Rick Warren: Aurora shooting the fault of evolution

[cleanhippie]

The mega-church pastor of the Saddleback Church, Rick Warren, took to Twitter on Friday to express his thought about the recent shooting at an Aurora, Colorado movie theater. Warren blamed the shooting on the teaching of evolution in public science classes:

“When students are taught they are no different from animals, they act like it.”

Warren who gave the invocation at President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009 joins company with Republican Rep. Louis Gohmert. Congressman Gohmert blamed the shooting on secularism stating:

“People say... where was God in all of this? We've threatened high school graduation participations, if they use God's name, they're going to be jailed... I mean that kind of stuff. Where was God? What have we done with God? We don't want him around. I kind of like his protective hand being present.”

Gohmert’s reasoning actually reflects quite poorly on the character of his deity. According to him, God let those people die apparently because he didn’t like the U.S. Constitution. As a point of clarification, the First Amendment prevents government led prayer forced on to the people. It does not restrict high school students from praying privately at their graduation.

In the past, religious leaders who have blamed tragedies on atheism, science, and the First Amendment have been considered to be the fundamentalist fringe like Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell. Many religious believers consider Rick Warren to be more of a moderate.

http://www.examiner.com/article/rick-warren-aurora-shooting-the-fault-of-evolution

Hey, liberal/progressive DU believers, I'm talking to you here...

How about standing up and telling these ignorant bigots that have hijacked your religion to shut the fuck up? Until you do, the religious right in this country will continue to make life hell for us all. Non-believers cannot fight this alone. The ball is in your court.

[rateyes]

1. i read that Holmes was a Presbyterian.

Warren is an asshat.

[ljm2002]

2. The Holmes family is very active in their church...

...so can we therefore infer that being a devout Presbyterian obviously causes murderous rampages?

(I hope the sarcasm is obvious)

What an asshat.

[Freddie]

4. Don't be surprised--that's the "wrong" kind of church

To those folks, Mainline Protestants like (most) Presbyterians are just as heathen as non-believers.

[Bluenorthwest]

34. Warren is 'mainline' Protestant. He is a man honored by the President as 'America's Minister'

and he will host another Presidential 'forum' this year at his church, the largest Protestant church in affluent Orange County CA.

[backscatter712]

3. CLAP LOUDER, CHRISTIANS!

Or your loving God will let more children die because you didn't believe in the fairy tales!

[Initech]

5. I've known Rick Warren is an ignorant, bigoted, piece of shit for quite some time.

No surprise that he'd somehow point the blame of this tragedy on non believers.

[Odin2005]

6. Fuck off, Rick! Fuck you and your violent God.

[Bluerthanblue]

7. wonder what he has to say about the food stamp/feed the animals

comparison.

It has been posted on FB by many professing christians.

[Larry Ogg]

8. There are problems with human evolution.

But the problems are more along the line of genetic psychopathy, and ignorance working in concert in order to take the humane race back to the stone age.

[eridani]

9. Give me an example of an animal that kills 12 members of his own species

--in about 15 minutes or so, and seriously incapacitiates 50+ in addition.

[Archae]

10. If you read Cracked.com, you'll find animals that are even worse dicks than we are.

Especially bugs.

One kind of bug wears the bodies of it's victims.

[eridani]

38. Same species?

Should primate females start imitating spiders and eat their mates after copulation?

[Archae]

39. Jane Goodall observed wild chimpanzees killing and eating baby chimps.

It was confined to one family of chimps.

Other chimps engaged in all-out war against rival clans.

Only diffference between those chimps and us, we have guns, they don't.

[eridani]

40. We distinguish between war and random execution of large numbers of people minding

--their own business. We and chimps do war, but why don't chimps engage in mass murder within their own groups?

[Courtesy Flush]

11. Wait. Why is Zimmerman doing god's will, but...

WTF is god's will anyway? I demand clarification!

[cleanhippie]

13. You won't get that clarification from anyone here.

Well, you may, but only when the deed is a good and noble one...

[GoCubsGo]

12. I wonder what this asshole's excuse is for the Crusades.

Or, the Salem Witch Hunts. All those good Christians were far more violent, and treated their fellow human in infinitely more grotesque ways, yet they knew nothing about Evolution. What an ignorant fuck.

[Quixote1818]

14. The biggest problem to Warren's argument is Norway which is 70% atheist

[freshwest]

21. I am soo sending that to my BFF in Trondheim.

[dmr]

15. They tell me God is all powerful. If that is true, then no one needs to ask where he was.

I would think that all powerful means he was there despite the problematic obstacles the Religion-men claim are currently there.

[mythology]

16. The stupid, it burns

What sort of asshat tries to score political points on this?

[dogknob]

17. The ones who are treating this like what it actually is: a war.

I can hear FOX News in the next room. They are already back on message.

It is too terrible to think about or talk about... unless you are actively fighting a war, which is exactly what the conservatives are doing while we "reflect" and drop the ball out of "respect."

If you haven't seen it (or if you need a little review) please watch The Shock Doctrine.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002992952

[n2doc]

18. And yet Obama loves this guy. Why? n/t

[Bjorn Against]

19. Well Rick Warren has good reason not to believe in evolution

He is still the same person he was in the stone age.

[cleanhippie]

20. +1000000

[Doctor_J]

22. And the president has befriended this idiot and the NRA

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

23. Evolution? Animals?

Dude, people are animals, like it or not.

The only difference is that the so-called "lower" animals tend not to commit mass murder. They generally kill other animals in order to eat, to protect territory and to compete for mates. They don't go out and kill a bunch of their own kind just for the hell of it.

Maybe we should try to be more like the other animals.

[lunatica]

24. Obviously God needs Rick Warren to help him out

[spanone]

25. rick never misses an opportunity to cash in on dead bodies. gohmert shames humans

[Fumesucker]

26. Wait.. Rick "It's only a prayer" Warren?

[bluestateguy]

27. I always retort these arguments with the Joplin tornadoes

There you had a conservative Bible believing community that was nonetheless torn up by tornadoes.

So then evangelicals, what gives?

[Kalidurga]

28. Damn opposable thumbs...

That's what he means right?

[Bluenorthwest]

29. Apparently Obama is going to do another Rick Warren forum, along with Romney

So frankly, that ignorant bigot is as mainstream as it gets. Obama called him 'America's Minister' and half of DU defended his presence at the Inaugural weeks after Warren equated gay people to pedophiles and incest.
When Obama is shaking hands with Warren again in a few weeks, no one will question him and Warren will get called 'moderate' again, and we will be told it is 'poutrage' to oppose bigots.

[cleanhippie]

30. Yep, that about sums it up.

And the bile is already rising in my throat.

[lunasun]

31. oh pleeeeeez stop the insanity!!!

[cleanhippie]

32. Nope. As long as belief in the supernatural is help up on a pedestal...

the insanity will continue.

[RedStateLiberal]

33. Students aren't taught they are no different from animals.

They are taught they are more EVOLVED than animals.

[Dawson Leery]

35. The bigotry of the evangelical mega-church strikes yet again.

[Tsiyu]

36. So Gawd is a delicate little flower too?

"Where was God in all this?" "Oh, he got miffed and turned away while people were being slaughtered because someone hurt his little feelings."

Sure.

[progressivebydesign]

37. Rick: Every time I'm tempted to check out Christianity, fucks like you open your mouth

What a total asshole. Any man of God that is filthy rich is a fraud. How many poor families from any town in Middle America could live in one of your mansions? I fucking hate celebrity preachers... I hope his followers think long and hard about what the hell he said.

Blame it on science... unbelievable.