Pharyngula::Thugs for God

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Thursday, November 10, 2005

Thugs for God

PZ Myers • 113 Comments (last page)

Hey, gang, this quote from Pat Robertson is not a joke.

On today’s 700 Club, Rev. Pat Robertson took the opportunity to strongly rebuke voters in Dover, PA who removed from office school board members who supported teaching faith-based “intelligent design” and instead elected Democrats who opposed bringing up the possibility of a Creator in the school system’s science curriculum.
Rev. Robertson warned the people of Dover that God might forsake the town because of the vote.
“I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover. If there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city. And don’t wonder why He hasn’t helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I’m not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that’s the case, don’t ask for His help because he might not be there.”

I like it. The message is clear, it's not hard to figure it out…Christianity is like an extortion racket, see, and if you don't cough up, well, Lew here might have a little accident with your car, or your house, or your little girl. And then Mr Big wouldn't be able to do nothin' for you. He doesn't mean nothing by it, he likes you, see, but if you don't show him a little respect, you can't expect him to trouble himself with your worries, OK? Me and Vinnie'll be by tomorrow, and you will have that little donation ready.

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Comments:

#48273: — 11/10 at 03:24 PM
This is particularly funny given how he blames disasters in one place on 'misbehavin' in another.
How long before he starts talking assassination of the new school board, hmmmm?

hugs,
Shirley Knott

#48275: — 11/10 at 03:27 PM
Guess I'm not crazy after all: Someone else points out the similarity between God and a mob boss, running protection rackets and putting hits out on people.

#48276: Keith — 11/10 at 03:28 PM
I wonder if there's any anthropological evidence supporting the theory that the early Church, being in Rome, had a major Cicilian influence that left an indelible mark on the Christian hierarchy; something that would last long enough to endure 1700 odd years of Metaphysical drift, religious war, liberalization and sectarian schism?

They do call him God(the)father an awful lot.

#48277: MJS — 11/10 at 03:29 PM
Pat Robertson is Travis Bickle!

+++

#48278: Jim Kakalios — 11/10 at 03:31 PM
Nice little town you have here - would be a shame if somethign were to happen to it.

Accidents happen, you know.

If I lived in Dover, I'd have someone from another town start my car in the morning, just to be safe.

Remember - it's not personal, just business.

#48279: Rick @ shrimp and grits — 11/10 at 03:36 PM
Pat Robertson? This guy?

"The Supreme Court has insulted you over and over again, Lord. They've taken your Bible away from the schools. They've forbidden little children to pray. They've taken the knowledge of God as best they can, and organizations have come into court to take the knowledge of God out of the public square of America."

From http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/14/Falwell.apology/

... but he was talking about 9/11 then. Same thug mentality, though.

#48288: — 11/10 at 03:45 PM
A bully and an idiot. Not so unlike our president.

And Tyrant Robertson has lots of foot soldiers. They are the same devils who tried to mandate parental consent for abortions in California (and lost) and who tried to deny gay people the right of marriage in Texas (and won).

Creationism is just one of their wars. I think the only way to stop them here is to put out all their other wars as well: the immoral war (Iraq), the pointless war (drugs), the racist war (the death penalty), the war against choice (sexual and reproductive freedoms).

#48291: — 11/10 at 03:58 PM
Keep up the good work, Pat, you're the best recruiting tool atheism ever had.

#48294: — 11/10 at 04:13 PM
Instead of the Mafia parallel, try terrorism: violence (or threats thereof) aimed at the population in order to advance your ideological goals. The only reason Ayatollah Pat doesn't get arrested is that no one in authority really believes that God is that much like Osama bin Laden.

#48296: — 11/10 at 04:18 PM
And don’t wonder why He hasn’t helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I’m not saying they will ...

Has Robertson been taking night classes? Because it looks like he's a fully qualified Intelligent Design scholar already.

-The Reverend Schmitt.

#48297: — 11/10 at 04:18 PM
Well, Robertson's been threatening us with natural disasters for a long time now. I always thought it was a remarkable coincidence that all the heathens that God wants to punish with hurricanes are conveniently located in the Atlantic Gulf Coast region.

I really would have thought he would have put a stop to this line of threat that one time he said a mighty hurricane was going to sweep away Orlando because of Disney's pro-gay employment practices or something like that, and then it turned around and made landfall by his Virginia Beach headquarters.

#48299: Keith — 11/10 at 04:29 PM
Technically, Chilly, Pat Robertson's CBN campus is in Chesapeake. as someone who used to live down the road form him, on the other side of the city line in VA Beach, we like to make these things clear.

#48300: — 11/10 at 04:30 PM
There's a Monet Water Lilies painting at the L.A. County Art Museum--which ought to be in the near vicinity of the La Brea tar pits--that is amazingly vivid.

100 years later, you'd swear the paint is still wet. Worth the price of admission all by itself.

#48301: — 11/10 at 04:35 PM
Sadly, this moron will start crowing if one of the newly-elected board members so much as gets into a minor car accident.

#48302: — 11/10 at 04:36 PM
Dang. That one was supposed to go under "California Dreaming." Ah well, (much as I hate to use Flood imagery)I'm sure PZ has been inundated with cool things to do.

#48304: — 11/10 at 04:49 PM
Pretty common in the Old Testament for God to pull that kind of stuff.

#48307: ekzept — 11/10 at 04:56 PM
this kind of attitude afflicts the god-is-a-puppet crowd all over the world, from radical Islamic pronouncements that hurricanes are punishment, to haredi in Israel who blame schools burning down on their mezzuzot not being up to code.

god-is-a-puppet? yeah, i can make god jump and trash Dover by evicting ID from its school board. in fact, the more Free Will is given to people according to these polytheists (yeah, they are, they believe in "the Devil"), the less free their Deity appears to be.

#48310: — 11/10 at 05:09 PM
It just occured to me that I agree with the vast majority of what Robertson said, with one small caveat.

Pat Robertson probably does enjoy saying things like this. The people of Dover should not turn to God in the event of a national disaster. The people of Dover should not wonder why God does not intervene in the event of a natural disaster. Pat Robertson is completely unable to tell if God's wrath will be enacted upon the city. Religion is a terrible substitute for the predictive power of science. The people of Dover should not ask for His help in the event of a natural disaster. He, indeed, might not be there.

The quibble is, as we all know, that voting Intelligent Design out of science classes is not 'vot[ing] God out of' any city, but certainly is demarcating the line between scientific and religious explanations, and keeping a good wedge between church and state. Robertson was close, and surprisingly savvy, about that one.

-The Reverend Schmitt.

#48312: — 11/10 at 05:13 PM
Every salvation religion is ultimately an extortion scam. Pay up, or get punished. Since the ultimate punishments and rewards are hidden away in an afterlife, it's the perfect crime against anyone who already believes in an afterlife.

#48313: Kristine Harley — 11/10 at 05:20 PM
Hey, Pat, bring it on! What is my state, chopped liver?
We kicked out Cherie Pierson Yucky and drove her to Florida, isn't that liberal 'nuff fer ya?

#48314: mikey — 11/10 at 05:35 PM
It's WAY better than that, PZ. According to this, we can, by a simple majority, vote god out of our towns too. I assume this means that all the churches and synagogues and mosques and whatever close, all the preists and preachers and rabbis and immams and assorted bead-jigglers leave town, and we never have to listen to their absurd ramblings about invisible superheros who live in outer space and mythological beasts and talking snakes and flying pigs and whatever again. I want that on our next ballot, please!!

mikey

#48319: Pau Decelles — 11/10 at 06:23 PM
So I guess the one bright spot for us here in Kansas is that we are safe from natural disasters until we throw our Board of Education out.

Paul

#48320: — 11/10 at 06:33 PM
C'mon. Does anyone take this as a credible threat? The Mob uses weapons based on naturalistic theories.

It seems, media celebrities have discovered that the more nonsense they spout, the more listeners they get. They laugh too, on the way to the bank. Don't feed them.

#48324: Jim Harrison — 11/10 at 07:10 PM
Prophets are a human type much older than Christianity or even Judaism. Egyptian prophets were predicting disaster long before Moses--the Jews probably learned the prophesy business from them--but the role of prophet has emerged independently many times and in many places by the cultural equivalent of convergent evolution. Hey, prophesy works, if not as a reliable way of fortelling the future, at least as an occupational category. So let's cut Robertson a break. A guy's gotta make a living.

#48328: — 11/10 at 07:57 PM
From Wikipedia

During the presidential primary election season started in early 1988, Robertson's campaign was undermined by a statement Robertson had made about his military service. In his campaign literature, he stated he was a combat Marine who served in the Korean War. When word of this got out, other Marines in his battalion contradicted Robertson's version, saying he had never spent a day in a combat environment. Instead of fighting in the war, Robertson's primary responsibility was supplying alcoholic beverages for his officers.

Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey was one of those other Marines. I had a chance to thank him personally for scuttling Robertson's candidacy. He replied, "It was a pleasure."

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Thursday, November 10, 2005

Thugs for God

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