Georgia Water Crisis: Might I Suggest…
Might I suggest that there wouldn’t be a water crisis in Georgia if Georgia wasn’t the sort of place where it’s unremarkable that the state Governor’s response to a water crisis is to lead en masse public prayers for rain?
That’s not to say that secularism somehow magically makes government policy wise. There are inherent systemic reasons why coercive governments of any stripe ultimately fail to properly provide the services and oversight they attempt to monopolize.
Rather, what I mean to say is that unreasoning faith in targets of veneration crowds out problem-solving from human minds. It matters not whether the human minds in question are held in thrall to a supernatural cult or the cult of secular bureaucracy.
Also, please don’t take that as a declaration of assured atheism on my part. If God exists at all, s/he surely exists in the human mind at the very least. Thus, if you believe God gave you your human faculty of reason, you bloody well ought to use it.
“God helps those who help themselves.”
Of course, it should be noted that this sort of public prayer is against the Christian faith anyway, as real Christians are supposed to pray in private out of modesty according to Matthew 6:5 & 6:
“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”
UPDATE: OTOH, a correspondent writes:
It wasn’t that Jesus was bringing in to question all public Prayer…it is the motive behind the actions. Heartfelt or Hypocritical prayer… Meaning when praying in public focus on addressing God and not how you come across to others .. So to say that “real” Christians only pray in private is well a bold statement. I have participated in very public prayer and I believe that I am still a real Christian. I have been known to praise God in the highest at the top of my lungs and I am not feeling one ounce of shame about that. I guess maybe you are saying the people of Georgia or the “government” of Georgia should work using their minds to solve a drought I agree with that. I even agree that Ol Sony shouldnt call a mandatory prayer to every person in the state. I agree with the statement from Ed Buckner, who is organizing the protest. “The governor can pray when he wants to. What he can’t do is lead prayers in the name of the people of Georgia.” But for you to put a label on what a “real” christian should or shouldn’t do is something else. I am really annoyed with that comment but only that. Otherwise the point of post seemed to make sense to me. I will always be a real Christian, that may be a problem for you but that is the way it is.
Point taken. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so rash in making blanket statements like that, especially about religion. I was just going by the Bible verse as I understood it, though.
UPDATE 2: And, of course, the weather forecast for this evening in Atlanta, Georgia is rain. [LOL]
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When you have no way to rationally calculate prices and to clear markets in order to gracefully determine what uses of water are most pertinent in a natural system of conservation, what more do you expect than Anglo-American equivalent of a rain dance?
Exactly.