Absurdities - God and weather
Here we will consider the absurdity that many believers hold to that God influences the climate in response to prayer requests - or put a different way we are asking the question
- does God really intervene and change the weather when we pray?
Below you will find an extract from 'A Short Book of Believer Absurdities' which addresses the question and some book recommendations and links to websites where people are discussing this or similar questions.
Extract from 'A Short Book of Believer Absurdities'
The seminar at its end, the people dispersed, save for a few conference delegates who lined up waiting to speak to me about some of the issues raised in the session I had just presented. As I worked my way down the line, chatting and trying my best to provide answers to the questions being posed, I became aware of a couple of teenage girls waiting at the side. Finally, having said goodbye to the last person, the girls came over and introduced themselves to me, asking if I would explain a statement from the seminar which they had found troubling – namely, the assertion that
'it is a redundant act to ask God for sunny weather for a friends wedding day'.
Of course, what was really troubling the girls, was not my statement, but the idea that God might not be the way that they had imagined him to be. Or put differently, the rather uncomfortable notion that God may not be at the beck and call of humans (as many evangelicals are apt to believe). Rather, more detached from our human requests, choosing to hear some prayers while ignoring others - an idea totally at odds with what many people believe about God and the way he acts within our world. After all, what could be more important that the bride’s wedding day and a loving God would surely want to intervene and make it as joyous an occasion as possible – well, wouldn’t he?
Aside from the fact that there is no meteorological evidence to suggest that Saturday is the sunniest day of the week – which it should be if God is answering prayers for fine weather on these days – there is also the very real issue that although some people petition God for good weather, they still find it rains on their special day. All of which seems to suggest that either
- God favours some weddings over others (or)
- God does not answer prayers for these sort of events
Let us consider each of these proposals and start with the possibility that God might choose to favour some people over others. Of course, if such a thing was to occur, we would have just cause to challenge God and ask why he might act this way because scripture informs us that God is not given to favouritism (Acts 10v34) but rather loves all people equally. Moreover, experience tells us that although some families are blessed with fine weather during the marriage of one daughter, they may encounter poor weather on the next occasion. All of which would suggest (if this was a correct model) that somehow a parent, daughter, fiancé or other family member has accidentally transgressed God since the last wedding in such a way that they now stand outside the place in which he is able to continue to bless and benefit them. This does not even consider the more ludicrous anomaly of how it might rain on a couple marrying for the first time, yet not for those people remarrying for the third, fourth of fifth time – people who are often frowned upon by the church yet who may enjoy the hottest day of the year for their wedding, and by inference, the greater blessing of God.
Extract from 'A Short Book of Believer Absurdities ' to be released Bob Eckhard