaced when a 24 foot wave slammed into the apartment, destroying the building and subjecting the partiers to gale-force winds and violent ocean surges.

Most of these Hurricane worshippers were killed. A few survivors were swept miles away, cheated of a Darwin Award by the capricious hand of fate.

http://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin1993-07.html

_______________

P.S. If the praying committee has interest in doing something worthwhile, consider using Church dollars to help get citizens out of coastal areas due to be hit (or maybe pay for their hotel rooms), volunteer some time with the Red Cross, fill a sandbag, or go buy a video camera to film your beach scene somewhere near Galveston!  Since we last left you...

A HURRICANE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM MORGAN CITY LOUISIANA TO BAFFIN BAY TEXAS. HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE RUSHED TO COMPLETION.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT4+shtml/120241.shtml

Wait, I thought Christians liked hurricanes?

Guess they may not be true believers as Ike has increased to 105 MPH as of 9 AM EDT on Friday 9-12. They still expect strengthening to a Cat 3.

"A Potential Life-Threatening Surge from Ike

Hurricane Ike

As of 8 a.m. CDT, Ike was located about 230 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas, with maximum sustained winds near the center increased to 105 mph. The forward movement is toward the west-northwest at around 13 mph."

It also seems Ike is still on target for Galveston and Houston. If these people aren't on their way to Dallas by now they will soon regret their faith, too late of course.

Maybe they're pissing the Flying Spaghetti Monster off?

Think of all those 100's of thousands of people wasting their time!

Maybe somebody should put a sign on the highway leaving Houston:

 [/sarcasm] I don't want to confuse anyone

Yes, many of them actually, really, truly do.

The point you make, Mordagar, is one I tried to make here....

http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15277 .....

albeit, with the intention of promoting Wonko's Law vs. Wonko's Corollary

hee-hee

By the way, I think ol Pat there has never looked better. Nice pic!

Dear God,

Thank you for not repeating the flood. We don't mind the inconvience of evacuating, nor the destruction of the property you blessed us with. We could chalk it up to nature, but that would be too obvious and we love our super heros, even when they take what they give us. Magic is far too apealing to us than reality. And besides God, if you distroy our property we get a shitload in insureance money."

On a related note, there's an article that some people are citing "faith" as a reason to not evacuate (it's on comcast, and they don't allow cuntpasting or people with other IP's to view their news site. ) Could we ask for a better example of the irrationality of "faith? "

Unfortunately, over 80 lives have already been lost due to Ike. (at least 4 people from Cube, 74 from Haiti and two people died in the Dominican Republic)

Unfortunately, Ike's killing streak is likely not over. Some people just don't listen to the warnings.

But, lets not forget who has saved lives by warning about the storm. Science and technology helped warn people to move out. Expensive space weather satellites in geostationary orbit beam down pictures and data about storms. Meteorologists use computer models to predict storm intensity, storm speed, storm path, and they do so pretty damn accurately 5 days out. Then you have the Air Force Reserve's 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron which flies into the damn hurricane to gather more data for scientists and hurricane forecasters.

We can be thankful that science has progressed to help humanity.

It can safely be said, that without these modern day advances, more lives would have been lost.

IT is time theists own up and stop thanking their non existent god and start thanking the real live people who actually make a difference!

Ike is way large and has more power than Katrina. Huge water surge. 

Great point achilles.  Additionally the people who were praying wouldn't have known Ike was coming without science.  Ironic they choose to use prayer when it so obviously fails and science so obviously helps ascertain reality.

The video we posted challenging the Windsor Village United Methodist Church has quite a few honors...

Honors for this video (12)

I think their prayer didn't work out as Ike is as of 10 PM CDT up to 110 MPH and still heading for Galveston and Houston.

They prayed to Jesus when they should have prayed to Elijah.  Now Baal is pissed.

why isn't there some fine or penalty for refusing mandatory evacuation orders without good cause? it's stupefying to allow people to endanger themselves, thus endangering the lives of rescue workers for absolutely no reason. the texas coast guard and galveston firefighters are being swamped with rescue calls for people who stayed behind on stubborn, childish faith. not something that should be allowed to happen.

i feel for people whose homes were flooded and destroyed though. i can almost say i'd pray for the stranded if i didn't fear making matters worse.

People are allowed to make mistakes that can get them killed.  The authorities need to make it very clear that if you stay it is at your own risk.  I do feel for these people, but it is their right to make serious mistakes in their lives.

Who are you going to pray to Zeus? The stupid prayer made by the idiots in Texas did nothing but waste airtime on TV channels. Instead they should have gone to areas that needed evacuation and offered rides to anyone that needed help. 

Stranded idiots that refused to leave have no excuse. I feel bad for them but everyone can leave if they choose even the sad sob stories I have seen on the Weather Channel and CNN. When your stuff or property is more important than your life you have your priorities severely out of whack. What good does it do to stay with your house when it is all you have when you are facing impossible odds such as 20 foot storm surges. What are you going to do, bail out the wall of water? You hear the smug comments from those who stay and nothing happened to them, like see I told you so. You also hear of those who spend 20 hours stranded in their attic. The problem is no one can predict with certainty which one you will be if you stay.

Anyone who buys a BEACHFRONT home on a coastline subject to  hurricanes, flooding, tidal action, or landslides (east coast, gulf, and esp. Malibu) just plain deserves to have Mother Nature teach them a HARD lesson.

they sure are. but in cases like this, there should be more done to discourage people from making avoidable mistakes that jeopardize the lives of others.

when all else fails under your determination to ignore the warnings, perhaps some minor repercussions are in order for having to bring a rescue helicopter in there to pull you out of the flooded wreckage. you've endangered everyone who's come after you, and their lives are worth risking for much more than such an avoidable circumstance.

I can certainly understand why someone would refuse. Being dead would be much better than surviving and being homeless and destitute.

The consequence should be that you are not rescued.  That's harsh, but if people are warned then it is irresponsible to ask others to risk their lives to save the stubborn and foolish. 

yea, it is kinda harsh... while they may not be so deserving of the risks taken to save them, i'm not so sure we should ignore those in danger if we have the resources to help them. i believe there should simply be a price for exerting those resources unnecessarily.

I choose to live because no matter how freaking bad it is, I can always make it better. Unless I'm dead, then I can only rot. And rotting really ruins one's social life.

some people, you can only save from so much of their stupidity. for those fortunate enough to come out alive thanks to the efforts of others who reap the consequences of their stupidity, ramifications are quite fair.

Now there is a higher death toll, including a child who was killed when a piece of debris hit him in the head.  Thanks for the prayers, Christians!  They sure did wonders!

But, must they be so irresponsible as to drag their kids into it? The children aren't given a choice, I can't just shrug them off.

no no rook, don't you see? god must do all he can to test our faith!

in all seriousness, that's a tragic incident that just didn't have to happen. i hope the child didn't suffer the experience.

I really couldn't see a reason to survive like that. I don't see life in and of itself as having any value at all. Personally, I'm not able to deal with difficult situations and something like that would be way beyond what I could handle. I'm not the slightest bit afraid of dying. After all, it would mean an end to all pain - or as Mark Twain put it, I was dead for billions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me in the slightest.

That's really too bad Matt as you do make valuable contributions to the lives of others on this site at least. I too have no fear of death but that doesn't mean I would do stupid things that would bring it on. Life is an extremely exciting thing of itself as is the pursuit of knowledge. Mastering difficulty is something humans do or none of us would be here. You do have the ability to adapt to such situations if you choose to do so. Everyday brings a new insight as well as knowledge and that at least is worthwhile to experience.

Last night the weather channel said 60% of Galveston residents decided to tough it out, that number seemed high.  The next screen said for people who stay in Galveston there is a "Certain Death Warning."

The smart thing to do is not live in certain areas - like those parts of California that have severe wildfires every fucking year.

Their praying must have worked. It's now down to a tropical storm - unless you are one of those totally depraved heathens that falsely believes that is due to it having spent plenty of time over dry land.

THANK GOD FOR HIGH GAS PRICES! Or is that Allah?

Here is my prayer,

"Dear fictional being, could you smack your followers, whatever they call you, of all labels, and get them to realize you don't exist and they will have to wipe their asses on their own?"

Lets look at the scoreboard for Ike vs (Sky Daddy)

Ike=1

God=0

Looks like nature won once again without magic or hocus pokus.

BUT BRIAN.....Hanna was projected to be a catigory 2 but petered out as a tropical storm?

BUT DUMBASSES, Katrina flooded an entire city and and distroyed believers homes and Churches dispite the fact they prayed and asked daddy not too.

Hey Mcfly(Back To The Future line)

HEY MCFLY, did it ever occure to you that maybe, just maybe, life is a crap shoot with no magic involved. And that the reason so many suffered in New Orleans is because of bad city planning, bad evacuation planning, and far too many people not listening to the SCIENTISTS warning them to leave?

NO, God must have wanted to fuck over New Orleans, otherwise it wouldn't have happened because god does not allow anything to happen that he doesnt want happening.

NOW, before some Christians blow a gasket over my blasphemy, I don't hate you. I merely am demonstrating the absurdity in the logic used to justify such a claimed being.

Ike was not manipulated by the devil nor did a magical man in a white robe allow it to happen for his plan. Ike happend because nature happens and less people were hurt this time because people listend to SCIENTISTS!

Un bacio dall'Italia ( a kiss from Italy ) http://www.bedo.it/falstaff/

I'm UAAR's referring of Catania, Sicily

welcome Falstaff

I only speak English.

I have to say sometimes how amusing you guys can be and I'd like to apologize for some, okay, well most Christians acting like fools. 

I know you guys don't believe and that is your descision or where your evidence points you.  That's your deduction.  I commend you for knowing the Bible as well as you do too.  Most of you are 10xs more educated on scripture that 90% of most "Christians" 

But I do have to say that at the same time many of you base your opinions off standard maintstream Christianity which in all honesty makes no sense.

For example the whole thought on God "knows everything" arguement and if he does then why did he create Satan, Humans, etc. In all honesty he can know everything but just because he can know everything does not mean he runs around predicting everything.  I know guys who can bench 300 lbs easily but they don't go around picking up everything they find that weighs 300 lbs.  Yeah just because you can do something does not mean you excercise that ability at all times.  

But that is just me.  I believe in God for various reasons other than faith.    Them praying for Ike to stop makes even me laugh. 

from aol news:

President Bush declared a major disaster in his home state of Texas and ordered immediate federal aid.

xD could Katrina not come to mind any faster?

A disaster should have been declared when the fucktard was elected governor of Texas, long before he was president.

Ok, so which is the version of Christianity that makes sense to you?

my English is very bad. But we are atheist brothers!