Greek Gods
August 30, 2004 | 20 Comments
God was apparently busy in Greece over the past few weeks, helping Olympic Athletes win and lose. Kevin Beck of Cognitive Emesis supplies a comprehensive round-up, with analysis, of all the jock God talk. My favorite quote is from marathoner Dan Browne, who said . . .
Go read it.
August 30th, 2004 @ 1:05 pm
I can see why that was RA’s favorite quote as it was very clever of Dan Brown to include a coded message like that.
“Mile 13 to mile 20″ is, of course, a reference to 1320, the year of the Second Crusade of the Shepherds, which, ostensibly about killing Jews who refused to be Baptised, was actually a cover for Knights Templar, disguised as peasants, to go to the Holy Land and kidnap the descendents of Jesus and his wife Mary Magdalene, the existence of whom the Priory of Sion has been trying to supress for hundreds of years, and bring them all safely to Venice, where, hidden in the Star Chambers of the Medici, they would form the breeding stock for an elite order of Opus Dei assassin ninjas, who, to this day, guard the secret of the location of the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, and Noah’s Mummified Corpse from Brazilian Nazis and cyborg cryptologists working for the Freemason-controlled NSA.
The only thing that surprised me was learning that Dan is also a marathon runner.
August 30th, 2004 @ 2:17 pm
Should athletes who get divine help be disqualified?
August 30th, 2004 @ 6:43 pm
“I have goals, but God has a plan. Whatever plan He has, whether I finish in first place, third or 12th…I do everything I can to satisfy God. We
August 31st, 2004 @ 9:49 am
I think Dan Browne and the other religious runners seem to have a point – at least based on the evidence. Paula Radcliffe, the greatest female marathon runner ever, did not put her destiny in God’s hands. Instead she relied on talent, training, training, and more training combined with meticulous planning and preparation. Paula dropped out of the marathon and was left crying in the gutter.
Meanwhile The Brazillian leader of the men’s marathon was attacked by a religious nutter (defrocked Irish Priest) and ended up finishing third. He said “I think the Olympic spirit prevailed and I prevailed. I was able to show that determination wins races”. He is clearly mistaken. If he had relied in Jesus instead of the Olympic Spirit he would have been spared the incident and won gold.
August 31st, 2004 @ 10:14 am
Debbie,
The Soviets and East Germans won a gajillion medals in the 70′s and 80′s, and doubtless prevailed on many occasions over athletes who were praying for victory. Does that mean that Atheists on Steroids are stronger than god?
August 31st, 2004 @ 11:28 am
The evidence would appear to show that real-world pharmaceuticals will trump a fake skygod anyday.
August 31st, 2004 @ 11:34 am
Debbie said:
“I think Dan Browne and the other religious runners seem to have a point – at least based on the evidence.”
Debbie, how’s this for evidence? Dan Browne suffered terrible leg cramps during the marathon and wound up running the course slower than had several of the women (including American bronze medalist Deena Kastor) the previous Sunday, despite significantly more favorable weather conditions. How does that fit in with Jesus’ role in all of this?
August 31st, 2004 @ 1:07 pm
Jacques:
God works in mysterious ways… obviously, there’s some moral to this story.
August 31st, 2004 @ 1:18 pm
Jacques … I think that would be a good question for Dan to answer.
Personally I find it odd that anyone can credit their skyspirit when things go well, or could have been worse, but never feel forsaken. I wish my company’s products were viewed like that. They love them when they work well, but in the event of any problems, it must be user error.
Terrible floods in Virginia’s state capital Richmond killing a number of people, and the governor, Mark Warner (who is a smart guy) spouts “It’s a blessing that more people wern’t killed”.
I wonder what the correct response is such disasters is:
(1) less then ten deaths and billions of pounds of damage = blessing
(2) hundreds of deaths = a miracle that more didn’t die
(3) thousands of deaths with a handful of survivors = God chose to spare these few souls.
At what point is the correct response anger at the almighty?
August 31st, 2004 @ 2:55 pm
Debbie, it’s one proof that gods are creations (metaphors, archetypes, illusions) of the reptilian part of our brain, which has survival as its prime directive. Any disaster that befalls us is “obviously” Satan at work; any tragedy we survive “proves” that the good force exists.
I’m reminded of a terrible plane crash in LA some years ago, which slammed into a residential area, wiping out an entire family. The woman who lived across the street said something to a reporter to the effect of “that plane missed our house by a few feet; God sure was watching over us”.
August 31st, 2004 @ 4:21 pm
Erik,
Yes. Atheists (on steroids or not) are stronger than God, for God does not exist, and therefore has no power.
August 31st, 2004 @ 4:51 pm
June … I’m a physicist/computer geek and didn’t know I was part reptilian; that explains the scales and preference for lying motionless in the sun for hours. And by Divine help are you talking about assistance from this person much promoted by John Waters: http://www.dreamlandnews.com/divine/
Another question … when an alligator eats, should it wait an hour before getting out of the water?
August 31st, 2004 @ 4:52 pm
Certainly no argument here. But I guess it’s possible that the mere belief in god could give an athlete extra strength or endurance, or perhaps more importantly, the ability to shut out all other thought. I find this latter ability is rather useful when standing over a 10-foot par putt.
August 31st, 2004 @ 7:11 pm
Well, ok Debbie, in geek terms you can call it your kernel, your CPU, your core code, your main procedure, your central loop, your boot brain. At the center of our brain, under all the neo cortex layers we evolved over eons, lies our archaic brain that dates back to when we were cute lemurs watching reptiles rule the world, like Democrats watching the Republican convention.
September 1st, 2004 @ 9:12 am
Love that last metaphor, June.
September 1st, 2004 @ 12:40 pm
It seems that with God so busy at the Olympics he missed his own pep rally…
http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=156393&command=displayContent&sourceNode=156123&contentPK=10859187
… in which thousands of Christians jumped up and down in sync to the music of a Chrisitan band, causing their statium seats to collapse and buying their Christian bodies under the debris.
It’s a miracle that it happened / didn’t happen / may have happened / may not have happened / may or may not have happened / happened or didn’t happen. Who can deny it?
September 1st, 2004 @ 1:25 pm
LOL Trevor!
I think they simply werent praying hard enough!
September 1st, 2004 @ 3:12 pm
No, they prayed so well that God couldn’t wait one more day to gather them all to heaven.
October 4th, 2004 @ 9:01 pm
I’m looking for info about people holding ceremonies to worship the ancient Gods (on the Acropolis?) this summer–reportedly denounced by the Greek Orthodox Church. Heard on NPR.
October 4th, 2004 @ 9:04 pm
I’m looking for information on people in Athens this summer holding ceremonies to worship the ancient gods (on the Acropolis?)–denounced by the Greek Orthodox Church. Heard on NPR.