The closer a religion’s founder is to us in time, the worse he looks. Religion is like law and sausage; it’s best to not look too close at how it’s made.
I am just sick and tired of being “respectful” of anybody with ludicrous “faith” or any loony metaphysical ideas. I would pass a law forcing them to wear clown outfits, and get children to point at them and laugh out loud at their delusions? Too draconian? Or good forward thinking?
M27Holtz:
Please do not put the word religion in scare-quotes. Both Mormonism and Islam are acknowledged as religions by millions of followers. You are free to deride the absurdity of their teachings, and the arrogance of their founders, but it is impolitic and inaccurate to deny that they are, in fact, religions. Your critique is not of these specific blind faiths, but of blind faith itself.
Correction:
Please do not put the word faith in scare-quotes. I agree that it would be more accurate to call them ‘prides’ instead, as deadly sin, or pack of feline apex predators, but words are defined by usage, not authority.
No need for a law for that.
It would be sufficient (and in fact fantastic) if ANY law (including tax regulations!) referencing religion would be scratched.
Interestingly, despite the fact that we use the words “faith” and “religion” as synonyms, in most non-Abrahamic religions what matters is not what you believe, but what you do. If you perform the rituals correctly then the gods or the ancestors or whatever are satisfied and everything is cool.
There is also the bizarre coincidence that what the angel told them turned out to be a load of self-serving claptrap that simply rehashed existing scriptures to assign themselves heroic roles.
It may matter to someone what you believe, but it isn’t externally verifiable. Back in the pagan days, when Roman authorities wanted to weed out Christians, they’d have them spit on him or worship Zeus or something, but that just catches the ones that want to be caught. Conversely with lots who don’t really believe but are willing to pretend, such as I presume a significant fraction of American political figures.
According to Merriam-Webster (dotcom), the word is an anglicisation of a mixture of two Italian words: cerretano (meaning “inhabitant of Cerreto”, from whence came many quacks with fake remedies) and ciarlare (meaning to chatter, so as to better convince people to buy). Mixed, the word that became charlatan was “ciarlatano”.
In a beautiful example of irony, M-W exemplifies the use of charlatan in the following quote: “In the document, church leaders expressed concern about charlatans attempting to make money or gain power by manipulating people’s beliefs. —Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY, 17 May 2024”
Paradoctor – It’s always good to have the incredibly obvious pointed out, especially when I hadn’t actually noticed it myself.
And now I wonder how many priests (imams/ministers/abbots/ayatollahs) one can fit into a VW Beetle. And would the number increase if you installed an alterboy first?
If it’s divine intervention, then God is sending a mixed message. The bullet didn’t kill him: that says one thing. The bullet drew blood: that says another thing. Is God letting him off this time but with a warning?
I may lose my guaranteed rights to equivocate, or whatever, under Godwin’s law, but I aver. There were 42 known attempts to assassinate Hitler. None of them worked until he quit, under duress.
Hey, everyone – re: Postdoggerel’s link. Martyrs DON’T survive. They get burned at the stake, multiply-punctured with arrows, decapitated, crucified, drowned … As well as numerous tortures conceived during the Spanish Inquisition for folk whom the Catholic Church wouldn’t/couldn’t/didn’t consider to be martyrs.
So #45 ain’t a martyr. He IS a solipsistic, opportunistic, hateful, malignant narcissist, among other things, and perhaps even the modern embodiment of Lincoln’s renowned quote, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
Just idle speculation, but how much of all this monstrous palaver is the political equivalent of street theatre?
David Featherston, we are in trouble here. Deep trouble. We cannot let those wankpuffin, knobsocket, shitflute, cockwombles, aka magats win. Even if we prevail they will not accept their loss. Think of all those white, 20 year olds with AR-15s running through the streets on election day screaming “rigged”. I’m glad my parents didn’t live to see this. As god fearing conservatives the magats will be awash in thoughts and prayers. What matters is votes. We should be so fortunate as France to put these up and coming right wing extremists in their place at the bottom of the pile. It isn’t looking good. They put full faith in “Gott Mit Uns”. After all, what harm has nationalism ever done?
On a pet-peave side of things. I dislike it when people use the term ‘a whole ‘ when the blank can be of any size. There’s a whole chapter, a whole wiki page, a whole box full, a whole area, a whole thing, As if I’m supposed to be impressed that there is a whole spec of dust on the King’s shirt. That dirty, dirty boy.
Peter, it’s a whole nother thing to assume that this whole, unwholesome thing, the whole time, was a whole new iteration of a previously unwholly explained aberration by a whole bunch of a-holes bent on unholy unwholesomeness. An example would be the Brit term ‘on the whole’, which is used by comedians when they want to purvey ‘on the hole’ as describing the effect of sand during sex on the beach being summat of a problem. Likewise, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, is wholly absent from the lexicon of those who argue from alternative facts, even when swearing an oath on the holy bible. It’s a whole new ballgame. Apologies to Emmy Nother, whose contributions to higher algebra are seldom, in the main, the subject of humor. I have dedicated a whole paragraph to this wholly inappropriate semi-expiation of your pet peeve. A whole lotta good that has done.
I’m glad that the gunboy failed. Assassination is too good for Trump. He should be defeated, dishonored, exposed, bankrupted, convicted, and imprisoned. May he live long but not prosper, behind bars.
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
January 10, 2024
God damn, another winning strip!
The closer a religion’s founder is to us in time, the worse he looks. Religion is like law and sausage; it’s best to not look too close at how it’s made.
I am just sick and tired of being “respectful” of anybody with ludicrous “faith” or any loony metaphysical ideas. I would pass a law forcing them to wear clown outfits, and get children to point at them and laugh out loud at their delusions? Too draconian? Or good forward thinking?
M27Holtz:
Please do not put the word religion in scare-quotes. Both Mormonism and Islam are acknowledged as religions by millions of followers. You are free to deride the absurdity of their teachings, and the arrogance of their founders, but it is impolitic and inaccurate to deny that they are, in fact, religions. Your critique is not of these specific blind faiths, but of blind faith itself.
M27, I’m good with that simply not being banned or outlawed behaviour. No imposing legislation needed.
Freedom to point&laugh at absurdity ftw.
Correction:
Please do not put the word faith in scare-quotes. I agree that it would be more accurate to call them ‘prides’ instead, as deadly sin, or pack of feline apex predators, but words are defined by usage, not authority.
m27 et al.:
No need for a law for that.
It would be sufficient (and in fact fantastic) if ANY law (including tax regulations!) referencing religion would be scratched.
Interestingly, despite the fact that we use the words “faith” and “religion” as synonyms, in most non-Abrahamic religions what matters is not what you believe, but what you do. If you perform the rituals correctly then the gods or the ancestors or whatever are satisfied and everything is cool.
There is also the bizarre coincidence that what the angel told them turned out to be a load of self-serving claptrap that simply rehashed existing scriptures to assign themselves heroic roles.
It may matter to someone what you believe, but it isn’t externally verifiable. Back in the pagan days, when Roman authorities wanted to weed out Christians, they’d have them spit on him or worship Zeus or something, but that just catches the ones that want to be caught. Conversely with lots who don’t really believe but are willing to pretend, such as I presume a significant fraction of American political figures.
Lovely use of the term ‘charlatan’!
According to Merriam-Webster (dotcom), the word is an anglicisation of a mixture of two Italian words: cerretano (meaning “inhabitant of Cerreto”, from whence came many quacks with fake remedies) and ciarlare (meaning to chatter, so as to better convince people to buy). Mixed, the word that became charlatan was “ciarlatano”.
In a beautiful example of irony, M-W exemplifies the use of charlatan in the following quote: “In the document, church leaders expressed concern about charlatans attempting to make money or gain power by manipulating people’s beliefs. —Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY, 17 May 2024”
“I would pass a law forcing them to wear clown outfits, and get children to point at them and laugh out loud at their delusions”
Love this, of course, but one consequence *could be* that clown outfits become the norm, and children will point and laugh at us.
Featherston:
You mean those dresses and pointy hats _aren’t_ clown suits?
Paradoctor – It’s always good to have the incredibly obvious pointed out, especially when I hadn’t actually noticed it myself.
And now I wonder how many priests (imams/ministers/abbots/ayatollahs) one can fit into a VW Beetle. And would the number increase if you installed an alterboy first?
if an altar boy were to be present
the gropessence would be dispropentious
for who would be
the groper or gropee
but that would be contentious
Well, it’s settled. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/14/trump-shooting-republicans-god-intervention-00168108
If it’s divine intervention, then God is sending a mixed message. The bullet didn’t kill him: that says one thing. The bullet drew blood: that says another thing. Is God letting him off this time but with a warning?
I may lose my guaranteed rights to equivocate, or whatever, under Godwin’s law, but I aver. There were 42 known attempts to assassinate Hitler. None of them worked until he quit, under duress.
The shame is he didn’t hold a child in front of him as a shield…so Stephen King’s plot not followed….
Hey, everyone – re: Postdoggerel’s link. Martyrs DON’T survive. They get burned at the stake, multiply-punctured with arrows, decapitated, crucified, drowned … As well as numerous tortures conceived during the Spanish Inquisition for folk whom the Catholic Church wouldn’t/couldn’t/didn’t consider to be martyrs.
So #45 ain’t a martyr. He IS a solipsistic, opportunistic, hateful, malignant narcissist, among other things, and perhaps even the modern embodiment of Lincoln’s renowned quote, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
Just idle speculation, but how much of all this monstrous palaver is the political equivalent of street theatre?
David Featherston, we are in trouble here. Deep trouble. We cannot let those wankpuffin, knobsocket, shitflute, cockwombles, aka magats win. Even if we prevail they will not accept their loss. Think of all those white, 20 year olds with AR-15s running through the streets on election day screaming “rigged”. I’m glad my parents didn’t live to see this. As god fearing conservatives the magats will be awash in thoughts and prayers. What matters is votes. We should be so fortunate as France to put these up and coming right wing extremists in their place at the bottom of the pile. It isn’t looking good. They put full faith in “Gott Mit Uns”. After all, what harm has nationalism ever done?
On a pet-peave side of things. I dislike it when people use the term ‘a whole ‘ when the blank can be of any size. There’s a whole chapter, a whole wiki page, a whole box full, a whole area, a whole thing, As if I’m supposed to be impressed that there is a whole spec of dust on the King’s shirt. That dirty, dirty boy.
Peter, it’s a whole nother thing to assume that this whole, unwholesome thing, the whole time, was a whole new iteration of a previously unwholly explained aberration by a whole bunch of a-holes bent on unholy unwholesomeness. An example would be the Brit term ‘on the whole’, which is used by comedians when they want to purvey ‘on the hole’ as describing the effect of sand during sex on the beach being summat of a problem. Likewise, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, is wholly absent from the lexicon of those who argue from alternative facts, even when swearing an oath on the holy bible. It’s a whole new ballgame. Apologies to Emmy Nother, whose contributions to higher algebra are seldom, in the main, the subject of humor. I have dedicated a whole paragraph to this wholly inappropriate semi-expiation of your pet peeve. A whole lotta good that has done.
I’m glad that the gunboy failed. Assassination is too good for Trump. He should be defeated, dishonored, exposed, bankrupted, convicted, and imprisoned. May he live long but not prosper, behind bars.
and a whole lotta love to you, postdoggerel