Perfect. Simply perfect. And it is unfortunate that others do not want to leave it to their all powerful god to smite the ungodly. Apparently THEIR god needs help.
This seems completely reasonable, as I’ve just spent 30 to 45 minutes watching a chap called Chuck Missler, on youtube (peace be upon youtube), giving a talk on how UFOs are satanic & demonic creatures in spaceships, from another dimension, who are linked to the Nephilim and how it’s all justified in the Bible.
Really?
There’s a thin line between fact, truth, belief and you’re off your meds, aren’t you?
There’s stuff in Holy Books – that if you were to put them in the strip – people may think you’re making it up, (as opposed to someone ELSE making it up – then telling others it’s true)…and we’re, as a species, meant to be top if the food chain?…sweet baby cheeses…..
The Abrahamic Faith Syndrome: A condition where adherents to a deity who tosses people into Hell decide to assist in the process in this life to prove their piety.
Author, too true, especially your note at the end.
@Andrew Hall, it’s a shame Jews keep being lumped into those “Abrahamic” religions. There’s no hell in the Old Testament… I often wonder whether Christians invented Hell and reinvented Satan in order to scare “God’s chosen people” into substantiating their ever-enhanced and ever-more-bullying misdirection into delusional BS. And then, I wonder whether Muslims, starting with Muhammed, decided to take that tack a few degrees further. Religious Jews might be considered quirky, but they’re not evangelical, they don’t try to thrust their religious standards on those who don’t similarly believe, and they’re such a tiny percentage of the population anywhere around the world, that it could turn out the quirks developed out of successful survival techniques in a world that cast them out as “Christ killers” and “monkeys and pigs.”
Sure, Abraham was the first Jew, assuming he ever existed, but that shouldn’t leave Jews lumped in with Christians or Muslims, really.
DocAtheist:
Anyone who venerates a character as fucked-up and immoral as Abraham, deluded enough to kill a child on god’s orders, has already lumped themselves in with all the others who venerate him.
As long as the Jews continue ritual genital mutilation of babies, justifying theft of land with scripture, and treating women as innately inferior, and menstruating women as if they were infectiously diseased, to ‘lump them in’ with muslims and christians seems entirely justifyable.
While on tour in Australia, a churchgoing member of the road crew went into a religious supplies shop, to buy a necklace with a cross on.
“I’d like to buy a cross necklace, please.”
“Ah yeah, no worries. Didja wanna plain one, or one with a little feller on?”
Well, if god is incapable of sticking up for himself, he of course will need humans to look after him. He can go crying to the protesters with tears running down his cheeks. “They cawled me names moommy!…Snif…Kill them for me”
You want to categorise ‘atheists’ in order to ridicule them, well fill your boots. For me, atheism is a rejection of religious b/s, not an alternative belief system. I am not defined by atheism in the way that christians, etc. are defined by their deluded beliefs.
The fact that you try to ridicule atheists by implying they ALSO have flaky beliefs says a lot about the level you are trying to argue from. Also, the punchline sounds like it might be funny. Clever? It’s not really working.
I haven’t visited J&M for several months since my employer employed a site filter that blocks it for being “profane.” I don’t spend time on the box at home because after putting in 9-10 hours at work a day, the last thing I want to do at home is go on-line. I sure have missed Author’s genius, and catching up on the comics (and most excellent comments, including side-splitting lymerics) since Feb has been a blast. I did notice that some comments from all the way back in Feb from a kid, JesusinHebrew, have not continued. I hope his closed-minded parents didn’t find him out and punish him for enjoying free-thought. The site filter at work makes me really relate to him. Yeah, I’m using a work computer to access something non-work related, big fucking deal, I solve work problems at home lying in bed. It works both ways. And JiH, if you’re still reading J&M, ask questions, explore, learn, live, laugh and don’t let crazed people get to you. Life is too short and it’s the only one we get so don’t waste any time feeling guilty for being curious. It’s human nature.
“This seems completely reasonable, as I’ve just spent 30 to 45 minutes watching a chap called Chuck Missler, on youtube (peace be upon youtube), giving a talk on how UFOs are satanic & demonic creatures in spaceships, from another dimension, who are linked to the Nephilim and how it’s all justified in the Bible.”
Pff, these people would die from a stroke if knew there is a popular video game, where the main character is a Nephilim (Diablo III). It spelled Nephalem is the game, but clearly the same thing. No wonder this main character is called the “greatest sin of creation”, ironically by a demon lord. 🙂
Also, this is a very good episode of Jesus@Mo. Sadly, there are too many lunatic who are eager to help out god. Latest turn is in Bangladesh.
Sam Huff:
No, atheists just treat theology (‘study of God’) like any other -ology; biology (‘study of life’) ornithology (‘study of birds’) etc. without making sweeping exceptions for belief and faith. In fact, we are the only ones to do it properly and scientifically; examine the evidence, without making assumptions about what we find. When you do that, you discover that there is no evidence of god, therefore nothing to study, class dismissed.
If you define theology as the study of what humans have written / decided / believed about god, then it becomes a mixture of anthropology, sociology, politics and history. On all counts, and with good reason, atheists take a negative view.
hotrats, regarding your last paragraph: There is a field called “Religious Studies” that is about what religious beliefs people have and how they act because of their religion. It differs from Theology because Religious Studies does not assume that the religion you are studying is true.
At least that is what my catholic theology student friend tells me. She can present good evidence for *this* claim. 🙂
She is also a scientist. We became friends because I asked her “How can you be a scientist and still believe this stuff?” and we ended up talking about it. Our ensuing discussions occasionally lead to me proposing some experiment that might determine something about god or god-related things. I’ve never been able to get her or any religious person interested in performing any of the experiments, though.
Gehenna apparently was a ravine near jerusalem where rubbish and waste were burnt
and therefore considered an unclean location
but it was not an ‘afterlife’ concept
Jews beleive in reincarnation [ at least for some men anyway ]
the origins of the christian concept of a fiery hell are possibly found in the ancient Egyptian religion’s depiction of ‘ the lake of fire’ which was probably still present in common folklore in and around judea- both Egypt and Judea being Roman provinces with a high volume of trade connection/passage
Assuming karma actually exists, how is the barmaid accruing any at all?
Assuming karma exists – just by living [ were she real – as a cartoon depiction cannot accrue any karma – unless the artist is Danish]
[ nor would the rules Karma operates under be known -making the whole idea impossible to follow ]
I protest the idea that barmaid cannot accrue karma as a cartoon. Surely the concept of a well shaped thought being reborn in a different form is far more plausible than the real world alternative. The nature of the character with respect to the conceptual world in which they have influence will naturally be replicated in an alternative form whenever a void is presented, and often even when it is not. Be good barmaid, or you may end up as low grade slash fic…
@hotrats, your points regarding Jews/Judaism are off. The story of Abraham is a sort of parable intended to stop child sacrifice. The “ritual genital mutilation” you decry should be reconsidered in light of recent peer reviewed articles in JAMA (late 2012, if I recall correctly). The land issue is a modern political result of history as recent as the late 1700s and should be considered not only in the proper historical light but also in comparison with similarly timed (1947-48) and similarly arranged situations in the world (see Pakistan, for one example). Finally, regarding women vs. disease, as a woman and a surgeon, I can assure you, there is no comparison. Such exaggeration is the heat which fires up further antisemitism. Are women and men treated differently? In the more fundamental sects, but even that does not make them unequal, per se. On the other hand, employed women surgeons are paid significantly less in the United States than men surgeons, regardless of religion. What does that tell you?
Remember when antibiotics became available, and everything seemed curable using them? Now, there are probiotics, deliberate “infections”, if you will, available to replace the beneficial bacteria which are being wiped out along with the harmful stuff. Even beneficial bacteria are bacteria.
Lump the Jews with the Christians and Muslims? You might as well complain against the medical, scientific and technological advances Jews and Jewish Israelis have provided, including critical parts of your computer.
Besides, you’d be surprised how many Jews are nonbelievers. We’ve a cultural identity which goes far beyond religion. It’s based in education.
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
March 8, 2006
Perfect. Simply perfect. And it is unfortunate that others do not want to leave it to their all powerful god to smite the ungodly. Apparently THEIR god needs help.
That has an awful ring of familiarity, I must say.
Sorry, I should’ve been clearer.
The conversation in the cartoon sounds familiar. Heard, or had it many times.
Yeah.
I’m good, too.
I can wait.
[hotnail, jeez]
This seems completely reasonable, as I’ve just spent 30 to 45 minutes watching a chap called Chuck Missler, on youtube (peace be upon youtube), giving a talk on how UFOs are satanic & demonic creatures in spaceships, from another dimension, who are linked to the Nephilim and how it’s all justified in the Bible.
Really?
There’s a thin line between fact, truth, belief and you’re off your meds, aren’t you?
There’s stuff in Holy Books – that if you were to put them in the strip – people may think you’re making it up, (as opposed to someone ELSE making it up – then telling others it’s true)…and we’re, as a species, meant to be top if the food chain?…sweet baby cheeses…..
The Abrahamic Faith Syndrome: A condition where adherents to a deity who tosses people into Hell decide to assist in the process in this life to prove their piety.
“Unfortunately, they’re not all as patient as Jesus and Mo.”
Because in their eyes, neither are Jesus and Mo (and who’s to say they’re wrong?).
Unbeliever waits
At eternity’s gates
Un-noticed by self and others.
Eternity’s gates
Un-noticed by self and others
Because they’re not there.
Author, too true, especially your note at the end.
@Andrew Hall, it’s a shame Jews keep being lumped into those “Abrahamic” religions. There’s no hell in the Old Testament… I often wonder whether Christians invented Hell and reinvented Satan in order to scare “God’s chosen people” into substantiating their ever-enhanced and ever-more-bullying misdirection into delusional BS. And then, I wonder whether Muslims, starting with Muhammed, decided to take that tack a few degrees further. Religious Jews might be considered quirky, but they’re not evangelical, they don’t try to thrust their religious standards on those who don’t similarly believe, and they’re such a tiny percentage of the population anywhere around the world, that it could turn out the quirks developed out of successful survival techniques in a world that cast them out as “Christ killers” and “monkeys and pigs.”
Sure, Abraham was the first Jew, assuming he ever existed, but that shouldn’t leave Jews lumped in with Christians or Muslims, really.
@Chris Phoenix, well done!
I would hope “soon” is meant figuratively, otherwise I’d worry more.
DocAtheist:
Anyone who venerates a character as fucked-up and immoral as Abraham, deluded enough to kill a child on god’s orders, has already lumped themselves in with all the others who venerate him.
As long as the Jews continue ritual genital mutilation of babies, justifying theft of land with scripture, and treating women as innately inferior, and menstruating women as if they were infectiously diseased, to ‘lump them in’ with muslims and christians seems entirely justifyable.
On a happier note, an anecdote from Rick Wakeman:
While on tour in Australia, a churchgoing member of the road crew went into a religious supplies shop, to buy a necklace with a cross on.
“I’d like to buy a cross necklace, please.”
“Ah yeah, no worries. Didja wanna plain one, or one with a little feller on?”
If *only* people would leave the punishments to their gods and not pitch in 🙁
Well, okay, maybe, someday, could be… am I,like the bar maid, being too skeptical?
Well, if god is incapable of sticking up for himself, he of course will need humans to look after him. He can go crying to the protesters with tears running down his cheeks. “They cawled me names moommy!…Snif…Kill them for me”
What is NBH up to?
@machigai : Haiku, innit?
shirley, gud gave us free will to diss ‘it’. It’s part of gud’s plan after all.
Afterlife, how ridiculous.
On the other hand with all the bad Karma the barmaid is accumulating, she’ll probably be reborn as Jesus in her next life.
Déjà vu, anyone?
@bitter lemon
You want to categorise ‘atheists’ in order to ridicule them, well fill your boots. For me, atheism is a rejection of religious b/s, not an alternative belief system. I am not defined by atheism in the way that christians, etc. are defined by their deluded beliefs.
The fact that you try to ridicule atheists by implying they ALSO have flaky beliefs says a lot about the level you are trying to argue from. Also, the punchline sounds like it might be funny. Clever? It’s not really working.
@bitter lemon
Assuming karma actually exists, how is the barmaid accruing any at all?
Holms:
I always thought Bad Karma was a spa town in Austria… twinned with Bad Reiniger in Bavaria.
Um, someone said that the Jews didn’t believe in any kind of Hell. So what’s Gehenna then? (I’m just too lazy to read the Wickipedia entry).
I haven’t visited J&M for several months since my employer employed a site filter that blocks it for being “profane.” I don’t spend time on the box at home because after putting in 9-10 hours at work a day, the last thing I want to do at home is go on-line. I sure have missed Author’s genius, and catching up on the comics (and most excellent comments, including side-splitting lymerics) since Feb has been a blast. I did notice that some comments from all the way back in Feb from a kid, JesusinHebrew, have not continued. I hope his closed-minded parents didn’t find him out and punish him for enjoying free-thought. The site filter at work makes me really relate to him. Yeah, I’m using a work computer to access something non-work related, big fucking deal, I solve work problems at home lying in bed. It works both ways. And JiH, if you’re still reading J&M, ask questions, explore, learn, live, laugh and don’t let crazed people get to you. Life is too short and it’s the only one we get so don’t waste any time feeling guilty for being curious. It’s human nature.
“This seems completely reasonable, as I’ve just spent 30 to 45 minutes watching a chap called Chuck Missler, on youtube (peace be upon youtube), giving a talk on how UFOs are satanic & demonic creatures in spaceships, from another dimension, who are linked to the Nephilim and how it’s all justified in the Bible.”
Pff, these people would die from a stroke if knew there is a popular video game, where the main character is a Nephilim (Diablo III). It spelled Nephalem is the game, but clearly the same thing. No wonder this main character is called the “greatest sin of creation”, ironically by a demon lord. 🙂
Also, this is a very good episode of Jesus@Mo. Sadly, there are too many lunatic who are eager to help out god. Latest turn is in Bangladesh.
Atheist are just extremely negative theologians.
Sam Huff:
No, atheists just treat theology (‘study of God’) like any other -ology; biology (‘study of life’) ornithology (‘study of birds’) etc. without making sweeping exceptions for belief and faith. In fact, we are the only ones to do it properly and scientifically; examine the evidence, without making assumptions about what we find. When you do that, you discover that there is no evidence of god, therefore nothing to study, class dismissed.
If you define theology as the study of what humans have written / decided / believed about god, then it becomes a mixture of anthropology, sociology, politics and history. On all counts, and with good reason, atheists take a negative view.
hotrats, regarding your last paragraph: There is a field called “Religious Studies” that is about what religious beliefs people have and how they act because of their religion. It differs from Theology because Religious Studies does not assume that the religion you are studying is true.
At least that is what my catholic theology student friend tells me. She can present good evidence for *this* claim. 🙂
She is also a scientist. We became friends because I asked her “How can you be a scientist and still believe this stuff?” and we ended up talking about it. Our ensuing discussions occasionally lead to me proposing some experiment that might determine something about god or god-related things. I’ve never been able to get her or any religious person interested in performing any of the experiments, though.
Gehenna apparently was a ravine near jerusalem where rubbish and waste were burnt
and therefore considered an unclean location
but it was not an ‘afterlife’ concept
Jews beleive in reincarnation [ at least for some men anyway ]
the origins of the christian concept of a fiery hell are possibly found in the ancient Egyptian religion’s depiction of ‘ the lake of fire’ which was probably still present in common folklore in and around judea- both Egypt and Judea being Roman provinces with a high volume of trade connection/passage
Assuming karma actually exists, how is the barmaid accruing any at all?
Assuming karma exists – just by living [ were she real – as a cartoon depiction cannot accrue any karma – unless the artist is Danish]
[ nor would the rules Karma operates under be known -making the whole idea impossible to follow ]
I protest the idea that barmaid cannot accrue karma as a cartoon. Surely the concept of a well shaped thought being reborn in a different form is far more plausible than the real world alternative. The nature of the character with respect to the conceptual world in which they have influence will naturally be replicated in an alternative form whenever a void is presented, and often even when it is not. Be good barmaid, or you may end up as low grade slash fic…
Allow me to slightly rephrase:
Assuming karma actually exists, how is the barmaid accruing any bad karma at all?
@hotrats, your points regarding Jews/Judaism are off. The story of Abraham is a sort of parable intended to stop child sacrifice. The “ritual genital mutilation” you decry should be reconsidered in light of recent peer reviewed articles in JAMA (late 2012, if I recall correctly). The land issue is a modern political result of history as recent as the late 1700s and should be considered not only in the proper historical light but also in comparison with similarly timed (1947-48) and similarly arranged situations in the world (see Pakistan, for one example). Finally, regarding women vs. disease, as a woman and a surgeon, I can assure you, there is no comparison. Such exaggeration is the heat which fires up further antisemitism. Are women and men treated differently? In the more fundamental sects, but even that does not make them unequal, per se. On the other hand, employed women surgeons are paid significantly less in the United States than men surgeons, regardless of religion. What does that tell you?
Remember when antibiotics became available, and everything seemed curable using them? Now, there are probiotics, deliberate “infections”, if you will, available to replace the beneficial bacteria which are being wiped out along with the harmful stuff. Even beneficial bacteria are bacteria.
Lump the Jews with the Christians and Muslims? You might as well complain against the medical, scientific and technological advances Jews and Jewish Israelis have provided, including critical parts of your computer.
Besides, you’d be surprised how many Jews are nonbelievers. We’ve a cultural identity which goes far beyond religion. It’s based in education.
DocAtheist, should you ever chance to return to this page, well done.
Brava.