Muhammad Ali Did Not Put Quran Verses On His Boxing Trunks
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 4:34PM Well, I have not ranted in quite a while, (don’t worry, I am still pretty pissed off…) but nothing has really struck me that much. Not until a radical right wing nut (you might check out his work with Focus on the Family...) became the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos.
As those that know me know, I am an atheist. I am comfortable in that, and that has little or nothing to do with my ideas about Mr. Tebow. What I don’t like is him shoving his religion at me. Praying before games, fine. Hell, pray during games (assuming your deity has money on the game, perhaps it will help…) What I don’t like is the necessity to look at everything from the perspective of religion. Yes, I know, if one is religious it is a pervasive thing. Fine. I DO NOT WANT YOU TO PREACH TO ME. Don’t put bible verse references on your eyeblack. Don’t mention god in every interview you do. You are a damned football player. Perhaps someday you will be as good a quarterback as say Anthony Calvillo. AC is a religious guy. I have heard him thank god a couple of times, notably after the Alouettes won a Grey Cup and he was about to get treated for a potentially life threatening thyroid condition. However, when after a game AC is asked about the game he talks about, wait for it, THE GAME.
Bono is a religious guy. I have seen U2 maybe 6 times. I have not once heard him mention his religion. Now there are religious themed songs on the October album for sure. (Great songs BTW). But, when he is on Letterman, he does not mention god.
Remember this, Muhammad Ali never put Quran verses on his boxing trunks. He is a Muslim (the name should have been a dead giveaway…) but what did he do? Oh yeah he was just the greatest boxer of all time and perhaps the greatest sports personality of the 20th century. We all know what Ali talked about when he was asked about boxing.
I will leave you with this. I wonder how the world would react if a not ready for prime time athlete was an atheist, or a Muslim and went around talking about that, instead of his sport
Reader Comments (3)
You said that religion is usually a pervasive thing, which really just means the only difference between, say, Tebow and Bono, is that Bono is willing to compartmentalize a bit better (for whatever reason). Your atheism definitely shines through in your lectures and posts; wouldn't that be similar to preaching your beliefs? I suppose that Tebow is in a different scenario being on TV regularly and all, but what makes it all that different? And why not just let him say whatever and ignore it if you disagree?
Thanks for the comment. Yeah I imagine my atheism is pretty evident, though that is not intentional. I will say though, that when I am asked a question about something I don't reply with 'well there is no god, and here is how you do a t test'...
This is the same with Bono. While he has a huge stage and following, he does not preface everything with his views on the existence of a deity.
I see your point, especially when the discussion is unnecessarily (or at least unnaturally) steered towards one's faith where a simple, on-topic statement would do.