If you are not familiar with Pat Robertson, please let me introduce him. Pat is the head of the Christian Broadcasting Network and the creator of the 700 Club. You know the 700 Club, the scary christian propaganda machine that brought us Jim and Tammy Fae Baker.
Pat also created the CBN News, which as Darth pointed out to me is ridiculous in that the news is supposed to be unbiased.
Funny,right? Unbiased news. Unbiased as in Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, Bill O'Reilly unbiased. Sorry, but unbiased news is about as real as Santa, virgin births and clean politicians. No such thing.
Pat has a history of making wonderfully stupid statements during the weekly addresses to his flock. Time Magazine has created a list of the Greatest Pat Robertson gaffes, so I won't recreate it here, but I want to point out the two that I am most fond of.
In 2005 good old Pat said that god allowed and caused hurricane Katrina to kill nearly 2500 people and decimate New Orleans as punishment for allowing a Supreme Court Justice nominee (John Roberts) who promised to uphold Roe v. Wade to be appointed to the highest court in the Land.
He said god punished the United States for supporting the right to choose and killed 2500 people to prove his point. Nice.
In 1992, Iowa was voting on an equal rights amendment (the last state in the Union to do so) and Patty pleaded with Iowans to ban together to stop the vote saying that he would do anything in his power to rid this country of women's equality. He went as far as a public plea on the 700 Club to ask people to donate money to an organization against the movement, the "Stop ERA" group. He penned a letter to supporters saying that feminist movement was "a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."
I wonder if people remember the things he has said and done. I don't think so.
That's why I'm writing this.
You gotta love a f*cking nut! However this time he has really gone way off the deep end. This time he has mocked the tragic death of thousands and thousands of people in the name of BULLSHIT religion.
On January 13th, 2010 this lunatic said, "[The Haitians] were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you'll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it's a deal [...] ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other."
He goes on to add that the earthquake is just one of many retributive actions by his god against Haiti for their satanic contract.
I am all for First Amendment rights and would never sanction censorship or punitive action against someone for making a public statement that I didn't agree with, but SOMEONE NEEDS TO KICK HIS ASS.
The scary thing is that people actually believe and follow his bullshit. People you know, be sure of it. These are dangerous mother f*ckers.
They are just like the Taliban in Afghanistan, make no mistake. The Religious Right, the Southern Baptist and and the Evangelicals are no different in its intolerance, ignorance, fanaticism or oppression than the pricks our men and women in uniform are trying to root out of the mountains in Central Asia. They only differ in that they are Americans, who are too lazy and comfortable to do anything crazy like blow themselves up, at least not yet.
Don't be fooled though, these groups are full of nuts and horrors like the Oklahoma City bombing could happen again. These American Talibani feel their grip on this country slipping away eventually one of them will do something stupid.
Don't misunderstand me though; I don't think that conservatives are crazy and I don't hate Republicans, I just don't like religious zealots and hate-mongers like Robertson. Religion is a bad thing. If you don't believe me, look around you and tell me which conflicts that we are in right now don't have a basis in religion. Or take a perusal through your world history book and count the number of wars that have been waged in the name of some f*cking god or another.
BTW: Before anyone sends me an email to correct my mis-capitalization of "god" and "satan", don't bother. Its deliberate.
With all due respect,
The Chief
5 comments:
I was right there with you until you wrote, "Religion is a bad thing."
How in the f*ck is Pat Robertson religious? Him saying he is doesn't make it so. Since I don't trust this man's opinion about a thing on God's green earth means I certainly won't trust his self-definition. Most people aren't terribly reflective, anyway, him least of all.
That said, it's idiotic to blame "religion" because a$$holes like to use religion to get people to send them tons of money. There's a lot of money in the God racket. Doesn't mean there's no God.
How can you look at the 6 billion people in the world, most of whom believe in God, and at least half of whom follow an organized religion, and say no good has come from that? The jerks who use religion as a tool to further ugly agendas are a small but vocal minority. The masses draw great comfort from, give charity in the name of, fast and pray and worship and love, in the name of religion.
I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, rather than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is.
Jen,
Well said and I suppose I agree with you that charity and kindness are byproducts of FAITH and BELIEF, but religion has nothing to do with it. Religion and Faith are not the same things and I stand be my comment that religion is a bad thing. Remember that even though people like Mother Teresa who demonstrated extreme acts of kindness, the religion she was a part of is also responsible for harboring pedophiles and the slaughter of millions of non-believers during the Crusades. Muslims kill each other over simple difference in interpretation of their religion.
Perhaps a better word is needed since most followers of religion believe "religion" and "faith" are synonymous but in fact they are not. Religion is a set of rules and protocols and procedures all designed to control how a person interacts with their deity of choice. Its a man-made thing and in and of itself it has little to do with faith, and much more to do with control.
Do you really believe that an omniscient, omnipotent god would need you to wipe water on your forehead before you pray or would demand that you face a particular direction when you do it? Doesn't that seem more like a way to control your access to god? And when you stop and think about it, why would a creator of God's magnitude give life to creatures in his image to then make them flawed and corruptible and then demand that they jump through ridiculous hoops and suffering to prove they believe that he exists? Why would he need and demand to be worshipped at all. We don't worship our parents but they love us anyway. Do you really think God needs you to kneel to know that you are good?
Seem silly and again like a way for one group of people to establish rules and controls over another group.
That is what religion is, at least the way I see it; a control machine that has little to do with kindness, compassion and love.
For these reason, to me Pat Robertson is the embodiment of religion. He demonstrates all the greed and power-lust and deliberate, methodical manipulation of nearly all religious leaders. Sure there have been a few that have been truly good people and have done wonderful thing in the name of their religion, but I ask you if each of these leaders practiced a different religion and still did good was it religion that made it happen or simple human kindness?
I don't think we need religion to be good to each other, but it sure does make it easier to do harm when its done under the banner of righteousness.
Thanks for the comment. Hope you keep reading.
The Chief
Hi Chief,
Hey, thanks for putting me on the front page!
Religion and faith are not the same thing, that's true. "Faith" is belief, the strength of one's conviction. "Religion" is the way of life, the system of conduct. Religion is a path, a call to good-doing, because right action leads to right thought. Both are important for the human condition. If faith is a candle, religion is a lantern. Without the candle, the lantern is an empty shell that provides no warmth or light. Without the lantern, the candle's flame can be snuffed out by the slightest gust of wind.
You're, of course, right: an omniscient, omnipresent deity does not need anything from Its creation. However, humans have endless needs. They need food and drink, sleep and shelter, love and respect, and, some philosophers would argue, an object worthy of worship to fill the "God-shaped hole" in their hearts. People without a religion always have an object of worship, too — a person, a cause, a sport, a game, a drug — something they live for. To answer your question, no, God does not need our worship, but humans do need to worship God.
In the Hebrew and Arabic languages, there is a world called nefesh/nafs — it means the part of one's soul/ego that is hungry, greedy and destructive. The human nefesh, run amok, causes the ugliness in the world: gluttony, despite millions who are starving; materialism and consumerism and the rape of the environment; murder, warfare and terrorism; the abuse of children, etc. If true religion (and again, I mean religion, not the clergy) seeks to control, it seeks to subdue the nefesh.
Have you ever read any holy scripture, or spoken with religious scholars or educated believers? Do you see how absurd your argument is: "Mother Teresa was good, but she acted on her own; pedophile priests are bad, but they act in the spirit of Catholicism." OK, so when people of any religious faith do wrong — murder, theft, pedophilia, abuse, etc. — they act in the name of God, but when people do right, they're just good folks who would've been good anyway. According to that logic, Mercedes is to blame for accidents, not the drivers themselves.
Here's why religion is necessary: because you cannot assign a cop to every single citizen of the globe. To have a civilization, people need to control themselves, and true religion offers the best method of facilitating that — belief in a God who is always watching. You assume that because you are an agnostic/atheist and are a relatively moral person, that such a thing is possible in every situation. You assume a lot. What about people who come from illiteracy, ignorance, poverty? What about people whose own parents abused them from earliest childhood? What about people born into war zones where anything goes? What about people born without a standard conscience? Religion offers a way to behave in every time and place, without the benefit of an instructive childhood, a family who loves you, money in your pocket and a roof over your head.
I would venture to say that you've met very few truly religious people in your life, and probably a lot of hypocrites. I understand that. That's because most people want it both ways — to do whatever they want, but have a convenient god who happens to think and feel just like they do, to take care of that "whole afterlife thing". This, again, only means they are delusional, not that religion itself is.
This is why heaven is not easy and hell is not unnecessary.
WOW! Someone with a fairly well thought out argument! Even if most religious type aren't even half baked in their reasoning, I must admit that was one of the more sedate and carefully worded responses I've heard on the site. Might we be taking a turn toward more intellectuals reading the site? Although I would point out to both of you that religion is dogma. The missed point is SPIRITUALITY. That's the key more a lot of people, which doesn't have to denote anything religious. Sort of like the old show Kung Fu. "Walk softly Grasshopper." Meaning to me, live ones life with the least possible harm one can inflict on others and more will be right with ones self the limited time we have on This Mortal Coil... Just a thought.
Always a pleasure to have someone with a strong opinion and the brains to back it up (whether I agree or not). Thanks Jen for posting a comment and please feel free to express yourself here. That's what this is all about.
To Angry's point, you're exactly on target. Its spirituality that is the key and I also subscribe to the "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" philosophy, or as the Buddha teaches we create our own suffering and the suffering of others.
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