Photos
It would be very easy to make a “feeling moved by the Spirit oh wait no that is just me peeing myself” type of joke, but we are better than that. OR ARE WE! At the very least, I think we can all agree that praying IS for children. God don’t exist, silly! Kids have faith in the darndest things. (Via Arbroath.)
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It’s never too early to be born again!
It’s always too late to be FIRST!!!!!!!!
But never too late for an abortion
1 sec, lemme just call your mom Steve (i.e. to convince her to get a ‘cooch contusion’).
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no
I believe in God. Let the piling on commence!
I appreciate your honesty. #Tolerancegum
Boo! We don’t support tolerance here at Videogum. Only mindless, senseless judgment. Try to get it right!
BLARGH! SCIENCE!!
Better.
Principal Enchman: Will do.
I also believe in God, Principal!
But this video does make atheism seem awfully appealing.
Totes agree with that Huckabeast.
Right there with ya.
My heart LITERALLY melted (get me to a hospital!!!).
Yay! I am neither going to upvote or downvote this because voting on what people believe is silly, but I will go Yay that you said that.
I’m glad you spoke up, principal. The simple belief in god is not what gives some (not all, or even most) religious people a bad rep, it’s more of the (sometimes really bad) actions they take in the name of their beliefs that turns a lot of people off organized religion. I think belief in god is really great for a lot of people, and most people turn that belief into something productive and positive. It’s good to realize that some things work for some people and not necessarily for others and let everyone do their thing in peace.
So, good on you.
^what superglue said^
Heh, heh, Matt the Hooper.
Superglue? More like SuperIntelligentPost.
Science flies us to the moon.
Religion flies us into buildings.
(of course, god and religion not synonymous.)
So there wasn’t a piling on like you expected (unless you count those adorable puppies!), but clearly there wasn’t going to be. Nobody wants to be the person who gets downvoted for “attacking” your beliefs, and maybe a forum on a pop-culture blog isn’t the best place to have an intelligent debate about the existence (or lack thereof) of god, but we should not confuse tolerance with fear, and we should not confuse asking people to justify their claims and beliefs with intolerance. If i got on here and said “I legitimately believe that I am a pink rhino”, of course I don’t want people to dismiss me, or yell at me, or be rude, but i also don’t want them to feel that they can’t tell me if they think i may be mistaken. If i got on and said “i support what happened at that Rand Paul rally”, i would hope at least one person would say “Uh, I think you may be confused, do you mind explaining your reasons for believing in that?”
I don’t want to equate a belief in God with supporting a vicious beating, i just want everyone to stop seeing the word ‘argument’ as a bad word, and to be able to defend their beliefs without hating the other person (or even judging that person’s character), no matter what the issue.
This is not a rant against you or anything you said or implied, but rather a rant against the instant-fearful-supertolerance i am seeing. To try to clarify and drive the point home, if we were all THIS tolerant about creationism, or scientology, or anti-gay-marriage beliefs, this country would be in even worse shape than it is, but since it’s just God with a capital G we should let people believe whatever they want?
I don’t think the response to principal’s post is that we’re afraid of downvotes, it’s just … what is there to pile on about saying “I believe in God”? You can believe in god and not condone the actions of a particular religion. It’s not even like he said, “I’m a Catholic.” I think it’s good to support people’s ability to put their beliefs out there and engage in productive debate.
The principal saying that he believes in god doesn’t necessarily mean that he believes in “creationism, or scientology, or anti-gay-marriage beliefs.” There are tons and tons and tons of people who come from all sorts of religious backgrounds who could make the statement “I believe in God” and STILL have totally reasonable stances on those issues.
Having a debate about the actual existence of god is about the only thing that could have come directly out of enchman’s comment and, frankly, I’m too tired for that one right now.
You’re absolutely right, and i certainly don’t want to say that I believe that everyone who believes in god is a creationist or etc., but that any belief which doesn’t seem well founded or justified should be investigated. i do not object to The Principal stating his belief, nor do i object to others who support it. What i object to is the lack of encouragement on the other side of the issue, because there is one, and it is a very reasonable one, and one that should be heard. But I fear that anyone who did go on the “attack”, in just about any way they did it, would have been seen as the bad guy. This idea that it’s cool to believe in whatever you believe in just doesn’t make sense, and we see that on so many important issues (like gay rights, etc.,). but if God is as important an issue as people seem to think, why do we allow ourselves to tiptoe around it?
Here’s my two cents: I think we can all pretty much agree that our collective “Monster” opinions about many things in life tend to be reasonably similar, with the possible exception of religion. Since I would never try to convince someone else that what they believe in is wrong (in the same way that I think pushing one’s religion on someone else is wrong), I appreciated Principal’s comment since real belief in religion is probably a minority opinion here.
I replied to myself because I couldn’t find the reply button for you, Holy Smokes:
Surely you’ve tried, and still do try, to convince others that what they believe in is wrong. If not, how would you respond to me if I told you I believe that what happened at the Rand Paul rally was fine and good? You may say that you might scoff or ignore me or just say that you disagree, but there is a problem there, don’t you think? If we always walk away, in big matters and small matters and God matters, then we have chosen not to be fully responsible for our own knowledge, as engaging with others about their beliefs and their reasoning is part of better understanding.
To a certain extent, I think it really is okay to just “believe in whatever you believe in.” It’s when those beliefs take action that you can really come down on one side or another on an argument. There’s no issue if you just stated, “I legitimately believe that I am a pink rhino.” I mean, it’s weird and everything, but maybe that’s just what you’re into and as long as you’re able to function in society who am I to judge? But if you were to say, “I legitimately believe that I am a pink rhino so I’m going to go stampeding down the street and gore some people,” then I would have to step in and say that maybe I think you’re thinking about things in the wrong way.
So even if someone’s belief is totally wrong, the belief itself isn’t even the issue.
Sorry, I should have clarified. When I said “what they believe in”, I really just meant religion.
This one is for superglue’s reply (why can’t I reply properly? where are the buttons?):
There is clearly an unnecessary step. It is false beliefs that make people make actual mistakes. My belief that I am a pink rhino caused me to run down the street stampeding people, so I would hope someone would cut me off before i get the chance. We would not want to be tolerant of someone who believed africans were a lesser species because of the actions that that belief might lead to.
Granted, it seems on the surface that a simple belief in god is harmless. But if it is false, where do all of these other beliefs (creationism, racial superiority, etc,) stem from? They do not HAVE to stem from a belief in god, but if the belief is false, and it does occasionally cause these problems, then this is a matter worth investigating in each other.
It is not a far jump from “just God” to “Christian God”, and as 9/11 showed us, unfortunately, it is not a far jump from “I’m a Christian” to “I hate Muslims” for too many people (again, not everyone, but certainly too many).
I think that the comment thread is only allowed to reach a certain depth so that we don’t have a whole lot of one-inch-wide comments with one word per line.
But I definitely agree that certain belief structures contain an implication of action or motive toward action, so it can get kind of tricky. But there are plenty of religions beyond Christianity that believe in a god, God, or gods. There are even Christians who have a strong motives toward social good (like the Quakers), so just a statement of a belief in god doesn’t mean that someone is a crazy zealot.
But I also don’t think that a belief in something and a condoning of the actions associated with that belief are necessarily the same thing, though I’d say 9/10 times they are. But with something as nebulous as god, or God, or gods, there’s really no one system that’s automatic for association. That’s why one of the twelve steps is “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.”
I hear what you’re saying, but I live in a place that can have a particular animosity towards people with religious beliefs. The expectations for a piling-on, especially on the internet, doesn’t come from nowhere. But, you guys are great! I’ll discuss disagreements, especially when it comes to my belief in God ad infinitum, but I’ve had several experiences that deteriorate into me being called terrible things, apart from the bad actions of the American religious community. I don’t want to project that onto everyone else, and everyone gets chewed out unjustly in their lifetimes, but religious intolerance does exist in our generation, in both directions.
I’m just glad my comment, which, to be honest, was a response to what I interpreted as Gabe’s flippant equation of horrible weird stuff like this and a general belief in God, was able to stimulate a good conversation (also PUPPIES).
I realize there are communities and cultures that are heavy on the big jerk Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins type of atheism, who just want everyone to see religious belief as stupid, and that is truly unfortunate. Maybe that is where principal’s comment was coming from, and i certainly didn’t hope for any sort of pile-on in the negative, attacking sense, all i was hoping for were responses from people who wanted open, honest, non-tip-toeing debate (by responses I mean people who disagreed, i’m not trying to say everyone who agrees with principal is just afraid or tip-toeing)
So, are you saying that you would (in this situation) ask someone for a justification of why they believe in God, and then present the counter-argument? (No tone whatsoever implied; seriously, I’m just curious what your defense against super-hyper-tolerance would be.) I definitely see what you’re saying about creationism, etc., but isn’t the generalized belief in a deity (which is as much as one can assume about someone who just says “I believe in God”) slightly less controversial? Maybe not, I just see those as really different issues.
Sorry, that was @look around yog.
Also, if there is one thing Monsters aren’t shy about, it’s letting someone know when they disagree. I thought that was the whole problem last week? Now we’re too tolerant? Help me, Jeebus!
tl;dr
Was that a reply to “Sorry, that was @look around yog”? Because that’s how it looks. If it was, you might want to get that attention span tested.
It depends on what you mean by controversial. Let’s controversy out altogether. If something is important (which even the generalized belief in a god is, and to some the MOST important), then why should tiptoe around it, and let people believe whatever they want? Maybe I wouldn’t have kept up a long debate about God here, because, come on, Birdie! But maybe I would have, and I would think that for anyone who does believe in God, thinking deeply and carefully about this question would be a priority. But that never really seems to be the case.
#alittleofftopicattheendgum
also
#iloveallyoumonstersgum
You had me completely until “that never really seems to be the case”. (Look! Over there–Birdie!) I, for one, believe in God, and I, for one, have thought about it deeply and carefully. It’s something I wrestle with all the time–I think that examining one’s beliefs is one of the most important parts of having a belief system in the first place. But I realize that isn’t all believers, too.
I think what members of this website do so well, even more so than tolerance (and we are the fucking Lebron James of Tolerance!) is sniffing out bullshit. So, no, no one is going to dog pile on someone for expressing their belief in God because we assume that this belief is one grounded in healthy skepticism and personal introspection. Similarly, no one here would dog pile on anyone who professed their atheistic beliefs for the same reason. Same goes for acceptance of those with diverse ethnicities, cultural backgrounds, sexual proclivities, because if one is an intelligent individual (as we all are on this site, present commentator included) then one comes to this acceptance naturally.
Piling on would occur though with intolerant statements as much as they would occur with ignorant statements because the two ideas are concomitant. i.e. everyone is going to support a Monster’s profession of faith because Monster’s are good like that. No one though is going to support a Monster’s profession of faith + a denouncement of other faith(s) or lack-there-of, because…well, see above.
This is the only way I can describe my opinion towards this thread:
LOVE. THIS.
Extra cake for you, Briadru4!!!
!!! <3
Eddie always deserves upvotes.
As long as that doesn’t mean you believe gay sex is a sin or that women are inferior to men or that creationism should be included in biology textbooks, I got no problem.
That is amazing! One thing babies NEVER do is mimic behavior they see in adults! A miracle!
(Came here to say exactly this; will go now.)
Shut up! She’s totally having a deep spiritual experience and you can totally almost see the Holy Spirit passing through her!
I’ve had enough of this disgusting persecution of Christians!
Also, please sign my petition to block that mosque from being built a few miles away from here.
More Gifs of Babies doing things adults do. Someone, GIF the smoking baby! I am too old to do it myself.
YES! I love this kid. I’m definitely going to teach my first born how to smoke.
Not exactly sure why it chose to be in hyperspeed.
Because the Nicotine pumped so much adrenaline into his body?
MISLEADING .GIF, holy smokes!
Smoking Baby has since cut down to under a pack a day. MAN.
don’t blame me — blame the very strange version of the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WebrAnGHX0c
Oh come on, you can totally see the strings!
Oh nice! THIS is the tiny man who controls DistantWarrior.
(Callback! Nailed it.)
They’re just preparing for 2012, or whatever it was amended to, like the rest of us
It’s got a creepy Benjamin Button feel to it. Let’s go back to adorable puppies!
I can’t tell; is that baby talk or speaking in tongues?
It is just some “Tower of Babbling”.
Just like so many have before him, Benjamin Button turned to God as his final days loomed and grew ever closer.
#Fitzgeraldgum
It’s “#Pittgum,” Grandpa!
Looks to me like that baby is stuck somewhere between jamming and napping.
That’s generally where I’m stuck, too.
Nah, it’s cool Mans.
And…..I suck.
Just like everyone at a Widespread Panic show.
(I am sorry to all of the WP fans here. I was only making a joke.)
Hey man, that’s not cool, man, I…wait, what were we talking about?
Ahem, yes. That baby is straight up YAWNING.
I have a physics question for God: between a bowling ball and this baby, which one would bounce when dropped from a five-story building?
And so cakeordeath let ball and infant drop each in turn from the steeple and below the judge with stopwatch observed and recorded in his ledger the heights attained on the brief echo of bounces and he smiled. Cakeordeath now you know, he said. Then with one naked toe he felt the white chip in the groundstone made by ball as if to memorize its depth and to dispense with the other mark, a thick pool and pile, he summoned Glanton’s dog, and Shellbomber threw up. #wordpress.bookgum.com, going on now.
Oops, dammit: bookgum.wordpress.com. Got it backward. (also, apologies for killing a baby; I know many of you are against baby-killing.)
Are we sure this is a baby and not an old man? I totally got old man face from it.
It’s going to take years of therapy to de-program this babby.
That congregation was packed! Full of babies!
baby kinda looks like…
You know, the only way to stop Vigo from being reincarnated as a baby is to sing happy music…
Is this real? This can’t be real. That doesn’t look like a real baby. For the first 10 seconds I honestly thought it was a made-in-Japan android baby. I’m still not convinced my instincts were wrong.
I can attest that this is actually not that much of an uncommon thing to see at these types of revivals. I was best friends with a born again Christian in high school (still am) and he took me to a couple of these events. They are crazy! I remember a woman in the row behind holding out her baby’s arm so that it would “sway” correctly.
That said, while my friend was a bit incorrigible when he first “saw the light,” he has sense mellowed, become a minister and is a very chill, tolerant dude. But still, this thing with the baby is B-A-N-A-N-A-S
it’s all cute and fun, until she’s the ten year old picketing a funeral with a “god hates fags” sign.
oops… you just got fired by NPR.
Far more likely to have Mommy and Me outings to the Baby-Killing place, where they practice their shouting.
“She’s praying AND swaying. I call it ‘spraying’!”
-Yung Humma
This baby is as good at praying as Baby Bieber was at drumming.
This video was actually from five years ago (just go with me). Here is an update on what “worshiping baby” has been up to as of late:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAwP5YD4Pwc
Why thank you for the saddest thing I’ve ever seen. I’m officially on Team Apocalypse now.
I can’t wait for Jesus to come back and be like, “Seriously? Are you serious with this bullshit?”
Anyone here some kind of a TV or movie person? I’d like to see a show where they take the top ten or so preachers, use those guys as the model and make a show about Jesus during Jesus times, but Jesus acts like these guys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDT3FCJ3RcE&feature=related
I love how the congregation is obediently listening to this child preach, waiting patiently for something to help them through the days.They are literally taking life advice from a child. Are these people inside out? Do they try to live an opposite world?
Does the Pope blow little boys?
Nope, just this world:
You should see the youth pastor at this this church. He’s just a fetus.
You should see a lot of things at this church.
Most disturbing movie ever!
Definitely, Dirty. Although, I heard Hellhouse is worse? No idea how that’s possible.
Cake, love the Raptor in that GIF. It surprised me in the best of ways. You remain the best.
I think Hell House is a much better movie. It’s far less manipulative and angry, and the subjects (or, people) in the film have a lot of inherent interest. You should watch it!
It’s in my handy dandy Netflix Instant Queue, I will get on it!
Also, I love when the Hell House goes into Code Red after the Ravers start questioning everything and defending their right to Rave!
Aww thanks briadru4! I’ve actually never seen Jesus Camp. I lived it.
#truthgum
Pickpocket, are you saying that you thought the filmmaking in Jesus Camp was manipulative? Because I grew up in that kind of environment (evangelical church 3 times a week, Christian schools) and I thought the movie was spot-on and portrayed everything mostly by letting the subjects speak for themselves. (And as an aside the same filmmakers recently released a film about abortion & crisis pregnancy centers called 12th and Delaware and I also felt like they did a good job of letting the subjects speak for themselves). Also, my mother, who loves Jesus and Rush Limbaugh almost equally, thought Jesus Camp was “exciting” and “wonderful.”
Hellhouse is pretty good, too. I love when they can’t figure out how to write “Magic: The Gathering.”
Caitlin, I definitely felt like Jesus Camp was a more overtly political film. Maybe it was because the adult subjects of the movie were so outrageous and disturbed, making sympathy impossible, whereas in Hell House everyone came across as a human being, however confused or misguided.
Games like “Magic” AND “The Gathering?”
It’s called “The Gathering: Magic…The Gathering.”
To be fair, one of the adult subjects was Ted Haggard and we all know how that turned out.
The altar boys are embryos!
The priests are still pedophiles.
Oh wow, I think that just made me throw up in your mouth. Can’t wait till those solar radiation flares in 2011 release us from our terrestrial bodies, cause this shit is bananas.
This guy know’s what I’m talkin about.
Kids have faith in the darndest things the darndest things
i didn’t realize notsewfast was a believer.
Those headphones are blasting “Our God is An Awesome God”
POW!
Jesus needs to up his advertising budget. Attendance stinks!
At least Jesus got his viral video.
I’m surprised no one else has said this…
Baby Glenn Beck?
That’s an oxymoron.
I like your name though. Do you use tonic immobility? I did it to a Nurse Shark once.
How is that an oxymoron? Glenn Beck is very babyish. Did you mean it’s redundant?
Yes, that’s what I meant. Thank you for being gentle.
Baby Got Beck?
His feet are light and nimble. He never sleeps. He says that he will never die.
This kind of stuff makes me happy to be Jewish. I don’t have to distance myself from these people in any way!
IN MUCH MORE IMPORTANT BREAKING NEWS SAD KEANU HUNG OUT WITH PRESENT DAY BILL S. PRESTON
WORLD’S BEIN RE-COLLIDED AND SHIT
UGH REALLY?!
GO INTERNET GO! Can someone help me haxxor this, my stupid html link won’t work.What people don’t get that belief in God is not some universal concept that religions just interpret differently. The fact that those people think a baby swaying to music shows its understanding or acceptance of Christ should show you enough how backwards and ignorant their conception of the world is, so how could they possibly have a faith that’s based on any sort of sound theology or at the very least based in scripture at all?
I half agree. But then when I really think about it, everything people believe in, even science*, seems absurd. The things people tell themselves to get through an HOUR, are pretty remarkable. (* using this word in this way as a person who places a LOT of trust in science).
That church is boring. No ones even there. People are talkin n shit. Jeeze
Meh. -YouTube commenter Hitchens69