Oh, optikeye, I'm crying. Golf pro...fabulous episode. Thanks for reminding me of that one.

I have your fire and brimstone right here in my pants!

Can I get an Amen?

I think that guy will be getting LOTS of Amens from now on.

Very X2 X-Men United. The Father , the Son and the Halle Spirit ZAP! I think that it's pretty cool though, esp. as no one was hurt. I guess when God deigns to give a sign, subtlety ain't in the cards.

(INSERT SOME WITTY BACK TO THE FUTURE JOKE HERE. I'd do it myself, but I....



/got nothing)

"Holy smoke," said the preacher as the church burned down.

gurglesnap:
great scott

"Yes, I rather like this God fellow. He's very theatrical, you know, a pestilence here, a plague there. Omnipotence: gotta get me some of that." --The Family Guy

I was actually born during a thunderstorm, while my (very soon to be) aunt and uncle were being married. Lightning struck the church during the ceremony and during the commotion someone ran down the center aisle yelling "It's a boy!". I was eventually forgiven for upstaging their wedding.

TheRapy
Thor was the God of Thunder, not lightning. Thunder being that big rumbly noise you hear after that big bright flash which is lightning.
Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I think he had something to do with forging the lightning, hence the hammer. But anyway it was Odin who threw it.

"You need any more signs, asshat?"

Here's a crazy thought. What if it wasn't some mysterious super-powerful consciousness at all?

What if lightning was caused by differing electrical charges between the stormclouds and the ground, and follows the easiest path to the ground, which means tall things like church steeples?

Wouldn't it be freaky if there was a scientific explanation for things like physics?

/going to hell

I wonder why Vishnu would do a thing like that?

I wonder if this really happened at all. It might show up on snopes.com under "glurge". I'm betting it's an urban folk tale.

By your 'logic', Chad, "yellow" is always the wrong answer because it does not answer the question "what is X plus Y".

In the simpliest terms, Science asks "how" and Philosophy asks "why". Science is not the only validating test.

If lightining is the wrath of god, he sure seems to hate trees.

"Here's a crazy thought. .... Wouldn't it be freaky if there was a scientific explanation for things like physics?"

HERETIC! BURN HIM! ;-)

Physics is the orderly observation of the works of God.

A tall building with a metal spiky thing on top attract lightning...

Who never saw this coming...?

Only God knows, MFM.

That was just a warning shot.

Some "warning shot" YF.
I bet it scared the hell out of that Pastor.

Literally.

By your 'logic', Chad, "yellow" is always the wrong answer because it does not answer the question "what is X plus Y".

It did on my College Algebra final. That might be why I failed College Algebra.

Nanookanano, if it happened to me, I'd definitely be saying less and listening more. And if the church has any sense, they'll seek another guest preacher next time.

There is no scientific basis for the belief in God.
One might as well attempt to measure infinity in microns.
Science is for specifying, Philosophy is for generalizing.
Don't make the sophomoric mistake of crossing the fields for your own purposes.

I saw it happen for real, Alto. I had a friend who crapped-out of a two hour biology final by responding to the single essay question "What is life" by responding "Life is like a banana: You can peel it and eat it, or you can shove it up your ass." He knew he was going to fail, so he went big.

Sorry . . I'm preaching again.

My bad.

As concerns the oddity of this coincidence:

1.) How many lightening strikes take place any given hour, over the surface of the Earth?

2.) How many people are ranting about religion at any given hour, over the surface of the Earth?

3.) What are the odds of the two occuring in the same place?

Maybe the fact that it *doesn't* happen every day is a sign.

Forgive me, I've found yet another reflection on this.

"Proving the existence of X" is a scientific process.
Applying it to the philosophical concept "God" is always futile, often distructive, and (worst of all) unscientific. "God" is a 'let-it-be-given' operating environment in which formalized, synthetical meditations of all available experiential data can yield enlightenments beyond direct proof.

I think.

If you check out the Bible, it states pretty clearly that you can't prove the existence of God. There's consistency for ya.

"Three Bolts, No Strikes" by E.Y. Harburg

When lightning struck the steeple
Of the Church of San Jose,
It barely missed the brothel
That was just across the way.

from "Rhymes for the Irreverent"

Here's a good question. If God could do something like that to let others know he's still alive and kicking; Why couldn't he produce something very unique and remove all doubt as to it being a sign from God?

For instance, showing up on Larry King Live would certainly convert a hell of a lot of people over wouldnt it?

Aw, but Cthulhu is sooooo cute !



and festive!!

"There are no plush fire ant dolls."

--Radio commercial

This is CNN......CNN.....CNN

Science asks "how" and Philosophy asks "why".

I have to call shenanigans on this kind of thinking. We're not talking about a decision that was made by someone, so there is no real "why". We're talking about lightning hitting something. In cases of purely natural phenomena, the "why" is explained by the "how". Why did lightning hit that church steeple? Because the electrical build-up caused by the storm clouds and the ground was great enough in that particular location at that particular time to produce an electrical discharge. It happened in a location where there was a tall structure providing a path for the electricity to the ground. That's both how and why it happened. Now, if it skipped the tall church steeple and struck some small, much lower-to-the-ground object that was right next to the church, I would wonder why that happened. But adding some philosphical aspect to a situation such as lightning hitting a church tower is pointless. It explains itself.

Of course the people in the church were praying and asking god for signs and such, what the hell else do people do in church?

Besides, if I was the type to believe in signs from god and that sort of thing, and this happened in my church, I'd never let that dude in the door ever again.

"Hey, where are we going? And why am I in this handbasket?"

faethe, my mommy sent me the christmas cthulhu one year for st. nick's day. freaked out my roommates somewhat. but she's a weird one at that.

The simpliest terms are always inaccurate, Chad.
I make no apologies for that.

The philosophical question that leaps to mind is "Why are the people so concerned with contrition that their pastor is begging God for a sign.

You're the one adding philosophy to science. That's natural, science is your only cognitive environment. That's not your fault. That's what our shoddy public school system teaches us these days. To contemplate things in a philosophical light you have to start and end within that paradigm. Don't leap from one to the other.

Who here besides me knows how to capture lighting? Rhetorical question. It seems to me that a lot of people would know how to catch lightning. Including the pastor.

On the other hand, let's say that this was a supernatural event. What does it say about a church when God answers you with lightning and a fire burning down your church?

Eric Clapton says to stop wasting his damn time with your petty human requests.

Eh, dude? Try to stay on course. We aren't talking about the mindsets of the people in the church. Or, at least, I wasn't. I was making (in the form of a jest I might add) the simple statement that the lightning bolt wasn't likely an "act of god" so much as it was a "lightning bolt".

If you wanted to philosophize on why people in church are always looking for god to send them signs so that their actions or motivations will be validated, then that'd be an entirely different discussion. All I ever mentioned was the lightning striking the church and that to add "meaning" to such an event is kinda foolish.

But that's okay, I guess it was a little hard to follow.

The reason I preach/lecture at length about this is that it's a vicious cycle. Scientific types feel threatened by what they see as fictitious, irrational, controlling rules made-up by deluded, power-hungry people. So they challenge, "Prove your God exists." The theological types, in turn, feel threatended by the inhuman, unnatural, controlling machinations created by obsessive, power-hungry people. So, they respond with, "You're going to Hell, buddy." And, 'round and 'round it goes.

"Stop the world, I want to get off."

What is amusing about this? I bet the preist was one of the ones who molested some little kid but he never fessed up..

Here's a crazy thought. What if it wasn't some mysterious super-powerful consciousness at all?

What if lightning was caused by differing electrical charges between the stormclouds and the ground, and follows the easiest path to the ground, which means tall things like church steeples?

Wouldn't it be freaky if there was a scientific explanation for things like physics?

This is not hard to follow. (Perhaps I've hurt your feelings, and you're trying to insult me.) It is a perfectly valid scientific observation. I don't fault you for writing this, at all. And, I'm not 'straw manning'. I'm just observing, in turn, that folks often refute the presence of "that big, invisible bully in the sky" with their most lucid, scientific methodology when they feel threatend by religion. And, I think that feeling threatened by something that is supposed to be a private meditation for the betterment of one's self is a terrible perversion of the motive behind the method. Perhaps, just perhaps, religion wouldn't be so f-cked-up if you science-only types would just leave it the hell alone. After all, isn't that what you want from the religion-only types?

Mick FOley denies any involvement.

Soze

Yer mummy sounds absolutley cool to me :). There is supposed to be a superhero cthulu coming out next...yea!!!