Hurricane is god's punishment for abortions!

[salvorhardin]

These people disgust me. I saw this over at Eve's Apple blog. Apparently the Columbia Christians For Life think that Katrina was god's punishment for the 10 clinics in Louisiana that perform abortions. "Why?" you might ask... Well, you see, it's because one NOAA satellite photo showed the hurricane shaped like an fetus and Katrina means 'pure' in Russian. I have to ask myself again, "Are these people really this fucking nuts or are they as cynical and morally bankrupt as to exploit people's religious beliefs for profit!?" I'm betting it's both.

Here's the e-mail as it was reprinted on Eve's Apple:

From: Columbia Christians for Life
Subject: Hurricane Katrina satellite image looks like 6-week fetus
To: Columbia Christians for Life

Satellite picture of Hurricane Katrina at NOAA.com looks like a 6-week unborn human child as it comes ashore the Gulf Coast, vicinity states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida at 12:32 PM, Monday, August 29, 2005



Hurricane "Katrina" (reportedly means "Pure" in Russian) - satellite image - Monday, 29 Aug 05, 12:32 PM (EDT) - coming ashore Gulf Coast - satellite image looks like 6-week fetus

check out NOAA website: www.noaa.gov/

The image of the hurricane above with its eye already ashore at 12:32 PM Monday, August 29 looks like a fetus (unborn human baby) facing to the left (west) in the womb, in the early weeks of gestation (approx. 6 weeks). Even the orange color of the image is reminiscent of a commonly used pro-life picture of early prenatal development (see sign with picture of 8-week pre-born human child below). In this picture, and in another picture in today's on-line edition of USA Today*, this hurricane looks like an unborn human child.

Louisiana has 10 child-murder-by-abortion centers - FIVE are in New Orleans
www.ldi.org ('Find an Abortion Clinic ')

Baby-murder state # 1 - California (125 abortion centers) - land of earthquakes, forest fires, and mudslides
Baby-murder state # 2 - New York (78 abortion centers) - 9-11 Ground Zero
Baby-murder state # 3 - Florida (73 abortion centers) - Hurricanes Bonnie, Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne in 2004; and now, Hurricane Katrina in 2005

God's message: REPENT AMERICA !

[onager]

1. What? They didn't blame it on the atheists?

Those jerks!

That's truly an amazing piece of stupidity. And people are (probably) getting paid to sit around and make this stuff up.

Oh...now let's see the state rankings for spousal and child abuse, incest, divorce, drunkenness, meth labs, and education...

[salvorhardin]

2. That's what I'm wondering

Is there some crack staff of image specialists who get paid to browse the web looking for graphics that just might look like something religiously inspired to a half-blind, delusional paranoid schizophrenic? Because, you know, I could do better. I'm just saying...

On edit: Reposted from my site. http://www.neuralgourmet.com/node/165

[trotsky]

3. Shhh!! It worked!

The EAC is alive and well.

[trotsky]

4. Um, OK, so I'm reeeeeeally trying here...

to see this "6-week-old fetus" in the satellite picture, but I just don't.

Too bad these morons don't understand that more people like to live in those areas, so thus there will automatically be more abortions.

I wonder why Gawd hasn't retaliated against Massachusetts, since they allow gay marriage?

[salvorhardin]

6. God's retaliation? Have you ever experienced downtown Boston traffic? n/t

[salvorhardin]

5. Oh, and one more thing

Did you notice that in the e-mail the CCL actually has to spell out what a fetus is? Now tell me they have a high opinion of their audience. I dare ya.

[WhollyHeretic]

7. So if Montana opened more abortion clinics then would

the Missouri River start spawning hurricanes all over the place?

[trotsky]

8. Makes you wonder...

why Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska et al, all strong "red" states, get hit with so many tornadoes, hmmm?

[Zenlitened]

9. There is no situation that can't be made worse...

... by religious fundamentalism.

Gag. :puke:

[FiveGoodMen]

10. No

[NMMNG]

11. Natural disasters *really* bring out the stupidity in the whackjobs

The stupidity is always there, but natural disasters just let it shine like a beacon.

[BiggJawn]

12. So was all of last year's storms in Florida divine retribution for...

...voting for BUSH?

I'm just saying, know whuttamean?

[YankeyMCC]

13. Seeing things

I seem to remember Az posting something here a while back on how skeptics don't see patterns in random shapes and lines as often or as clearly as "believers" do.

This seems like as clear cut a case as you can get.

I'll be some of the UFO woo-woos see an alien face in the shape of Katrina.

[salvorhardin]

14. That's interesting

In the August 2005 issue of Scientific American, psychologist Judy DeLoache had a great article titled Mindful of Symbols. The article examined her and her colleagues research into symbolic processing and recognition in very young children. Particularly she detailed the kinds of errors that children make when first learning how to process symbols. For instance, 2 and a half year olds often confuse symbols of objects for the real object; e.g. they will try to put on a picture of a shoe on their foot or try to sit in a model chair. It's a fascinating read: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000ACE3F-007E-12DC-807E83414B7F0000

I wonder if "believers" might not be making some of the same types of errors as very young children do, promoting symbolic representations of objects (e.g. seeing images of aborted fetuses in satellite photos of hurricanes) to a sort of real world status? I wonder about this because symbolic processing is one of the most complicated things our brain is able to do and it is at the heart of math and science. Could a better education in math and science be responsible for a further refinement of the brain's ability to process symbols thus making us less likely (for instance) to confuse a random pattern on a grilled cheese sandwich for the virgin mary?

On edit: Now with 30% more grammar!

[YankeyMCC]

15. thanks for the link

it is an interesting subject. And you raise an interesting question.

[YankeyMCC]

16. Here's an interesting observation from that article

"Interestingly, most of the children showed little or no reaction to their failed attempts with the miniatures."

The research speculates it's because the toddlers have learned to accept the common failures they encounter in their daily lives.

Yet it's tempting to see the association with the adult believers who don't seem to even register the inconsistencies and failures of their own belief systems.

[salvorhardin]

17. Yes!

Exactly what I was thinking! It's as if at some point along the way believers have started actively ignoring the incongruencies between their internalized symbolic representation of the universe and their empirical senses and perceptions. It may be that at some point the true believers stop learning from errors arising from incorrect symbolic representations of the world.

Of course, a general lack of understanding about how weak our senses and perceptions are and how often they can fool us is another commonality among believers. "I seen it, it must be true."

BTW: I do wish to clarify that when I use the term 'believers' I do not single out the religious, but rather include believers in quantum quackery, homeopathy, alien abduction... every form of unsubstantiated belief system.

[YankeyMCC]

18. Of course you're not including the one true

belief of Pastafarianism.

[salvorhardin]

19. Of course not!

Praise be to his noodly goodness!

[Taxloss]

20. The phenomenon of seeing important shapes in randomness is called

"pareidol".

http://skepdic.com/pareidol.html

Whoops! There goes astrology and saints-in-a-stain.

(Note the "idol".)

[salvorhardin]

21. Oh my pasta!

They baked the Pillsbury Dough-Boy! Murderers!

[onager]

22. It looks more like Mother Theresa to me.

Either before or after death. I don't think the old fraud changed very much.