President Rodrigo Duterte criticized the story of creation in the Bible, and even God during his speech at the opening of the 2018 National ICT Summit in Davao City on June 22.
Duterte made such remarks following his recent tirades with Catholic Church leaders due to the recent deaths of three Catholic priests.
On his speech last Friday, Duterte began by narrating the story of Adam and Eve from the Bible and how they brought original sin upon mankind after eating the fruit from the forbidden tree.
The questioned the logic behind the story in the Bible calling God “stupid” for creating something perfect just to have it ruined by bringing sins into the world.
“Who is this stupid God? Istupido talaga itong [*offensive word] kung ganun. You created something perfect and then you think of an event that would tempt and destroy the quality of your work,” he said.
“Ang ginawa niya, kinain ni Eve. Tapos si Eve ginising si Adam. Siguro katatapos lang. Kumain ka rin. So kinain ni Adam. Then malice was born,” he continued.
President Duterte, a Catholic, then asked how can one believer rationalize a God and added that he cannot accept the concept of being born with original sin even if you haven’t done anything in the world yet.
“So tayo ngayon, all of us are born with an original sin. Ang original sin — ah sin — ano man ‘yan? Was it the first kiss? What was the sin? Bakit original? Nasa womb ka pa, may kasalanan ka na.
“Eh ‘yan ang hindi ko matanggap. Very stupid proposition. Anong kasalanan? Original sin, tapos i-baptize ka. Basain pa ‘yang ulo mo ng tubig. Maniwala ka niyang pari na ‘yan,” he continued.
President Duterte said that there are aspects of the Catholic faith that he does not agree with, rather, he believes that there is a “universal mind”.
“Ako, I believe that is a universal mind. But to what extent is the influence of that… You know, I cannot picture Him as a human being in the image of God,” Duterte said.
This is not the first time President Duterte has made criticisms towards the Catholic Church.
In the past, he cursed Pope Francis for causing traffic during his Papal visit on January 2015, but later apologized.
