<$BlogRSDURL$>

 

Preposterous Universe

Thursday, December 30, 2004
 
Efficacy of prayer

Chris C. Mooney mentions something that certainly surprised me -- the NBA's New Orleans Hornets begin each home game with a prayer. Not just the team, the whole arena -- the prayer is read over the loudspeakers by someone standing at center court. Since the Hornets are not a government institution, they certainly have a right to hold a prayer, but it seems obnoxious, as there are certainly plenty of non-religious people, or devotees of different religions, in the crowd for each game.

Apparently New Orleans is the only NBA franchise to have a prayer before each game. Among other things, the prayers ask for success for the Hornets and the NFL's Saints. This gives us a nice chance to check on how useful it is to ask for divine intervention. Here are the current NBA standings:
PhoenixSuns          24  4   .857 

SanAntonioSpurs 23 6 .793
SeattleSupersonics 20 6 .769
MiamiHeat 23 7 .767
DallasMavericks 19 10 .655
SacramentoKings 17 9 .654
MinnesotaT-wolves 16 10 .615
ClevelandCavaliers 17 11 .607
OrlandoMagic 15 11 .577
WashingtonWizards 15 11 .577
LALakers 15 12 .556
DetroitPistons 14 12 .538
NYKnicks 15 13 .536
IndianaPacers 13 13 .500
PortlandTrailBlazers 13 13 .500
Philadelphia76ers 13 14 .481
DenverNuggets 13 15 .464
HoustonRockets 13 15 .464
LAClippers 12 14 .462
BostonCeltics 12 15 .444
MemphisGrizzlies 13 17 .433
UtahJazz 11 17 .393
NJNets 10 17 .370
GSWarriors 10 18 .357
ChicagoBulls 9 17 .346
TorontoRaptors 10 20 .333
MilwaukeeBucks 8 16 .333
CharlotteBobcats 7 17 .292
AtlantaHawks 5 22 .185
NOrleansHornets 2 25 .074
Goodness, all that praying doesn't seem to be helping very much. Where is God-Man when you need Him?

 
Ideas on culture, science, politics.
Sean Carroll


Preposterous Home
Atom Site Feed (xml)
RSS Feed
Technorati Profile
Bloglines Citations
Blogroll Me

Elsewhere
3quarksdaily
About Last Night
Alas, a Blog
The American Sector
apostropher
applecidercheesefudge
archy
Asymmetrical Information
Big Brass Blog
Bitch, Ph.D.
Blondesense
BlogBites
Body and Soul
Brad DeLong
Chris C Mooney
Collision Detection
Creek Running North
Crescat Sententia
Crooked Timber
Daily Kos
Daniel Drezner
Decembrist
Deepen the Mystery
Dispatches from the Culture Wars
Dynamics of Cats
Electron Blue
Eschaton
Explananda
Ezra Klein
Fafblog
Feministe
The Fulcrum
Girls Are Pretty
Grammar.police
Jacques Distler
James Wolcott
John and Belle
Julie Saltman
Lawyers, Guns and Money
Leiter Reports
locussolus
The Loom
Majikthise
Matt McIrvin
Matthew Yglesias
Michael Bérubé
Michael Nielsen
Mixing Memory
Mr. Sun
Not Even Wrong
Obsidian Wings
Orange Quark
Paige's Page
Pandagon
Panda's Thumb
Pharyngula
Playing School, Irreverently
Political Animal
The Poor Man
Quantum Diaries
Quark Soup
Real Climate
Rhosgobel
Roger Ailes
Rox Populi
Shakespeare's Sister
Simple Stories
Sisyphus Shrugged
Smijer & Buck
TPM Cafe
TigerHawk
uggabugga
Uncertain Principles
Unfogged
Volokh Conspiracy
Wonkette


Powered by Blogger
Comments by Haloscan
RSS Feed by 2RSS.com


Archives
February 2004
March 2004
April 2004
May 2004
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005