Guess it’s okay for them to laugh at themselves but not for others to laugh at them? Well if they don’t want their beliefs laughed at they shouldn’t have such silly beliefs.
It would seem they are the most guilty of not living my the golden rule. I suspect it might have something to do with the fact that the idea never originated with the Abrahamic faiths
I like that Jesus thanks God for giving him a sense of humour. Surely in a fundamentally dualistic religion like Xtianity, humour is the Devil’s domain, pointing out, as it does, the flaws in God’s ‘perfect creation’?
As Robin Williams once said in an otherwise forgettable film:
“Intelligently designed? Then why put a toxic wastepipe through the middle of a recreation area?” Or words to that effect.
Jerry Coyne’s latest is good on the subject.
Now some medæval theologist fussing over whether Jesus was too holy to have ever had a bowel movement, that I can see. Suddenly it occurs to me that based on such a concept, Holy Shit becomes an oxymoron.
Earwax. Did Jesus have earwax? Smegma? No, probably not given the many miles in total of His severed foreskin that showed up in all those churches scattered far and wide.
@J.C. – xtian responses to that would be that Jesus was every bit human as well as every bit divine, therefore emitted all the same bodily fluids/gases/effluents as any other. Just to get back on topic though – strikes me that there is precious little mention of humour in the bible, old testament or new. Very few occasions when we read “and Jesus made a really witty retort to the pharisees, and all the disciples just about pissed themselves etc”. The only humour seems to be of the unintentional kind. That seems to be true of most religions I’m familiar with. Interesting that – is humour something totally culture-bound? Is it a modern invention? Is there any record of ancient jokes written in cuneiform or something?
I always thought that Elisha and the She-Bears was a brilliant piece of black humour (not to mention a great name for a band).
And Daoloth, yes indeed, I can just imagine a big mean old testament god roaring with laughter as the sores slowly spread over Job’s body – sort of like a “Holy Land’s Funniest Home Videos”.
Now there’s an idea with potential …
@Daoloth, Mr Gronk: true, I just wasn’t seeing the subtle humour. I suppose YHWH was a bit of a joker right from the start wasn’t he – setting up Adam and Eve to be deceived by a dodgy serpentine apple-merchant. Of course all the while the almighty & the snake were in cahoots judging by the harsh “punishment” meted out to the snake … to slither on his belly all his days … man that must have hit him hard.
OK I admit there may be some humour there but much of it is unintentional. Like the part where God says to Moses “I will totally erase all memory of Amalek from under heaven so make sure you write that down.”
I like what this episode hits on – it’s one thing to find things funny about yourself – that’s often not hard because who among us has not been a dork or done silly things at some point – but being able to find humour about your group identity is another thing altogether. And what’s really funny is that atheists don’t really have a group identity – since it’s just the one shared thought – no evidence no god – so there’s really nothing to make funny about the group – there are no atheist beliefs to poke fun at – we have no sacred cows, no symbols, no moral code that conflicts and leaves out critical items like not raping women or children (check out the 10 commandments, neither is there) and other religions are pretty much good for women equally second class and children are free labour.
“Everyone in the West shouts ‘Oh God, oh God’ when they have sex. Or “Oh Jesus, oh Jesus”. Do Muslims shout ‘Oh Allah’? Jews, “Oh Yahweh”? And pity the poor agnostics who have to scream, at the height of pleasure, “Oh somebody!? Nobody!? Possibly?! I DON’T KNOW!!!”
@mycatisgod … I’m as broadminded as the next man but I’m not sure I can deal with your religious practices … (oh Garfield … GARFIELD … GARFIEEEELD!!!!)
Please continue to mock christianity. However, your ridicule of Islam and the Prophet shows intolerance for a disenfranchised group which already suffers terrible prejudice from the hegemony of straight white christians in the world. You add to the insufferable prejudice by giving aid and comfort to the enemy of tolerance and sensitivity with your rape of the peace-loving religion of Islam. With your intolerance you are the Nazis and the KKK wrapped into one.
Please continue to mock christianity, because they are infidels and deserve to be mocked. However please don’t pick on us because although we keep saying we’re the fastest growing religion we’re actually an insecure bunch who are worried that those numbers are over-inflated due to immigration patterns and inclusion of ex-Muslims who are not “allowed” to leave. You add insufferable prejudice to me because I’m not strong enough to accept that there are opinions other than my own.
And if that doesn’t work I’m going to start burning stuff.
@dawg … sorry, which peace-loving religion was that again? Would that be the peace-loving religion which asserts that it is acceptable to kill unbelievers (sura 4:89) or the tolerant and sensitive religion which asserts that a woman is worth one-half of a man 2:282?
It took me a while to click but I think Dawg is trying to get an angry and preferably humour-free response from J&Mers for the purposes of irony.
I am now rolling on the floor laughing. :/
I read Dawg’s shout-out as tongue-in-cheekiness, meant in the same spirit of mocking the *irony* of holding one stupid belief as sacred, yet denigrating another (practically indistinguishable) stupid belief as fair game.
Either way: I’m calling a friendly Poe’s Law 😉
ALSO: Dawg has inspired me to wonder whether there is a fallacy ‘argumentum ad victima’, ie. you can’t say anything negative against group X because of its history of suffering or persecution.
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Often hilarious, frequently wry, these cartoons do what all the best cartoons do: they tell the truth through humour. Terry Sanderson, NSS President
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July 11, 2012
Hahahaha! Torment torment torment! (Am I first?)
HAH! “Stop makin’ funna me” ~Billy Madison
Guess it’s okay for them to laugh at themselves but not for others to laugh at them? Well if they don’t want their beliefs laughed at they shouldn’t have such silly beliefs.
It would seem they are the most guilty of not living my the golden rule. I suspect it might have something to do with the fact that the idea never originated with the Abrahamic faiths
elegant. Deft. Nice one.
Here’s a joke: “What do Christians…” ‘THAT’S NOT FUNNY!”
I like that Jesus thanks God for giving him a sense of humour. Surely in a fundamentally dualistic religion like Xtianity, humour is the Devil’s domain, pointing out, as it does, the flaws in God’s ‘perfect creation’?
Indeed it is: ha ha – like Jesus’s immaculate colon.
I hope a blatant advert for a humourless atheist event is acceptable. It was very enjoyable last year.
Of course both the Koran and the Bible are packed full of humour, I keep having to put them down in case my sides split.
Damn, Toast got there before me – I was just going to say the colon is a masterpiece. “Indeed it is: ha ha.”
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
As Robin Williams once said in an otherwise forgettable film:
“Intelligently designed? Then why put a toxic wastepipe through the middle of a recreation area?” Or words to that effect.
Jerry Coyne’s latest is good on the subject.
Well I was seriously talking about the colon in the sense of punctuation – it is really funny there.
Oops! I got hold of the wrong end of the stick-there so to speak!
Still, my way works as well.
Immaculate punctuation. Really?
Now some medæval theologist fussing over whether Jesus was too holy to have ever had a bowel movement, that I can see. Suddenly it occurs to me that based on such a concept, Holy Shit becomes an oxymoron.
Earwax. Did Jesus have earwax? Smegma? No, probably not given the many miles in total of His severed foreskin that showed up in all those churches scattered far and wide.
“Holy Smegma” : that doesn’t have the same ring to it (so to speak).
@J.C. – xtian responses to that would be that Jesus was every bit human as well as every bit divine, therefore emitted all the same bodily fluids/gases/effluents as any other. Just to get back on topic though – strikes me that there is precious little mention of humour in the bible, old testament or new. Very few occasions when we read “and Jesus made a really witty retort to the pharisees, and all the disciples just about pissed themselves etc”. The only humour seems to be of the unintentional kind. That seems to be true of most religions I’m familiar with. Interesting that – is humour something totally culture-bound? Is it a modern invention? Is there any record of ancient jokes written in cuneiform or something?
The book of Job counts as a gag, surely?
In my book this one is rated excellent.
The Sumerians liked their fart gags, apparently:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7536918.stm
I always thought that Elisha and the She-Bears was a brilliant piece of black humour (not to mention a great name for a band).
And Daoloth, yes indeed, I can just imagine a big mean old testament god roaring with laughter as the sores slowly spread over Job’s body – sort of like a “Holy Land’s Funniest Home Videos”.
Now there’s an idea with potential …
@Daoloth, Mr Gronk: true, I just wasn’t seeing the subtle humour. I suppose YHWH was a bit of a joker right from the start wasn’t he – setting up Adam and Eve to be deceived by a dodgy serpentine apple-merchant. Of course all the while the almighty & the snake were in cahoots judging by the harsh “punishment” meted out to the snake … to slither on his belly all his days … man that must have hit him hard.
OK I admit there may be some humour there but much of it is unintentional. Like the part where God says to Moses “I will totally erase all memory of Amalek from under heaven so make sure you write that down.”
@Mr Gronk: “Elisha and the She-Bears” hehehehe you are so right, God at his twisted best.
Mind you Jesus may have been the first stand up comic – wasn’t it him who told the paralyzed man to get to his feet and walk?
I like what this episode hits on – it’s one thing to find things funny about yourself – that’s often not hard because who among us has not been a dork or done silly things at some point – but being able to find humour about your group identity is another thing altogether. And what’s really funny is that atheists don’t really have a group identity – since it’s just the one shared thought – no evidence no god – so there’s really nothing to make funny about the group – there are no atheist beliefs to poke fun at – we have no sacred cows, no symbols, no moral code that conflicts and leaves out critical items like not raping women or children (check out the 10 commandments, neither is there) and other religions are pretty much good for women equally second class and children are free labour.
I take it all back – the Jews have enough humour to make up for all the rest of the religions combined:
http://himmelgartencafe.blogspot.com/2009/04/more-atheist-jokes-please.html
http://plancksconstant.org/blog1/2006/01/muslims_have_no_sense_of_humor.html
Laugh and the world laughs with you,
laugh at me and spend eternity in hell.
Hmmm, decisions, decisions…….
An atheist dies and goes up to the pearly gates. St Peter is waiting there, he walks up to him and says “I don’t believe we’ve met”.
I like the old Dave Allen one:
“Everyone in the West shouts ‘Oh God, oh God’ when they have sex. Or “Oh Jesus, oh Jesus”. Do Muslims shout ‘Oh Allah’? Jews, “Oh Yahweh”? And pity the poor agnostics who have to scream, at the height of pleasure, “Oh somebody!? Nobody!? Possibly?! I DON’T KNOW!!!”
@mycatisgod … I’m as broadminded as the next man but I’m not sure I can deal with your religious practices … (oh Garfield … GARFIELD … GARFIEEEELD!!!!)
Please continue to mock christianity. However, your ridicule of Islam and the Prophet shows intolerance for a disenfranchised group which already suffers terrible prejudice from the hegemony of straight white christians in the world. You add to the insufferable prejudice by giving aid and comfort to the enemy of tolerance and sensitivity with your rape of the peace-loving religion of Islam. With your intolerance you are the Nazis and the KKK wrapped into one.
?
Please continue to mock christianity, because they are infidels and deserve to be mocked. However please don’t pick on us because although we keep saying we’re the fastest growing religion we’re actually an insecure bunch who are worried that those numbers are over-inflated due to immigration patterns and inclusion of ex-Muslims who are not “allowed” to leave. You add insufferable prejudice to me because I’m not strong enough to accept that there are opinions other than my own.
And if that doesn’t work I’m going to start burning stuff.
@dawg … sorry, which peace-loving religion was that again? Would that be the peace-loving religion which asserts that it is acceptable to kill unbelievers (sura 4:89) or the tolerant and sensitive religion which asserts that a woman is worth one-half of a man 2:282?
It took me a while to click but I think Dawg is trying to get an angry and preferably humour-free response from J&Mers for the purposes of irony.
I am now rolling on the floor laughing. :/
@mr gronk … thanks for the tip-off … very subtle is the dawg …
OM(FSM)!
DAWG is an anagram of … GAWD!!!
The truth is out…
I read Dawg’s shout-out as tongue-in-cheekiness, meant in the same spirit of mocking the *irony* of holding one stupid belief as sacred, yet denigrating another (practically indistinguishable) stupid belief as fair game.
Either way: I’m calling a friendly Poe’s Law 😉
ALSO: Dawg has inspired me to wonder whether there is a fallacy ‘argumentum ad victima’, ie. you can’t say anything negative against group X because of its history of suffering or persecution.