YouTube Thursday – This Has to Be a Joke…Right?
I’m back from Egypt, and I haven’t had the time to watch any interesting YouTube videos that I could share with people, however I just watched one that I have to make a comment on. It’s called “Converting an indian to christianity -- don’t let the devil win” by some YouTube newbie, and it is either a display of outright ignorance, or a hoax.
The video is a discussion between two American kids and their friend “Saraa” who is Indian. In it, they discuss Indian culture and the Hindu religion, before attempting to “convert” poor Saraa to Christianity. If you don’t have time to watch the video, here are a selection of face-palm quotes you might want to peruse:
This is just an epic fail in geography.
Molly: [Saraa's] Indian. It’s like…an African country in Asia.
This is plain ignorance, not to mention quite racist.
Molly: Do you consider yourself Asian or African?
Saraa: Asian.
Molly: Because you look African…but you’re Asian.
Rachel: Why are you so dark then?
Saraa: Because I’m from Asia!
Molly: Why aren’t your eyes pointy…or slanted?
*pause*
Molly: It’s ok, I know you can be what you want, but it’s not what you look like.
Rachel: Yeah, I think she’s lying to us.
Yet more ignorance regarding race.
Rachel: It’s like, if an African and an Asian had a baby.
Then they move onto religion.
(After Saraa explains she is Hindu and doesn’t believe in Jesus)
Molly: But why don’t you change if you’re wrong? You know that believing in multiple gods is a sin?
No amateur discussion of religion is right without one mention of Pascal’s wager.
Molly: Ok, how about this. There’s a chance…well, a very good chance that Christianity is the right religion, and that’s the religion that has a hell, so if I’m wrong in your religion I don’t go to hell, but if you’re wrong in my religion then you go to hell.
So why do I think the video might be fake? It’s just an inkling I get when watching it, perhaps because I’ve seen so many Poe’s in videos, but it doesn’t come across as how actual conversation goes. Especially at the end when Molly tells Saraa that she can’t be her friend because she’s not Christian, and Saraa sort of just accepts it and says “I need to go home to eat rice”.
I’ll leave it up to you to decide.
Heh. Well they're kids.
That… I… uhm… Wait, what?
I think a part of me just died.
there's…. there's no way….. they have to be joking. they HAVE to be joking.
To be honest, there's two ways we can look at this:
1) The two "Christians" are serious and therefore they're both ignorant and sick in the head.
2) The two "Christians" are joking…but the joke is disturbing…they're still sick in the head.
I can't see any way a rational person could defend this whatever it is meant to be.
Never let it be said that videos like this are devoid of evidence. This one contains plenty of evidence … that religion warps children's minds.
As for this particular version of Pascal's Wager:
Ok, how about this: There’s a chance…well, a very good chance that religion has got it disastrously wrong, and that all gods are entirely made up figments of the imagination of primitive peoples – to enable them to get through their nasty, short and brutish lives without distracting themselves with the eternal verities. So if I’m wrong in your religion (whichever one of several thousand incompatible religions it might be) I may find myself with an interesting interrogation upon facing my maker after death (an interrogation I would expect to be confident in answering with integrity), but if you’re wrong in my lack-of-religion then you have lived your life in a state of totally unnecessary delusion and irrationality.
Granted I haven't seen a lot of Poe yet, but this rings true. I was that brainwashed. (*shudder* )
You people are idiots. These kids are so obviously joking. Have you ever heard of improvising? They're probably Drama Club kids. Get over yourselves. The author of this blog gives atheists a bad name by using this video as an argument against the religious.
How exactly did I use this as an argument against the religious? I said repeatedly (even in the title) that it strikes me as a hoax, especially the ending. Having said that, I have seen fundies before who act this way, and they were adults. We'll never know unless they "reveal" it to be a hoax anyway.
They could be real fundamentalist children for all we know…which would suggest they are being serious.
according to some Indians I know, Saraswati's accent sounds faked.