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October 7th, 2013
12:31 PM ET
Scalia says atheism 'favors the devil's desires'By Daniel Burke, CNN Belief Blog Co-editor [twitter-follow screen_name='BurkeCNN'] (CNN) - As the Supreme Court begins its new term Monday, the devil is not on the docket - but the Evil One apparently is on the mind of Justice Antonin Scalia. New York magazine has published a fascinating new interview with Scalia in which the outspoken jurist tackled a number of topics. But none seemed to surprise Scalia's interviewer, Jennifer Senior, more than his views on Satan. The interview was conducted on September 26, the 27th anniversary of Scalia's swearing-in as a justice on the high court. He is one of a record six Catholic justices on the Supreme Court. After Scalia and Senior discussed heaven and hell (he believes in them; she doesn't), the justice said in a stage whisper, "I even believe in the devil." "You do?" Senior replied. "Of course! Yeah, he’s a real person. Hey, come on, that’s standard Catholic doctrine! Every Catholic believes that," Scalia said. Senior asked Scalia if he's seen evidence of Satan's work recently. "You know, it is curious," Scalia answered. "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. ... It’s because he’s smart." MORE FROM CNN: How to argue about religion online Senior asked if it's "frightening" to believe in the devil, which seemed to annoy Scalia. "You’re looking at me as though I’m weird," he answered. "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." Scalia, whose son, Paul, is a Catholic priest in Arlington, Virginia, also said Pope Francis is "absolutely" right about the church needing to concentrate more on mercy and outreach than on fighting the culture wars. MORE FROM CNN: American Catholics agree with Pope Francis on ending culture wars "But he hasn’t backed off the view of the church on those issues," Scalia said. "He’s just saying, 'Don’t spend all our time talking about that stuff. Talk about Jesus Christ and evangelize.' I think there’s no indication whatever that he’s changing doctrinally." Finally, Scalia said he has not "softened" his views on homosexuality. "I still think it’s Catholic teaching that it’s wrong. OK? But I don’t hate the people that engage in it. In my legal opinions, all I’ve said is that I don’t think the Constitution requires the people to adopt one view or the other," Scalia said. MORE FROM CNN: Church and state, executive power on Supreme Court docket soundoff (3,730 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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That man belongs in a padded cell,not on the bench.
Only for the new visitors to this blog:
Who else believes in Satan? Obama, Biden, 50+% of Congress and 67 % of the general population.
Many politicians have to claim to believe, to get votes. I'm sure many of them do not really believe. They do know however religious people easily accept lies, so they just throw a few God Blesses and biblical verses and whammo, votes from believers.
It is because there is a devil that there are atheists. He is going down, he knows it and he wants to take as many with him as he can.
It is because of actually reading the Bible that there are many atheists and agnostics.
Bullsh!t. The numbers of non-believers is on the increase because believers can't provide a single bit of evidence for their beliefs.
delusional diseased gash
jeebus is waiting on you
what are you doing down here?
you could be pleasing the savior right now
if you could pry jerry fartwelll off of him
I am CERTAIN that Zeus is the one and only true god.
You jest no doubt but even if you weren't you'd still be on equal footing with any other god belief. Zeus is just as believable, or more properly, unbelievable as any other god.
I for one would gladly stand up for your right to honor Zeus in any way you personally choose to do so.
Just so long as everyone stays safe.
God is cruel.
God is a fool.
God is cool.
God is a tool.
God is a mule.
God uses a slide rule.
God did a scene with O'Toole.
God is Google !! Yahoo !!
God smells like a stool.
^^^^Atheist intelligence at its best.
still on your knees, rhodes?
good for you
God has a smelly fart.
God has a squeaky cart.
He likes a young tart.
God has good taste in art.
God had a false start.
God's head is pointed like a dart.
God has a killer crib.
God left a rib.
God likes to fib.
end.
God drools and wears a bib.
God can't ad-lib.
God enjoys refreshing Mr. Pibb.
You deserve some sort of award for evoking the name of Mr. Pibb.
No one ever tells me about God, but everyone tells me about themselves.
Scalia seems to know the devil's desires and how some of us favor them. If you believe in the Devil and know what it wants, do tell. What does it want?
He wants you t o join him. I had discussion with an atheist friend some time ago, a thoroughly unlikable man. His argument was essentially that he rejected the idea of God and Satan because both of them wanted his soul and he couldn't see the difference between being a goat for Satan or a sheep for God. He wanted to captain his soul himself (which is ironically Satan's seduction). My response to him was that while it is true that God and Satan both vie for the souls of men that whereas the first desires you for peace, love, hope and unity, the second wants to kill you, enslave your children and prostiitute your wife.
So did your "friend", this thoroughly unlikeable man, reply that god and satan have one really big thing in common: there is absolutely no evidence that either exist? I think it's quite funny that you disparage a man with one breath, and call him friend in another. Kinda hypocritical.
Not sure why it's hypocritical. He was unlikable but I befriended him.
What a martyr, Billy. You befriended a man you don't like. Do you like him now (proving him likable after all), did you talk to him once and decided that one conversation was enough to call the relationship a friendship, or are you calling an acquaintance a 'friend' to score some kind of brownie points?
Well, turn down the spotlight and I'll answer. We worked together, he was an acquaintance of my father's whom I accepted as family friend. We held some similar ideas and some differences. We socialized outside of work. He was generally regarded as obnoxious, overbearing and superior, traits I've noticed on occasion among other unbelievers. Nonetheless, I found him intelligent to speak to and challenging to argue with. He never called me names and I never told him he was going to hell. Is it ok with you if I consider myself his friend now?
It's interesting to me how the conversation with Tallulah highlights a principle of the original post. I would say that God wanted to befriend me even when I was unlikable, and did so. While the devil wants to interrupt that friendship and offers me nothing but wretchedness in trade.
Bill, you made it a very deliberate point to call this man unlikeable. It added nothing to your story, and in fact made you appear to be smug and condescending. So why did you do that? Why did you you think it necessary to put such a judgmental qualifier on your friendship? Of course I questioned the nature of your friendship when you spoke of him that way. Personally, I would not want a friend who says such terrible things about me behind my back.
If I only made friends with people who were likable, I wouldn't make many friends. Some of my friends are very likable, whether they are philosophically in agreement with me or not. I choose other people for friends not on the basis of whether they are palatable to me but on the needs and requirements of our relationship.
That had nothing to do with what I said. Why did you feel the need to create a negative opinion of a person no one here but you has met when it wasn't pertinent to you story? You maligned his character for no purpose. Why should I believe you are his friend. Furthermore, why should HE believe you are his friend.
Most people have friends that don't agree about everything. Nothing special there. But you very deliberately called this man unlikeable when it has absolutely nothing to do with your story. Perhaps you should ask yourself why.
A soul seems really unlikely to me.
Well that's according to you. Judging by your book, god created this monster, fully knowing the Lucifer would turn to the devil, then again fully knowingly, put his two children with him!
Now does that sound like someone that fits your description of loving?
I don't think so.
You just want it to be so.
TTTOO
BD being a lesser Demon knows the facts on the ways of the devil, when it comes to the ways of god (his of course he doesn't even acknowledge the rest) he gets all tangled up with dogma and the catechism, so you can discount anything he says on that front.
Let's see if CNN will own up to exactly why they want to block me.
I've never seen a reason over which you should be blocked.
Bill, Easy to explain.People can have multiple personas, a persona which sounds reasonable(a moniker that you associate as reasonable) and then another persona(moniker that you would avoid arguing with , that is quite the opposite ) It goes on with a quite a few here. It works like this:
Person 1 –>Persona A–>Moniker A
Person 1–>Persona B–>Moniker B
Are you saying TT the other represents a user with multiple monikers who is being barred? If that is the case, then yes, I would like to see CNN extinguish the single user/multiple moniker types. I think they only create confusion and trollism.
If you can watch this....and still be a monotheist or a polytheist.......well.....should I "pray" for you> 🙂 🙁 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1xUiuZvUuw
Well, I did not find that particular video compelling or persuasive for me to be athiestic because they really did not engage in a debate. I would have asked the astrophysicists why the remains of a modern human, or even an ancestral human, have never been found in rocks that are the same age as the ones that contain dinosaur fossils. Not once has that ever occurred – that is more than compelling, that is astounding.
Now, with that I think he would just say, "Scripture tell us...." When someone chooses to use evidence only when it agrees with their position, no matter what the topic – politics, economics, home building, sewing, etc., and refuses to accept evidence otherwise, we all realize that the person is what we would call "unreasonable," and we would not look to engage them further on that subject, and probably other subjects as well. So why do we some people then accept someone's opinion in religion when their is no evidence to support it?
So strive to enter in by the straight and narrow way, me, for wide is the road and large is the gate that leads cheesecake, observer, sambo, moron tom, Meredith s. Jeremy, bozo and Colin to utter destruction
dewie,
You could really help yourself by growing up and getting a far better education.
It's best not to feed the troll. Since you actually bothered to address him, he probably thinks you're his new best friend.
tallulah13,
Sometimes you have to draw a line in the sand when someone is using an international forum to lie about you.
The Rules of Conduct here should apply no matter how mentally retarded someone may be.
Observer, if a reader can't figure out who the sick one is without your (correct) admonition, they won't have sufficient intelligence to understand your note.
Religion = Gods = Bad Math
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjxZ6MrBl9E
I see it no!
The IPU is just a skinny rhino.
R amen. I can go to sleep now
So Dawkins' best shot is to say our DNA looks the same? Hmm ... could it be the word of a common designer?
And then throw in a comment like God is being deceptive? Talk about showing you bias.
Oh, and you mean like vestigial whale legs, Mr. Dawkins?
@Topher,
Why would your supposed designer put two centromeres, and extra non-end teleomeres in Human Chromosome-2 ? ( http://www.pnas.org/content/88/20/9051.full.pdf)
Are you serious?
That would be like saying that a in a court of law, the key piece of evidence is the knife stuck right in the middle of the chest of the victim. The knife has the finger prints and the DNA on it and the defendant saying, "So that's your best shot, a knife in the heart with finger prints and DNA on it"?
What do you want? All the animals that have ever existed joining in a chorus line?
Give us 1,000,000,000,000,000th of that evidence of your god and we'll talk.
But few there be who enter in
Very few in deed, more like ZERO, cause it doesn't exist.
LMAO
If this life is all there is, u can have it.
It hints of the paradise to come. Beauty I'd always missed with these eyes before. To see Jesus as he is, not thru a glass darkly, what a day of glory that will b.
don't stick around on our behalf, troll
Why don't you show a little initiative and get a jump on things? I am sure that would help lighten Jesus' load.
I guess I don't put myself at the center of all experience and existence as you clearly do.
Yes, for me, this life is all I have, but for others life continues; the universe continues. The universe got to the point where it produced me, and I am grateful for the experiences I have and the ones I have yet to make, so I trust that the universe will do other cool things and is doing other cool things even now that I don't know about.
The universe is amazing. I am HONORED to be a part of it for the short time that I have, and for me, my life, in this universe, will be its own universe and life. I come from the universe and I return to it; it is not my place to be angry or sad about what I have and how I am allowed to exist. It is my place to be thankful and to be amazed and to show my dedication and good to my fellows of my species and to all of existence.
I am a mirror to the universe and the universe is a mirror to me.
So the universe is your god. Not a new or particulary satisfying religion. But everyone has a religion – true or false.
Dream on.
By the way, is he dressed? I've heard he likes to talk to men in tents wearing absolutely nothing.
Strange guy this Jesus.
Scalia is cool. he don't care what anybody thinks. Ask him a question and He says what he believes. Prolly couldn't b more different than president carter and each is totally committed to our god and savior, Jesus Christ.
Scalia is delusional.
did u ever lick a river? huh, stanky?
still got that jeebus marital aid on high inserted deep into your not so private area?
My three boys and I went camping one summer in Yosemite. We had a wonderful time until a bear approached our camp site and ate my youngest boy. I did not have a gun or any form of protection and naturally blame my self. I think that bear should go to hell, but since a bear has no soul he gets away with his free meal. This is poor planning by God.
There is at least one story in the bible of god using bears to kill people.
Maybe He reads this blog and doesn't like you.
You must be a Baptist or something. Try Presbyterian. I take my kids camping all the time and we have no problems with bears.
Stupid bears.
Dear God in heaven, I come to you in the name of Jesus. I acknowledge to You that I am a sinner, and I am sorry for my sins and the life that I have lived; I need your forgiveness.
I believe that your only begotten Son Jesus Christ shed His precious blood on the cross at Calvary and died for my sins, and I am now willing to turn from my sin.
You said in Your Holy Word, Romans 10:9 that if we confess the Lord our God and believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead, we shall be saved.
Right now I confess Jesus as the Lord of my soul. With my heart, I believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. This very moment I accept Jesus Christ as my own personal Savior and according to His Word, right now I am saved.
Thank you Jesus for your unlimited grace which has saved me from my sins. I thank you Jesus that your grace never leads to license, but rather it always leads to repentance. Therefore Lord Jesus transform my life so that I may bring glory and honor to you alone and not to myself.
Thank you Jesus for dying for me and giving me eternal life.
Amen.
allowing someone else to take the punishment that you feel you deserve is an amazingly cowardly and immoral act.
amen
It is like an adult who pushes a baby out of the direct path of a moving bus, and the adult gets hit. A truly selfless act that saved a life. Not cowardly.
AE, your example is not representative of the whole. In fact it very, very minor. My son got ate by a bear and my daughters eat dead cat.
But then it's like the adult gets up and he's alright and because he's alright other adults and kids too can fall under buses and get up and be just fine too. But they all have to believe.
@AE
You are either an idiot or a liar.
That is obviously not a sensible analagy
Why don't you go shoot a bear's cub. Eye for an eye.
AE: That is weak argument, even by your standards
i was speaking of allowing a person to take the punishment you feel you deserve
and you come back with a speeding bus?
Yes.
He took the punishment without even asking you. Like the adult who saves the baby from the bus.
He is not like Apple Bush who throws his youngest child at a bear to save himself and runs off screaming like a 2 year old little girl.
Except that he knew that he wasn't REALLY going to die. He's like comic book zombie that just keeps coming back.
You can't compare the sacrifice of a real human, to that of a supposed god who knows he won't die!
Do you get that or is it over your head?
oh, i see.....
in your lame story, the bus represents the punishment
did the child deserve the punishment?
did you ever consider that the being you desire to spend eternity with is a vindictive, petty pr1ck?
nice story, AE, but i was not speaking about the person who does the saving
i was speaking of the cowardice of the person being "saved" allowing someone else to take their rap
a better analogy would be if someone framed someone else for a murder they did
The baby would have had to deal with the consequences of crawling out in front of the bus. And it really isn't any fault of her own.
"And it really isn't any fault of her own."
Like the person being saved by jeebus?
No, more like the atheist that feeds his children to bears.
I've heard of priests raping kids, but I've never heard of atheist doing such a thing.
isn't the baby a sinner deserving of eternal punishment?
i think the framing someone for murder is a better analogy
but, believe what you want
you are one delusional twit
Aaaaah! I never said eternal punishment.
I think Jesus saved us from that.
I like the doctor who has a cure for a disease analogy.
that is true, you never said eternal punishment
but, without accepting jeebus as a savior, we are doomed to it, right?
he doctor with a cure analogy is also weak
the doctor is not taking anyone's punishment
he is just making his patient well
well, off to bed for me
enjoy your delusions, AE
I don't know.
I think justice is God's eyes is all His creatures returning to Him. There is no eternal punishment. Those who really don't want to live with God will be burned up in flames with all the evil.
Is that what you do with all your FaceBook friends that don't like you?
justice in God's eyes
If I save someone from getting hit by a bus, I don't throw them under the next car if they don't then "accept" my gift. Besides, the analogy is stupid because god didn't have to design the bus. If god wanted to save people, why not just do it? Why the threats? I can order god around by not chanting a magic spell? I can FORCE god not to save me and go against his will?
What a weak and pathetic god. Can't just do something nice and explain it to you later.
I would rather suffer eternally than worship a god so callous as to allow it.
The consequence of getting hit by a bus is not very pretty.
The consequence of sin is similar.
Can I just ask, how you got into religion?
If god doesn't like sin and its effects that he should not allow it and them. Seems god would be able to avoid situations he doesn't particularly appreciate.
From our limited and flawed understanding of the universe that makes sense. But I trust God has a plan to save His creation from this disease. Sometimes what we see as a weakness (losing a limb) is actually a strength in God's eyes. At least that is how Jesus describes God's kingdom.
Let's analyze this.
The bus, I'm guessing is UNABLE to swerve do to physical IMPOSSIBILITIES and therefore the adult saves the other person's life.
On the other hand, Jesus throws himself in front of this bus while having many other choices.
Or in other words, for not freaking reason.
There were MANY OTHER choices to avoid the presumed "damnation" of humanity.
1. He could simply forgive. Which is what he is doing, except that he is forcing himself to forgive by actually allowing others to torture him. Sudo-Masochistic!
2. He could simply make humans smarter.
3. He could not play games and realize that humans canNOT avoid doing the things that he already KNOWS they will do because he KNOWS the future BEFORE it happens.
4. He could simply do what every other smart human does, which is TEACH their children how to live and NOT throw them OUT the door for the very FIRST mistake they EVER made.
I could go on, but I think you get the picture.
Well maybe not, since you do believe in all this crap to begin with.
Phew! I'm sure glad I didn't say it is exactly like my bus metaphor.
I suggested instead of it being cowardly and immoral it can be viewed as another sacrificing his life for others.
again, AE, i was suggesting the cowardliness was from the standpoint of those allowing others to take their punishment, not the person taking the punishment. are you being intentionally obtuse, or are you truly lack reading comprehension skills?
Things aren’t black and white. Even if the Jesus myth were true, I sure didn’t ask for that idiot to get busted and executed. He did not die for MY sins. I would have told him to chill out.
If you believe in God and Satan, believe this too…not everyone chooses a side.
Dear god, thank you for making me an atheist. Amen.
do you seriously desire ETERNAL LIFE?
wells...
if I goes and gets pregnant in thems virgin way like Mr Jesus did...
well sorry for thems that be awaiting the End Days, buts I's be getting me an abortion! shirt hanger an all if nec.
Big day today, nine little squirmers ended...
...the dude in this here article must think me to be one of his "Satans"
never understood the logic in making up supernatural suppositions
no sir, I take the real world
shame 'bout all them fetuses though
could have gotten some stem cells!! 🙁
try em cooked to a tender deep red with Escoffier sauce. melt in your mouth. u'll never fine dine again where they aren't served
It was Russ who seemed to be saying that we have to share a common metaphysics if we are to ask one another to rein in our irrational beliefs for the sake of order and safety in society. I suspect his idea comes from Hobbes and the idea that we all must recognize an ultimate authority to appeal to (there can be only one). Perhaps he's right. Or can I ask in the name of the Devil whose desires believers say I favor that believers put a sock in it unless individually they can show that their beliefs are epistemically rational?
Hey Y'all, Louisiana here, y'all should watch this for both sides of a good debate...
christians
vs.
not christians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy1iydM_f8g
Christians in America have been praying to God to end abortion ever since (and before) Roe v. Wade. That is over 40 years. Millions of Christians praying every day for over 40 years and their prayers totally ignored. There seems to be only one of three answers.
(i) God loves killing babies in abortions.
(ii) God is weak and powerless to stop abortions; or
(iii) God doesn't exst.
Which is it do you think?
1. Abortion is not only opposed by Christians. There are atheists, agnostics and people of other faith that oppose that practice.
2. God gave man dominion over this world.
3. People are having and performing the abortions. Not God.
So, praying is useless then.
No.
Until you can have the limb of a solder grow back in a controlled environment, YES, it's UTTERLY USELESS.
Christians get sick, go broke and die just like EVERYONE else on this planet.
Praying is Useless.
Yet soldiers who have lost limbs claim that prayer does work.
Never by restoring limbs, apparently. Are there things that are impossible to God, AE?
What you call a curse, the injured soldier might call a blessing.
Read about Joni Eareckson Tada. There is evidence of God in her story.
No evidence of god there my friend.
But the fact remains that god doesn't grow back lost limbs, or actually stop his followers from having abortions.
So, are you going to stop praying?
how about the miscarriages, AE?
those are spontaneous abortions that man does not do
iiii none of the above
And your explanation? Let me guess – free will, our choice etc. In which case, prayers are useless.
God has been allowing us to kill each other for a very long time Colin. I do believe God answers prayer in his time and will.
Well that makes a lot of sense. Let's let humans kill each other for thousands of years before he intervenes. That would be like watching your children go at it with knifes and just having a beer while they do it. They kill each other, and then move on to other children.
Do you not see there is something very odd about your way of thinking?
"....in his own time and will"
wow, can you get more openended than that?
other than
"jeebus is coming any time now. yessir annnnnny time now"
i don't think he does. after all, according to robbie, he and all the other believers speak directly for god. even if their views differ, they speak for god
you got to remember, he is a born-againer
this time, it is without critical thinking skills
because to actually question the existence of god
would anger their omnipotent pr1ck
That would be iv, Robert. Still, God mysteriously leaves even the most disturbing and divisive decisions up to us. What happened to the policies of the time of Baal-worship?
Oh yea, iv. We do have limited free will. The scariest part about consequences of the Baal worship is to think God may judge us as a nation.
ah....limited free will
if it is limited, how is it free will?
and, how does free will exist with an omniscient god?
don't attempt to answer the second question.
you have run from it in the past, as have the rest of your "i-speak-for-god" compadres
the scariest part is not only that people believe that judgement tripe,
but that if they are talking about us being judged as a nation
they will try to legislate their delusions
which they already do
I know I know!
God made abortions illegal in Germany – so we are praying in the wrong language!
(Do I win a prize?)
"A November 1994 Reader Digest article by Mary Cunningham Agee reported that 91% of women surveyed in post-abortion interviews stated that they would have carried their child to term if the support had been there. Items most frequently mentioned were help with medical bills, ability to continue in her career or education, and most importantly, understanding from family, friends, and the father of the child."
http://www.priestsforlife.org/crisis.html
Seems like an opportune time to remind all that 70+% of all abortions each year in the USA are had by believers. Why isn't this number 0? Why can't believer's favorite supernatural imaginary friend control his cult members? Why don't cult members follow their god's simple rules?