Pray for Rain
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 07. 3.07
Alabama is in a drought, and Gov. Bob Riley knows how to solve the problem. Not cloud seeding, and not irrigation, but the power of prayer.
He has encouraged people to pray for the following week, in attempt to bring rainfall. "Throughout our history, Alabamians have turned in prayer to God to humbly ask for his blessings and to hold us steady during times of difficulty. This drought is without question a time of great difficulty."
The solution is likely to work, or at least appear to, as weather forecasters have said that rain is likely at the weekend anyway. Roger McNeil, of the National Weather Service in Birmingham, said scattered showers are probable on Saturday and Sunday, but that it wouldn't be heavy enough to irrigate the land.
It can't hurt, so it's logically a good move. However, it is a little politically incorrect to focus on only one belief system, so I suggest that the Governor also encourage people to perform rain dances. ::AL
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"It can't hurt, so it's logically a good move."
It takes real effort away from actually solving the problem, so it isn't a good move.
Well, if the planet is anything like human beings, prayer could hurt. Studies show that humans who were going into the hospital for surgery and who knew they were being prayed for suffered more complications from the surgery than people who weren't being prayed for.
I guess people just can't take the pressure. I wonder if the planet can?
Yuck it up, goobers, it is pouring down.
VITAL SIGNS: FERTILITY; A Study Links Prayer and Pregnancy
By ERIC NAGOURNEY (NYT) 325 words
Published: October 2, 2001
Correction Appended
Researchers at Columbia University, expressing surprise at their own findings, are reporting that women at an in vitro fertilization clinic in Korea had a higher pregnancy rate when, unknown to the patients, total strangers were asked to pray for their success.
The findings are in the current Journal of Reproductive Health.
The researchers found that women who were prayed for became pregnant twice as often as those who did not have people praying for them.
The lead author of the report, Dr. Rogerio A. Lobo, Columbia's chairman of obstetrics and gynecology, said he and his colleagues had thought long and hard about whether to publish their findings, since they seemed so improbable. In the end, the differing pregnancy rates between the two groups of women proved too significant to ignore.
''It was not even something that was borderline significant,'' Dr. Lobo said. ''It was highly significant. And still I am not willing to say that this is the definitive answer, that there is definitely an association.''
Dr. Lobo said the idea for the study came from a colleague and co-author, Dr. Kwang Y. Cha, a researcher at Cha Hospital in Seoul.
The study involved 199 women who went to Cha Hospital in 1998 and 1999 for help becoming pregnant.
None knew about the study, and the medical staff caring for them also was unaware of it.
The researchers gave members of different Christian denominations in the United States, Canada and Australia photographs of the patients and asked them to pray. One group was asked to pray directly on behalf of the women, a second group directed its prayers to help the first group, and a third prayed for the two other groups.
Earlier studies suggested that prayer by strangers also seemed to help heart patients.
Correction: October 6, 2001, Saturday An article in the Vital Signs column of Science Times on Tuesday about prayer and the success of in vitro fertilization misstated the title of the journal that published a study on the subject. It is The Journal of Reproductive Medicine, not Reproductive Health.
Now if they want real rain, they should send me over to Alabama.
The last 6 trips I've taken to Australia, in the last 2 years there has been unseasonably high rainfall (they have been experiencing drought conditions for the last few years, in a large chunk of the country)
As a Christian, I say this: before praying for God to send rain, Alabama needs to repent of hypocrisy and of harboring special interests over the public good. Alabama's congressmen consistently voted against oversight and accountability to stop the abuses being carried out by war profiteers who have connections to the Bush Administration. Their congressmen have shown themselves to be corrupt, lending more favor to lobbyists than to the grievances of the tax payers who are being bled dry to pay for billion dollar contracts with Halliburton and KBR. Yet, all it seems to take to get voted into Congress in this "red state" is to oppose gay marriage and abortion, as if that's the end-all-be-all of being righteous as a politician. Shame!
What century are we living in again ?
Prime Minister John Howard of Australia also suggested that all Australians pray for rain so that we get out of our massive drought. it seemed that it was the governments sollution to help our country out of its water crisis.
i'm not religious, and don't suggest that prayer is a suitable alternative to a proper solution, but last month was the wetest june in 9 years in australia. and its raining right now as i type.
i still think anything else is a better solution than praying for water. countries can't live off a hope and a pray.
Hahaha, oh my. I need not comment more, it is almost self-ridiculing.