OK, we had our National Day of Prayer

[GOPFighter]

Did any media outlet do a study of the what good it did? With all that prayer we should have had a huge and measurable increase in missing evacuees being found, a sharp reduction in violence in Iraq, stuff like that. Why doesn't the media report all the wonderful things that happened in response to all that prayer.

In fact, it occurred to me that if prayer is so effective why not have a National Day of Prayer to keep hurricanes from become so strong and from hitting large cites like New Orleans.

I think I already know the answers.

[Hardrada]

1. I forgot all about it

and so apparently did everyone else around here! So much for that bullshit.

[kahleefornia]

2. yep

Good point. I think we should have a national day of goat sacrifice instead. That would be more impressive to god, perhaps inclining him to decide to phase out hurricanes altogether.

[onager]

3. Goat sacrifice verified as not working...

I've been in Muslim countries during their great holidays of sacrifice. There are two: Eid al-Fitr (at the end of Ramadan) and Eid al-Adha (literally "The Feast of the Sacrifice," when everyone sacrifices an animal they can afford and gives half the meat to the poor).

I was in Egypt this past January for The Feast of the Sacrifice, and I must say it was IMPRESSIVE for sheer volume if nothing else. Blood literally ran in the gutters of Cairo, and the hides of sacrificed goats were stacked 6 feet high in the alleys.

So does all this work? Pfft! As for Eid al-Fitr, something involving a large number of human fatalities happens EVERY year during Ramadan. Usually a bunch of people smothered or crushed in a crowd, or a plane crash. (I lived in Saudi Arabia for over 2 years, about 30 km from Mecca, and heard about these tragedies right away.)

And not long after I left Egypt...and after this year's Feast of the Sacrifice...Cairo was wracked by several terrorist attacks. They included a shooting of tourists on a bus, and a suicide bombing of a big marketplace downtown. (I had just been in the market about a week before.)

Oh, besides goats, pigeons, heifers and even camels are sometimes sacrificed. So I think we can scientifically write them off as being not efficacious, as well. ;)