Another great comic, but there seems to be a typo in the 3rd frame. It seems that it should read either “the rule” or “some rule”, not “the some rule”.
love it, these same simple conundrums helped me reject christianity as my faith not very long ago. Its amazing, thinking in hindsight, how one could believe the things i did.
Hmm, omniscient? How come he didn’t know there were no figs on that tree? How come he didn’t know it was not the season for figs? Then, he got pissed off and cursed the tree for not having figs out of season! I reckon that will teach the tree who’s boss!
Nice to see you back – hope all’s cool with you. As ever a fine and loaded cartoon! Hope you might let us know what J&M think about the US Presidential winner? I reckon Mo’ will tell us it was all predicted in The Big K anyhow. Thanks for a great read every few days.
Omniscient people don’t go “Father, why have you forsaken me?” (in a tone presumably of great surprise) upon being nailed to a log. Deluded people do, though.
I had thought that the omnipotent + omniscient combo was a logical contradiction, but I should thank a commenter I read on a different forum somewhere recently (can’t remember where though), for demonstrating you don’t even need both, viz.: ‘If you’re omnipotent god, make that rock so heavy that even you can’t lift it. If you can, you’re not omnipotent; if you can’t, you’re not omnipotent’. Brilliantly neat.
Also took me a long time to figure this out when I was thinking through religion. Why should I go to hell for a sin when God made me, the sin, put me in front of the sin, made it look so good that I had to do it, and then made a rule that now I have to be punished? If he didn’t want that to happen, he shouldn’t have set the situation up like that! We are just mere mortals who need to be told what’s right and wrong, after all.
Religion is craziness.
Margo
I think that the reasoning goes along the lines of,
“I’ll give them free will”
“Then I’ll tempt the shit out of them”
“When they give into temptation I can punish them with a clear conscience”
“The fact that I know that they’ll give into temptation is neither here nor there”
And this is why if God really does exist, She just has to be a woman..
Don’t flame me. I’m allowed to say that. I’m married. It’s a free pass. Like Sascha Baron Cohen making fun of Jews.
I recently asked a very religious co-worker “Ok GOD made Adam then Eve, they had Cain and Able. Cain killed Abel then went to the land of Nod and found for himself a wife. Where did she come from?” He said that’s easy Adam and Eve lived for thousands of years and had many children. The sad part of this is that he actually beleived what he was saying. WTF!!!! these people need no logic just incestuous forefathers!!!
Notice how even our anti-theist objections tend to participate in the literalist iconography? Mark Twain was caught by this–his answer to a literal, confused God was a literal, rational Satan. Both seem bound by the numbers. Tough, ain’t it?
Poor Richard, as always, shields himself from XS (Christian Silliness) and all the
other Formal Superstitions by callin’ ’em what they are.
And, oh yes, “Thank God I’m an atheist.” Humble, too.
Ever play “rock-paper-scissors”, wherein any one thing can beat one other thing and yet lose to the third thing? I think religion is like that, except the dealer holds all the cards. So to speak.
Jerry w
Jobrag–
I know their logic, but if that is the case, then God is responsible, not me. He is all-Powerful, He is omniscient, and He set the situation up like that fully knowing what would happen. That’s called being responsible, and I don’t see how I can be blamed if the all-knowing all-powerful god set things up the way that he did. “Free will” blah blah give me a break, the guy is supposed to be omniscient. He couldn’t think of a better system?!
Doesn’t cut it, but thanks anyway.
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April 4, 2018
Another great comic, but there seems to be a typo in the 3rd frame. It seems that it should read either “the rule” or “some rule”, not “the some rule”.
Thanks, Dick. Fixed it.
Even John Milton didn’t get himself out of this one. In “Paradise Lost” God thinks it is just fine to be omnipotent AND irresponsible.
By the way, lift a tankard next month to celebrate Milton’s 400th birthday. Forget the theology–he’s our greatest poet.
Or, as Poor Richard, in one of his many plagiaristic modes says:
and malt does more than Milton can
to justify God’s ways to man.
Ale, man, ale’s the stuff to drink
For fellows whom it hurts to think.
Housman, acshully.
It would seem our boys have found the secret over at Barmaid’s pub.
love it, these same simple conundrums helped me reject christianity as my faith not very long ago. Its amazing, thinking in hindsight, how one could believe the things i did.
Hmm, omniscient? How come he didn’t know there were no figs on that tree? How come he didn’t know it was not the season for figs? Then, he got pissed off and cursed the tree for not having figs out of season! I reckon that will teach the tree who’s boss!
Yay! I was wondering about the absence.
Hey there Author,
Nice to see you back – hope all’s cool with you. As ever a fine and loaded cartoon! Hope you might let us know what J&M think about the US Presidential winner? I reckon Mo’ will tell us it was all predicted in The Big K anyhow. Thanks for a great read every few days.
Mo’ has a real point in this one!
Omniscient people don’t go “Father, why have you forsaken me?” (in a tone presumably of great surprise) upon being nailed to a log. Deluded people do, though.
What a pithy explanation of such a ridiculous idea! The Author puts in four frames what puzzled me for years in my childhood.
I had thought that the omnipotent + omniscient combo was a logical contradiction, but I should thank a commenter I read on a different forum somewhere recently (can’t remember where though), for demonstrating you don’t even need both, viz.: ‘If you’re omnipotent god, make that rock so heavy that even you can’t lift it. If you can, you’re not omnipotent; if you can’t, you’re not omnipotent’. Brilliantly neat.
Also took me a long time to figure this out when I was thinking through religion. Why should I go to hell for a sin when God made me, the sin, put me in front of the sin, made it look so good that I had to do it, and then made a rule that now I have to be punished? If he didn’t want that to happen, he shouldn’t have set the situation up like that! We are just mere mortals who need to be told what’s right and wrong, after all.
Religion is craziness.
Margo
I think that the reasoning goes along the lines of,
“I’ll give them free will”
“Then I’ll tempt the shit out of them”
“When they give into temptation I can punish them with a clear conscience”
“The fact that I know that they’ll give into temptation is neither here nor there”
And this is why if God really does exist, She just has to be a woman..
Don’t flame me. I’m allowed to say that. I’m married. It’s a free pass. Like Sascha Baron Cohen making fun of Jews.
I recently asked a very religious co-worker “Ok GOD made Adam then Eve, they had Cain and Able. Cain killed Abel then went to the land of Nod and found for himself a wife. Where did she come from?” He said that’s easy Adam and Eve lived for thousands of years and had many children. The sad part of this is that he actually beleived what he was saying. WTF!!!! these people need no logic just incestuous forefathers!!!
Notice how even our anti-theist objections tend to participate in the literalist iconography? Mark Twain was caught by this–his answer to a literal, confused God was a literal, rational Satan. Both seem bound by the numbers. Tough, ain’t it?
Poor Richard, as always, shields himself from XS (Christian Silliness) and all the
other Formal Superstitions by callin’ ’em what they are.
And, oh yes, “Thank God I’m an atheist.” Humble, too.
Ever play “rock-paper-scissors”, wherein any one thing can beat one other thing and yet lose to the third thing? I think religion is like that, except the dealer holds all the cards. So to speak.
Jerry w
Jobrag–
I know their logic, but if that is the case, then God is responsible, not me. He is all-Powerful, He is omniscient, and He set the situation up like that fully knowing what would happen. That’s called being responsible, and I don’t see how I can be blamed if the all-knowing all-powerful god set things up the way that he did. “Free will” blah blah give me a break, the guy is supposed to be omniscient. He couldn’t think of a better system?!
Doesn’t cut it, but thanks anyway.
“Bed Maker” Magazine? 😆