Why Paul Harvey's "If I were the Devil" speech is so very wrong.
Many people grew up listening to Paul Harvey. He's a gifted speaker, with a voice simultaneously gravelly and soothing.
He is well known for this speech, "If I were the Devil"
Link: Paul Harvey
I made some comments about this speech on Facebook, and decided to reproduce them below for the sake of posterity.
So many misguided statements and assumptions there. The first and biggest is assuming Satan exists at all.
1. Take over the United States. Wait what? Why the focus on the united states, what about the rest of the world? Subvert the churches by whispering "do as you please". Nonsense, churches by definition should be following the bible. How is Satan whispering to them? Unfortunately, the bible is not very clear, and it's quite easy to misinterpret it, and we have many denominations. oh well.
2. Whisper that the bible is a myth. No need for whispering, it's a provable fact. Man created god. Again, provable fact, no whispering necessary. "what's bad is good and what's good is "square". A statement made without proof or clarification, a dog whistle for old religious people.
3. The bit about authors. It's their JOB to make literature interesting. whether it's lurid or not and whether people want to read it is a matter of choice. It's 2018, we have a huge range of books, not everyone reads "lurid" books, we read what we want.4. Threaten TV, oh fuck I can't do this. drugs, alcohol, of course there will always be people vulnerable to addiction. Guess what, most people don't have a problem with that.
5. Families, churches, nations at war. Broad statements with no basis in fact. Claims without proof.
6. Emotions running wild is why we have drug dogs and metal detectors? Wtf is this? No, those don't exist in every school and that isn't the reason some of them do employ those methods.
7. Prisons overflowing, yeah satan does that, ok whatever. Judges promoting pornography, show me where that's ever happened, huh? Yes we need separation of church and state, or we end up like the caliphates of Islam.
8. Psychology and science being deified is just ridiculous. Priests and pastors abuse kids because they're bad people, period. Easter and Christmas were pagan holidays TO BEGIN WITH. Christians stole them first.9. That's capitalism, not the devil. Show me any state that promotes gambling as a way to get rich, I DARE YOU.
10. Extremes are bad, in any case. Marriage is old-fashioned, it's not really necessary as a social construct anymore. Swinging is a niche lifestyle, very few people pursue that. The rest is rubbish.
11. Again, prove any of these things are caused by anything other than natural causes.
Paul Harvey is a charismatic speaker, but some people buy into what he's saying without even taking one goddamn second to process it.
He is well known for this speech, "If I were the Devil"
Link: Paul Harvey
I made some comments about this speech on Facebook, and decided to reproduce them below for the sake of posterity.
So many misguided statements and assumptions there. The first and biggest is assuming Satan exists at all.
1. Take over the United States. Wait what? Why the focus on the united states, what about the rest of the world? Subvert the churches by whispering "do as you please". Nonsense, churches by definition should be following the bible. How is Satan whispering to them? Unfortunately, the bible is not very clear, and it's quite easy to misinterpret it, and we have many denominations. oh well.
2. Whisper that the bible is a myth. No need for whispering, it's a provable fact. Man created god. Again, provable fact, no whispering necessary. "what's bad is good and what's good is "square". A statement made without proof or clarification, a dog whistle for old religious people.
3. The bit about authors. It's their JOB to make literature interesting. whether it's lurid or not and whether people want to read it is a matter of choice. It's 2018, we have a huge range of books, not everyone reads "lurid" books, we read what we want.4. Threaten TV, oh fuck I can't do this. drugs, alcohol, of course there will always be people vulnerable to addiction. Guess what, most people don't have a problem with that.
5. Families, churches, nations at war. Broad statements with no basis in fact. Claims without proof.
6. Emotions running wild is why we have drug dogs and metal detectors? Wtf is this? No, those don't exist in every school and that isn't the reason some of them do employ those methods.
7. Prisons overflowing, yeah satan does that, ok whatever. Judges promoting pornography, show me where that's ever happened, huh? Yes we need separation of church and state, or we end up like the caliphates of Islam.
8. Psychology and science being deified is just ridiculous. Priests and pastors abuse kids because they're bad people, period. Easter and Christmas were pagan holidays TO BEGIN WITH. Christians stole them first.9. That's capitalism, not the devil. Show me any state that promotes gambling as a way to get rich, I DARE YOU.
10. Extremes are bad, in any case. Marriage is old-fashioned, it's not really necessary as a social construct anymore. Swinging is a niche lifestyle, very few people pursue that. The rest is rubbish.
11. Again, prove any of these things are caused by anything other than natural causes.
Paul Harvey is a charismatic speaker, but some people buy into what he's saying without even taking one goddamn second to process it.
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