Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for February 01, 2013

SCUBA Messiah.

True Believers can interpret anything to match their faith.

Of course he’s the Massiah, I ought to know, I’ve followed a few…

But let’s see him walk under wine….Bet he’s got scratch marks on his shoulder from Pauly jumping to the dock just in time…..

This reminds me of the Messiah following scenes from Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

Thus “man-made global warming” became “man-made climate change”.

Bruno, OK, Now THAT’S funny….

I bet Wiley’s muse looks a lot like Pauly…

Because the streets needed cleaning.

Not only do they rationalize whatever they ‘need’ too, but then they decide others need to be killed to prove their beliefs.

“… Some people are not driven by reality but by the will to believe…” Sounds like you need to do the same research with people that are opinionated to the point of prejudice against other groups.White Supremist view of Blacks and Liberals view of Conservatives.

When your taught from a very young age that fantasy is reality.You must believe or very bad things will happen to you.This tradition carries on to the next generation without interspection.

Is that the Judean People’s Front, or the People’s Front of Judea?

You are confusing faith with evidence. Common error, but one that needs to be overcome. Faith is believing things without evidence or in the face of contrary evidence.

“Austerian” economists being the current example. So far, every prediction they’ve made (e.g., “running a deficit to stimulate the economy will cause runaway inflation”) has been proven wrong, and every prescription they’ve written (e.g., “austerity programs to stimulate the economy”) have made the patient worse, but their belief is stronger than ever. Shame the people in charge keep listening to these cultists.

“The only cure for fanaticism is the truth.”Apparently, Ken Ham has not gotten the message.

So blessed am da ignorant….Eddie gots his boots full of water…..

But did the enthusiasts pay his bar bill?

I was thinking of the locker civilization in Men in Black 2

Agreed.

Eddie’s fans are the same people that fell for the global warming scam. No matter what happens they still believe.

I’m going to pipe up here and point out that there’s a difference between religion, spirituality, and fanaticism – which I think this strip is more poking fun at fanaticism. Sometimes all these things get combined, but not always.

(One more time into the breach, dear friends…)-The Bible defines “faith” this way: “Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for; the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld.” (Hebrews 11:1)-Notice two phrases: “assured expectation” and “evident demonstration”. These phrases mean real faith has assurances and evidence to support it. If there is no evidence or assurances, this is called “gullibility.”-People who think faith is believing without evidence, or believing in unrealities, have never been shown the evidence or reality. Sad, really, because it is readily available. Religious people often hurt this cause by saying things like, “You just have to believe, or have faith.” No one just has to do that…everyone needs to know why they can believe or have faith.-Evidence is essential to faith.

Flo should be happy this means Eddie paid his bar tab.

Christopher Hitchens is smiling, wherever he is. Now pass the collection plate.

“Rationalization” was the fourth R when I was enduring Catholic school…

There is no cure of fanaticism – look at the NRA.

religion ruins everything. they should not be tax exempt.

Eddie should just go ahead and pass the collection plate as he towels off….

Very funny!

So Eddie first walked on water; then he was baptised. Sounds legit!

Depends on your definition of “true believer” . . .

What you are referring to is when God had Noah curse the sons of Ham, the Canaanites, declaring that they would be slaves of their brothers (Genesis 10:20 – 27). No mention is made here of race at all. It was the fundamentalist extremists who twisted this to mean blacks and served as a justification for the slavery of the 18th and 19th centuries. Actually, according to the Bible, blacks descended from the Cushites (also called Ethiopians), and Moses’ wife as well as other faithful ones were black.-As with most Bible-naysayers, you are mixing up what the Bible actually says and means with how it has been misapplied by others, including many religions. To see what the Bible says about racism, get your copy and look carefully at Acts 10:34, 35. God’s position is clearly stated.-Too, every “contradiction” I’ve seen has been reconciled internally with the contexts. So, please, go ahead and provide that list of contradictions, but only if you are ready to have each one addressed and (probably) resolved, then accept the inevitable need to change your viewpoint. (I suspect this last step is the one nobody really wants.)

First, archaeology helps. Thousands of ancient manuscripts in the original tongues have been uncovered, getting us closer and closer to the original writings.-Second, only by being a serious student of language, culture, and the Bible itself.-Third, frankly we never will understand completely what God knows, nor probably what He ultimately has in mind. But, we can, at least, try very hard to understand what we can.-I liken it (inadequately) to Huckleberry Finn. Some libraries ban it from shelves due to one word or an uncomfortable idea. But, anyone who has read the complete work and knows the history that underpins it, is fine with it. They are able to compare one part with another and figure out what is meant. The Bible is similar.-It often explains itself. When it doesn’t, history does. When that fails…we are imperfect and need to be patient.

Or, for that matter, the countless miseries that beset us homo sapiens, “the slings and arrows of outrageous Fortune”. A Kurt Vonnegut quote: “If there’s a god, he sure must hate humans.”

You have “faith” in a scientifically proven fact. There was a time when your ilk would willingly have tossed a virgin into a volcano for a good harvest.

Carl Sagan:“Science is a candle in the darkness”.

If you CAN prove something that totally contradicts the premise that you’re holding although it can’t be proven, you’re simply WRONG.

we are intolerant of ignorance. You should be, too.

“For good people to do evil, that takes religion”.

Nice try; however, it is the Retaliban who is against education, especially science education, which is why they keep trying to replace it with creationism.

The vitamin C pseudogene proves the common descent of humans and apes. So does chromosome 2 of the human genome, demonstrably a fusion of two chromosomes in the chimpanzee genome.You, on the other hand, called me names; I am not impressed.

Bingo! By the way, Mr. Gaunt ;-) I haven’t mentioned to you yet how much I appreciate your input on the side of reason in these discussions. Thanks!

OK I get the point…but doesn’t everyone walk or exist under water to some degree these days? I know I made a payment on my credit card today BUT I certainly did not pay it off!

That’s a Robert Heinlein quote from a 1953 story:“Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal.”

Works for the statists running the federal gummint these days.

Agreed 100%. I was actually talking to a christian today, and mentioned that for people to cling to religion out of a need for psychological security, or to belong to a group—both good things—is not necessarily a negative thing. As Arthur C. Clarke said, “Perhaps it is better to be un-sane and happy, than sane and un-happy. But it is best of all to be sane and happy.” I went on to say to him that what I am against is (1) the attempt to replace science in the classroom with religion/creationism, and (2) the attempt of the far right fundamentalists to establish a theocracy. As long as they aren’t into those two societal perversions, I am willing to grant them the same right to practice their religion and to proselytize as I expect them to grant me my right to abstain from their religion and to teach math and science.I will grant you that most people are reasonable and liberal. However, I will deny that that is the case if you replace “people” by “fundamentalists”. Unfortunately, they are the people with whom I had almost exclusive experience for 23 years.

Touchstone, the Fool, in As You Like It says: " The fool doth think himself wise, but the wise man knows himself to be the fool ! "

I’m sorry for the tone of my earlier response. It was wrong of me to question your motives. I feel awful about doing that.-I do have an answer to these three contradictions, but gocomics won’t post it for some reason (have tried 3 times).-Maybe another way, another day.