re requests in article c qllg bc mailer cc fsu edu mayne pipe cs fsu edu william mayne writes in article pww spac at rice edu 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
