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Tuesday, June 10, 2008 | Reason : Comedy | print version Print | Comments

Document Regime change in heaven

by Guardian

Thanks to Jarvis008 for the link.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/10/religion

Regime change in heaven

God's thunderbolts pose an existential threat to mankind. Military intervention has become unavoidable

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I apologise for getting you out of bed so early. At 0500 hours this morning the combined armed forces of mankind across the globe launched a massive and sustained land, sea and air attack on the Kingdom of Heaven. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. There will be time for questions later.

As you are all aware, the world's governments have been concerned about the true nature and ultimate purpose of God for some years now. A being that proclaims Himself omnipotent clearly had to be watched closely - we would have been failing in our duty to protect our citizens had we not done so.

Evidence of God's power is overwhelming. Indeed He has said nothing to deny it. He has brought famine on numerous occasions. He has inflicted plagues in the form of Aids, Sars and H5N1. Not a single year has passed without war raging in some corner of the globe, often with His explicit blessing on one side or the other and sometimes on both.

Tsunamis, floods and hurricanes are three more devastating weapons in the deadly armoury He has not only developed but appears all too willing to use. Faced with these already terrifying powers, we tasked the world's intelligence services to establish when - not if, ladies and gentlemen, but when - He will have the capability to launch genuine weapons of mass destruction. I refer, of course, to thunderbolts from heaven.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my grave duty to inform you that all intelligence conclusively points to the fact that God already possesses such a capability and could launch it at a moment's notice. Please, please. Be calm. Not wishing to alarm the people unnecessarily, we have of course, up until this moment in time, kept this intelligence within the confines of the highest reaches of government.

Behind the scenes we have been attempting to negotiate with God. Indeed, up until as recently as March of 2007 representatives of your governments were trying to open lines of communication. We made it clear we were happy to talk either directly to God or to his Angels. These approaches, I am sure you understand, largely took the form of silent prayer. Unfortunately I have to report that our efforts proved fruitless. The evidence of His presence is all around us, so He claims, yet when we want to talk to Him He is nowhere to be found. Apparently God did not want to listen. Though, of course, being omniscient, He didn't actually need to listen to be aware of our intentions. Either that or He was in hiding. Which seems unlikely, given that He also claims to be omnipresent.

As the world is aware, all nations are united behind the necessity of tackling the problem of God's might before it is too late. This, despite the fact that until recently many nations, for various reasons, have preferred not to confront Him. Some have claimed that notwithstanding His terrible wrath and well-documented history of visiting vengeance upon mankind, He is a force for good in the world. Some countries - in fact, at the latest count, at least half the nations of the world - have at some time even claimed to be His Chosen People.

Yet despite countless appeals to Him, not only over the last few years, but over many centuries, to bring peace to the world, He has blatantly failed to deliver us from evil. We now know that He even harbours terrorists. At least, if they do not come from heaven, we know that heaven is where they go afterwards, as they are only too willing to admit.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have waited long enough. We have given God every chance, but our patience is at an end. I put it to you, can a being who chooses to be known under the guise of a number of different aliases ever be trusted? The time has come for regime change in heaven. (interruption) I'm sorry? Excuse me a moment.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have just been informed that our mission has been successful. The forces of the people are now in control of all key targets. Overcoming determined resistance ... (interruption) ... Excuse me, little resistance ... (interruption) ... I'm sorry, apparently no resistance at all, our forces battled ... (interruption) er, strolled into ... what appears to be a deserted realm.

(To aide: "What, no angels? No seraphim, no cherubim? No hosts of heavenly choirs? No ... souls of the eternally blessed? I was hoping to meet my mother again ..." Aide: "There's no evidence of anything, Mr President.")

(Speaker takes sip of water.)

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you victory. Today marks the triumph of mankind. Heaven has fallen.

And may God save us all.

Comments 1 - 27 of 27 |

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1. Comment #191034 by Jack Rawlinson on June 10, 2008 at 6:24 am

 avatarI see what you did there.

Weird. I love satire. I love anti-religious satire even more. I love political satire. This example hits a lot of targets pretty neatly and yet for some reason the whole seems less than the sum of its parts. Perhaps I need another coffee...

Other Comments by Jack Rawlinson

2. Comment #191037 by posiedon on June 10, 2008 at 6:29 am

 avatarHe he, that's fairly cheered up a wet and windy Tuesday.
Thanks:-)

Other Comments by posiedon

3. Comment #191055 by GBile on June 10, 2008 at 6:52 am

Somehow it sounds like 'Mission accomplished'.

Other Comments by GBile

4. Comment #191061 by konquererz on June 10, 2008 at 6:57 am

 avatarWhat an absolutely perfect piece of satire! We need more of these. Some times, satire is the only way to really make a point be understood.

Other Comments by konquererz

5. Comment #191064 by HitbLade on June 10, 2008 at 6:58 am

Not a millennia too soon. :P

Other Comments by HitbLade

6. Comment #191079 by gcdavis on June 10, 2008 at 7:30 am

 avatarReports of my demise are premature! Knowing that your pathetic assault was on its way I spent the afternoon with an old friend, if you thinks it's bad on earth, its hell where he lives! What a pathetic bunch you humans are, you couldn't even manage regime change in Zimbabwe, but I digress. It has come to my notice that a few of you so called atheists are stirring up trouble down there on earth, I may have to send another prophet down to get you back in line, the last one was a disappointment, Bin something or other, as he seems to have gone freelance.

And let's get this evolution thing straight, yes of course you started out as bacteria and to my mind most of you still are but evolution was my best wheeze yet, survival of the fittest? You bet. Why do you think I allow all these religions to think they are the chosen ones? Isn't it obvious, they will continue killing each other (and you atheists) until only one lot survives; and just when they think it's all sewn up, I'll send down another flood and wipe out the last of you.

Why would I do that you ask? Because frankly you're boring, after 5 billion years I deserve a break. Well I'm off to Alpha Centauri now, there's a small rock, sorry planet, about your size just cool enough for me to dribble on... where did you think the bacteria came from?

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7. Comment #191093 by defaithed on June 10, 2008 at 7:51 am

Heh. Reminds me of some satire on The Onion (news of lawsuits against God for broken promises, etc.). And the "attack on heaven" angle shares a wee bit with a post I wrote just a few days back, at http://www.defaithed.com/blog/defaithed/2008/06/strong_antitheist . But unlike my bit, the above is funny - always the more effective strategy! My compliments to the author!

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8. Comment #191106 by Frankus1122 on June 10, 2008 at 8:13 am

 avatarAs I wrote elsewhere, for a brief moment last night I thought God was 'coming to take me home'. The massive rain storm that took place last night produced the loudest thunderclap I have ever experienced in my life. It must have went off right over my house. It shook the windows and made the ground rumble.
I am glad to see that my attacker has been defeated. Yeah humans!

Other Comments by Frankus1122

9. Comment #191146 by Drool on June 10, 2008 at 9:38 am

 avatar
"Though, of course, being omniscient, He didn't actually need to listen to be aware of our intentions. Either that or He was in hiding. Which seems unlikely, given that He also claims to be omnipresent."
Comedy gold.

Other Comments by Drool

10. Comment #191158 by mordacious1 on June 10, 2008 at 9:54 am

Did I upset the negotiations when I mooned him the other night? See what happens when the government does things without telling the populace.

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11. Comment #191193 by Haymoon on June 10, 2008 at 11:03 am

 avatarYesterday, on knees in prayer
I spoke to god, who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish that god would go away

Other Comments by Haymoon

12. Comment #191220 by Mysturji on June 10, 2008 at 12:06 pm

 avatarVery noodly news. I hope the new incumbent is finally going to install the stripper factory and beer volcano.

Other Comments by Mysturji

13. Comment #191276 by DalaiDrivel on June 10, 2008 at 1:41 pm

Hah. This was a good laugh. :)

What's true is that all nations and all peoples WILL need to be united to combat the idiocy and destructiveness of religious faith.

The war is not over. It is upon us still. And maybe at the end we could have a presidential address similiar to this, along the lines of,

"We're terribly sorry. There really IS a separation of church and state, and we know what it means. It's not actually a problem now, without the Church..."

Like Bill Maher's Religulous, ridiculing the ridiculous such as this does is a reasonable tactic to exposing people to their own ignorance and errors of judgement.

After all, it's all just SO RIDICULOUS!

Other Comments by DalaiDrivel

14. Comment #191323 by Andrew Stich on June 10, 2008 at 3:07 pm

To the point, intelligent, and, perhaps most importantly, funny.

Other Comments by Andrew Stich

15. Comment #191336 by Alfrescoid on June 10, 2008 at 3:35 pm

Ladies and gentlemen, we got Him...

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16. Comment #191345 by Apathy personified on June 10, 2008 at 3:59 pm

 avatarAccording to paradise lost (the true record of what really happened) god's son vanquished satans armies, really destroyed them, but that doesn't matter, as we have heaven now (there won't be any insurgents, don't worry)

We need to look to heaven's neighbour, hell, it's full of evil people, like satan, who have already attacked earth, and may do it again, it may also look to use the weapons of heaven that were smuggled out, just as we arrived (just a few seconds...)
We need to act now people, now.

Other Comments by Apathy personified

18. Comment #191354 by troodon on June 10, 2008 at 4:36 pm

Prayer: negotiation with the father of all terrorists.

Other Comments by troodon

19. Comment #191376 by Jack Rawlinson on June 10, 2008 at 6:40 pm

 avatarOkay, I re-read it after I'd woken up a bit. Enjoyed it much more. There's a lesson in there for me, I think. Don't expect to find things too funny when you've just arrived at work on a sweltering, sticky day and you haven't had enough coffee yet!

Other Comments by Jack Rawlinson

20. Comment #191381 by dragonfirematrix on June 10, 2008 at 6:54 pm

 avatarNice shot!

Other Comments by dragonfirematrix

21. Comment #191425 by Melomel on June 10, 2008 at 11:54 pm

Hm. Could have been marked "spoilers for His Dark Materials."

Other Comments by Melomel

22. Comment #191455 by Ansu on June 11, 2008 at 2:14 am

 avatarHa, of course it was easy, for invading always is.
Occupation however...

Other Comments by Ansu

23. Comment #191474 by paulifa1 on June 11, 2008 at 3:12 am

Wait!, news just in, God has gone into hiding!

He has just been spotted disguised as a fat bald man with many tatoo's shaking like a jelly somewhere in Lakeland, Florida. Further reports indicate he's committed the further offence of practicing medicine without a licence, mainly healing the bad backs & acne of a large number of gullible, gibbering, mentally deranged people, however, he seems happy to leave their mental impairment intact!

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24. Comment #191578 by Border Collie on June 11, 2008 at 8:59 am

Silly, silly, silly ...

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25. Comment #191794 by utelme on June 11, 2008 at 7:01 pm

Absolutely loved this articlel. LOL

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26. Comment #191895 by Laurie Fraser on June 12, 2008 at 4:25 am

 avatarBLASPHEMY!





(Don't you love it?)

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27. Comment #240300 by scotriani on August 31, 2008 at 9:58 am

You sure this article wasn't written by Jeremy Clarkson?

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