Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for January 17, 2016

TV was bad; the internet was worse, mobile devices…

Hey, I’m perfectly satisfied with my memories of tripe from decades past. It’s today’s tripe I can’t stand.

See Dilbert’s response . . . today.

Actually, I usually prefer reading reruns of comics like this to watching TV. They tend to make me think more.

Calvin must have been watching some religious BS… & he is right it will insult a 6 year old, but for some reason with continued exposure you start overlooking all the ridiculous stuff and even tend to believe the non sense you recognized as absurd when you were 6…

TV is opiate for the masses!!

Bilan?do you wonder how the “older-than-us folks” thought about us? I do agree w/ the gigantor though.

panel 4….hypnosis of our culture……..24/7 TVthe demise of our country.

sorry,,,the last panel…

I agree with Karl Marx when I look for TV news from Middle East and paraphrasing Hannah Arendt “Where is god today?”

By “read a book” do you suppose he was referring to reading the “Complete Calvin and Hobbes” that is advertised on this same page?

I am an atheist – religious studies are interesting, because it is of interest to try to understand different perspectives. The problem is that if you focus purely on one book, e.g. the Bible, and ignore the rest, then that becomes indoctrination. Religion only prospers because children are forced to focus on one particular viewpoint. I studied many religions at school, and the more I read, the more I realised they were all BS.

Karl Marx was right – religion was only devised as a means of subjugating the masses. By convincing the poor that it was OK to be poor and oppressed in this life, because once you were dead you would go to heaven and have a wonderful afterlife. However, if you railed against your oppression by doing bad things, then you would be damned for eternity.

It’s easier to say “All religion is BS” than to do your homework and actually figure out which philosophies, including atheism, are false.

I set the clouds in motionTurn up light and soundActivate the windowAnd watch the world go ’round

Older people can look back on their childhood and remember playing cowboys and indians or any number of other games with each other. It was in their imagination. People my age and younger can look back and remember playing halo or call of duty or any number of other games with each other. Those are in our imaginations too, only in these we can actually see what the older folk could only imagine. Fun memories are still fun memories regardless if you’re outside or in.

It’s HowdyDoody Time!

Even if you’re an atheist, you should know the Bible because it’s a source of so many cultural references as well as a major force in shaping many people’s values. Just like you need to read the Koran if you want to comment on Islam at all.

Those are almost exactly some of the thought processes I’ve gone through. Check out “Dumb All Over” by Frank Zappa. It’s on YouTube.

I don’t look TV so often, and when I do it, I select very carefully, when I don’t like it, I turn it off!

I love my memories of Get Smart, Gilligan’s Island, Beverly Hillbillies and Bewitched. Great shows.

The fact that Calvin doesn’t understand the meaning of “opiate for the people” is hardly surprising. What is surprising is that a six-year old reads “Das Kapital”. And this is supposed to be a bad boy…..

I don’t know why people persist in trying to have religious debates in these comments. This isn’t the time or place for it, and the “sound bite” format isn’t really conducive for an extended debate. In any case, I’ll answer your question with an analogy. Suppose you are an adult, with two grown children. The children each live lives of equal merit. You are preparing to take a trip of a lifetime to a wonderful vacation spot. One of your children asks to come along. The other says he’s happy where he is. Would it be an unreasonable or unexpected result if you took the one son with you, and left the other behind?

I think the first two panels, before the main comic, are my favorite bit of Calvin and Hobbes ever.

I think Jesus had a lot of good ideas. But I think that because you believe some parts of the bible it means all is true. Remember, it is man made and people just tell you it is divine. Separate the ideas from organized religion who tell you how to interpret it. For example, I don’t think Genesis 1 is the way things happened. I think they were either writing in metaphor or just added to make the story of creation complete. Because of that people will actually hate me and want to hurt me. That tells me that it isn’t the True Way.

Come on fellow old men, don’t you remember pubescent Annette? Pre, Pending and Post … all burned into my permanent memory.

Let us not forget what tripe is used for in the body!

It’s pretty much offal…

What if nothing really matters? … Or suppose everything matters. Which would be worse?

- Bill Watterson

Nowadays people don’t go outside anymore.

Wow. Calvin only mentions the word “Religion” once and this comment section turns into an uproar.Bill Watterson would be shocked to read some of these comments.

You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

xxx

You want to know what it’s like when you die? Remember what it was like before you were born. It will be like that, only longer.

Well said. Existentialism is a harsh mistress, but she doesn’t lie.

Kind of like moving to Midsomer. The cast of Midsomer is on record saying, “No one would ever want to live there!”

There are always many things to do. People are just so use to routine that it makes them practically impossible to find an activity that is worth it.

The full quote from Karl Marx translates as: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”.

No you won’t. You’ll wish your favorite shows were still on. RIP, Firefly.

Funny, aside from the Biblical story, there is evidence of a world wide flood. Not only does every culture in the world have “flood” folklore, but sea life fossils have been found in every part of the world, including the tallest mountains.…but then, my own beliefs are based more on reason, logic and evidence related to my own experiences (and first hand accounts of others’ experiences) than it is on faith.For example: there is the fact that scientists have a theory that all the continents were once a single giant super continent which later split apart into the continents we have today… and there is a verse in the Bible that refers to that very event. (I pointed this out to a co-worker once, who is of the religious branch of the “religion and science are polar opposites” camp, and he replied that, “that is only in the King James version.”)

Well, we came to different conclusions. Christianity, at least, has tons of evidence, from the natural to the biological to the emotive, thinking powers of our intelligence to the Bible. But those who are set in rejecting the evidence outright as not being evidence and teach others to do the same themselves are guilty of abuse. Your caricature of all religion as being abusive is ridiculous. Many “rational” adults, as well as many scientists, have come to believe in God. You are not qualified to say “religions are all BS.”

I’m waiting for an atheist (or any scientist) to offer some kind of explanation of where the material of the “big bang” came from and how it happened; or if no “big bang,” where everything came from otherwise. Then, explain the accident of organic material achieving locomotion and reproduction. (I’m not even going to mention organisms “developing” sight, hearing, etc.)

Phew… I’m glad that’s over!