Monday, February 02, 2009
It almost happened the way I almost predicted it.
I started to make the joke prediction that Arizona would win a poorly officiated Super Bowl that left Pittsburgh fans screaming bloody murder. Of course, I can't imagine any Super Bowl being as poorly officiated as the one Pittsburgh was given three years ago*, but I'm sure that Pittsburgh fans would have forgotten all about that. I don't know that the officiating favored on team over the other last night. If anything, I'd say that it favored Pittsburgh, but when the officiating is that obtrusive, the losing team and its fans have the right to complain.
Honestly, I did think that it would be fitting for Pittsburgh to lose a game that left its fans complaining about the officiating. Seattle fans might have even found something resembling cosmic justice in such an outcome, but, to believe in a God whose cosmic justice extends to something as trivial as professional football, one would to a strange conception of God, indeed. It would be almost as strange as believing in a god who ensouls embryos at the moment of a conception, when they have up to an 80% chance of failing to implant in the uterus. It wouldn't as strange as believing in a god who would kill innocent residents because that city contained gay bars and abortion clinics, and it couldn't begin to approach the sheer insanity of believing in a god who wipe out St. Bernard and eastern St. Tammany Parishes, and Hancock and Harrison Counties when he sent a hurricane to punish New Orleans for its sins. Didn't we stop believing in that kind of god when the one god of Christianity supplanted belief in the multiple gods of pagan mythologies?
*In fairness, I should point out that Greg Easterbook, the universally admired expert about everything, thought that Super Bowl XL was fairly officiated.
Honestly, I did think that it would be fitting for Pittsburgh to lose a game that left its fans complaining about the officiating. Seattle fans might have even found something resembling cosmic justice in such an outcome, but, to believe in a God whose cosmic justice extends to something as trivial as professional football, one would to a strange conception of God, indeed. It would be almost as strange as believing in a god who ensouls embryos at the moment of a conception, when they have up to an 80% chance of failing to implant in the uterus. It wouldn't as strange as believing in a god who would kill innocent residents because that city contained gay bars and abortion clinics, and it couldn't begin to approach the sheer insanity of believing in a god who wipe out St. Bernard and eastern St. Tammany Parishes, and Hancock and Harrison Counties when he sent a hurricane to punish New Orleans for its sins. Didn't we stop believing in that kind of god when the one god of Christianity supplanted belief in the multiple gods of pagan mythologies?
*In fairness, I should point out that Greg Easterbook, the universally admired expert about everything, thought that Super Bowl XL was fairly officiated.
Comments:
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This is pretty funny... but I don't understand how you can go so far into the subject of sports-theology without making a Kurt Warner connection somehow.
For what it's worth I thought the officiating was extremely crappy. But since it was difficult to figure out who the crappy officiating favored, people seem to feel like this makes it okay somehow. I've never understood that.
I was rooting for Pittburgh mostly because I can't stand Warner and I prefer football teams that run the ball and play defense. But really I just couldn't take a team seriously whose head coach is named Wisenhut. In addition, during the 2nd quarter, I learned that the Cardinals' defensive coordinator was named Clancy Pendergast at which point I realized they had no chance whatsoever.
For what it's worth I thought the officiating was extremely crappy. But since it was difficult to figure out who the crappy officiating favored, people seem to feel like this makes it okay somehow. I've never understood that.
I was rooting for Pittburgh mostly because I can't stand Warner and I prefer football teams that run the ball and play defense. But really I just couldn't take a team seriously whose head coach is named Wisenhut. In addition, during the 2nd quarter, I learned that the Cardinals' defensive coordinator was named Clancy Pendergast at which point I realized they had no chance whatsoever.
Didn't realize it had two weeks since I had responded to comments.
The officiating reminded me of SEC basketball officiating -- if something doesn't look right, or if the play gets too physical, blow the whistle then figure out who committed the foul. I've hated Pittsburgh for years, for 10 years starting in the early seventies their game plan two games a year (three if the they played the Bengals in the playoffs) was to try to injure Kenny Anderson. Then they want to make a federal case out of it when a Raider takes a hard shot at Lynn Swann. Three years ago, I wouldn't have expected any Steeler fans to acknowledge that Seattle got robbed, but, had if the Saints were handed a game like that, I'd least be objective enough to acknowledge the legitimacy of the other team's complaints. Obviously, you haven't talked to Warner's wife, God meant for him to lead a team to the Super Bowl.
Thanks for the compliment, but the post was little forced. I've been meaning to post about the Reason article since Fred Thompson's convention speech turned my stomach. I should have posted about it separately, instead of forcing into another post. There does need to push back on the insistence the life begins at conception bullshit. I wouldn't give an inch to religious extremists on the abortion issue, but but I'd like to see push separated from any discussion of abortion, since it was never an issue (or, as far as I can tell, even really discussed) before emergency contraception became available. I wouldn't use the word bullshit about religious beliefs, but it appears that church leaders are making shit up when they claim that it's always been an article of Christian faith that life begins at the exact moment of conception and it's a philosophically untenable position. If Catholic bishops want to insist that life begins at conception, they should be forced to spend all day answering the theodicean questions that most people stop asking around the age of twelve.
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The officiating reminded me of SEC basketball officiating -- if something doesn't look right, or if the play gets too physical, blow the whistle then figure out who committed the foul. I've hated Pittsburgh for years, for 10 years starting in the early seventies their game plan two games a year (three if the they played the Bengals in the playoffs) was to try to injure Kenny Anderson. Then they want to make a federal case out of it when a Raider takes a hard shot at Lynn Swann. Three years ago, I wouldn't have expected any Steeler fans to acknowledge that Seattle got robbed, but, had if the Saints were handed a game like that, I'd least be objective enough to acknowledge the legitimacy of the other team's complaints. Obviously, you haven't talked to Warner's wife, God meant for him to lead a team to the Super Bowl.
Thanks for the compliment, but the post was little forced. I've been meaning to post about the Reason article since Fred Thompson's convention speech turned my stomach. I should have posted about it separately, instead of forcing into another post. There does need to push back on the insistence the life begins at conception bullshit. I wouldn't give an inch to religious extremists on the abortion issue, but but I'd like to see push separated from any discussion of abortion, since it was never an issue (or, as far as I can tell, even really discussed) before emergency contraception became available. I wouldn't use the word bullshit about religious beliefs, but it appears that church leaders are making shit up when they claim that it's always been an article of Christian faith that life begins at the exact moment of conception and it's a philosophically untenable position. If Catholic bishops want to insist that life begins at conception, they should be forced to spend all day answering the theodicean questions that most people stop asking around the age of twelve.
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