Demented anti-Christian bigotry makes a joke of the Nobel awards - who takes them seriously these days?

The Herald-Sun reports today that Portuguese writer 'Jose Saramago, who won the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature, said society would probably be better off without the Bible.' Saramago is also reported as saying that "The Bible is a manual of bad morals (which) has a powerful influence on our culture and even our way of life. Without the Bible we would be different, and probably better people."

Oh, yes, different and better, like those in China, the Soviet Union, Kampuchea, North Korea...whose scriptures were various interpretations of Marxist materialism? Such monumental ignorance of history is not to be overcome. The vocabulary of human rights and modern democracy would not exist if it were not for Christianity and the Civilisation that arose from it.

Just to prove how trivially crass and ignorant this Nobel award winner for literature is, he said his bigoted comments would not offend Catholics because they don't read the Bible and, as for for Jews, he couldn't care less about them. A nice spicy touch of genuine anti-Semitism to bring extra flavour to his dish of hot bigotry.

Jose Saramago: The face of political dementia

It is easy enough to refute the stupid claim that [all] Catholics don't read the Bible. I will take that as an expression of Saramago's arrogance towards people he thinks don't count, and not as an assertion that is meant to be accurate. But what about most Catholics? It is true that not every Catholic reads the Bible but, really, that's a meaningless claim. Not all members of a political or religious group read their 'scriptures'. Nothing is clearer to me than that most members of the PC-class haven't a clue about the philosophical underpinnings of their mad view of the world, the doctrines of which are reeled off willy-nilly when their delusions take hold of them. You can bet that Saramago would fail a test on Marxist/materialist scriptures.

But to clear up this point, any Catholic who makes a modicum of effort to follow his faith would be confronted at every turn with passages from the Bible. The Catholic Mass is virtually made up of Bible passages or Biblical formulations. Any document that comes from the Vatican on the faith is full of Bible quotations and references. Pope Benedict's three encyclicals are outstanding examples. It is an indication of the pitiful state of Western society that someone has to reply to such ignorance with obvious and accessible information and evidence. Finally, on this point, one thing is certain: one person who has not read the Bible is cerebrally challenged Saramago himself. And this is the point.

Whether Saramago has read the Bible or not makes not the slightest difference to him. He is in the same class as a Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Philip Pullman and other rabid bigots. Their public bouts of hatred for Christianity issue from the anti-Christian mythology built up during the 20th century- to which they themselves no doubt have added - and not from any reading of the Bible or teaching of the Catholic Church. They don't care whether they report truthfully or accurately on Christian belief or the Catholic Church.

Their hatred for the ethos of Christianity is what drives them. They do not want that ethos even if it is true. They would rather be in hell than in heaven. Theirs is the revolt of Lucifer. And ours is: 'Who is like unto God?' Certainly not Saramago, Dawkins, Marx, Lenin, Stalin and that whole club whose visions in this modern age represent the cruel ugly alternative to Christian Civilisation. Saramago at this late stage in his life must be harbouring nostalgia for the state persecutions of Catholics in Portugal in the early years of the 20th century.

The Nobel Awards are yet another category of Western Civilisation that the PC-class has befouled and diminished. Who cares who gets a prize that is given for fidelity to political ideology?

Comment: gerard@gerardcharleswilson.com