Another Sign That President Obama Is Non-Religious?

June 4, 2009 By Guest Contributor 18 Comments

Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard says his team will win the NBA Finals because of God.

But President Obama dares to go against that impeccable logic!

Obama was on his way to the Marine One helicopter on the South Lawn when a reporter shouted a question. The topic: Who is going to win the N.B.A. championship, the Los Angeles Lakers or the Orlando Magic?

“Lakers in six, I think,” Obama said, smiling. The series begins Thursday in Los Angeles.

Once again, he’s going against God’s wishes. I await the angry emails from the Religious Right groups.

(Thanks to Mountain Humanist for the link!)

Filed Under: General, Politics, Sports 18 Comments
  • David D.G.

    It just galls me to think that some of these so-called journalists get access to the President of the United States, and then they use it to ask stupefyingly inane questions like this.

    What does it matter what the president thinks about upcoming sports championships? He’s an important guy — ask him something important, not to mention something relevant.

    I suppose this same “journalist” would ask Shaquille O’Neil about his position on immigration reform, or query Jerry Jones about foreign policy with regard to North Korea. Makes just as much sense.

    ~David D.G.

  • http://yrif.org Joel

    I still don’t get why people keep asserting that Obama is secretly non-religious.

    http://yrif.org/2009/04/09/obamas-faith-based-office/

  • http://jewmanist.com Rose

    Well I live in LA, so I concur with Mr. President. The only way I’d even think of rooting for a FL team is if the Heat ever made it (b/c I’m from Miami). But I have no real town pride and the Heat have sucked since i was in junior high.

    Its the only sport I can stand to watch and I’m hoping Lakers win but really, I couldn’t care less. :)

    So… if LA wins, will that finally give them enough “proof” that god’s not real?

  • littlejohn

    Joel: The reason I suspect Obama is secretly non-religious is because his parents were non-religious and because Obama is obviously very intelligent. Intelligence correlates negatively with religiousity

  • http://yrif.org Joel

    Intelligence correlates negatively with religiousity

    I suspect this is true, but my statistician’s instinct tells me that it is dwarfed by the positive correlation between “making explicit, detailed statements about being religious” and religiosity.

  • Pony

    What about the positive correlation between “making explicit, detailed statements about being religious” and getting elected?

    And the negative correlation for the opposite?

    And the positive correlation between being a politician, and not telling the whole truth?

  • Ron in Houston

    Did you hear any of his speech in Cairo today? The guy is impressive. I really believe he will go down in history as one of our greatest Presidents.

  • Richard Wade

    I’m with David D.G. on this. You have the chance to shout any question to the most powerful man in the world and you ask him to prognosticate about some overpaid grownup entertainers bouncing a ball?

    I saw a cartoon once where a guy struggles over mountains and other terrible hardships to be able to ask the Buddha his questions. When he finally gets there he says, “Oh great Buddha, how much do you weigh and what is your favorite color?”

  • Hughes

    I think Barack will deconvert about a year into his second term. He’ll do a Tony Blair in reverse.

    Really, though, it doesn’t matter if political leaders are Christian as long as they govern like atheists. Scientific decision making, no holier-than-thou BS morality, no divine inspiration.

  • http://www.TrickyBuddha.com bobisimo

    Even though I think I prefer the Lakers (not a fan of either team) winning, I think I’m rooting for the Magic to win *because* of what Howard said about God.

    I want to see Howard say, “See! I TOLD YOU SO! God likes us better.”

    Then the Lakers and the rest of the league will have to admit that God likes them second best. Or worse. Haha. :p

  • http://www.TrickyBuddha.com bobisimo

    It just galls me to think that some of these so-called journalists get access to the President of the United States, and then they use it to ask stupefyingly inane questions like this.

    I guess it’s sort of like (or maybe “exactly like”) the paparazzi. They have three seconds to ask some random celeb a question (and get an answer) for a sound bite for their website or TV show.

    In that situation, what *should* they ask? Obama, in two seconds, what are the biggest obstacles to meeting your October deadline for the start of Health Care reform?

  • littlejohn

    Joel, and for anyone else interested in the relationship between religious belief and IQ, I found this link especially helpful:

    http://www.skeptictank.org/hs/iq_relig.htm

    Any thoughts?

  • Pony

    Obama, in two seconds, what are the biggest obstacles to meeting your October deadline for the start of Health Care reform?

    “The Republican Party”

  • http://gretachristina.typepad.com/ Greta Christina

    This doesn’t have anything to do with atheism… but I like the way Obama answers questions about sports. He doesn’t give weaselly, “may the best team win” answers that try to please everybody. He gives straightforward answers about who he’s rooting for and who he thinks is going to win.

    Now, if we could only get him to do that about Don’t Ask Don’t Tell…

  • The Unbrainwashed

    Heat have sucked since i was in junior high

    The Heat won the champhionship only 3 years ago.

    Joel, and for anyone else interested in the relationship between religious belief and IQ, I found this link especially helpful:

    I imagine most people on this site don’t believe in innate intelligence. They probably believe intelligence is more significantly affected by cultural and environmental agents. So your data (which is based on objective measures of intelligence) won’t resonate with them.

    But IMO, yes, I think the connection is reasonable and highly likely.

  • Mountain Humanist

    I’m just jazzed to have received full-scale blog props. This will, of course, go down in blog history.

    On the Obama religiosity question, I think he is stuck in the same quandary as many mainline Protestant ministers — to wit, he is likely an agnostic and atheist or maybe a deist but he knows his job depends in part on the appearance of piety. If you really nailed him down, he would probably admit that he at least questions the existence of an interventionist god but that religious life probably provides him with some measure of connection or inspiration.

    That’s just a thumbnail guess.

    But of course let’s not lose sight of what is really important in the grand scheme of things — That Mountain Humanist made the home page of Friendly Atheist. Again — moment of history.

  • Shel

    @bobisimo: Really? Normally I don’t follow basketball at all, but I’m rooting for the Lakers to win, just so Dwight Howard has to consider why God hates him. I’m sure there are players on both sides who believe God will make them win, but from what I’m hearing Dwight Howard has been the most obnoxious about it.

  • http://www.TrickyBuddha.com bobisimo

    Pony says: “The Republican Party”

    Rim shot! Woo! :)

    Shel says: “Really? … just so Dwight Howard has to consider why God hates him. … Dwight Howard has been the most obnoxious about it.”

    That’s a great angle, too. And I do appreciate it. But I started thinking how funny it would be if the obnoxious “God loves us better than you!” jerk actually turned out (in his head) to be right.

    I mean, if the Magic loses, the other team can say “Guess God didn’t like you better” but he can always retort something about a fall for the prideful and that it was a lesson and yadda yadda yadda.

    But if he wins, then in his mind God clearly loves the Magic better. And he can go on and on about it. And every other team and player that believes would be filled with doubts about why God picked him instead of them and…

    OK, it’s all silly. But that was the thought that went through my head when I read this. Haha. :)