President Rodrigo Duterte of Philippines has sparked controversy after calling God “stupid” in the Biblical creation story of Adam and Eve.
The 73-year-old Filipino politician, who is an open critic of the Catholic Church, said while addressing a summit in Davao City on Friday: “Adam ate it (the fruit of knowledge) then malice was born. Who is this stupid God? Istupido talaga itong putangina kung ganoon (That son of a b**** is stupid if that’s the case),” he said, according to Rappler. “You created something perfect and then you think of an event that would tempt and destroy the quality of your work.”
In 2016, Duterte became the 16th and current President of the Philippines – a Catholic-majority country – and the first from Mindanao, the southernmost island of the country to hold the office. “That was your mother and father’s deed – you weren’t born yet, but now you have original sin. What kind of religion is that? I can’t accept it,” Rodrigo added on what he understands as “original sin. “I believe there is a universal mind, but… I cannot picture him as a human being. But I really believe, I have this faith and abiding thing, but don’t believe in religion.”
President Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque has come to his defense, saying the world “can’t fault the president as we are free to choose not to believe in Religion.” The statement reads: “That is the personal belief of the president. We are free to believe in religion and we are also free not to believe in religion.
“The president has his personal spiritual beliefs. We cannot fault the president if he has no sense of hypocrisy and we should accept that because even when he was just a candidate, he never hid that from us.”
Photo Credit: Getty
