{"id":169665,"date":"2018-07-07T02:25:52","date_gmt":"2018-07-07T06:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=169665"},"modified":"2018-07-07T02:25:52","modified_gmt":"2018-07-07T06:25:52","slug":"duterte-vows-to-resign-if-anybody-can-prove-god-exists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/07\/07\/duterte-vows-to-resign-if-anybody-can-prove-god-exists\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte vows to resign if anybody can prove God exists"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: \u201cWhere is the logic of God there?\u201d Duterte asked in a speech at the opening of a science and technology event in southern Davao city. (RICHARD MADELO\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine president, who recently sparked outrage for calling God stupid, has courted new controversy in his largely Roman Catholic country by saying he will resign if anybody can prove that God exists.<\/p>\n

President Rodrigo Duterte, who has had a thorny relationship with the church, questioned anew in a speech late Friday some of the basic tenets of the Catholic faith, including the concept of original sin, which he said taints even innocent infants and can only be removed through baptism in a church for a fee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere is the logic of God there?\u201d Duterte asked in a speech at the opening of a science and technology event in southern Davao city.<\/p>\n

The 73-year-old leader said that if there’s \u201cone single witness\u201d who can prove, perhaps with a picture or a selfie that a human was \u201cable to talk and to see God,\u201d he will immediately resign.<\/p>\n

Duterte, however, suggested that there must be a God or a supreme being that prevents billions of stars and celestial bodies from colliding in a frequency that could have long threatened the human race.<\/p>\n

Last week, he was slammed, including by some of his political allies, for calling God \u201cstupid\u201d in another speech, with one Catholic bishop calling him a \u201cpsychopath.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duterte lamented in that speech that Adam and Eve’s sin in Christian theology resulted in all the faithful falling from divine grace.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho is this stupid God? This son of a bitch is then really stupid,\u201d he said last week. \u201cYou were not involved but now you’re stained with an original sin … What kind of a religion is that? That’s what I can’t accept, very stupid proposition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opposition Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV shot back at Duterte by describing him as \u201cone evil man\u201d and his remarks as \u201cvery much consistent with the deceitfulness, heartlessness and ruthlessness of his policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque has defended his remarks, saying Duterte has the right to express his opinion on religion and cited the president’s previous disclosure that he was once sexually abused by a priest.<\/p>\n

Duterte on Friday recalled that experience, when he said he and other students were fondled by a foreign Jesuit priest, who has since died.<\/p>\n

Amid the criticisms, officials have arranged a meeting between Duterte and the head of the largest association of Catholic bishops on Monday. Filipino bishops opened an annual conference in Manila Saturday and were expected to address Duterte’s tirades when they conclude their meeting on Monday.<\/p>\n

Some Catholic bishops have been critical of Duterte’s brutal crackdown against illegal drugs, which have left thousands of suspects dead in reported clashes with the police, along with his vulgar and expletives-laden speeches. He once called Pope Francis a \u201cson of a bitch\u201d for sparking a monstrous traffic during a 2015 visit in Manila that trapped Duterte for hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine president, who recently sparked outrage for calling God stupid, has courted new controversy in his …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":167408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2608,2444,13454],"class_list":["post-169665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-god","tag-rodrigo-duterte","tag-roman-catholic","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}