Ramblings of an Armchair Skeptic

The building I work in is haunted. It's true. At least according to the many employees who have personally had an encounter with our incorporeal mischief maker known as Jarvis. There are other spirits that call the Dow Centre home as well, but Jarvis is the one who gets the credit when things seem to be going awry. I've always found it fascinating that when some people have an experience that they can't immediately identify, they label it as paranormal. Hear a creak in the night? Must be a ghost. Got a chill? Those wacky spooks must be trying to get you riled again. Hear an eerie whisper? That's just dear departed Granny Betty wishing you a good night. Why don't people look into a natural cause first? I guess when something unexplained and scary happens, they have to justify it in their minds to make sense of it and be able to deal. I find the main reason many of the people I've talked to believe in ghosts is because they have had an experience that they just co...

So I was wondering, isn't prayer a direct defiance of god's will? I offer an example. Tamlandia is experiencing a drought. Crops are withering and people are about to lose money and lives. The leader of Tamlandia implores it's people to pray for rain. Okay, but if god knows all then I'm sure he would already be aware of the dire situation. Not only that, he would be responsible for it. God's will. So who do the Tamlandians think they are to question god's will? Didn't other folks get into plenty of trouble for doing that? The name Job comes to mind. I once read a statement on a believers website that all prayers are answered. It's just that sometimes the answer is no. So god has listened to all these prayers and yet has said. "Nah, I think I'll let the drought go on until a suitable number of people have died." So it doesn't matter how many people pray thousands of prayers for weeks or months. The answer could be still be no huh? Well t...