Who Said That?

"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."

OK, who is responsible for this rant?  Leave your guess in the comments section below.  Please, no google searches or cheating.  I'll post the answer next week.

Update on Saturday, January 31, 2009 at 11:42AM by Kim Riddlebarger

As many of you correctly guessed, this quote comes from Richard Dawkin's God Hypothesis (2006), p. 31.

Comments

[Raymond Coffey]

Jack Miles

[Raymond Coffey]

Jack Miles

[Tom]

Joel Osteen?

[dsanger]

Richard Dawkins. (hint: If you've seen the movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" by Ben Stein, you'll recognize the quote read proudly by Dawkins from his book.) Wonder if Richard will feel like quoting that when he stands before his Judge on that Last Day?

[JVo]

Richard Dawkins

[Brett]

Nothing novel here. Another vote for Dawkins. It seems like I may have heard it as an excerpt from "The God Delusion" read during the Dawkins/Lenox debate.

[Chris Sherman]

Satan?

[Marv]

Christopher Hitchens

[Matt Holst]

Richard Dawkins in his "God Delusion" and in Ben Stein's "Expelled."

Funny how this man is obsessed with a god who doesn't exist.

[John Y]

It is definitely Richard Dawkins. What these agressive new atheists need is a good dose of B.B. Warfield. They are very confused over the reason and faith issue and have no mental categories of this in their brains. They call Luther a irrationalist and fideist because of his many references in regards to calling reason a whore. Luther was not a irrationalist or a fideist but he did understand the nature and grace issue. He knew how to separate the two-kingdoms. Dawkins is evidence of how little good theology is penetrating the academic community.

[Robin]

Incredulously Dawkins almost in the same breath states God could be an alien from outerspace.

You bet - the true God is an alien - he is THE alien!

"Klaatu barada nikito."

Robin

[Brian Davilla]

Pretty sure it was Dawkins

[Adam]

Most definitely, Richard Dawkins.

[End Times]

Mark Driscoll

[John Yeazel]

OK Robin I'll bite- what does Klaatu barada nikito mean? Great remark by the way- God definitely is The Alien- not the type of Alien from the movie The Alien though. Although, he might be that type of Alien to Richard Dawkins one day. The nightmare above all nightmares. He needs to experience God's grace and have a bit more understanding of the Old Testament. That is a roadblock that prevents many intelligent people from thinking about Christianity more deeply.

[John Yeazel]

I love it when these aggressive new atheists get pissed off. Is not that what the law is supposed to do to us? The law is to keep all of us rebels in line- God plays hardball and knows who we are. Richard does not get that yet- he claims he is not going to have a bed side conversion either and is going to have a tape recorded message saying that he is still an atheist when he is about to die. Is not that funny or what? Besides being hopelessly narcissistic it is absurd at that. Hopefully, God will be gracious to the man and over ride his suppression of the truth in unrighteousness. I fear what will happen to these people when they die. What these atheists are doing is helping us Christians think about our faith more deeply. To that we can be grateful to them even as they spew their venom on us.

["lee n. field"]

"Klaatu barada nikito"

Harry Bates, "Farewell to the Master". A classic golden age SF story that was made into successively a classic movie and most recently into what is to all reports a perfectly awful movie. Both movies are "The Day the Earth Stood Still."

(What I'm trying to say is, read the story.)

[timinator]

I also Heard Dawkins say something like this on Ben Stein's Expelled DVD.

[Robin]

Yo John,

"Klaatu barada nikito" is the disarming command to Gort (a deadly-enforcer robot) who desisted from destroying the earth and resurrected Klaatu, the murdered alien messenger in the 1951 film "The Day the Earth Stood Still."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaatu_barada_nikto

As Lee says, the '08 movie IS awful. But the 1951 classic should be in the library of every thinking Christian engaging culture.

Talk about "Law/Gospel" overtones, this movie is a great conversation starter! Too bad Ben missed the opportunity.

Klaatu's phrase is thought translate to Gort, "no need to escalate" therefore staying divine justice.

I think this thread holds great potential in "disarming" today's athiests pulling the God is an alien card. But then, my apologetics tactics are a bit whimsical.

R.

[John Y]

Yo Robin,

Your a real fireball- I love it. And I love those out of the ordinary apologetical tactics. People do need to be disarmed before they listen to you.