I've been watching a lot of old UFC and Pride fights lately, and am still amazed at the level of stupidity displayed by the vast majority of the contestants.

Don't get me wrong, I love MMA fights. But, like most sports, the players so often thank god for a win, but never blame god for a loss. How's that work exactly? The cognitive dissonance is simply astounding.

I'm going to single out one fighter who isn't normally so "god-overt", Rich Franklin.

Rich is billed as an intelligent guy, a former high school math teacher from Ohio. He's very literate, speaks very well, seems intelligent. But when he won the Middleweight title belt from Evan Tanner back in UFC 50-something, he made this statement after the fight:

I'd like to thank god for protecting me in the ring.

So let's look at this innocuous-sounding statement.

If god was protecting Franklin, we have to assume he wasn't protecting Tanner. Does that mean god had a vendetta against Tanner? What did Tanner ever do to god?

And where was god when Franklin later lost his belt to Anderson Silva? Was Silva more pious than Franklin, therefore Franklin was stripped of his belt by god? Did Silva sacrifice more unblemished rams to god than Franklin that month? And where was god when Franklin lost to Lyoto Machida before Franklin was a champion? Was Machida more pious than Franklin then?

Franklin lost twice to Silva. God must REALLY like Silva, except when Silva lost to a Japanese fighter in a Pride fight before he became UFC Middleweight champ. I guess the Japanese guy was more pious than Silva that day.

In a later UFC event, Franklin gave his opinion on who would win the big fight (not a fight he was in) coming up. At no time did he mention god protection as a determining factor, but discussed the skills of the two opponents. Strange.

I know, I'm talking about people who get punched repeatedly in the face for a living. But you'd think after all that time they'd have some sense knocked into them and realize it's skill and chance, not the protection of the big sky daddy that wins fights.

Idiots

Revenant

I often hear the phrase that someone has "strange religious beliefs".

Are there any religious beliefs which aren't strange??

I'm a big fan of MMA fights (That's Mixed Martial Arts, to the uninitiated). I'm not a sports fan otherwise. I don't know what it is that attracts me to MMA, but I think it's the skill that so many of the fighters show.

But there are a couple of things that really ruin it for me.

One of those things is poor sportsmanship. Often times at the beginning of a round, usually the first round, the fighters will touch a glove, put out a hand, etc, to show respect. Some of them use this moment to attack instead of showing respect. To me this shows an extreme lack of sportsmanship, and lack of honor. And then when the fight is over, the fighters usually embrace, once again to show respect. The ones who don't do this are just assholes, IMHO.

The other thing, as you may have guessed by the title of this post, is attributing the win to "god" or "jesus". I don't care if these guys have religious beliefs, but to think that "god" if such a being existed, would favor one fighter over another is just ludicrous. And would Jesus, if he existed and we can believe what was written about him, condone such fights and enjoy the attribution? Would Jesus condone a fighter who uses his name and relishes beating up their opponents for money and glory? I don't think so. Some of the biggest offenders of this are Kimo (not sure if he's still fighting), and Diego Sanchez.

Kimo fought in UFC 1 or 2, don't remember which, against the legend Royce Gracie. Kimo, is covered with god and Jesus tattoos, and entered the arena bearing a life-sized cross. Gracie beat him. So does this mean Jesus preferred Gracie over Kimo? No, it means Gracie was the better fighter.

This probably wouldn't bother me so much if the jesus boys didn't win so much. They're such fanatics that they tend to overwhelm their opponents. But they still lose some of the time. Some of them lose constantly, so it's apparent that either there is no god, or that if there is, he doesn't play favorites.

Revenant

I always have to laugh when I hear media morons say "That's what the holidays are all about", inevitably talking about giving and all that crap.

What it was originally about was pagan ritual worship of the winter solstice. Nothing to do with giving, decorating trees, buying lots of stuff for other people, and CERTAINLY nothing to do with the birth of imaginary beings.

I have to laugh even more when religious groups get all bent out of shape when non-religious people complain about all the religious crap during the Winter Solstice Celebration.

I also find it funny that religious people feel it's their right to put up religious crap all over the place, especially in public buildings, but are then "outraged" if an atheist display is place alongside it. They're obviously very insecure in their faith in the Big Sky Daddy if a little blurb by an organization of atheists gets them all riled up.

But then, a lot of stuff that stupid people do makes me laugh... and cry.

Revenant

I occasionally just do Google searches for "god in the news" or some such, just to see what stupidity lies beyond my doorstep.

Found this one today: The Prophesied End-Time Revealed

It's probably been there for a while, since the one page says:

From now until the latter part of 2008, many prophecies are going to begin to be fulfilled, especially the Seven Thunders of the Book of Revelation, which the apostle John saw but was restricted from recording. Those thunders are revealed in this book, as well as detailed accounts of the final three and one-half years of man's self-rule on earth, which are recorded in the account of the Seventh Seal of Revelation.

Ooh, I'm all scared and shit! I can't say these particular people are opportunists, since they're giving the book away. So I can only conclude that they are extremely delusional and should be locked away so as not to harm anyone.

Update 02/27/2009: Still waiting...

Revenant