Rain is something we do understand. If indeed you are not too sure then within about ten seconds or less you can literally google to find out about the natural processes that cause it. Once long ago our ancestors might indeed have attributed it to the gods. It is perhaps in some respects understandable how rituals might have developed to encourage it because of the need for rain. Within tropical grasslands the rainy season brings everything to life and so its arrival would indeed appear to have been something magical, unexplained, and thus a blessing from the gods.
Nobody sees rain these days and thinks, “Yep, a supernatural entity used magic to do that”.
Well … almost nobody.
Hey Oklahoma, I’m looking at you. You have elected an utterly clueless idiot.
Sen Lankford’s Rain-making God
Via a tweet from Hemant we have a claim make by Oklahoma’s Sen. James Lankford that rain is indeed the result of a supernatural entity bestowing a “blessing” if his worshipers do what they think this entity wants them to do.
Here is that tweet …
Tony Perkins (Family Research Council: … I believe that as these states embrace Biblical truth as it pertains to life, that I believe God’s gonna bless those nations—or those, those states—as those states come in alignment with God, I believe it’s going to be a testimony to the rest of the nation. Again, another sign of God’s mercy that He will pour out His blessing on those that choose to walk in His way.
Sen Langford: I agree. I agree. And… that’s not some radical principle, just for people to be faithful and for God to bless them. I mean, it’s just the most basic principle of all. As funny as it sounds, we’ve experienced a big drought in Oklahoma. The week after—the week after—we passed this law to be able to protect the lives of children, we had the most overwhelming rainstorm that came across the state, and it was such an interesting conversation among people in the church, like, “Did that just happen? Did that just occur?”
What Law?
“The Law” that Mr Langford refers to is an Oklahoma law just passed to ban Abortion. It is the nation’s strictest abortion ban ever passed and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions.
Let’s be clear about this – The treatment for an ectopic pregnancy, a septic uterus, or a miscarriage that your body won’t release is abortion. If you can’t get those abortions, you die. Pro-life has become a Pro-death cult.
“Ah but those are exceptions under this law” one might quip.
True … but if your law has terminated and in effect obliterated all abortion services, while creating a climate of deep fear amongst doctors, then there is no access for those that qualify for such exceptions. Even proving qualification for exceptions will be both difficult and very dangerous in many circumstances.
People are going to die because of this.
The essence of his claim is that they passed this law, so God decided to “bless” them by sending rain.
You have to be seriously stupid to actually believe that passing laws causes a God to magically send rain.
Fear not, Mr Langford has stepped up to the mark and scored.
But Wait …
This “rain” was not just the right amount. Instead it devastated crops destroying them and also caused flooding in several areas. That leaves Mr Langford with a couple of options …
- His weather God that sends rain when you pass laws is utterly incompetent and not very good at doing rain making
- His rain God was seriously ticked off with those specific crops
- His God is a prankster
Perhaps he might go as far as claiming that only sinners lived in the flooded areas and the farmers with the devastated crops were heretics, hence they all deserved it.
The farming lobby should now perhaps reach out to Mr Langford and get him to roll back those laws.
Human Actions really can influence rain
Burning fossil fuel is having consequences.
This is measurable.
We can see the CO2 within our atmosphere ticking up and up (did I mention UP) …
We have known for a very very long time that CO2 is a greenhouse gas that traps heat within our atmosphere. It is not just in theory. We can see how raising CO2 also raises temperature by looking back …
Climate Change is today impacting Oklahoma, along with the rest of the globe, and it will only get worse. Drought and heavy downpours of rain have been modelled for some time and that is now happening … (From Aug 2016 by the EPA) …
In the coming decades, Oklahoma will become warmer, and both floods and droughts may be more severe. Most of Oklahoma did not become warmer during the last 50 to 100 years. But soils have become drier, annual rainfall has increased, and more rain arrives in heavy downpours. In the coming decades, summers are likely to be increasingly hot and dry, which would reduce the productivity of farms and ranches, change parts of the landscape, and possibly harm human health.
What was projected is happening exactly as modelled … drought and heavy downpours.
No Gods required, no supernatural explanation needed at all. It is a consequence of human activity and it is only going to get worse.
What will Mr Langford do next time. Once he has passed all the laws that he thinks his God needs to make it rain, then what cards has he left to play.
Lots of longer prayers perhaps.
Perhaps he will seriously consider identifying “sinners” and getting them to go on camera and publicly repent wearing sackcloth or ashes … or even worse.
So where does Langford Stand?
Oh come now, you can guess. Via his Wikipedia page we learn …
- Guns: He gets an ‘A’ rating from the NRA.
- Oil and gas … drill drill drill
- Opposes the Affordable Care Act
- We already covered abortion
- Gay rights … supports banning same-sex marriages
The cherry on the cake here is that when it comes to his stance on Climate Change, he wholeheartedly rejects the prevailing scientific consensus.
From his viewpoint every climate scientist, every university, every subject matter expert is wrong and it is all a hoax. He instead, on the basis of no evidence at all knows best. His argument is not just with subject matter experts, but with the laws of physics, and that really is not an argument that he can ever win.
With such thinking prevailing are you really surprised that when it rains, he opts for “magic by a supernatural entity” being the very best possible explanation for rain that he can muster from his deeply befuddled brain.
What can one think, except to perhaps speculate that Mr Langford might believe that Puerto Rico has been extraordinarily “blessed” this past week.
I must also make a note to ask him what God was telling Oklahoma when all those destructive tornadoes came through.
Meanwhile …
Tony Perkins, the guy interviewing Mr Langford, famously took the stance in 2015 that floods are God’s punishment for being gay.
His home was then flooded in 2016, so I can only wonder if he still believes that. I’d speculate he does.
Bottom Line: Reality does not give two hoots for what you believe.