A bad joke

Photo © David Owczarek

On CNN this afternoon a news anchor was (rather deferentially) interviewing a pastor who authors the provocative marquees at Medford’s New England Baptist Church. The anchor proposed that such remarks actually hindered the church’s goals (i.e., to get more people to come to church). The pastor replied that people go to church for the same reason they visit a doctor — to find out what’s wrong with them. Of course, the news anchor kindly failed to point out that doctors are trained in identifying maladies which have experimentally-verified cures. Clergy, however, are apparently trained to ignore logic. “Katrina: Natural Disaster or God’s Punishment for Sin?” Let’s parse that: although thousands of scientists can explain (and often predict) the behaviour of tropical cyclones, would you consider that a notoriously-absent-in-reality omnipotent entity hit New Orleans and its environs with rain, wind and incompetent disaster relief because he doesn’t like what you’re doing!?

The show then took a turn towards absurdity when a rabbi came on to lambaste the pastor for his scare tactics. Of course, this should highlight the lack of legitimacy each of these “men of god” have — they don’t even agree on who god is!

In other news, Michael Shermer did an excellent turn on Colbert last night, and the live reporting from Iraq on The Daily Show has been priceless.