I have a "strong religious faith"?

[elfs]

Did you know I have "a strong religious faith?" I mean, it has to be true. Pat Robertson said so last night on the 700 Club. And Pat talks to God, right, so...

In order to have babies, you've got to have a hope in the future ? If you don't believe in God, if you have an existential view of life, if this life is all there is, then, as Peggy Lee sang "why don't we break out the booze and have a ball?" Why do we go to all that trouble? It's only those with strong religious faith who have children. That's the truth.

Man, that's wacky.

Comments

Somebody needs to explain the facts of life to him

[jenk]

For the vast majority of humans, it isn't producing kids that takes a conscious choice. It's not producing them.

I read that at least 1/2 of pregnancies in America are unplanned. A significant percentage of those are probably people who don't think about the future, so they don't use birth control or take other steps to prevent children from being born.

[dossy.livejournal.com]

Elf, you may be interpreting the quote out of context. He may be simply referring to the "oh God, oh GOD, OH GOD!@#!@#!" phase of conception.

This doesn't address children born of rape, of course.

[damiana-swan.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I know of some very good, clearly written books that could help him understand better where babies come from. I have a feeling he's been reading those books that talk about how Mommy and Daddy pray together and share a special hug to make a baby start, so I guess his confusion is understandable.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Of that of which we cannot speak, said Wittgenstein, we must be silent. The Ultimate is that of which we cannot speak – It is without attributes. It can only be understood through experience. Speaking of it is like trying to explain the taste of the sweetness of sugar to a person who has never tasted it.

Perhaps Pat Robertson shoulf follow Wittgenstein's advice.

[amberleewriter.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's really wacky because I actually have a very strong religious faith (Zen Buddhism) and I'm not having kids. I guess that in spite of my deep feelings about my faith, that I'm actually wanton and fatalist. Though I guess I don't believe in "God" as Pat defines such a thing and, perhaps, for Pat, that's what he really means by "religious faith": that you must buy into the idea of a single creator and his son as defined by Christianity.

Myself, I always thought that in order to have babies you just had to have sex. ^_^

[shunra.livejournal.com]

Intersting verbal tic, there, saying "that's the truth" when he is saying something which is self-evidently untrue.

And also intersting, the yearning for alcohol. Now, I enjoy fine wine and can (vaguely) understand a desire for stronger stuff despite not sharing such desire. But. "Oh, so there's no god - let's get drunk" is a deduction that just doesn't make sense. Why would self-inflicted obliteration of consciousness follow the discovery of one's greater (presumably) potential to affect the universe?

I just don't understand religious nuts.

[nbarnes.livejournal.com]

I always worry about people who's big reason not to engage in debauchery or worse is 'Daddy God will punish me' or 'God told me not to'. I have this image of some of these people, some of the men in particular, getting up every morning and in their morning prayers asking, 'God, is it ok for me to rape and kill today?' And every day God tells them, 'No, those are still forbidden.' 'Darn.' I worry that such people are only one good schizophrenic episode away from turning into a serial killer. 'God spoke through a dog and told me to kill them.'

[amythis.livejournal.com]

Didn't Peggy Lee also sing "He's a tramp, but I love him"?

[lovingboth]

Let's hope Leiber and Stoller get some royalties off him at least.

[gromm.livejournal.com]

That's weird. There's a billion Indians out there, and hardly any of them believe in Pat Robertson's god.

[areitu.livejournal.com]

Maybe he's taking a crack at homosexuals.

Don't bishops or priests have a vow of celibacy as well? What about their religous faith?

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

Hmph. It must follow, then, that because Charles and I can't have kids, that we have no religious faith.

Which, of course, isn't true.

[tehrasha.livejournal.com]

Heh... how many people have had and continue to have kids for the very reason that they did "break out the booze and had a ball".

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

What?! I'm gonna have children?!

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

[(Anonymous)]

Well if having kids is a religious motivation there is something wrong there. People have kids because they want to, and because we are biologically programmed to reproduce. Some of us choose not to but still have sex following our biology, but some people want the feeling of creating life. I am damn sure my mother has no religious faith, being in the "can't be bothered" camp, and me and my sister are still here plus I know my father while he was living was an atheist.

You do no need to believe in god, you must simply believe in your relationship with your partner.

[adulttips.livejournal.com]

I thnk that in any case it's important to believe something.. And it's perfect if it's God.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I have a belief and it is a singular one: the universe does not lie to me. It's secrets may be hidden from me, but there is no intelligence at work actively intent on keeping me from understanding. Consequentially, I believe that if I subject the working reality which I have before my eyes to ever stringent ordeals it will eventually bleed truth. That truth can only be confirmed by making the experiment repeatable and demonstrable to any observer or instrument.

No god of any kind is needed for this belief to be true, and in all of the centuries since man became a rational, thinking being, the dark gaps where we once believed a god to be necessary we have instead found unthinking, unfeeling processes. The believer and the unbeliever alike suffer cancer, flat tires, lice, liver damage, HIV, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, lost car keys, heart disease and the heartbreak of psoriasis in the same proportions. I can only determine that in the world outside one's fanciful imagination, the universe is proceeding as it always has and no amount of wishful thinking changes that at all.