Faith Comes By Hearing is sending Haitians solar-powered Bibles in order to relieve their “spiritual poverty.”
These are solar-powered audible Bibles that can broadcast the holy scriptures in Haitian Creole to 300 people at a time.
Called the “Proclaimer,” the audio Bible delivers “digital quality” and is designed for “poor and illiterate people”, the Faith Comes By Hearing group said.
According to their website, the Proclaimer is “self-powered and can play the Bible in the jungle, desert or … even on the moon!”
The Albuquerque-based organisation said 600 of the devices were already on their way to Haiti.
It said it was responding to the Haitian crisis by “providing faith, hope and love through God’s Word in audio”.
With tens of thousands of Port-au-Prince residents living outdoors because their homes have collapsed or they fear aftershocks from last week’s quake, the audio Bible can bring them “hope and comfort that comes from knowing God has not forgotten them through this tragedy”, the group said.
Because what people need when they’re dying and have nowhere to live is… a talking Bible.
Retards. That is all.
That’s exactly what I said when we found out our “friend” was going to Thailand after the tsunami… to spread religion. They don’t need Jesus, they need a house and food!
Fucking idiots.
“Let ‘em eat digital talking bibles.”
Ah, it just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
It kind of reminds me of the Electric Monk. A device that does tedious evangelizing for you , so you don’t have to do it.
No the Electric Monk was even better than that. It didn’t evangelize for you, it did all of the tedious believing for you, so that you could go off and get on with your life safe in the knowledge that the things that needed to be believed were being believed whether you were thinking about them or not. I miss Douglas Adams.
And yeah, stuff like this makes me long for the days when I believed in Purgatory. Because while shipping a truckload of talking Bibles off to a disaster zone may not rank high enough to make me wish I still believed in Hell, it surely deserves a few lifetimes of sitting in the metaphysical corner and thinking over what you’ve done.
They’re having trouble getting shipments into Haiti. So every load of talking bullshit means medical supplies or food or water got bumped. That’s what makes it disgusting.
I hate the phrase ‘Digital Quality’, it is meaningless. Then I guess it is apt when referring to the Bible.
Maybe they mean that it will remind you of fingers.
Yes, these bibles have ‘Digital Quality.’ Specifically that of the 3rd digit.
Bullsh:t smells better when reproduced digitally, especially at high bit rates.
Using a disaster like this as a conversion opportunity is repugnant and if there was such a thing evil. To think of the money spent and the valuable space wasted getting them there is infuriating. Another good example of how religions aren’t a force for good. They’re just a mind virus trying to spread itself.
to vulnerable people, the easiest prey.
Exactly right Brian.
Thats why I donated money through the Richard Dawkins foundation. I want the people receiving my aid to realize the power of godlessness. I’ve been pushing for a document they have to sign before receiving any aid that recants any adherence to any faith. If they want to hold on to their religion instead of getting food and water, fuckem.
I hope you’re not serious.
Your sarcasm filter is set too low I think.
Only if the guns have sights with quotes from Hitchens on ‘em
I can just hear Hitch now.
“Name me one, JUST ONE, long range shot that a believer can make that a non believer cannot.”
I used to shoot full-bore rifles for the Welsh under 18 team – and I can tell you categorically that I could kill your arse from 4 miles away, God or no God :D
Very impressive since the world record for a long distance shot is only 2,430 meters :)
Sorry Brian, I should have used the /sarcasm tag. It’s always to hard to tell if someone is serious or not in such short sentences.
Custador knows Im more of a humanitarian than that.
We should send them guns instead, so they can go take what they want from the Dominican Republic.
That gave me an actual genuine chuckle.
They’ll need Zodiac rigid inflatable boats too, you silly man!
The /sarcasm tag is deprecated. It’s accomplished through styles these days.
Revy said “I’ve been pushing for a document they have to sign before receiving any aid that recants any adherence to any faith. If they want to hold on to their religion instead of getting food and water, fuckem”
You suffer from the very same malady that the “religious” types do, the only difference is, you just don’t know it yet.
I think you missed the whole thing about the sarcasm tag. I know I did on first read.
Wow, this is unobservant even for John C :)
According to their website, the Proclaimer is “self-powered and can play the Bible in the jungle, desert or … even on the moon!”
mmm… maybe it is as useful in Haiti as in the moon, without atmosphere
The Haitians are smart people, they can find some other way to use the solar energy components to do something useful. But seriously, folks, sending any kind of goods to a disaster area is not the way to go. Please read what a Red Cross professional has to say about the problems caused by people trying to donate goods instead of money:
http://blogs.redcross.org.uk/emergencies/2010/01/help-not-hinder-haiti/
But surely a Bible is worth more than food and clothing. With a Bible, you may still die, but after being forced to listen to its passages for a while, you might want to.
Of course we’ll send them Bibles. It’s a lot easier than actually getting your hands dirty and DOING SOMETHING!
The worst part is, you can’t even use these ones for rolling papers! (I don’t know about you, but I’d want a smoke after being in an earthquake.)
Smoke? Sheeeeeiiiit, I’d be blunted out of my mind.
Hah, I’d be salvaging parts to jury-rig a bong.
LOL! Best. Use. Ever for an electronic Bible.
Wasn’t thinking about the eBible at all, but okay, if I could make it, like, solar-powered so I don’t have to fumble with the lighter…. yeah.
Vaporisers! Obviously!
I heard of this blog from the Friend Atheist Blog – looks like I’ll be staying around, on account of the humorous discussions and topics :D
Pleased to met ‘cha – I’m a deist.
About using it for smokes…wouldn’t that be toxic, if the solar bible is made of plastic? And the fumes emitted from burning solar panels is also dangerous, given all the heavy metals and silicone used in its construction…
I think you’re on to something here, hemp is exactly the sort of cash crop these folks need. Not to mention the mood-lifting, anesthetic properties.
Oh, yes, hemp is amazingly versatile.
printed bibles also making great toilet paper
appears so
Are the bibles going to be in English or French? If they’re in English they’re even more useless to the Haitian people, who even if they want to hear a bible won’t be able to understand them.
Hey, at least they could rip the solar panels off and get some use from them.
From the article; “These are solar-powered audible Bibles that can broadcast the holy scriptures in Haitian Creole…” :)
And typically, their website has no comments section so we can express our disgust of their shitty actions.
According to Faith Comes by Hearing’s website “$157 will provide one Haitian Creole Proclaimer®…” So, $157.00 x 600 = $94,200 ! Wonder how much bread that could buy?
Well it does say ” Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of god” guess these folks are literalists huh ??
They would probably say it’s more important to save souls than lives. But that’s just your typical justification. What’s really going on is the callous propagation of a mind virus.
I have the solar powered Archie comics where Jughead and Archie explain that Hindus worship cows. I don’t know, maybe that’s what they said. The Creole was kind of hard to understand.
Actually useful Creol stuff. And it ain’t a bible. Sometimes I hate my country. And sometimes, it makes me really, really proud.
“designed for “poor and illiterate people”” Something that will insure that they remain poor and Illiterate
yuppers
As much as I hate the fact they’re wasting money on this, I’m sure that some people there will still appreciate it (or at least the thought behind it, little as it may be). After all, almost the entire population is Christian, and for some people faith becomes extremely important in times of crisis…
Still, $157? Seriousl? asdf;jkjlkf;ajlk
“self-powered and can play the Bible in the jungle, desert or … even on the moon!”
The moon. Yeah that’s right. I know the moon technically has an *extremely* sparse atmosphere, but I’m pretty sure it is not suitable for soundwaves to travel through. Either way, I wouldn’t recommend would-be bible listeners take off their helmets to find out.
I take that back. I HIGHLY recommend it.
Hi everyone, long time lurker first time poster.
I’m having problems making sense of the Haiti situation, and this blog felt like a good place to get some opinions.
While i agree with your article Daniel, I also have had first hand experience with my Haitian ex-roommates who cling blindly to their faith. One believed the literal interpretation of Genesis and the other looked me in the eye and said I did the devil’s work (I’m a scientist). And in this dark time, as their fellowmen are suffering and dying, they continue to ‘thank God’ for keeping their family safe and ‘thank God’ also for being with their dead kin. I find myself more and more indifferent, because for most Haitians, everything is about ‘God’ and all these brave women and men giving their time and sweat for the relief effort trying to get food and medical supplies in an orderly manner to everyone aren’t being appreciated. Maybe we should just send them their solar-powered bibles, it seems like they’d appreciate that more.
I know it’s not a particularly good attitude to take, but I don’t know how to make sense of all this.
Perhaps if we take the time to invest in education, they can leave their superstitions behind. Abandoning people to their own stupidity isn’t the way.
To blame them for worshiping God is the flip side of blaming them for their pact with the devil. Same coin.
Two points.
1) There is already enough difficulty in getting NEEDED supplies there, like food/water/medicine. As stated in the comments above, this crap would take the place of important stuff.
2) $157 wasted for every one of these things… you see where I’m going with this.
I have to agree with Custador ” Abandoning people their own stupidity isn’t the way”
Having come from a deeply religious family, it’s very difficult to come out of the brain-fog religion creates in you. I grew up in a 70′s cult-like community where everything was literally about god. Men ruled, women gardened, canned and had babies. There was singing, dancing, speaking in tongues, laying on of hands, healings…the whole gambit of crazy, jesus-freakness.
I DID eventually come out of all that. Access to good books (Hitchens, Dawkins..) and finding Daniel’s site and discovering there were other ex-christians in the world was very helpful. So, I say it’s important not to abandon those still floundering in religious fog. Education and example DO work.
There but for the throw of a dice go I.
Awesome – I’m stealing that one! god and his supposed grace are rolling over in their graves. Changing my vocabulary has been one of the more interesting parts of de-conversion. When you’ve been deep in religious craziness, there are lots of little sayings or parts of songs that just pop out and then you go “Holy shit, did I just say that!” ;-)
… “die” surely?
Or “the”.
True …
I believe it was the Catholic church that’s kept them superstitious and gullible to the extent of being repressed for a very long time, even by their own who rape the coffers then flee…
keeping a people ignorant and poor via religion………..how godly
This reminds me of a famous quote. I can’t remember where it came from but one of you would surely know it. “Give a starving man a fish, he will eat well for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you will feed him for the rest of his life. Give him a religion and he will die praying for god to give him a fish.”
Good one, Dutchhobbit. I’m borrowing this.
Thanks.
me too.
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Maybe this earthquake will be for Haitians what 9-11 was for many people in America, the day they realised there was no god.
Highly doubtful it will do that for the Haitians. Natural disasters seem to galvanize communities together, especially under a religious banner as it gives hope in a time of need. And how has 911 done that for Americans? I can see how it could have that affect in theory, but I don’t see any evidence of that realization in actuality.
9-11 brought about a more open and atheist movement in America. Credit Sam Harris, who was inspired by 9-11 to write “End of Faith” This has lead to other best selling books by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, etc… Before 9-11 you would rarely see someone making the argument the religion was the cause of many of the world’s problems on national television. 9-11 push me from being an agnostic to being a atheist. I know other people for whom 9-11 also made them examine the role of religion in world events.
What you say is all good and true, but it seems like that those effects would happen in the intellectual circles (hence journalism and book publishing) while scattered else where. Albeit I didn’t have much political efficacy (leaving grammar school) at the time and am from the liberal Bay Area in CA, so such an effect would have been less noticeable for me. Even so, I have a hard time accepting that 911 had such a magnitude as you make it sound; after all, you have networks like Fox, this Albuquerque based audio bible company, prop 8 in CA (which is a bad dream I’m still waiting to awake from…), and anti abortionists etc.
I hope that the world community will band together and help rebuild Haiti. I thought that it might be a good idea if as part of the rebuilding process, the international community would build some coastal resorts. You can use Haitian labor, and have Haitian staff. You will be giving them an economic benefit in short and long term and something which they can build their economy on.
This made me think of an old South Park episode. Some missionaries were doing work in a starving African village, and when the villagers were given bibles, they were trying to eat them! Then the missionary tells them that if they read their bibles and accept Christ, they’ll give them food. ^_^
This is one of those rare times when it is absolutely appropriate to eat the missionaries.
I get it now, the missionaries themselves are the aid. They are making a “living sacrifice” of themselves for the starving and being eaten for Jesus!
I’m so going to hell for laughing at this.
I now wonder if the apostles were really hungry too.
I think it would be hilarious if the RDF would send solar powered books about sustainable farming. Would be more useful than the bibles. Learn how to farm, destroy the book, then use the solar panel to power your farm.
You think the earthquake was a disaster? Wait until they read about how to stone people to death for working on the sabbath or practicing witchcraft which is what they do in Haiti. These people don’t need a false messiah. They need food, shelter, and clothing. Not a dead guy.
they were all OBVIOUSLY punished for practicing voo-doo. Even the children – God doing a little pruning of the vines so that the whole continues to grow strong and vibrant is all…
“even on the moon”?!?!?! seriously? it may get the required ‘solar’ energy there, but I’m guessing the lack of air on the moon would render this particular ‘book’ useless.
Ya know cj, I’ve thought about that ever since I heard of the solar powered bibles. I’ve come to the conclusion that they actually would work on the moon.
All you would have to do is touch them to the side of your helmet. The vibrations of the speaker would be conducted through the solid wall of your helmet, then transfer to the air inside.
I still wonder if they were sent in English, French or Creole.
LOL! Touche!