In case you don't know, Colbert is a satirist who parodies right-wing attitudes and criticizes them. Of course, he also takes on liberals sometimes, but conservatives tend to give more material for satire. Like this:
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Bill O'Reilly Proves God's Existence - Neil deGrasse Tyson | ||||
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O'Reilly is obviously a moron and Colbert awesomely points that out. The argument of "I don't know how that works, therefore God must be behind it" is just taking pride in one's own stupidity and ignorance, using the later as an excuse to believe in God.
One would thing that, since Colbert criticizes religion so hard, he would be, at least, a non-believer. O'Reilly for example, is a Catholic.
Well, Colbert is also a Catholic.
I love my Church, and I'm a Catholic who was raised by intellectuals, who were very devout. I was raised to believe that you could question the Church and still be a Catholic. What is worthy of satire is the misuse of religion for destructive or political gains. That's totally different from the Word, the blood, the body and the Christ. His kingdom is not of this earth.
The first sentence will be puzzling for many, but it shouldn't be. Yes, there are Catholics who are pretty intelligent and won't go along with much of the non-sense that comes from The Vatican. After all, Catholics aren't as crazy as Evangelicals who support Intelligent Design.
The second sentence is kind of puzzling, since the Catholic Church is certainly not a democracy. It's teachings are supposed to be those of the very institution founded by Christ and should not be criticized. To pretend to criticize it, or disobey them, sounds a little bit hypocritical. Yet, if that leads to a more open, liberal and democratic Catholic Church, then might be ok.
The last sentences have two sides that are worth mentioning. First, Colbert criticizes the use of religion for "bad" things, like gaining power or destroying others. That sounds nice. However, it's up to Colbert to make such judgment. But that's not what the leaders of the church think. That's not what the Vatican thinks. It's hatred of gays and atheists, and the destruction of life that comes along with a policy against condoms make it pretty obvious.
No religion has the monopoly of goodness, so it's wrong to assume that whatever is bad is opposed to the word of God. The Bible has been interpreted by many in very different ways, both to do wrong and right. But all of them claim to have the correct interpretation.
Finally, I like watching the Colbert Report. It's satire is impeccable. Colbert might think that there is a kingdom for the afterlife, which is ridiculous, but as long as he keeps that himself, no problem with me.
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