However there was one portion which I found especially troubling. Take a moment to read through it and tell me if you agree.
Courtesy of New York Magazine:
You believe in heaven and hell?
Oh, of course I do. Don’t you believe in heaven and hell?
No.
Oh, my.
Does that mean I’m not going?
[Laughing.] Unfortunately not!
Wait, to heaven or hell? It doesn’t mean you’re not going to hell, just because you don’t believe in it. That’s Catholic doctrine! Everyone is going one place or the other.
But you don’t have to be a Catholic to get into heaven? Or believe in it?
Of course not!
Oh. So you don’t know where I’m going. Thank God.
I don’t know where you’re going. I don’t even know whether Judas Iscariot is in hell. I mean, that’s what the pope meant when he said, “Who am I to judge?” He may have recanted and had severe penance just before he died. Who knows?
Can we talk about your drafting process—
[Leans in, stage-whispers.] I even believe in the Devil.
You do?
Of course! Yeah, he’s a real person. Hey, c’mon, that’s standard Catholic doctrine! Every Catholic believes that.
Every Catholic believes this? There’s a wide variety of Catholics out there …
If you are faithful to Catholic dogma, that is certainly a large part of it.
Have you seen evidence of the Devil lately?
You know, it is curious. In the Gospels, the Devil is doing all sorts of things. He’s making pigs run off cliffs, he’s possessing people and whatnot. And that doesn’t happen very much anymore.
No.
It’s because he’s smart.
So what’s he doing now?
What he’s doing now is getting people not to believe in him or in God. He’s much more successful that way.
That has really painful implications for atheists. Are you sure that’s the Devil’s work?
I didn’t say atheists are the Devil’s work.
Well, you’re saying the Devil is persuading people to not believe in God. Couldn’t there be other reasons to not believe?
Well, there certainly can be other reasons. But it certainly favors the Devil’s desires. I mean, c’mon, that’s the explanation for why there’s not demonic possession all over the place. That always puzzled me. What happened to the Devil, you know? He used to be all over the place. He used to be all over the New Testament.
Right.
What happened to him?
He just got wilier.
He got wilier.
Isn’t it terribly frightening to believe in the Devil?
You’re looking at me as though I’m weird. My God! Are you so out of touch with most of America, most of which believes in the Devil? I mean, Jesus Christ believed in the Devil! It’s in the Gospels! You travel in circles that are so, so removed from mainstream America that you are appalled that anybody would believe in the Devil! Most of mankind has believed in the Devil, for all of history. Many more intelligent people than you or me have believed in the Devil.
I hope you weren’t sensing contempt from me. It wasn’t your belief that surprised me so much as how boldly you expressed it.
I was offended by that. I really was.
Let me remind you that this man is one of only nine individuals sitting the United States Supreme Court and he believes that the Devil is a real person.
Not only that but he seems confused as to why there are far fewer demonic possessions today than in centuries past, and seems to believe that Atheists are doing Satan's work.
And yes Scalia is right about the rest of the country. A Gallup poll from 2007 stated that 70% of Americans believe that the devil is real.
However as troubling as it is to recognize that the majority of my fellow countrymen believe that there is a constant tug of war between two great supernatural powers, one good and one evil, and that we are simply pawns in their conflict, at least THEY are not sitting on the Supreme Court!
P.S. By the way did anybody else think that Scalia sounded drunk during this interview?
(H/T to The Friendly Atheist)
The Devil is a "real person" is so earth-centric. Do the planets near Alpha Centauri get there own devil in Scalia's opinion or do all the sentient beings in the universe have to put up with an earth Devil?
ReplyDeleteI don't know about drunk, but I'm willing to bet Scalia thinks the Devil is male (because he can't conceive of powerful females).
I hope I'm around when evidence for life- even a couple of O2 exhaling blades of grass, are found on an exoplanet. How will that square with earth-centric thinking?
DeleteThey'll be like that South Park episode where Pat Robertson shilled for a fast space ship to bring the word of the lord to the aliens.
DeleteI thought the exact same thing about the gender of the Devil. Even more shocking when you consider who he keeps company with on a daily basis, but I suppose he probably doesn't think anyone who disagrees with him is powerful.
DeleteAnd, if life is found, the religocans will deny the whole thing is real and trot out some pawn scientists to lend some false legitimacy to their claims for the scientifically illiterate masses and follow it up with an army of internet trolls per usual.
Only 9 sitting on the bench. Three retired Justices are still living.
ReplyDelete"He’s making pigs run off cliffs"
DeleteDoes that mean Sarah...the pig with lipstick is going off a cliff soon? Oh YEAH!!!
And he is supposed to be the intellectual anchor of the Court's conservative wing?!! What a freak show.
ReplyDelete"Intellectual" and "conservative" do not go together in 21st century America.
DeleteBeaglemom
Sounds like a dumbass to me... just sayin'. Maybe he though it was April Fools Day or something. He CAN'T be serious... but, then , he is a radical right-wing Republican so anything is possible. Honestly, he is scary, nasty, angry and dangerous as hell.
DeleteMay we talk about "The devil's advocate"?
ReplyDeleteInsanity is hereditary, one gets it from one's religion until one outgrows the certainty of it.
How can this man(child) be on the Supreme Court of a Nation whose Constitution mandated the Separation of Church and State?
Freedom of Religion equals Freedom from Religion!
Think about it...
Of course the devil exists. His name is Anthony Scalia.
ReplyDeleteAnd his right hand men are the Kochs, McConnell, Cruz, Paul, Boehner, and darling Sarah. I think the witch doctor missed a bet when he laid hands on Sarah.
DeleteFat Tony has MET the devil. He used to fly with him to hunting trips on Air Force 2. He missed the trip during which the devil shot a friend in the face while drunk, and did not report it until forced to. If we are judged by the company we keep, then Antonin is evil, since Cheney is considered his friend.
ReplyDeleteWell.....that explains a lot. A lot of what I am not sure.
ReplyDeleteRJ in Brownbackistan
He also only reads the Washington Times!
ReplyDeleteHe sure has yellow teeth! Making his kind of moola, you'd think he have better dental care.
ReplyDeleteThe guy is creepy!!! Frightening as hell to have on the bench!
First thing I noticed , that and the nose hair. I guess he doesn't believe in personal grooming. He could try one of the DIY teeth cleaning if he is paranoid about dentists.
DeleteVery alarming that he would have been appointed to such a high position.
If atheists don't believe in God, then they don't believe in the Devil, either.
ReplyDeletePRECISELY.
Delete... and your point is?
DeleteThe problem with Scalia's statement is that no religion believes the devil is a "person".
ReplyDeleteThe belief is that he was an angel and was cast into hell...an evil entity that is in battle with God the culminates in Armageddon.
Scalia does not even have a catechism/Sunday school grasp of his own "belief".
And yes, he appears drunk or on drugs.
No doubt he is heavily medicated by some doctor. What is his health condition or is it top secret? He may be on psych meds.
DeleteWho appointed this cretin?
ReplyDeleteRonald Reagan, who else?
DeleteReagan in 1986.
DeleteOh goody, yet another gift from St. Ronnie..like debt, anti-unions, government overreach, tripling the defense budget, sending arms to Iran, closing the asylums to let the mentally ill fend for themselves...had Ronnie been any more saintly, the US would not even exist.
DeleteI think a wicked individual can leave behind a wicked ghost. Several family members saw ghosts, and one still does. She doesn’t like going downstairs in her grandmother’s house because nasty old Grandpa (he was truly vile) is still sitting on the couch where he always sat as he was dying. The people who know her say she isn’t faking; she really sees the old man.
ReplyDeleteDo these ghosts have a leader called The Devil? I don’t think so, if that’s the case; nasty old Grandpa is very tardy.
Or maybe it's all in your relative's mind.
DeleteUnfortunately, the standard, stereotypical Christian belief in Satan is pretty much evidence of complete ignorance about what the Bible actually says and the history of how it got in there.
ReplyDeleteHere's information from actual, unbiased historical biblical research (not a slanted Atheist debunk-athon):
http://www.thatreligiousstudieswebsite.com/Religious_Studies/Angels_and_Demons/satan_brief_history.php
The short version is that Satan didn't exist so the Church had to invent him. Texts were altered, connections between unconnected things were manufactured and the church flourished. Marketing!
So yeah, it's not just scary that someone on the Supreme Court believes in this stuff, it's that he's got it wrong on top of it all.
Thanks for the info.
DeleteWhen you consider that the original texts were in Greek and HEbrew, yes, changes have been made. People who consider this the Word of God are just not interested in who really wrote things.
DeleteYep, all that devil angel shit was added to get people under control and sending in money to the church. Again, greed and power raise their ugly heads to pollute the message of Jesus (whoever he was).
DeleteThanks for the link.
DeleteThis part stood out to me, considering current affairs
"The word satan in Hebrew (the language of the Old Testament), is generally accepted to mean 'to obstruct',"
What an odd coincidence!
Sarah, please loan Tony your nose hair trimmer and send him to your dentist for veneers.
ReplyDeleteIt's no coincidence that the "devil" has horns like the horned gods of the ancient pagans (gods of music, gods of the hunt, gods of fertility, etc.).
ReplyDeleteI'm convinced that over time and generations the human brain evolves beyond the ability to embrace any of these fairy tales. It's not so much a matter of "intelligence" but of possessing a brain that has made the leap from stone-aged fearful savage to an enlightened individual. It happens sooner for some than others, and perhaps never for some, but I firmly believe that in another 100 years the majority of the population will have evolved into non-believers. I certainly hope so.
ReplyDeleteJesus Heath Christ, people like him aren't worthy and deserving of sitting on the highest bench of the land.
ReplyDeleteI'd say he's drunk several days of the week, on and off the bench.
DeleteGryphen, you're just so eager to condemn that which you do not understand, arent you... I'm not saying I believe the Honorable Justice's mumbo or even his jumbo, but at least I am open-minded and you, clearly, are not!!
ReplyDeleteNow.... what do we know about these pigs jumping off the cliff at Satan's behest? I'm no theologian (THANK GOD!!!) but it seems to me that ALL the answers will be revealed once we get to the bottom of the whole suicidal pig caper. Which.... I suppose we... um... can assume is at the bottom of the cliff, right? It aint like them pigs is going anywhere, is it?
In other news, I am bursting with pride over my video production work in the Tea Bag Party's latest series of ads entitled, "TAKE MY INSURANCE, PLEASE!". Maybe you've seen some of them?
The one I just finished features a man embroiled in a bitter divorce case with his wife after she caught him in bed with two of her sisters while the wife was undergoing chemotherapy for advanced breast cancer. And the guy - wearing his Screechy Wretch(tm) camo t-shirt and handsome tin foil chapeau - simply looks into the camera with one blinking eye and one non-blinking eye - and calmly shrieks "THANKS FOR NOTHING, OBAMA!! BECAUSE OF YOU AND OBAMACARE, MY WIFE IS GOING TO LIVE AND MAKE MY NEW LIFE - with her younger and hotter sister - A LIVING HELL!! TAKE MY INSURANCE, PLEASE!!!"
Convincing, aint it?
You libtards have completely disenfranchised all the people across the country - and there are DOZENS of them! - who feel they would be better off without insurance, Yet, you and the N1@@5R IN THE WHITE HOUSE are jamming it down their throats! Why is that?
++ crickets++
Yeah, I thought so..
Anyway, the video should be available over at
www.lunatics_against_obamacare.com
Enjoy!
Not drunk, that's temporary. Just old and senile - permanent and progressive conditions.
ReplyDeleteI would love to know what the law says about unseating a Supreme Court Justice that is no longer able to function mentally? I know they can't be fired. Surely there is a safeguard in place to remedy this situation.
ReplyDeleteTEXASMEL
wiki says: No mechanism exists for removing a justice who is permanently incapacitated by illness or injury, but unable (or unwilling) to resign.
DeleteRemember how Sarah and Toad have set fires to kill and get rid of the nurse that had a part in the delivery of the last child they have in their house and profess to be Sarah's? And, remember the fire they set to get rid of the records as to adoption of the kid living in their house that Sarah claims is her child?
ReplyDeleteThey better protect the storage of these bullshit books she is going to try and sell!
She is the FURTHEST from being a Christian and believing in her god's teachings! She's (and Toad) are nothing more than liars and frauds...proven time and time again.
Don't buy her book and given the chance in stores, turn them over so the public can't see them!! We'll getcha Sarah, just like you have so many others in your evil world!
"Have you seen evidence of the Devil lately?"
DeleteWell, many Catholics who believe in the dogma of the Catholic Church, believe they've seen evidence of the Devil lately! He's wearing black cassocks, tab collars, and molesting innocent children whose parents didn't realize just how "Wiley" the Devil is. As a matter of fact, they make and consume Devils food cake without thinking of the repercussions.
This Antonin Scalia is one to judge anyone. He's paid for and owned by the Tea Party the Koches and the people who make black hair dye for men.
He forgot the grey area and I'd really like to know his explanation for Purgatory.
.
This interview is not just disturbing; it's frightening.
ReplyDeleteSo a Catholic says that atheists cannot think for themselves. Am I the only person who finds that funny?
ReplyDeleteIn the interview Scalia refers to his good friend Bennett who is also his favorite 'talk radio guy'. (Scalia admits to getting most of his news from 'talk radio guys'). In 2005 Scalia's good buddy said on air: "You could abort every black baby in this country, and the crime rate would go down." Guess they are only anti-abortion for white people. (as if that's a surprise)
ReplyDeletehttp://mediamatters.org/video/2005/09/28/media-matters-exposes-bennett-you-could-abort-e/133904