Livre d'Or

Using disasters to proselytize is tacky

Tell that to Voltaire.

There was some kerfuffle on the Facebook page for Newsthump when they did this spoof story about people either thanking God for survival or saying God did it because Japan had been bad. Some people thought the article was in bad taste, even though it's pretty obviously not about mocking the victims. I don't really understand that point of view. The discussion on the disaster is not owned by the victims and their loved ones, and I'd prefer "help and advance rationality" to "help and shut up to avoid hurting religious sensibilities".

There are plenty of people who think prayer is more than meditation, and plenty of people who think that God is both omnipotent, omniscient and good. Events like these make the wrongness of those beliefs obvious. It's easier to point to something concrete rather than abstract and say "look, those people in Lisbon died while they were at prayer on All Saints Day. While I'm sceptic enough to admit that it's possible your beliefs are correct, isn't that pretty strong evidence that you're wrong?"