divine intervention or coincidence?

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Miracles of prayer?

A difficult judgement ;-)

********

In a small town in India , a person decided to open up a bar business. Unfortunately the location of his bar was right opposite a Hindu temple. The temple authorities and devotees were furious and started a campaign to block the bar from opening, with petitions and daily prayers against the yamseng business.

Work progressed. However, when the development for the bar was completed, with the joint about to open a few days later, it was struck by lightning and burnt down to the ground.

The temple folks were jubilant with that miraculous outcome, until the bar owner sued the temple authorities on grounds that they were, through their prayers, ultimately responsible for the destruction of his bar. An act of God could only be through such continuous beseeching to the Divine.

In their response in court, the temple authorities rejected any responsibility for the destruction of the bar, pooh-poohing away the miraculous powers of prayers.

The judge commented: "I am not sure yet how I'm going to decide on this case, but it appears that we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayers but a temple authority and devotees who don't."

Q Does religion hinder progress?

 errr and you call the setting up of a bar...progress...hmmm