Jeb Bush is seems to know why meteorologists were unable to track Charley’s course before it came on-shore.
The president’s brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, surveyed the devastation by helicopter. Visiting relief workers in Punta Gorda, he defended scientists and local officials from criticism that they had miscalculated the path of the hurricane, which had been expected to hit the more heavily populated Tampa Bay region almost 100 miles to the north.
“God doesn’t follow the linear projections of computer models,” Bush said outside the emergency management center, whose roof caved in during the hurricane. “This is God’s way of telling us that he’s almighty and we’re mortal.”
Um … right. Death and devastation are God getting back at us for thinking we can try to figure out the weather. Got it. “Vengeance is mine,” sayeth the Lord, “especially against those mighty sinners at the Weather Channel.”
While I don’t claim to know why an all-good, all-powerful, all-knowing God allows such misery in the world, I think I could probably come up with a better answer than that it’s to remind us uppity humans Who’s the Boss.
(via Les)
*insert inarticulate rage noises here* Welcome to my state. Gr.
Um … no, thanks, I think I’ll visit in the winter. Maybe God will be in a better mood then.
Would you rather have God have the forecast be right and have it hit a more populated area?
Since the weather is widely thought to be non-linear, most weather models are non-linear. So Jeb Bush is clearly speaking from gross ignorance when he says that the problem lies in our inadequate linear models.
The problem is that non-linear systems like the weather often cannot be adequately predicted using ANY model if you don’t have enough data on the real-world system you’re trying to predict. Getting enough data on the weather is prohibitively expensive — it would require millions of sensors, perhaps billions. So we make do with satellite pictures, a few weather sensors, and some admittedly basic non-linear models of the weather.
It’s interesting to me that your gut reaction was to critique his theology, while mine was to critique his technical faux pas.
Rich: My objection is not to where it hit, or whether the forecasters were correct, but to Gov. Bush’s inference that the failure of the weather forecasters was God showing us who’s the omniscient and omnipotent one.
Dave: That’s because I expect most people to be ignorant about science, but I get annoyed by their similarly breezy (so to speak) pronouncements on religion.
So, M. Bush: does God follow computer models of bridge design or celestial mechanics? We’re pretty good at things like that. If God had other ideas I think we’d notice.
Or does God only get involved with things that partake of the indeterminate and chaotic? Does God = Chaos?
General Principle: What we don’t know how to do yet is God’s work.
Ignorance is a many-layered thing.