Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Politics, Religion

Robertson: Atheists Want People To Be Miserable And To Steal “Your Holiday”

We have previously discussed the war on atheists and agnostics that seems to be accelerating with the rise of people claiming to have no religious affiliation or belief in God in the United States, according to recent polls. There is a steady stream of statements from the national and international campaign by leaders against atheists, who appear to be fair game for hateful, ill-informed rhetoric. While you may have seen this already, Pat Robertson pushed this trend to a new low: telling his many viewers that atheists want to everyone to be miserable because they are miserable. They therefore what “to steal your holiday [Christmas] away from you.”

Here are his words of wisdom:

It’s, well, Christmas all over again. The Grinch is trying to steal our holiday. It’s been so beautiful, the nation comes together, we sing Christmas carols, we give gifts to each other, we have lighted trees, and it’s just a beautiful thing. Atheists don’t like our happiness, they don’t want you to be happy, they want you to be miserable. They’re miserable, so they want you to be miserable. So they want to steal your holiday away from you.

There is obviously a rising concern among political and religious leaders that faith is declining in society. Thus, even though the non-religous is now a majority in places like England, politicians are ratcheting up such rhetoric. Robertson’s rhetoric is particularly raw and inciteful, as are comparisons of atheists and agnostics to terrorists. It is an ironic twist. The effort to leave religious expressions to each citizen (as opposed to religious displays by the government) is viewed as a war on religion. There remains an insistence that the government affirm religious — and generally Christian — values and objects of faith. Robertson’s comments not only reflect a surprising insecurity as to the place of religion but an open hostility to those who want their government to be secular-based.

146 thoughts on “Robertson: Atheists Want People To Be Miserable And To Steal “Your Holiday””

  1. Dear Pat Robertson….. I’ll never be truely miserable, as you hoped I’d be…. as long as I have you to laugh at. That gives me great joy

  4. Gene – good luck with Chinese New year, thats like a billion and a half people you are going against 8-{D.

    I started small, managed to take Arbor day away from the Druids! Yea me!

  5. Bron, atheists might be upset with this statement because it is a bloody lie.

    This is a delusion that Robertson wants to believe and wants his followers to believe. It is simply not true. He is a liar.

  6. “Pat Robertson pushed this trend to a new low: telling his many viewers that atheists want to everyone to be miserable because they are miserable. They therefore what “to steal your holiday [Christmas] away from you.”

    Being Jewish I was spared the shopping, gifting and expense of Christmas, thus able to enjoy the lights, music and good cheer. Many of my Christian friends though found it to be a very stressful time of year and found themselves in debt due to the cost of their gifting obligations. Even as a child I never felt deprived because I didn’t have a tree laden with gifts and living in a ground floor apartment it was obvious early on that there was no such thing as Santa.

  7. Lets face it he’s a sad bitter OLE man who’s time has past and maybe he needs to move on to where ever he thinks his sky daddy is waiting for him.

  8. Bron – The United States was discovered because the Spanish needed to find a way to the Spices of the East after making the Middle East impassible over a religious freakout. That sent Columbus West by boat.

    The US was populated by Europeans fleeing the horror in Europe as factions killed one another over religions believing in the exact same Hairy Thunderer.

    But the US was founded by a bunch of people who didn’t want to pay taxes to support the war they demanded to expand their territory. The founders were skeptical of religion and aware of the pitfalls.

    Religion’s role in what the US is would be checkered at best.

  9. rc,

    I was thinking much the same thing and that Pat forgets that some of us may be trying to steal secular holidays as well.

    I’ve had my eye on swiping Chinese New Year for some time now.

  10. Hah, The atheist sees the devil in those holidays. The voice Religions have heard is what they do. They taught the Muslims to be Muslims because the beliefs parallel that of western religions, and yet Muslims want to call the west the great Satan? They are not looking at themselves. God wants the heart figuratively circumcised. Hell is Gods glory to evil. West, and Muslims think the same way about both, and many more. Muslims kill if they think something is demonic.The west arrests, and sometimes kills in the legal system, and kills in the militarily. I beg to see a difference. Had religion taught the truths of Jesus from the begging what we know would not be what we know.

  11. Bron,

    We do have freedom from religion.

    And it is too much of a stretch to say
    “…that Puffendorf, Grotius and Locke would not have written their works and that there would be no United States in which to debate the evils of religion.”
    Religions don’t invent writing. People invent writing.

    Would there be continents, without religion? Some folks don’t think so.
    Would there be reasoning, without superstition? Probably better reasoning.

  12. I might point out that Greeks and Romans were pretty blood thirsty as well. In fact didnt the Romans crucify Jesus as well as many other Christians?

    And that was well after Aristotle wrote his ethics.

    Sam Harris would probably not have been able to write his books if not for Augustine, Aquinas, Peter Abelard, William of Ockham and others. In Fact it is probably not too much of a stretch to say that Puffendorf, Grotius and Locke would not have written their works and that there would be no United States in which to debate the evils of religion.

    There is a huge amount of difference between men like Ockham and Locke and Pat Robertson.

  13. Boy, was I uniformed about how I feel about other people. I was completely unaware of my need to steal holidays, too. Thanks to Pat Robertson, though, I now know how I’m supposed to act. All of us atheists wait for Pat Robertson to tell us how we think just as he tells his followers what they should think. I’m a little confused, though. Since atheism is the freedom from being bound up by belief in ANY theology, aren’t we also stealing Chanakah and Rosh Hashanah, Eids and Ramadan? Don’t we want to make Jews and Muslims and Scientologists and Hindus and Buddhists miserable too? Alas, an atheists work is never done………..

  15. “Robertson’s rhetoric is particularly raw and inciteful, as are comparisons of atheists and agnostics to terrorists.”

    ***************************

    Yep, it seems every day I read reports of suicide bombers clutching Sam Harris’ “End of Faith” book and proclaiming “Reason is Great!” in their vernacular of choice as they pull the detonator.

  18. Just looking at Robertson reminds why I supported Obama in the recent election. Good post, frankly.

  19. “I don’t know what the voices in his head are but they have demonstrated that they are not God.” -Frankly

    lol

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