From: livesey@solntze.wpd.sgi.com (Jon Livesey) Subject: Re: Requests Organization: sgi Lines: 28 Distribution: world NNTP-Posting-Host: solntze.wpd.sgi.com In article , mayne@pipe.cs.fsu.edu (William Mayne) writes: |> In article pww@spacsun.rice.edu (Peter Walker) writes: |> > |> >Didn't the Church get lightning rods banned in several European countries |> >in the eighteenth century because it was widely believed that they |> >interfered with god's striking down of blasphemers? I seem to remember that |> >this was more common in eastern Europe. |> |> I don't know about eastern Europe, but according to Bertrand Russell, |> writing in Science and Mysticism (I think, though it could have been |> another book) said that preachers in colonial Boston attributed an |> earthquake to God's wrath over people putting up lightning rods, which |> they had been preaching against as interference with God's will. Being |> deprived of lightning bolts as a method to get at sinners He evidently |> resorted to sterner measures. |> |> No smilies. I am not making this up. I'm sure you are not. After the "San Francisco" Earthquake a couple of years ago, there was a flurry of traffic on talk.religion.misc about how this was the result of the notorious homo- this that and t'other in the City. The fact that the Earthquake was actually down the road in Santa Cruz/Watsonville didn't seem to phase them any. jon.