An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles

[dr_tectonic]

Just to get a jump on it -- I'm sure that in a day or two there will be idiots claming Hurricane Katrina is a sign of "God's wrath" or some such nonsense.

In the spirit of E.O. Wilson, I would like to claim that the only thing you can really say for sure about the mind of God as it relates to such matters is, "God sees fit to visit natural disasters upon hazardous areas, whether people live there or not."

I hope that Louisiana and New Orleans get through it all okay -- but the situation is grim.

Comments

Do "Unnatural" Acts Cause Natural Disasters?

[(Anonymous)]

I assume that this article made the rounds a ways back, right? (article with correlation between homosexuality and natural disasters, and religiosity and natural disasters).

http://www.sodomylaws.org/usa/wackos/wacko003.htm

But Baptists and Others share the prize: both groups show a definite correlation with tornado frequency correlation =3D .68, p =3D .0001). This means that Texas could cut its average of 139 tornadoes per year in half by sending a few hundred thousand Baptists elsewhere (Alaska maybe?).

...

Now Pat would have us believe that gays are the cause of tornadoes (as well as earthquakes, meteors, and even terrorist bombs), in utter disregard for evidence showing that Baptists are much more likely to cause them.

...

As any statistician will tell you, of course, correlation doesn’t prove causation. Protestants causing tornadoes by angering God isn’t the only explanation for these data. It could be that Baptists and other Protestants purposely flock to states that have lots of tornadoes (no, we haven’t checked for a correlation between IQ and religious affiliation).

Re: Do "Unnatural" Acts Cause Natural Disasters?

[(Anonymous)]

(that was Bats, BTW).