2007-06-09

Everyone do the raindance!

UPDATE: http://www.randi.org/jr/2007-06/061507.html#i2



Last week, James Randi reported that the Australian Prime Minister called for the whole country, in the face of a very serious drought the country is having, to "literally and without any irony, pray for rain over the next six to eight weeks."

Today on the BBC there is a news story about how six people have been confirmed deceased and two more are still missing after a huge storm has hit the east coast of Australia.

"This is the worst storm and the worst damage our electricity network has seen for more than 30 years," EnergyAustralia executive general manager Geoff Lilliss was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

I'm not entirely sure this is what Mr Howard had in mind... Maybe too many people prayed and God overcompensated? Or perhaps He got grouchy because all the voices in His Holy Head woke Him up. He is a vengeful god after all.

Or maybe, just maybe, -now, hold on to yourselves, this is going to be quite a shocking new idea here- maybe... God is imaginary and weather follows the Second Law of Thermodynamics which states: "shit happens".

Watch this space in case Mr Randi uses my information in a future Swift.

Randi's Swift for June 1, 2007: http://www.randi.org/jr/2007-06/060107.html

The BBC news story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6736687.stm

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great story, just a question: are you sure about your reference to the Second Law of Thermodynamics? According to Wikipedia, it says: "The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium." I did not find the link between this and the "Shit happens" law, which, according to me, could be linked instead to Sod's law, Murphy's law, or Finagle's law...

Alex said...

Yes, the Second Law of thermodynamics, in layman's terms, is "shit happens".

Sod's/Murphy's Law is quite similar, but goes more like "If something can go wrong, it will."

The two are, of course, very much related.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry, but I still don't get the link between the official version of the Second Law and yours... "In simple terms, it is an expression of the fact that over time, differences in temperature, pressure, and density tend to even out in a physical system that is isolated from the outside world", says Wikipedia. How is that linked to bad things happening?

Alex said...

Generally speaking, good things require input of energy.
As there are more bad things than good things, a random "thing" (state) is more likely bad than good.
Thus the more energy you put into something, the more chances it has of being good. Accordingly, as energy leaves the system, bad things are more likely to occur. Hence "shit happens".

Anonymous said...

hum... yeah but apparently they put lots of energy into getting rain (according to your article) and well...shit happened. So your version of the second law of thermodynamics doesn't seem to apply in that case.

Alex said...

No, the whole point is that praying is precisely the _opposite_ of putting energy into a system where it can be used against the Forces of CHAOS.

Praying is wasted time and energy which could be diverted towards infinitely (and I choose my words thoughtfully here) more efficient. In fact on American National Prayer Day a few weeks ago a bunch atheists in Ohio had a blood drive with the Red Cross. Helps _actually _ save lives, not just symbolically.

Anonymous said...

what the hell are you lot talking about..

Alex said...

FIrstly the uselessness of prayer and then the second law of thermodynamics.