E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSA YouTube video links the Gulf oil spill to policy toward Israel.
Every time there's a disaster, someone figures out a reason why God would want to do this to us. It happened with Hurricane Katrina, and with the Haiti earthquake, and now it's happening with the Gulf oil spill.
A YouTube video lays out the case for blaming the spill on a change in U.S. policy toward Israel. The claim is that the Obama administration was signaling Israel that it would not use its veto on a U.N. Security Council resolution against Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem. The weeks-long back-and-forth over this issue turned up on Fox News' website on Israeli Independence Day, April 19 ... the day before the fatal April 20 oil-rig explosion that caused the spill!
There are alternative explanations, of course: The divine wrath could have marked the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, or Adolf Hitler's birthday and the 11th anniversary of the Columbine tragedy on April 20. But there's nary a mention of the mistakes that BP and other companies might have made before the blast. After all, those companies were merely doing God's work.
The oil spill thus serves in some quarters as yet another sign that the end times are nigh. On WorldNetDaily, doom-meister Hal Lindsey is quoted as saying "this is evidence that when you turn your back on Israel, especially when you've been a supporter, you're gonna see judgments come from God."
But the way Lindsey sees it, the disaster in the Gulf isn't the only problem.
"The current government is overturning our constitutional republic, turning into a socialist country," he's quoted as saying. "That's about as big a curse as you can get. We just have one catastrophe after another and then we have this big wakeup call in the gulf."
Lindsey noted that his concept of divine retribution in the Gulf is "not a popular view to take, by the way, as critics will say, 'There they go again.'"
I think that's one prophecy that will come true. What do you think?
More about the oil spill:
- 'God help us all': Oil on Pensacola Beach
- Louisiana, Texas declare day of prayer for Gulf spill
- Tips for stopping oil? Try corks, pillows, prayer
- Where to volunteer, how to donate
- Disaster in the Gulf: msnbc.com special report
Join the Cosmic Log corps by signing up as my Facebook friend or hooking up on Twitter. And if you really want to be friendly, ask me about "The Case for Pluto."
Leave a Comment:
What do I think? I think publishing this article with this title is irresponsible journalism. The headline makes it seem as though this is a serious question, rather than the delusional crap it is.
I just think it's interesting that every time there is a tragedy, some folks assume that it's divine punishment - even if it's clear that this is something totally wrought by humans. The headline in this case is meant to emphasized the bizarreness of the idea, along with the equally bizarre implication that the oil companies who made the mistakes (BP? Transocean?) were unwittingly doing the bidding of a deity. Unless they were witting angels of destruction.
Come on Alan, why didn't you just title the article "Vent your bigotry against Christians". People (not just Christians) say crazy things after every disaster. I don't think even a significant percentage Christians believe the oil spill was a punishment form God. By highlighting this fringe view, you went out of your way to encourage the outpouring of prejudice that is so prevalent in the comments section . It was the absoultely predictable response to your article.
You used to be proud that Cosmic Blog was a relatively civil place. You've thrown civility out the window today. The ironic part is that I'm not a Christian, I'm just appalled by you resorting to Christian bashing in lieu of covering real science.
Steven, if you don't appreciate Alan's articles anymore, there are many other blogs to be found.
Of course I appreciate Alan's work. But unlike you, I don't blindly worship him. This blog entry was a misktake, seemly made to stir people up for no useful purpose. It's just taking a cheap shot at an unpopular subculture.
As miuch as I enjoy his work, no one should be immune to criticism. Not even Alan. If it helps, I will agree that most of the time Alan's work is well thought out and interesting.
Like it or not Steven, science itself is just another belief system. It's very interesting to occasionally explore the effects one belief system has on others.
If we aren't interested in learning were we differ how can we ever come to see how we are alike?
Doing a bit of paraphrasing, perhaps the best way to put everything into perspective is something that Alan wrote in a reply sometime over the past year or two, which basically is that this is called "Cosmic Log" rather than "Science Log" . . .
And I think that a lot of folks are a bit more on the "Cosmic" side of things, since there are aspects of the universe that are not so easy to explain when one focuses specifically on just one perspective . . .
I have no doubt whatsoever that there are angels and that miracles happen, but I think there are rules for the way everything works, and all the rules are completely and totally consistent with the rules of physics, which in a general sense is the usage of "physics" that spans "science", since physics is where the rules of science ultimately are identified, verified, and defined . . .
And there are some quite amazing bits of information that come from physics and the various other sciences, some of which I learned decades ago but others that are more recent:
(1) The human eye has the ability to detect single photons in ideal conditions with an accuracy of approximately 60 percent, which is sufficient to make it "normal", at least using the rule that 60 percent is the generally defined threshold that separates "Who knows?" from "It happens!" . . .
(2) The human ear has the ability to detect a change in standard atmospheric pressure to the accuracy of one-billionth of standard atmospheric pressure, which if I did the arithmetic correctly maps to the disturbance caused by the motion of a single electron in its particle state, where in at least some quantum systems as I currently understand everything a photon can be considered as a different form or state of an electron, which might be a bit goofy but is no more goofy than the concept that nothing is real, which in some respects is the hallmark of the quantum universe . . .
(3) Most recently, while doing a bit of focused Googling motivated by one of Alan's "Cosmic Log" reports on the quantum universe ("Tales from the quantum frontier"; "Cosmic Log"; March 17, 2010)--where at first I simply was looking for a definition of a "qubit", since apparently I had zoned-out at the time, probably due to not having enjoyed a sufficient number of cups of coffee, hence had forgotten what a qubit was--I found a fascinating research paper that suggested it was possible for the human eye literally and physically to "see" a qubit if a single photon somehow became entangled with perhaps eight or so other photons, which certainly is a mind-boggling concept . . .
[NOTE: This was before Newsvine was used for comments, so my comment was done as "JD, Seattle, WA" . . . ]
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/03/17/4351539-tales-from-the-quantum-frontier
http://medgadget.com/archives/2009/03/eyes_as_photon_detectors_for_quantum_experiments.html
And while I am not suggesting that all my hypotheses and inferences are correct, I have been reading and pondering this stuff at least for four decades, since first finding and reading one of Prof. Richard Feynman's books, and there certainly are a lot of patently strange rules and behaviors . . .
Whether an electron and a photon are the same thing but in different forms or states is another matter, but I recall hearing or reading that they can convert back and forth in some scenarios, which might have been just an aside made by Prof. Feynman in a lecture that I saw on television or perhaps read in one of his books on Quantum Electrodynamics, since I really like the diagrams he created that have squiggles and stuff, because physics makes the most sense to me visually . . .
[NOTE: Over a decade ago, I expanded the set a bit, so it now is {squiggles, wiggles, waddles, warbles, farbels, and wibbles} . . . ]
I can wade through some of the mathematics, although it takes a while, but no matter how complex the material might be, I get it virtually instantly when there is a drawing or diagram, which is something I discovered in an immediately conscious way during a lecture on curl in an Advanced Calculus class, where the professor had filled perhaps 200 feet (length) of chalkboards with numbers, variables, and equations--none of which made the least bit of sense to me--so, I asked him if there was a way to draw a picture of curl, which he did, and once I saw it I knew exactly what it was, so I asked a few more questions and made some observations, at which point he said that my observations were correct but were too advanced for this particular class, which certainly mapped to an epiphany for me . . .
The way I made sense of the hearing aspect is that I found a few bits of information that approximated the size of various atoms and simple molecules, which I used to approximate the size of an electron, and then I might have used Avogadro's Number to do something, but no matter how it happened, it appears logical to me that one-billionth of a standard atmosphere probably maps to the motion made by an electron, and regardless of whether it maps to the motion of a single electron, the human ear is able in ideal conditions to detect this small of a change . . .
[SOURCE: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/earsens.html ]
And after refreshing my memory, I think that I based everything generally on the concept that an electron might be approximately one-tenth of an atomic diameter, although since I am working on my second cup of Massimo Zanetti Master Chef coffee made in the ratio of 1/2 cup of ground coffee to 12-ounces of water at the ideal brewing temperature of 200 degrees Fahrenheit, I am a bit slow in the mentation department at present, since having the apparently rare, South American "coffee achiever" gene, it takes several cups of coffee to get my conscious mind fully awakened--noting that for those folks who do not have the "coffee achiever" gene, drinking even one cup of coffee this strong might be fatal, so it is not something that most of the people on this planet ever should do, and for the record I have been advised at various times by medical doctors that it is good for me to drink a lot of extraordinarily strong coffee, and one of these medical doctors is my sister . . .
It is a bit strange, but the fact of the matter is that I usually enjoy a few cups of coffee or several 12-ounce glass bottles of Mexican Coca-Cola made with pure cane sugar before taking a nap or sleeping, and the bit about the "coffee achiever" gene is something I discovered several years ago in a bit of research done on people who drink a lot of extraordinarily strong coffee, which as I recall was done in South America or perhaps Central America . . .
When there is a Starbucks nearby, it is not the least bit unusual for me to enjoy an iced quad vente three pumps of peppermint breve extra ice latte macchiato while the barista is making two more of them, one of which I enjoy after the first one while still in the coffee shop, with the other one being "to go" . . .
And one of the more fascinating aspects of having the "coffee achiever" gene is that it makes it possible to receive instructions beamed telepathically by the the aliens from outer space, who at this very moment are circling our planet in low-Earth orbit while they search frantically for the missing Mirror Matter Popcorn™ that they "misplaced" during what they imagined would be a happy picnic in the desert outside Roswell, New Mexico in the 1940s, since among other things they need the Mirror Matter Popcorn to power the Hilbert Space Hopper Drive™ that provides faster-than-light (FTL) multidimensional propulsion for their spaceship . . .
[NOTE: There is a drawing of the Mirror Matter Popcorn I/O Unit of a Hilbert Space Hopper Drive on one of the cue cards shown in the YouTube music video for the Angela Gossow's Underpants song done by my pretend Rock and Roll band, The Surf Whammys, just before the lead guitar solo, but it is a bit blurry, since I did not have an HD camcorder at the time, which is fabulous . . .]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecAFV-6rQ7Q
Fabulous!
Explained yet another way, the various religious aspects of the ways people react, relate, and interpret the BP "Macondo" event are not insignificant, and for a lot of folks the best fitting interpretation is that it generally is an indisputable "Act of God", which is a perspective likely to be promoted by a virtual festival of attorneys and insurance agents . . .
My perspective tends to be more along the lines of it being an "Act of Human Stupidity by a Sneaky Weasel Corporation" but then, what do I know?
I am an entertainer!
And I am . . .
Unencumbered by Knowledge!™
As a study in Human Psychology, the looking at how different journalists/writers in different times all seem to keep coming back to the Story of The Universe as THEY were taught it while growing up. The common thread of reactionary religiosity is interesting to note in this context, as it is a reoccurring theme. One could likely directly tie in the individual writing the paper's education and choice of church upbringing, how stern a church etc, to come up with some meaningful data on the subject matter of Why these individuals see a religion based reason behind every human or nature caused disaster?
j-187...: Did you say that science is the same as superstition?
Actually I think that this title was perfect. To make a point that there are people with such a warped mindset that they think that is a true act of God. If you believe that all actions are of God then everything that happens is of God. You should ask some of these true believers if this is true. I should point out that I am a church going Catholic and I find this very hard to swallow.
I was thinking maybe a giant God-like hand was going to be visible in the the oil...kinda like Jesus shows up on toast...tsk tsk.
Most sensible post yet!
LMAO
I think all of those that say they believe in God have one thing in common, they are afraid not to believe or something bad will happen, like sin. Religion and god were probably only started to control the masses and make them fearful enough of burning in hell to keep them in line. We are only organic creatures that have advanced abilities, no more, some less. Believe in ghosts if you must to get by and think you are better for it. You would be better to put that effort into being a better human and acting like it.
Second most sensible post yet!!
Once again, igornace and superstition posing as religion. The Gulf Coast is ïn the middle of the Bible Belt. Why would God decide to punish his most ardent followers?
Truth told. God is NOT going to do our homework for us. He gave us a beautiful world to share and to cherish. We have displayed our gratitude to God by turning his world into a killing field, sweat shop and toxic dump. We've turned the ocean into a chemical toilet bowl, and we are destroying all forms of marine life.
We need to free ourselves from fossil fuel. We need to develop clean energy supplies. We need to save the planet. At least President Obama is going in the right direction. He deserves our support. Again, Jesus is not going to come down from the cross to save us from our own greed and stupidity. We need to do that ourselves.
Be careful what you wish for! Weapons of Mass Destruction or teach them Democracy (Never mention that stealing oil is the real intent). The Oil Wish has come true!The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now known as BP) kept stealing the oil of the Iranian people for decades and when the democratically elected government of Iran nationalized its own oil, the US ran to engineer a coup to remove the Iranian PM for the benefit of BP! It is now BP that is bringing oil to the US in every possible way! With people like the Wall Street Bankers and BP, does American need enemies! Please check "Scholars for 911 Truth". American Scientists are proving that the official story of 911 is a half baked pile of s-h-i-t. God Bless America!
I agree with what you say about our oil manipulations for the last half century, but the 9/11 thing you might better argue it was a direct result of our oil meddling over the last 59 years ..this crazy conspiracy theory you got going there is just as nutty as allying our selves with arab scum, pushtun liars(to kill Russians)the bin ladens (to build docks and oil pipe lines) Shi'ite murders.Sunni assassins,wahobyists lunatics (forgive the spelling)and the second most untrust worthy group of human beings(the aforementioned)after the Israeli Jew ...THE U.S. should do one of 2 things leave them to their own devices (they will kill each other off)which leads to the second dilemma (which is a matter of our own doing) lower our standard of living or get with the program of the 21 century and invest as much money in green tech. and better infrastructure as we have in oil or oil exploration or wars to posses it.OR (and this will appeal to my right wing friends)kill all of the Muslims everywhere and take the oil...sounds kinda drastic for less then a 30 year supply of the stuff in the middle east anyway....
If you haven't yet read the Bible, now would be a good time to get started on it. Not knowing history or what future prophecy holds for these United States is a way of allowing one's self to remain deceived. Always remember, there are people who God doesn't want in His kingdom and you have a choice to either believe or choose to go your own way. God needs nothing and no one, that's why he's God. This is Satan's world and he hates every human that ever lived. Wake-up people, it's obvious that God's blessings have been taken from us as a nation. We're hopelessly broke, overrun by criminals and our leader is a pimp, selling us out to anyone and everyone.
We've let our enemies come to get a piece of America while "the Great Whore" fulfills her role in Bible prophecy. No longer are we a nation with a purpose. We've lost our sense of direction. We're hopeless.
whoa!! Jesus dude ,your bible is a whole lot meaner than mine..First and foremost if you ever read yours...you would already know that GOD hates all nations and GOD blesses everyone with the same ability to attain an everlasting paradise.. Bottom line GOD punishes or blesses no-one while we are here on this earth what he does do is judge us on our actions ,on our love and on our ability to focus on loving thy neighbor all neighbors in all neighborhoods ,everywhere in the world and he will judge us on how we loved our family and helped the sick and fed and clothed and gave jobs to the poor.He will judge us finally on how we took care of this paradise he left us ...I mean the earth ..stupid this is our legacy.How well we protect his creation... this earth ... My GOD is the GOD of infinite forgiveness,infinite patience and infinite chances to those who truly make the effort even those who don't believe in him have a better chance at his paradise in heaven then someone like you who believes the ridiculous idea of GOD BLESS AMERICA only.GOD blesses everyone ...without exception...their are sinners who may never repent that may make it to heaven faster than some of our scummy religious leaders....you know who you are JOHN HAGEE
Jimmy, the bible (or any other holy book) was never meant to be taken literally. The faith in a god can be a comfort to some. This end is jeopardized by what some have done with it.
Why would I want to read a book full of contradiction, Murder, Death, slavery, sacrifice, Rape, that teaches
that an all knowing God gave us free will.
HAH Free will with a all knowing God, really. Maybe the illusion of free will.
A God that would have such humanistic emotions that he would use them to cast those that he professes to Love beyond words into a pit of fire because they didnt join the JC club.
A God that killed his own son to forgive our sins, which is interesting considering he is an all powerful being so why couldnt he just forgive us and tell us to pray to him for forgiveness. That doesnt sound like an all knowing God.
And then there is Satan, a fallen angel that has immortal intelligence (in other words he is infinitely smarter than any human) would be stupid enough to rebel against God when he knows his end will be an everlasting pit of fire, after all he knows Gods power and I am sure he has read the bible.
Seriously, this might be entertaining but I prefer to read actual Fantasy books rather then a book that claims it is truth.
Man was created in Gods image,please look in your garage,or drive way, see what you drive, then please look in the mirror, see God!! We are the reason this has happened, not God, not Obamma, no one is being punished, we have done this to ourselves.
Yeah ... right. Can someone say westboro babtisk church?
We all need to look in our rear view mirrors, there we will see the cause of this disaster, its not God its us. We drive too many miles, burn too much gas, drive land barges, and can't understand why this happened. Well, we demand it !!!
My heart goes out to those people that live around the Gulf, they are not going to get much help, but watch what happens when it hit Martha's Vinyard!!!!!
What we drive has absolutely nothing to do with the effects of this spill. It is America's 20 million barrels of oil/day appetite that has everything to do with creating this mess. The total system is flawed and it is statements like yours that cause further division amoung American citizens by causing division based on your misguided fault finding of what constitutes good gas mileage. How trivial can you get? The U.S, consumes more oil than the next five most industrialized nations combined. We are Responsible for this spill and it's effects have the potential of poisoning the oceans of this world permanently. If that isn't a judgement upon us as a people then the term needs to be redefined. We are doomed.
This is ridiculous. He must be mad at Bridgeport, CT, too, huh? And the states that had all the flooding on the East Coast?
This is the type of crap that gives God a bad name.
For Humans Sake! I swear Humans Kill EVERYTHING Including EACH OTHER!
All for the sake of the all mighty dollar! throw them all on an island surrounded with the almighty oil and let them find food or survive like the mammals (and other life)who have all been oiled and left to die ! Also because of the almighty dollar! HUMANS MAKE ME SICK!
Doomsayers like these give the rest of us a bad name.
"Doomsayers " - LOL
It's a good metal band name, HAHAHAHA~!
Actually Christians have always been trying to put words in God's mouth. They pick two totally random events and try to link them together. Perhaps they should look at what God did. He attacked the oil wells, right after conservatives yelled DRILL BABY DRILL. How conservatives can't see they are being mocked is beyond me. God has abandoned them, because they have abandoned him. They do not follow the example of Christ; have sold their soul to politics and worship false prophets. I think they need to read Revelations again.
yay stally : you are wise and correct
Well if you think about it, the whole series of events that led to this disaster started in the year 2000 when Florida put Bush in office. If I were a member of the Religious Right, I would be trembling in my boots right now.
ha can't be more stupid than blame God for a damn mistake that bp did, be realistic god doesn't has anything to do with this is just a company and part of the goberment that has done nothin to fix this or help fixing it God is punishing the golf yeah god is punishing all the poor fishies and little turtles in the golf, man is almost insulting to blame god for the mistakes a human does.then whats gonna happen is already in florida then is gonna go to mexico and instead of blame someone do something to fix this @!$%# and stop playing stupid.
Bravo to William Joseph Miller. He admits his faith in the God of the Bible, who is real whether the world likes it or not, risking the mockery of the self-imagined wise who have all poured out their vitrol on the Christians who may be mistating this thing. Mr. Miller is precisely correct. Sin always has its consequences. The sin was that of BP officials trying to save money in dangerous ways, of federal inspectors who didn't do their job, and I imagine quite a host of other people that I know nothing of. Because sin has its consequences, nations that cling to it begin to spiral downhill. It is very often the case that the most innocent suffer the most. God is all good and all kind. He makes a lifestyle out of saving us from the results of our wickedness and folly. He doesn't put an abrupt end to wickedness, partly because the wheat would get uprooted along with the weeds, but be sure your sin will find you out. Unless your sin is covered by your faith in the blood sacrifice of Christ, you will be called to account for every filthy word, every filthy act, every lie, every mockery of the true faith, every idol that lives in your own heart instead of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. who loved us enough to give up, if you will, his other self, to pay our unimaginable debt.
Dick Swindle... a perfect name for one who would actually believe such ancient superstition of such an angry & vengeful deity that demands perfect obedience or eternal damnation. I try to take pity on believers like you as I realize that there must be some mental illness at work but your kind has done so much damage to our society that at the least your bizarre fantasies must be publicly rebuked and exposed for the fantasy that they are inside your fevered imagination, self-loathing and disregard for the suffering of your fellow humans. As evidence take your unfounded assertion that your deity is "all good and all kind" while it allows or causes "the innocent suffer the most" due to the "sin" of the allegedly wicked. Such reasoning (or lack thereof) is why so many do suffer in this world due to the imposed & enforced ignorance of the superstitious in a world that demands we use our critical thinking skills & reason to help make our world a better place for all of humankind.
Your imagined deity is a relic of our dark past that has no place in the modern world. While I fully support your 1st Amendment right to believe what you wish and to voice your beliefs in a public forum I am duty bound to point out that your reasoning is flawed and antithetical to a vital & thriving functional Constitutional Republic as it takes an enlightened, educated electorate to prevent the masses being swayed by demagogues hellbent on pushing religious dogma that runs contrary to the Enlightenment Philosophy our Founding Fathers based our nation upon. Just some food for thought as you contemplate your "sinful" ways.
Richard Swindle, I mean no disrespect when I say this but you, sir, are NUTS!!!
no - man is ruining the home mother nature gave us
Alan, you sure know how to strir the s*it pond. However some of the respondents on this blog should feel right at home. I heard a fellow on one of our local talk shows comment that he had met a fellow, an attorney (who just happened to be American Indian) and he told him he had traveled over a great portion of the world trying to learn the "color" of God. Was he/she black,, white. yellow, red, or something in between. After all of his travels he came to the conclusion that the color of God was green, representing the color of money! We have residents lives affected for ever, some have commited suicide and some of the folks down there want to restart the drilling process without any idea how this happened and how to fix it when it does. I'm sorry but it appears that money drove the decisions. to take shortcuts if the early evidence passes muster. And, if the folks down there really want the drilling to re-start without any answers, they to have green as their God. Peace to all of the folks affected and I hope your lives return to some form of normality. Yeah, I'm a believer, but this isn't a deity issue, this is greed, pure and simple!
Thank you for the forum, Alan
I believe that there is a universal law that goes this way, when you sin, you destroy your own self. and when you obey you create your freedom. if bp would have obeyed the law of safety and security, this oil spill would never have happened. now concerning God and his punishment, the sinner punishes their own self's and cleaning up this oil spill, maybe God is waiting for evolution to do it.
God gave us the ability to develop unbelievable technology to make our lives better, but He also has instructed us to exercise great stewardship over our environment; this we have failed miserably in. He hasn't poured out His wrath against us -- He's given us free will to run our lives. No, we have to look no further than politics and the oil industry. This isn't the first time BP's been involved in a huge oil spill; they could care less about what happens to the U.S. environment or its disastrous effects on millions of people. They're only helping because they know they have to, to save their own company. No, God is looking at all that has happened in the last 2 months and is probably shaking His head...
Sorry but per the bibles definition of God there can be no free will, You cannot have a perfect all knowing omnipotent God and still have free will, you can have an illusion of free will but not actual free will. This is impossible when God already knows what you will do.
If you say then that God doesnt know what you will do then God is not Omnipotent and all knowing and he is not perfect.
Yeah and God caused the death of the 9 on the Flotilla.
God wouldn't have waited one day for vengeance, maybe it was the hand of man.
I was indirectly molested by Hal Lindsay/lindsey/linden/whatever as a child in the 80s. I was exposed to his hate mongering garbage and actually believed it and lived a life of constant fear. You know what? This planet would have been a better place without YOU, YOU SORRY PILE OF CRAP
I believe that there is a universal law that goes this way, when you sin, you destroy your own self. and when you obey you create your own freedom. if bp would have obeyed the law of safety and security, this oil spill would never have happened. now concerning God and his punishment, the sinner punishes their own self's and cleaning up this oil spill, maybe God is waiting for evolution to do it. hummmm could this be why GOD SAID "THOU SHALL NOT"
Wait I thought all Christians believed in creation and not evolution?
The bible also says "God helps those that help themselves" which is a very funny self fulfilling prophecy.
I can recall correctly, it is god who punished the Israelites with expulsion from their promised land. Does anyone really read the bible?
Is God punishing the Gulf ?
No, Man-kind is self-destructing.
Man did this, Not God. Gods plan was for peace. along with other GOOD things. the Gulf disaster is not 1 of them. God don't work that way. this world has slowly but surely been disrespecting God in every which way!
Look around!
Exxon Valdez claim,till 20 years courts battles still unsettle many small people dying, now oil still spill at gulf,but fast enough 20 billion secured for small people ,before BP bankrupt.
That's the Difference between Republican and Democrate.
Its a pity, can afford spend trillion on war and greed for Oil abroad till broke,now Oil come home to roost the shore,there's nothing left even for home cleaning.