This kid knows God is 100% real. Because his parents say so.
Recent Comments
- FO: Awesome animals. Also, they apparently taste good and I’d be curious... on Night Swimming with Sea Monsters
- PamBG: Facetious. No, there is no free will in heaven, because everyone knows that... on John Piper and Divine Command
- Len: So you’ve met my ex. on Can I hear an Amen?
- Rich Wilson: Sounds remarkably like William Lane Craig. on John Piper and Divine Command
- FO: But yeah, this is awesome, Jesus had to die ’cause a woman ate an apple. on Why Are You Here, Jesus?
- Michael: The bill does not apply to religious organizations for the... on Mr. Conservative on religion and politics
Funny $&#!@ From 9 Laughs
I'm one of the contributors to 9 Laughs:
Subscribe by Email
Archives
I laughed when he said “I don’t care if you call me a homo,” but then I realized, there are probably people that do. Poor little guy.
Hehe nice how he clarifies he’s never been to heaven because he’s still alive.
Thank you and bye bye, child.
I…feel sorta bad for this kid. A camera and an internet connection and not a lick of sense/maturity/education…and this is the result.
C’mon guys. The kid’s, like, twelve. He’s allowed to believe in things he hasn’t thought through yet.
Of course, at that age I would’ve said about the same thing, and for the same reason.
Who are his parents or who teaches him to post on you tube?
That was mixed feelings. Cute kid, and I like him saying we had the free will to choose to do an action – if you have arms, ha – and stopping terrorism. Then the unquestioned brainwashing kicks in.
1. You have free will to move your arms
2. God gave you free will.
3. Therefore, God exists!
I would like to know:
Did other atheists on this site get indoctrinated that young? (I didn’t.)
If some did, then I can feel some hope for him, that he will examine, question, and come to his own values, and that they can be different from what he has been force-fed from before he learned to talk.
“the Earth could not have possibly formed on its own”
Apparently his home-schooling didn’t cover the nebular hypothesis.
The bit about God creating a perfect world, but humans messing it up doesn’t convince me. When you’re omnipotent and omniscient, it’s pretty bleeping lame to be trying to shift the blame to your lesser subordinates.
I can raise my hands, therefore God exists and gave us free will? Dumb, dumb dumb dumb.
Public Service Announcement:
Kids, assume that every video you make and every picture you take will be instantly disseminated worldwide, and will be used against you. Even if you don’t purposely release it onto the web like this misguided youngster, a photo sent to a friend may get spread beyond your intentions, and material that you think is not open to public perusal may very well be due to lax security measures or invasive hacking.
My girlfriend’s father is a minister and an extreme fundamentalist. She was raised very heavily on religion and god and it has completely screwed her up. She’s the most wonderful person I know, but her father has made her cry herself to sleep before because he goes off on rants about how horrible she is because she doesn’t believe in god.
It’s amazing how much hate comes of of a “message of love”.
Let’s go easy – he’s just a kid. Magical thinking is common in certain stages of development. Kids gravitate toward supernatural solutions to everyday problems. It’s part of what makes being a kid really cool.
What’s depressing is the high likelihood that this magical thinking is being reinforced by adults.
I want to feel sorry for the kid…but then, you watch the “Stop calling me a homo” video and I just have to laugh. If he believes he’s mature enough to tell people how to believe and has come out to “educate people”, then he needs to learn how to deal with the criticism that will come from it without resorting to empty threats. I’ve watched through the other videos and it’s actually rather amusing that he heard about gay marriage on the news, and he “used to be gay, but…” He continues to say that “it’s not a bad thing, just not normal.” So…why is it wrong? Poor kid is really messed up.
This is the exact reason the authors of the gospels claimed Jesus taught to have the “faith of a child”.
Children will believe what their parents teach them because they don’t know any better. Then it becomes no different than cult mentality. It took me 33 years to evolve from the Christian theology that was indoctrined into me since birth.
You know, this kid makes me sad. If you think about it, most 12 year old’s are not making videos to persuade people of their beliefs; they are playing outside with friends, watching Nickelodeon, and other pre-teen activities. Here is a kid who believes something to be 100% true and feels it necessary to inform the public about it. He has a desire for speaking (what he believes is) truth.
Unfortunately, he is deluded concerning his beliefs, which is quite tragic; for if this child were not indoctrinated with religious beliefs, he would probably be using his naturally inquisitive mind for more scientific, useful, purposes. You have observe that he is (at the very least) above-average for a 12-year old in terms of articulation and vocabulary.
It’s just very sad that so many young minds are still caught on religion and thus fail to see the grander opportunities in the pursuit of knowledge that are in the world.
Amazing! That was all I needed. Have someone tell me to lift my arms up and put them down and now I believe! Wow!
Poor kid, he didn’t put that crap in his own head. I blame his idiot parents.
I feel sorry for him. I know that I would probably be embarrassed if people had recorded things I had said when I was that age…I’m almost disappointed that we are even talking about this. He’s 12. I think we can do better than that.
I feel sorry for this kid, his parents have completely screwed him up in the head, it’s just sad to see things like this
I’m 14 at the moment, I though that religion was a load of bollocks, so I became an atheist, but his parents got to him, and brain washed him, and there was something about his voice that I noticed, he seemed to be on the verge of crying, as well as the fact that his voice sounded wooded, almost robotic, and the fact that he kept repeating himself showed that the ideas may have been pressed into his head, and he, like many others has no idea what he isbtaloing about
I hope that kids realizes what he is saying, and how stupid it all sounds, and he drops it all, before it is too late
from what i can observe and my limited knowledge of the child, he appears to have complete idiots for parents.
if he ends up depressed and the worst happens, who do you think will get the blame? i’m betting everyone will jump up and shout “the internet killed this boy, we need to censor the internet”. do you know whose fault it will really be? the parents. one simple conversation would be the difference.
he doesn’t need to be putting videos on youtube. if he really wants to try to convert people and talk about relgion and god and all that jazz, i’m sure the church he belongs too has something for him to do. at least that way he would be around people that think like him and not be made fun of so harshly.
This video makes me sad. I hope this kid will be able to outgrow the beliefs that have been planted in his head, but it won’t be an easy journey psychologically or intellectually.
@ Chaplain: I totally agree with you. As for myself, I couldn’t get past 1:50 out of 3:48, of the gibberish he was talking about. I feel for him, becuase I was in the same boat as this kid, and it took all of my adult years to reach the point to where I was starting to question all that I was tuaght. Not an easy thing to go through.
I made the mistake of watching some of his other videos, and let me say that I was horrified. This kid really needs some kind of psychiatric help. I’ve never seen somebody inflict physical harm upon themselves on youtube before, only to get a flood of comments requesting that he kill himself.
I’m going to send a message to youtube and request that they take his stuff off. Not that they will actually do anything….
I’m not sure that this child’s videos should be posted here.
There are at least a few deeply unfortunate things about this character, but I really like him because he has big balls. Someone should probably let on to his mom that he’s making a fool of himself on youtube. This could also just be another skit show.
I’m wondering if this child would be able to answer this:
Where was God when 13 immigrants learning the English language were shot to death? Where was God when four children were shot to death by their father? Where was God when a little 8 year old girl was killed (probably sexually assaulted), stuffed in a suitcase and dumped in a pond?
If God exists and he is all knowing and all powerful, why did he let these things happen?
Hey, what’s the big deal? What he’s saying and feeling is congruent with those of millions of other kids out there. The only difference being he’s one of the few on youtube.
I noticed all the hateful comments on this kid’s YouTube videos and felt compelled to come here and chime in with a little empathy, but was thrilled to see you’re all already on the job.
While the kid’s argument is obviously nonsense, he’s clearly going to be dealing with a lot in the coming years, not the least of which is his sexuality. I wish him the best.
Tip o’ the hat to the UF community for their sensitivity. I have to say how proud it makes me that we’re an empathetic lot.
I like that this kiddo is expressing himself. Good for him! I don’t like that the commenters on YouTube are being TOTALLY inappropriate.
I disagree with that, this seems like a kid in way over his head and being actively encouraged by parents. He kept looking to the top right hand corner of the screen. i think someone was in the room with him. He could be being forced into proselytization to save others. Remember Leevi from Jesus camp, same idea. Hope his school gets him a good therapist, preferably a buddhist one, he could use some of their exercises I think.
Also when I saw this I kept thinking “Don’t kick the puppy”
The kid has a good chance of throwing off his religious indoctrination. He is at least intelligent enough to use his or some else’ computer and you-tube account, he has the drive to think about his religion (good and bad), and even if he is over his head, he is trying to communicate his beliefs.
There are too many children his age that would not take time out of playing outside, tv, games and such to contemplate life’s bigger questions.
The stupid and insensitive you-tube commenters are unavoidable. He was bound to be introduced to them eventually. I bet he’s learning from it. The best innoculation against something (in this case, harsh verbal abuse) is many times experiencing it; like, oh I don’t know…religion?
I would also venture a guess that his questions of homosexuality are normal curiosity pre-puberty, although I didn’t watch his other videos where he talks more about sex or whatnot. It would be a perfect time for responsible parents to have the birds and bees speech, but I bet sexual repression runs deep in his religious family, so it probably isn’t going to happen. Just my guess based on first reactions from his vid.
I like the little dis-claimer for people with no arms to lift their heads to prove freewill. Perhaps the kid will realize one day that his god is responsible for those people not having arms. If only freewill could grow limbs.
I may be crazy, but I think the kid might be drunk.
God gave us free-will. Even the Free will not to believe in him. Ergo – God is Jewish!
One of the comments I just saw told him to go kill himself. This is seriously getting out of hand. Why are people so ruthless?
alright, as much as i don’t believe in what he’s saying, i’m really disturbed by this… on march 31st, he posted a video of himself just HITTING himself…
i kind of want to cry. yes, he’s young. yes, he’s misguided. oh dear god, parents, PLEASE get him off youtube! he WILL really hurt himself! he’s just a kid!
You know what, I think Elemenope might be right.
That kid posted this on his youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ChristianU2uber
“Hello Everyone, I Am A Christian And I Love To Upload Videos That Teaches You What Christianity Is All About. **I Love Acting And Just Making Things Up.** I Also Love To Play Games Like: Second Life, Vietcong and Hitman. A Couple Of Those Three Games Are Violent, But It Is Good To Just Let Out That Violent Feeling Deep Inside.”
This whole thing is starting to seem a bit contrived. His videos do have names designed to get the best search results. I’m still not 100% sure, but if this is a hoax, then that kid is one hell of an actor. If it is fake, not only did he fool me but he also tricked this websites creator.
Nevertheless, that boy still has issues. Kids these days…
This is another Pastor Ted Haggard in the making.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gngry3__Y5A&feature=related
He really pummels himself here.
Poor kid.
I now believe in a God. Thank you kid.
Going to go get baptized next week.
wow…talk about a slow news day.
I’m not quite sure what to say. At first I thought, “Stupid kid, maybe one day he’ll realize what he’s saying.” But then I remembered what I was like as a kid growing up in a very religious home and felt a pang of empathy. And then I saw his other videos and am truly disturbed by what I saw. This kid has a lot more issues than I initially thought.
Something about him screams insecurity.
I visit this site for the intelligent discourse on religion, and material to support me when I do end up arguing religion with someone.
This smacks of just making fun of a child who has spent his life being indoctrinated into Christianity and knows no better. Hardly worthy of this website in my opinion.
Sad, very sad.
I’m very sad for this kid. I’m pretty sure that his mats at school have too seen that video -or they will be- so it’s not only virtual mockery what he is facing…
Some of the comments here are blaming his parents and I agree, but you seem to think that that’s an outlier case. I’m not so sure. Other comments have related “similar” experiences with indoctrinating parents. He has too unsupervised acces to internet, he may be viewing pornsites without his parents knowing. So… are his parents so “fundy”? Aren’t a lot of childs like him, being indoctrinated by parents and pastors all over US? The only difference then would be that that child has a conflict between his sexuality and his religion and he has the guts to post those videos in youtube.
Shouldn’t be all those kids protected -in any way- from a dangerous indoctrination?
Perfect demonstration of “the virus of faith”. Poor little bugger, blighted by his idiot parents *sighs*
Interesting. Daniel and the kid in this video actually have a something important in common — they both believe humans should work together for justice and the common good.
Somewhere right now a Catholic priest is wacking off to this video.
Poor kid. I left him a nice comment.
He really gives me the impression of someone with Asperger’s Syndrome. It would explain alot…
Wow. I really feel sorry for this kid. And to makes matters worse for him, some guy just hacked his YouTube account, changing everythig in it, leaving his identity behind (assuming it’s real) and getting a bunch of congratulatory comments from other people.
If this is real, that kid must be feeling like shit right now.
I feel too bad for him to find this funny. I wish we could rescue that poor kid.
- Duke
Oy vey… This brings back memories of my psychotic indoctrination.
Isaiah 45:7 (King James Version)
7I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
:(
Yeah, that’s not cool.
Oh, he talks about it in another one of his videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AXEAPRy4OA&
In you watch his video about gay marriage he says that he was gay, but stopped it because “it was wrong”. That’s probably the reason for these insults. It’s an incredibly sad and disturbing thing to watch.
Anyway he was probably as gay as Butters was in South Park.
Poor little guy indeed.
I agree. I mean if you look at the stupid things many of us believed at 12 I’m sure very few were any better than this.
Really he’s kinda cute like a little puppy or something. Makes me go, “Awwww”.
I agree…sort of. To me, his parents should never have given him access to a computer with a camera. (Then again, I can’t help but think his parents know that he’s putting videos up on YouTube) If I was a parent, I wouldn’t allow my children to do such a thing–dealing with ridicule/mockery by fellow classmates is bad enough; putting stuff out on the web and dealing with hundreds of people who can say virtually anything they want from behind their keyboards…ugh.
Like I said before, a camera, internet, and immaturity (not that he’s an idiot–he’s only twelve; he’s not mature) are a dangerous combination. Geez. He should be out playing and being a kid…not trying to proselytize via YouTube.
Of course he is. But when he posts it publicly on youtube to convince people they’re wrong… well, then he’s going to get a bit of flak for it. That’s life.
Oh, no. Really? Now I feel really bad for this kid. He’s going to have years of nonsense because of this. As they say, been there, done that…got the years of therapy.
On a sidenote, he stopped being gay for the completely wrong reason. The only valid reason for stopping personal gayity is slightly different…
(for those of you, jump to 4:15 into the interview to find out what I mean, but be warned, you might miss a laugh or two)
I did.
It was a long, hard battle to get over it, and not everyone has the resources or resolve to get out.
About his age, I realized my crazy beliefs had to be buoyed up with rationality, so I became a Creationist. Ugh.
I was raised religious.
I was indoctrinated into Christianity from at least age five (probably before that). And I was indoctrinated into thinking that being gay was bad, Bad, BAD. By the time I was this kid’s age, I was so damned screwed up, I didn’t know whether I was coming or going. I can distinctly remember during a horrific severe thunderstorm (tornado warnings and the whole shebang) when the lights went out and our apartment was flooding due to being in a low-lying area making a bargain with “god” that I would squash all of my adolescent queer fantasies if “he” just didn’t kill us all. Oh yeah, why did I do that? Because my fundie mother told us all to pray–by that point in my life, I was convinced that any bad thing that did happen happened because God was punishing me.
When Dawkins talks about Christianity being akin to child abuse, I’m quite inclined to agree with him. Some are able to resist the brainwashing and say, “This is a load of bollocks.” For a long, long time, I wasn’t.
My hope for this kid is that he’s able to find an environment where he’s able to accept whoever he is (gay, straight, whatever).
Thank you for your answers. I relate, because I was neither brought up in religion (yay!), nor always a nonbeliever. I bought christianity of my own “free” will as a teenager, and was out of it at about age 20. That leaves me a nonmember of the “raised” xians and the ones who never even bought it. (Lemme tell you: those who bought it know what it’s like in a way the never-believers just don’t understand!)
I have some hope for this kid. I disagree that he’s believing what he wants at this point. At this point, he’s a brainwashed parrot.
But he’s got courage. He considers “gay” an insult, (and the hostility behind the name-calling is an insult) and even with that belief, stands up to it, responding the same as to any insult. He may become both more accepting and also courageous enough to stand real insults. Of course, this same ‘strength’ could allow him to be the brave, persecuted christian. Or the strength to question and challenge his way through cognitive dissonance the dull xians apparently never experience. Who knows?
Did other atheists on this site get indoctrinated that young?
From birth, literally. I was a preacher’s kid in a long line of preacher’s kids. By the time I was this kid’s age, I probably knew more evangelical theology than many adults.
“Did other atheists on this site get indoctrinated that young?”
I was “saved” at age 5. I went to a Southern Baptist school from kindergarten – 12th grade. I had Bible classes every day for those 13 years. I also went to church on Sunday morning and evening. I went to numerous “retreats” (a few of which were rather cult-like), camps, etc. My grandfather would pay me and my cousin to call him and recite Bible verses starting as young as we could. I was truly brainwashed.
So yes, there is hope. :)
As a parent now, I have frequently thought that I’m very glad my daughter will not have to endure what I did, though. I can’t imagine doing that to a child so young.
I agree–life is harsh, and if you put something on YouTube, just expect to get the worst of humanity responding to it in the dumbest, most infantile way possible.
However, you and I are adults. We can handle it. We can even dish it back–and depending on our vocabulary, dish it back in spades. This kid’s attempts at proselytizing are opening an not fully-cooked kid up to the kinds of vitriol no one his age should have to deal with.
I mean, I’d have zero sympathy for him if he was 18 or older (probably not even at 16), but this kid…well, I just don’t think he’s smart enough to know just what the hell he’s doing. Even the proselytizing isn’t that well thought out. He’s just doing what he’s seen the misinformed adults around him doing.
He’s not just getting ‘a bit of flak for it’ either. Every minute, several people post comments on his ‘stop calling me a homo’ vid (that’s the worst one, but they post on the others too). Most of those comments contain accusations of homosexuality, sexual swearwords, suggestions of sexual acts he should perform, accusations that he has already performed such sexual acts, and even some death threats. The comments run into the thousands, he has 1000 subscribers, some of which are making pastiches like ‘angry homo kid remix’ and ‘don’t piss off the angry homo kid’.
Never mind his xian views suck or he’s an irritating little eejit.
I’d say that’s abuse.
Yeah. I wish people would quit using “gay” as an all-purpose insult. It makes me kinda sad to know that he feels that bad just cuz he’s been raised that way, not for any other reason. I can’t ever remember my parents telling me being gay is wrong, I just ended up straight. Come to think of it, all they did was teach me to be honest, make me go to church on Easter, and stuff like that. I guess this poor little guy is what happens when you stuff religion down a kid’s throat… Not very pretty. I’ll have to remember that. But at least he has plenty of time to find himself (as long as his parents don’t keep “force-feeding” him).
I’m definitely sympathetic. Notice I didn’t say much about it in the post. I find this more amusing/sad than anything else — if this were an adult using logic like this, I would have said more and not held back.
It’s something called “being in over your head”.
The primary feature of which is, you undertake an action not preparing for or understanding the consequences.
Remember, twelve years old. Twelve.
Yeah – I certainly would not want to be judged by what I was like as a twelve year old.
“Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.”
At that age, had I expressed a desire to publicly humiliate myself before the world, my parents would have said “Um, well, before you do that, have you considered the impact … ?” and explained in detail.
I hope his parents at least tried to stop him.
What I don’t get is how the pack are taking such delight in slaughtering him. Yes, his vids are lame, especially the ‘stop calling me a homo’ one. Yes, he’s irritating (though if one is irritated by him, the simplest thing is not to watch). But the bullies are shouting insults at him repeatedly, then laughing. Why do so many people (and there are shedloads of them, many of them semi-literate) get off on other people’s pain?
The other thing that strikes me is: what the hell are his parents doing? Surely a kid of that age should be heavily supervised? It’s not just a simple case of being ridiculed for your beliefs.
At this point, the parents need to sack the frak up and yank his account. This cannot be good for him in any sense.
I agree. Even if they deleted existing comments and disabled new ones, it’d be a start. It still wouldn’t prevent the pastiche vids though.
In the meantime, I’ve emailed youtube complaining, and asking them to sort the situation out. Maybe others could do likewise?
I’m wondering: don’t Youtube have a duty to protect minors using their site? How about Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)?
I agree with Dawkins, at least where the parents’ beliefs are fundie or hard-line in any way. If they’re liberals, less so. If they teach their (liberal) xianity alongside the basics of other faiths and none, and allow the kids to make up their own minds, I think that must ameliorate the damage.
I know exactly what you mean. My parents would remind me daily that the End Times were near, conjuring up countless horrific fantasies in my mind of concentration camps for christians like myself, jesus stealing life away from me by snatching me up to heaven, burning in hell for something I couldnt control, etc.
Even the thought of heaven horrified me, since it is eternal and inescapable, I felt that I was doomed to an immortal existence.
I would turn all the lights on in my room and watch Dumb and Dumber until I felt as disconnected from the eternal as I possible could, and drifted back to sleep. It was awful. Atheism saved my life.
Agreed – we don’t know his home situation of course, but all else being equal the parents ‘should’ protect him from harm, and it seems they’re not doing.
I agree. People are very, very quick to blame the internet culture for this sort of thing, and true, people en masse and anonymous can be cruel, spiteful and bullying – but that is unlikely to change just because some kid gets torn apart online. Human nature is what it is, we’re still finding our feet in this age of mass communication, and as soon as something gets on a network like Youtube people just don’t give a damn how old the maker is, or think through their actions.
That’s why parents need to be net savvy, and educate their kids to be the same way. Too many people just let their kids get on with humiliating themselves in public and then throw a fit at all the wrong people when they find out about it. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve seen parents come online to hurl legal threats and abuse at the people who’ve been ripping on their kids – never once have I seen one of those parents admit that they should have monitored what their kid was up to more closely, and put a stop to it before it attracted the attention of the sharks. Once people scent amusement to be had, that’s it, game over.
Michael Gambon is a seriously funny interviewee.
There is evil in the world. God is either aware of this and is unable to stop it, in which case he is not omnipotent; or he is able to stop it but is unaware of it, in which case he is not omniscient; or he is aware of it and chooses not to stop it, in which case he is not omnibenevolent.
Oh! That’s a bummer! I thought this was going to be cute like the “neither have you tasted my Jesus” video that you (the Dude) posted on the no proof post.
:(
Or there is no metaphysically possible universe which contains free-willed sapient beings but does not include the capacity for evil, in which case he could be omni-everything and still powerless over this particular problem.
He could have been looking at some notes.
That is true, but it obviates the idea of Heaven.
The only “big” deal (and personally I don’t think it’s big, but I see where the concern comes from) is that he is young and perhaps developmentally too immature to deal with the reactions to his videos.
Perhaps the impossibility is introduced by the physicality of the universe. Then heaven wouldn’t suffer from the same problem.
Hypothetically.
Wow, my mind just got totally blown.
LOL.
Being so… wouldn’t the laws of physicality be above the power of god? Is it an stronger reality -the laws of physicality- to wich god is bounded?
Is not god who “wrote” the laws of physicality when he did the universe?
So it wouldn’t be omnipotent too…
sorry, *he, not *it, or maybe the FSm is an “it”
Hell of a way to express oneself…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gngry3__Y5A&feature=related
Dude! OMG! Well, I was trying to be supportive of a difficult time in a kid’s life (hence the comment about being free to express himself and that people would attack a child is wrong!) The thing is that I don’t judge kids for expressing religious views (even though I’m against religion personally), well… because they’re kids and will grow up one day.
But he is attacking himself! That is very very concerning! I’m SO glad you reported it! Now I’m wondering EXACTLY where this kid’s parents are? This is not right! They fill this kid with religious dogma, but don’t attend his computer habits? What gives!?!!?!!!?
I went to the YouTube page, but couldn’t find a link to report the video to the “powers that be”. Do you know how to do it?
I dunno. That comment of his at the end of the video, “Alright, I think that’s enough self-loathing for now…” sounded pretty sarcastic to me. Like he was making fun of the people who were commenting nastily. Nor did it seem like he was actually injuring himself.
Who knows, maybe I’m just reading it wrong.
I hear what you are saying. It’s good that people are willing to express their religious views, no matter how bad an argument they give (as in this case). As I watched the first video posted here, I just chuckled and figured that the kid still had a lot to learn. I just couldn’t believe the hateful comments that he was receiving. They were extremely mean spirited and homophobic even by youtube standards.
He posted several others, one in which he claims that he use to be gay, another showing himself throwing tantrums and such. Painful to watch… I can only imagine the psychological impact of having tens of thousands of people insult you, especially someone this young.
At first I thought that posting things like this wasn’t the right way to argue against extremist religious idology. Now I realize that this is the best way to show just what a negative thing religion can be.
I grew up in a very religious southern baptist environment. I struggled with a lot of big questions while I was young. Church, parents and private Christian school were never any help, they always just made it worse. I said a lot of stupid things as well at that age, but never was subject to the humiliation of a mass and hateful audience. As a species we are torn between ancient beliefs and modern technology, and children suffer the most.
I don’t know, this stuff just gets to me…
It might have something to do with us being primates.
Anonymity. No personal culpability for our actions = not giving a damn, a lot of the time. Sad, but true. If you don’t ever have to confront the ramifications of what you’ve done, you don’t have to accept any guilt.
No. I think there are deeper problems:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AXEAPRy4OA&feature=related
He’s just a kid! It’s not right.
He seemed to wince in pain when he started punching himself. Even if this is fake and some kind of a joke, whats the punchline? The kid still obviously has psychological problems.
Do you know how I can report this to YouTube? I think they should yank it.
OK, I watched a few of the other videos.
One thing that was really odd, for anyone, never mind a twelve-year-old, is that he says “um…” exactly zero times during his monologues. Aside from people who speechify for a living (actors, politicians), that is unbelievably rare. Also, for a person who is apparently agitated, he blinks at a normal rate.
And then I saw his video “My Favorite Passage From The Bible”. His favorite passage from the Bible is Ezekiel 25:17. Only the version he quotes isn’t from the Bible. It’s the highly extrapolated version from Pulp Fiction (Jules Winfield’s speech before he offs a guy).
I think someone is having some fun jerking people around online. It’s like a twelve-year-old’s version of LonelyGirl15.
Nope-
I hate to disagree with you because you are the bomb when it comes to amazing philosophical stuff, but neither my niece (9) nor my nephew (7) says ummm, but they do “ramble” the way this kid does. I’ve been around children quite a lot in my career, and he sounds like a normal child to me. He makes assertions that he doesn’t fully understand (like his comment about how he used to be gay… I mean he’s 12! What does he know about it!)
Anyhow, even if he’s having a little fun with all of this, someone this young doesn’t need to be exposed to the crap that he’s getting exposed to. Where are his parents?????
All I could figure out as far as reporting goes was to flag the videos. They don’t seem to have an e-mail address devoted to these type of situations.
The stupid and insensitive you-tube commenters are unavoidable. – check out the following:
http://xkcd.com/202/
http://xkcd.com/481/
PS – I don’t mean to make light of this poor kid at all, just a bit of comic relief.
Sorry Evsie, I don’t know in what world you happen to live.
This video is great to show how deleterious religion can be to young people and that indoctrination can be no different from child abuse.
Posting this video is not making fun of this kid. If this is your interpretation you have a problem.
You haven’t read any of the comments, have you?
This kid’s getting more sympathy from atheists than from the YouTube fans. And probably more than from his Christian home or community.
Are you for real?
Nathan Poe must have met you just before he said
Park’s Corollary:
Although christian apologetics are a particularly obtuse subset of this group, it is not limited to christian apologetics.
And being poncy tossers who get their rocks off on being Internet Tough Guys.
Pardon the expression, but Jesus Christ! What the fuck is wrong with his alleged parents? Y’know, if (when) something bad happens to this poor kid, those stupid wastes of cellular matter will be front and center on television saying stupid crap like, “We just didn’t know what was going on.” And the talking heads will use him as a prop to point out just how eeeeevil the Intarwebs are.
My father was a pentecostal preacher. I was “baptized in the Holy Spirit” and speaking in tongues at the age of 4 1/2. I’m also gay and was deeply, deeply homophobic. I got out of Christianity at the age of 31 and fully accepted my sexuality at around 38. The suffering caused by that imbecilic system is difficult to quantify.
I consider the raising of my two children without religious indoctrination one of the great accomplishments of my life.
Also from his profile:
“Ten Commandments That I Know: Thou Shalt Not Kill, Thou Shalt Not Steal, Thou Shalt Not Cheat On Husband Or Wife, Thou Shalt Not Want What Others Have, Thou Shalt Not Lie And Thou Shalt Not Take The Lords Name In Vane.
Thats All I Know”
That seems quite odd as well.