Behold! The Face of God!


I’ve always wondered what he looked like.

You may be somewhat disappointed. You haven’t yet seen the mind behind that rather ordinary face, though, which will leave you a lot disappointed.

A Republican Ohio state representative cited his religious beliefs to explain why he would not wear a mask as recommended by Gov. Mike DeWine (R) to help limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“This is not the entire world,” state Rep. Nino Vitale wrote in a lengthy Facebook post on Monday morning. “This is the greatest nation on earth founded on Judeo-Christian Principles.”

“One of those principles is that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. That image is seen the most by our face. I will not wear a mask,” he continued.

  • This is not the greatest nation on earth — we are one among many, and we need to throw out these politicians who preach American exceptionalism. This unfounded arrogance hinders any effort to make the country better.

  • We were not founded on Judeo-Christian principles, which is not even a thing. We are a secular nation. Or should be. Kick out these religious fanatics.

  • It’s a rather limiting conception of the nature of the hypothetical supreme being of the universe to imagine he is an anthropoid ape with a human face, or even a gaseous vertebrate of some kind, as Haeckel put it. Nino Vitale is some kind of shallow Biblical literalist, I guess. We should also evict those. They aren’t smart enough to govern.

  • I hope he is consistent in his beliefs to the point where if he comes down with COVID-19 or any other respiratory disease that he refuses to be intubated or to wear a mask; if he needs surgery he should do it without any anesthetic gas or oxygen. I want him to go to his maker with his bare face shining splendidly.

Vitale also doesn’t understand the data.

“This is not based on logic, this is based on fear and propaganda and every statistical, data driven study done in the last 2 weeks says death counts are low, the models were wrong, and this is more like the flu,” he continued.

Wrong on all counts. The data says we’ve been underestimating the effects, due to the lack of available testing, and that it isn’t anything like the flu.

It does not fill me with confidence that our government is packed with ignorant religious zealots who want to make policy counter to the evidence. It’s no wonder this country is screwed.

Comments

  1. royhilbinger says

    As for that “christian nation” nonsense, ol’ Nino needs to brush up on his American history. The 1797 treaty with Tripoli specifically states, in Article 11: “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion…” This was read by President John Adams, one of the founding fathers, presented to the Senate and read aloud to them (said Senate composed of a whole raft of founding fathers), ratified, and then sent back to John Adams, who signed it. Anybody who can claim that we’re a “christian nation” after reading that is either wilfully ignorant or mentally incompetent to hold office. Period!

  2. mathman85 says

    Jebus, but dipshits like this idiot make me embarrassed to be from, and still live in, Ohio.

  3. HidariMak says

    This “image and likeness of god” that warrants never covering the face, makes me wonder how he can consume food. Does he hook up a “special IV” for special occasions? His belief must also require him to never cover his mouth when he sneezes.

  4. Artor says

    What a fuckwit! A couple months ago, that “It’s just like the flu” line could still fly with the garden-variety ignoramuses. Now that several times the annual flu body count has been surpassed in a fraction of that time, it takes a special kind of moron to still be spewing that bullshit.

  5. llyris says

    @ Lofty – that’s essentially what I came here to say. He’s deliberately modifying the image of god on his face.
    …. do you suppose god wears any clothes? Maybe he should go out with the entire glory of god visible. Ahem.

  6. chrislawson says

    Ah, let’s be clear here. Quoting the Bible at Vitale is pointless. Vitale doesn’t care about christian theology. All he cares about is sucking up to the christofascist movement.

  7. raven says

    I suppose that means he opposes the wearing of eye glasses.
    Because god being perfect, has no need for corrective lens.

    About all I noticed about this guy is that he is rather dumb.
    And so are the people in his Ohio district that elected him.

  8. raven says

    During the Swine flu pandemic of 2009, fundie xians died in higher numbers than the general population.
    They are on track to do it again during the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020.
    There are already many cases of reality/Covid-19 virus deniers catching the virus and dying.

    Ignorance kills. Religion kills.

  9. katahdin says

    Raven “ During the Swine flu pandemic of 2009, fundie xians died in higher numbers than the general population.”
    Citation?

  10. unclefrogy says

    the level of obstinate ignorance and self-importance exhibited by fundamentalist always amazes me.
    as well as the overt political nature of that religion which seems to be contrary to the direct teachings of the believed founder.
    uncle frogy

  11. raven says

    Opinion | Beware the Deadly Contagion Spread by Blowhards …www.nytimes.com › sunday › coronavirus-united-states
    Mar 7, 2020 – But the fearmongering toward vaccination was far greater on the right. …
    Matthew Baum of Harvard found that people in red states were indeed … “As states become relatively more Republican, swine flu-related deaths rise,” …
    who will travel with me and report for The New York Times, is Maddie Bender of …

    There you go.
    You have to use Red States as a standin for fundie xians.
    “Oogedy Boogedy xians” is not a commonly used demographic category among academics.

    There are a lot of reasons for this.
    Among them, fundies tend to be polykooks and anti-vax is one of their package of delusions.

  12. answersingenitals says

    I was in total agreement with your blog and the nonsense coming from bible thumpers until I saw the chart you posted. “Total deaths in the state (Massachusetts) each year….”. Notice that for the years 2015 to 2019 the curves actually dip down after the 15th week! Resurrection!!! So, maybe those religious nuts aren’t so nutty after all. Of course, the chart is a little confused as to whether it’s showing total deaths or excess deaths (and excess over what?). But, to be on the safe side I’m moving to Massachusetts and everlasting life.

  13. raven says

    From Alex Jones website Infowars 2009

    The eugenicists are back with their latest program to kill an untold number of people under the cover of the “swine flu pandemic.” If you line up for a vaccination contaminated with mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde and other toxins — and a possible agent for future cancers designed to decimate world population — you need to have your head examined.

    However, as Ron Paul indicates, you may not have a choice — the government may force you to choose between a toxic vaccine and a FEMA camp.

    This is the sort of babbling that goes on among fundie xians about vaccines.
    Did you know that the Swine flu vaccine was part of the Globalist’s population reduction program designed to kill millions?
    And according to Ron Paul, it was going to be mandatory?

    Of course none of that ever happened. The Swine flu vaccine was a stunning achievement in rapid vaccine development and made a major difference in how many people died in that pandemic.

    And oh yeah, you will hear the exact same things if and when a vaccine to protect against Covid-19 virus is developed.

  14. nomdeplume says

    Is America the first example in history of a country going collectively insane?

  15. says

    We are exceedingly likely to pass the 2017-2018 flu season for deaths this week at 80,000. 2017-2018 was a 40 year high. In just over 4 months.

    We are likely to pass the H3N2/1968 “Hong Kong” flu at 100,000 by June 1st which was a pretty bad pandemic.

    I’m pretty sure the “just the flu” idiots are going to start arguing that well the Spanish Flu was worse and covid-19 hasn’t killed as many people as the flu as in the last 10 years combined so no big deal.

  16. chuckonpiggott says

    Obviously he’s never seen a Jack Chick tract with the blank faced god sitting on a throne.

  17. unclefrogy says

    @20
    they are always OK with the death toll from what ever it may be, disease, war or faulty automobile safety when it is other people they do not know and not any of their friends or family.
    uncle frogy

  18. John Morales says

    unclefrogy:

    … and not any of their friends or family …

    A most generous giving of the benefit of the doubt, to the detriment of your cynicism.

    (Friends or family aren’t them, are they?)

  19. unclefrogy says

    john
    I’m hoping so any way. all bets are off when money is involved how ever.
    uncle frogy

  20. a_ray_in_dilbert_space says

    “Behold! The Face of God!”
    Huh. Looks like more of a smug asshole than I would have thought.

  21. Chaos Engineer says

    In Exodus 33, Moses asks to see the face of God. God says he can’t do that:

    “But,” he said, “You cannot see my face, because a man cannot see me and live.” The Lord said, “Look, there is a place near me where you can stand on the rock; and as my glory passes by, I’ll put you in a crevice in the rock, and cover you with my hand until I’ve passed by. Then I’ll remove my hand so you may see my back, but my face must not be seen.”

    (Exodus 33:20-23)

    But I guess some people think they’re better than God, and they don’t care if exposing their faces kills people or not.

  22. Rob Grigjanis says

    answersingenitals @17: I don’t think it’s confused; it’s just dishonest. The grey plots are deaths per week for each of the years 2015-2019*. The red plot starts out apparently doing the same thing for 2020, then around week 10 or 11 it starts doing something else; sort of plotting the accumulated excess deaths**. I say “sort of” because if it were actually doing that, that part of the plot should start at, or near, zero.

    In other words, it’s cobbled together bullshit made to look as dramatic as possible. Which really isn’t necessary.

    *I looked up the number of deaths per day before covid, and those plots roughly match a weekly count.
    **If it’s not accumulated excess deaths, it’s saying there were 2,565 excess deaths during week 15 alone.

  23. Rob Grigjanis says

    I retract my #27. The red plot is probably just deaths per week, like the other plots. The 2,565 deaths (so, about 1,400 excess deaths) in week 15 beggars belief, but so does much else these days.

  24. publicola says

    It’s “cafones” like this that give Italians a bad name. @17: Mass. is a great place, but don’t move there. If Covid-19 doesn’t kill you, the taxes will.

  25. lumipuna says

    He could have just said, “religious freedom is an American founding principle*, and my personal religious belief prevents me from concealing my face”, but what’s the point of appealing to founding principles, unless you’re going to blather bullshit about “Christian nation”, while claiming your weird personal excuses are part of some common Christian principles recognized by the founders.

    One could also appeal to generalized personal freedom as a founding principle, or assert that (religious) freedom is important in itself, regardless of it being a founding principle. One could even appeal to the scientific controversy about the benefits of masking.