It’s even more interesting when you visualise the barmaid using it to draw a pint.
And in the ancient Greek myths, whenever humans claimed some aspect of the Gods for themselves, their hubris was inevitably punished by nemesis.
Fortunately for modern Christians, Jews and Muslims, we now know that all those marvelous religious tales the Greeks used to believe in, are just made up. Likewise their Gods and so there is nothing to fear.
Hope you don’t mind my saying what you so eloquently left unsaid, author. I love the subtle force you use to make your points.
OK author- its time to know. Where are you getting all this good stuff from? What are you- some kinda philosopher or summat? I mean- you clearly have thought deeply about why people are drawn to external verifications for moral beliefs and how that corrupts the very thing they extoll. What are you? Soem kind of intellectual? You know that we dont stand for that sort of nonsense in England!
Not only does the tap handle resemble a penis, but an uncircumcised one. Has there ever been a cartoon showing the barmaid’s hand on it? Suppose Jesus or Mo grabbed it. Gosh, author, there is a rich field of material for you right there between those characters.
Dude, do you study theology or something? How do you know so much stuff about religion and… stuff? I mean, I would say that you bother waaaay too much for an atheist (you are atheist, aren’t you? DUH!), but of course please keep on posting because the comic strips are very, very funny!
Amazing arguments though, what are your sources? Because if you are thinking all these by yourself, then it’s really cool to have people thinking freely.
Richard Dawkins here alluded to the humility that scientists need to have — we don’t know everything, we need to be able to change and update our views, etc.
Compare that to the hubris of the believer: my belief system was given by god, it’s perfect (i.e. it would work if people could only live by it perfectly), and changing it would be heresy.
Well, technically speaking, “a brief moment of infallibility” is, in ordinary terms, called “being right”; doing this once or twice in your lifetime is within the reach of a normal human…and especially within the reach of an educated human, who has access to a wide range of data and has been trained to think clearly.
But the hard part is to be right about The Big Things. Darwin got it right, although he didn’t do it alone. Science is more a social activity than many people like to think. But Darwin certainly credited others their due. No hubris there, though Dawkins makes the point that no-one had noticed the creative power of natural selection before Darwin, so perhaps a little was even in order…
Being right is possible, but the bible and the koran have quite a few pages of stories, facts and opinions each… so to “be right” about either book, let alone choosing between them is “Being Right” on the level of a planet compared to a pebble… that’s a little more than just Human. We can’t even be right about the dictionary, and that’s just the meaning of words themselves, let alone what whole stories of them mean…
We atheists worry about religion not because it might or might not be true (we each have our own views about that in detail) but because of the pain that it causes to many, the sadness that it brings to us when we think of the millions deprived of truth because of religion.
And to defeat your enemy (real or invented) you must study it.
The word for that sort of moment is “epiphany”.
I just love that word. It’s so euphonious, as is “euphonious”. “Epiphany” is also cool because you can mistranslate it as meaning “epi” (“close to or near”) and a certain body part thus implying that most epiphanies are bollocks.
Or something similar.
“Revelation” or “sudden insight” or “Wow! moment” could also be used. A Eureka moment is similar.
“Anagnorisis” is not an epiphany, it’s just another example of the idiot plot where a story would have an entirely different and significantly shorter path if only the stupid detective asked the one useful question.
Epiphany is possibly the antonym of “kenosis”. Epiphany fills the person with his very own realisation, kenosis fills him with the feeling of invasion by a body-snatcher.
Apophenia can lead to epiphanies. Seeing patterns, for example, in clouds might lead one to the sudden and shocking realisation that every cloud is different from all others. This could, in turn lead to the greater epiphany that all living things are each different from every other and so all people matter as separate and unique individuals.
That sort of epiphany could cause one to try to share the good news of the beauty and importance of every single person.
Which message could devolve into a religion.
Jesus & Mo (the characters) are absurd, blinkered, and oddly very sweet. J&M (the cartoon) is brilliant: sharp, delicious, irresistible. Salman Rushdie
Jesus and Mo cartoons are wonderfully funny and true. Richard Dawkins
Jesus and Mo make the world a better place, bless their little hearts. Ophelia Benson
In a world defined by outrage and offence and liberal spinelessness, Jesus and Mo is a treasure, whose value we should never fail to recognize. Read them. Laugh. And think. Kenan Malik
The brilliant, celebrated, freaking hilarious atheist comic strip ... Greta Christina
...rays of sanity in a befuddled world. Keri Hulme
The liveliest depictions of Muhammad currently available... Malise Ruthven
J & Mo is the funniest and most consistently thought-provoking cartoon strip on the Net. In a saner world, it would run in a major newspaper. Nelson Jones, Heresy Corner
Consistently amusing, frequently thought-provoking and often heart-warming. New Humanist
Jesus & Mo is one of the most wonderful things on the internet.. JT Eberhard
Wittily captures much of the absurdity of religious apologetics. Mano Singham
I love jesusandmo.net cartoons - witty and sharp! Katha Pollitt
Often hilarious, frequently wry, these cartoons do what all the best cartoons do: they tell the truth through humour. Terry Sanderson, NSS President
...a wonderfully acid British cartoonist... Nick Cohen
I love the scrappy mockery of Jesus and Mo. Freedom of speech
includes the freedom to mock any person, any thing, any activity, and
any belief -- and J&M stands up for this unflinchingly Richard Stallman
...empowering, important and deeply progressive, not to mention hilarious... Council of Ex-Muslims
November 10, 2009
I know that’s a tap handle, but I always think Jesus and Mo are sitting on either side of a penis.
Beautiful.
i love this comic, i visit it always 🙂
thank you for sharing your insights into religion, thought and humour!
(Pssst. You made a typo in panel 3.)
Thanks, Joe D. Fixed now.
A penis or a bong…lol
Nicely done. 🙂
Gah! I’m never going to be able to read the pub sequences again.
It’s even more interesting when you visualise the barmaid using it to draw a pint.
And in the ancient Greek myths, whenever humans claimed some aspect of the Gods for themselves, their hubris was inevitably punished by nemesis.
Fortunately for modern Christians, Jews and Muslims, we now know that all those marvelous religious tales the Greeks used to believe in, are just made up. Likewise their Gods and so there is nothing to fear.
Hope you don’t mind my saying what you so eloquently left unsaid, author. I love the subtle force you use to make your points.
[…] Read the whole thing […]
OK author- its time to know. Where are you getting all this good stuff from? What are you- some kinda philosopher or summat? I mean- you clearly have thought deeply about why people are drawn to external verifications for moral beliefs and how that corrupts the very thing they extoll. What are you? Soem kind of intellectual? You know that we dont stand for that sort of nonsense in England!
Not only does the tap handle resemble a penis, but an uncircumcised one. Has there ever been a cartoon showing the barmaid’s hand on it? Suppose Jesus or Mo grabbed it. Gosh, author, there is a rich field of material for you right there between those characters.
Not sure if Barmaid ever touches it, but it looked like a rocket ship at first (which every good engineer knows is just phallic symbolism)-
http://www.jesusandmo.net/2005/11/28/mary/
as a nonenglishspeaker, it took some time and the help of wikipedia to understand this comic, but now: Thank you very much, I loved it and I learned.
very good one,
and I had to go to wikipedia to remember the meaning of hubris,
amusement, logic, philosophy and education all rolled into one.
I actually laughed out loud at that one. Posting it on Facebook right now. ^^
fantastic!
Maybe it’s a Hugo award.
Dude, do you study theology or something? How do you know so much stuff about religion and… stuff? I mean, I would say that you bother waaaay too much for an atheist (you are atheist, aren’t you? DUH!), but of course please keep on posting because the comic strips are very, very funny!
Amazing arguments though, what are your sources? Because if you are thinking all these by yourself, then it’s really cool to have people thinking freely.
This is what I’ve been thinking lately.
Richard Dawkins here alluded to the humility that scientists need to have — we don’t know everything, we need to be able to change and update our views, etc.
Compare that to the hubris of the believer: my belief system was given by god, it’s perfect (i.e. it would work if people could only live by it perfectly), and changing it would be heresy.
And then they say atheists are guilty of hubris?
Where does author get all this stuff, you ask? Author reads widely! And we read Author, so it’s mutually rewarding and enriching.
everything looks like a penis or a vagina. pay attention from now on. youll see
Well, technically speaking, “a brief moment of infallibility” is, in ordinary terms, called “being right”; doing this once or twice in your lifetime is within the reach of a normal human…and especially within the reach of an educated human, who has access to a wide range of data and has been trained to think clearly.
But the hard part is to be right about The Big Things. Darwin got it right, although he didn’t do it alone. Science is more a social activity than many people like to think. But Darwin certainly credited others their due. No hubris there, though Dawkins makes the point that no-one had noticed the creative power of natural selection before Darwin, so perhaps a little was even in order…
Being right is possible, but the bible and the koran have quite a few pages of stories, facts and opinions each… so to “be right” about either book, let alone choosing between them is “Being Right” on the level of a planet compared to a pebble… that’s a little more than just Human. We can’t even be right about the dictionary, and that’s just the meaning of words themselves, let alone what whole stories of them mean…
We atheists worry about religion not because it might or might not be true (we each have our own views about that in detail) but because of the pain that it causes to many, the sadness that it brings to us when we think of the millions deprived of truth because of religion.
And to defeat your enemy (real or invented) you must study it.
As for a rocket looking like a penis, perhaps it may be that shape because it must be aerodynamically sound in order for it to fulfill its function.
Perhaps it’s no accident that the penis is shaped like a rocket, for the same reason.
It’s “mystic revelation” actually, not hubris.
s’not hubris, s’bollocks.
The word for that sort of moment is “epiphany”.
I just love that word. It’s so euphonious, as is “euphonious”. “Epiphany” is also cool because you can mistranslate it as meaning “epi” (“close to or near”) and a certain body part thus implying that most epiphanies are bollocks.
Or something similar.
“Revelation” or “sudden insight” or “Wow! moment” could also be used. A Eureka moment is similar.
“Anagnorisis” is not an epiphany, it’s just another example of the idiot plot where a story would have an entirely different and significantly shorter path if only the stupid detective asked the one useful question.
Epiphany is possibly the antonym of “kenosis”. Epiphany fills the person with his very own realisation, kenosis fills him with the feeling of invasion by a body-snatcher.
Apophenia can lead to epiphanies. Seeing patterns, for example, in clouds might lead one to the sudden and shocking realisation that every cloud is different from all others. This could, in turn lead to the greater epiphany that all living things are each different from every other and so all people matter as separate and unique individuals.
That sort of epiphany could cause one to try to share the good news of the beauty and importance of every single person.
Which message could devolve into a religion.
Ummm … I think we’ve been here before.
I also like euphoniums.