Icelandic Volcano a Pot Punishment?

(Aired on April 23, 2010)

An Iranian cleric this week is blaming earthquakes on promiscuous women.  Yes, you heard that right.  Hojjat Ol-Eslam Kazem Sediqi says many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray and spread adultery in society which increases earthquakes.  Something may have been lost in translation there, because I was following all the way up until the earthquakes part.  Not to say I agreed, but at least I was following the argument.  You may laugh at immodest women causing earthquakes, but it's hardly more ridiculous than Pat Robertson blaming the Haiti earthquake on the nation being cursed because it made a pact with the devil to get out from under Napoleonic rule.

So if natural disasters are indeed caused by the breach of some subjective standard of morality, what sin, dalliance, or impropriety caused this massive volcanic eruption in Iceland?  My first instinct would be to say the sin was sexual in nature, because nobody appreciates a good bit of symbolism like the Almighty.

But maybe it's a little more literal, and that's why I've concluded that the sin being punished here is marijuana use.  After all, all of European life is being crippled by a giant cloud of smoke.  One of the cities impacted is Amsterdam, what with its permissive drug laws.  And with hundreds of thousands of people forced to stay where they are it's quite likely many are experiencing varying degrees of paranoia.  That doesn't even mention the fact that Tuesday was 4-20 - a day of celebration and participation for pot users around the world.  For all of the headaches this is producing, I suppose we should hope that no one is using the herb for medicinal purposes for fear that the situation will get worse.

This disaster is costing the European economy billions of dollars, but using the same logic as the cleric and Brother Robertson, that's probably a logical punishment for smoking weed.