Duterte's Call to Prove God's Existence Just More Fake News

The problem with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is that it is all too easy to believe the latest screaming headline attributed to him. The latest claims that he will resign if the existence of ‘God’ could be proved is just such an example.

In the video above released late today by Malacañang Palace the reality is not exactly what is being portrayed in global headlines.

Recorded last Friday at the National Science and Technology Week Celebration in Davao City, the clip begins with the often forthright and straight-talking President proclaiming: “By the way I believe in one supreme God. I never said I don’t believe in God. I’m not an agnostic, I’m not an atheist.

“I just happen to be a human being believing in this universal mind somewhere which controls the universe”, the President says.

Continuing, Mr Duterte says: “If there is any one of your there… the noisy ones, who would say that you have been to heaven and talked to God and saw him personally and that he exists; the God that is yours and if that is true I will step down the presidency tonight.” No demand for proof, just a statement that if someone was to say they had done it.

With some 76 million Roman Catholics and a further 11 million Muslim’s who refer to the same Christian God in Arabic as Allah, reports of the President using the lack of any proof of ‘God’ to legitimatise the future of his presidency set off a fire-storm over the weekend.

The proof of what was actually said is in the recording above, with ‘fake news’ being the immediate thought that springs to mind after hearing it.

Rather than challenging the existence of ‘God’, the President challenges his detractors to simply say that one of them has had a first hand meeting with their ‘God’. A challenge that went unanswered.

The escalating Philippines ‘religious drama’ came at the end of a week of worsening relations between Malacañang Palace and the country’s powerful Catholic Church, after an earlier video in which the President called God “stupid” went viral.

All should be sorted outed this afternoon when the President meets with Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles… where proof of ‘God’s’ existence by any name, is not expected to be on the agenda.

Note: This video may be unviewable in your country as part of sanctions against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.

Feature video Ruptly

Related:

Rodrigo Duterte says he’ll resign as Philippine president if someone can prove God exists (Global News)
Duterte: Show me proof God exists, I’ll resign (Philstar Global)

Duterte’s call to “Prove” God’s existence just more fake news (video) added by Stella-maris Ewudolu on July 9, 2018
View all posts by Stella-maris Ewudolu →

Bio
Latest Posts

Stella-maris Ewudolu

Journalist at AEC News Today

Stella-maris graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, Education from Ebonyi State University, Nigeria in 2005.

Between November 2010 and February 2012 she was a staff writer at Daylight Online, Nigeria writing on health, fashion, and relationships. From 2010 – 2017 she worked as a freelance screen writer for ‘Nollywood’, Nigeria.

She joined AEC News Today in December 2016.