Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has sparked controversy in his country after he called God “stupid” and a “son of a bitch” for the concept of the Biblical creation story of Adam and Eve.
Duterte, an open critic of the Catholic Church was addressing a summit in Davao City on Friday, where he questioned God’s logic in the Biblical creation story of Adam and Eve.
“Adam ate it then malice was born. Who is this stupid God? Istupido talaga itong putangina kung ganoon (That son of a b**** is stupid if that’s the case),” he said, reported Rappler. “You created something perfect and then you think of an event that would tempt and destroy the quality of your work,” he added.
Talking about his interpretation of the concept of “original sin,” the president said, “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.”
The controversial president added, “I believe there is a universal mind, but… I cannot picture him as a human being. But I really believe, I have this faith and abiding thing, but don’t believe in religion.” He made similar remarks earlier this month during a meeting with the Filipino community in South Korea. “If that’s the Catholic God, that’s a lie. Seek God right,” he said.
His spokesman, Harry Roque has since defended the controversial statement as his personal belief.
“That is the personal belief of the president,” he 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,” he added.