Philippines president under fire for calling God “stupid”
Phillipines President Rodrigo Duterte has come under heavy criticism for calling God “stupid”.
Duterte was said to have made the contentious statement on Friday evening during a speech in his southern home city of Davao.
Reports say he questioned God’s logic in the Biblical creation story of Adam and Eve.
He was quoted as saying: “Adam ate (the fruit of knowledge), then malice was born. Who is this stupid God?
“That son of a b***h is stupid if that’s the case. You created something perfect and then you think of an event that would tempt and destroy the quality of your work.
“That was your mother and father’s deed – you weren’t born yet, but now you have original sin. What kind of religion is that? I can’t accept it.”
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque defended Duterte’s statements, urging the public to accept that the leader tends to use strong language when he expresses his beliefs.
“That is the personal belief of the president,” Mr Roque said.
“We are free to believe in religion and we are also free not to believe in religion. The President has his personal spiritual beliefs.
“We cannot fault the president if he has no sense of hypocrisy and we should accept that because even when he was just a candidate, he never hid that from us.”
Duterte has in the past lambasted the Catholic Church in the Philippines, where more than 80 per cent of the population practice the religion, calling priests out for allegations of corruption and sexual abuse.
