Christian monotheism:
-three uber gods
-a blessed virgin mother (who physically ascended to heaven) of the sacrificed god with a special status and a cult of her own in the Catholic version
-a mother goddess of the beardy one (Gnostic version, see her on the ceiling of the cistern chapel)
-multiple immortal divine archangels
-countless angels, cherubs and assorted divinities, also immortal
Such a PANTHEON sounds curiously like POLYTHEISM to me. Of course, the Christian says it is a mystery or there is only one uber-god, Jehovah the beardy one. But that argument could equally be used to describe many other polytheistic pantheons that have head-honcho world creators as monotheistic. Hail Amun-Ra.
Reminds me of a Richard Dawkins quote: “We are all atheists in regard to 99% of the gods that have existed in history. So, why not take it that one small step further?”
Not surprising really, since all religions since the dawn of man have preached the same thing; there is a higher power which controls each aspect of your life, usually a spiteful, unobliging power. However, it’s hard to base a religous text on the phrase “life sucks” so each religion had to employ a certain amount of character development
I have no problem with the idea of a deity, but I have a BIG problem with organized religion. Monotoning the “Profession of Faith” in Church always made me feel like just one of many zombies. Why not just say, “I just want to be part of this crowd and not stand out and be ridiculed or rejected, however incredulous I feel about this whole resurrection thing.”
r00db00y,
Understand what you mean there. But I would observe that spiteful (vindictive, capricious, malevolent, incoherent) higher power seems to be a charactersitic of Abrahism in particular and Indo-European religions in general, albeit not exclusively. Older “religions” (probably incorrect to label them so) such as Old-Europe goddess worship, Eastern Numenisms and Philosophies are commonly more benevolent and balanced and less inclined to political dominion. After all, Buddhism is explicitly atheist.
@Shadow of God: Click on the permalink hyperlink just below the comic, everytime there’s a fresh strip. That displays the comments and enables commenting.
TaoAndZen: Your post about christianity having all these deities is very close to the truth - the fact is that many of the stories and figures in the bible have roots in earlier Semitic polytheistic religions, which still correspond to many of the archetypes in many polytheistic religions(Satan, the Tempter/Trickster(a staple in pretty much every polytheistic religion, except in this one he’s seen as strictly evil, never a source of good), Mary, The Mother(Cybele, Gaia, etc…), Jesus The martyr on the cross(Baldr dying on Yggdrasil, the world tree, Atys being hung upon the ash tree), or the child of a virgin birth(Mithras)…. one could go on. It’s interesting to point out that the original Jews were NOT monotheistic - they simply believed that THEIR God was the highest, and that if you didn’t worship him you would be punished.
Leave a Reply
Updated twice a week
NICE T-SHIRT(Thank you for not provoking my uncontrollable lust). Others available, including NEW "street-safe" styles! Click the pic to see.
BRAND NEW! By popular demand - "Faith is...".
January 9th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Christian monotheism:
-three uber gods
-a blessed virgin mother (who physically ascended to heaven) of the sacrificed god with a special status and a cult of her own in the Catholic version
-a mother goddess of the beardy one (Gnostic version, see her on the ceiling of the cistern chapel)
-multiple immortal divine archangels
-countless angels, cherubs and assorted divinities, also immortal
Such a PANTHEON sounds curiously like POLYTHEISM to me. Of course, the Christian says it is a mystery or there is only one uber-god, Jehovah the beardy one. But that argument could equally be used to describe many other polytheistic pantheons that have head-honcho world creators as monotheistic. Hail Amun-Ra.
January 9th, 2007 at 9:51 am
They get The God Who Wasn’t There dvd, it’s a good documentary.
January 9th, 2007 at 9:52 am
And how come one can only post a comment on the newest comic if you go back to the last comic and forward to this one?
January 9th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
hehe this was funny.
HAPPY NEW YEAR to all Jesus and mo Readers from me.
January 9th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Awesome =) I’d love to post a Blasphemy Challenge video, but I don’t have a camera
ShadowofGod - click the title of the new comic (where it says “permalink”) and you can access the comments there
January 9th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Happy new year of full of love,sex,and video games!
January 9th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
Pfft, I was denying the holy spirit before it was cool!
January 9th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Reminds me of a Richard Dawkins quote: “We are all atheists in regard to 99% of the gods that have existed in history. So, why not take it that one small step further?”
January 10th, 2007 at 2:42 am
TaoAndZen,
Not surprising really, since all religions since the dawn of man have preached the same thing; there is a higher power which controls each aspect of your life, usually a spiteful, unobliging power. However, it’s hard to base a religous text on the phrase “life sucks” so each religion had to employ a certain amount of character development
January 10th, 2007 at 2:50 am
I have no problem with the idea of a deity, but I have a BIG problem with organized religion. Monotoning the “Profession of Faith” in Church always made me feel like just one of many zombies. Why not just say, “I just want to be part of this crowd and not stand out and be ridiculed or rejected, however incredulous I feel about this whole resurrection thing.”
January 10th, 2007 at 6:20 am
r00db00y,
Understand what you mean there. But I would observe that spiteful (vindictive, capricious, malevolent, incoherent) higher power seems to be a charactersitic of Abrahism in particular and Indo-European religions in general, albeit not exclusively. Older “religions” (probably incorrect to label them so) such as Old-Europe goddess worship, Eastern Numenisms and Philosophies are commonly more benevolent and balanced and less inclined to political dominion. After all, Buddhism is explicitly atheist.
January 10th, 2007 at 9:13 am
@Shadow of God: Click on the permalink hyperlink just below the comic, everytime there’s a fresh strip. That displays the comments and enables commenting.
January 10th, 2007 at 10:25 am
I feel sorry for Jesus.
January 11th, 2007 at 4:17 am
j ‘n’ m have made it to wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_and_Mo and is also listed at http://www.thewebcomiclist.com/ and Comixpedia at http://comixpedia.org/index.php/Jesus_and_Mo
January 11th, 2007 at 11:07 am
“I feel sorry for Jesus.”
Don’t feel sorry, he’s in a better place now.
January 15th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Jonathan Andrews?!!!
January 18th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Nope, sorry, Jonathan Somethingelse.
March 19th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Do they still offer this DVD? I don’t have a camera so I’d have to buy one… which probably offsets the freeness of the DVD.
But I was going to use the camera to videotape myself doing backflips to get chicks.
Once I learn how to do them.
April 15th, 2007 at 5:07 am
Tyciol, the Rational Responders were the ones doing this promotion (and Penn Jillette participated,
) and they are selling the DVD for $20 here.
http://www.rationalresponders.com/the_god_who_wasnt_there
Brian Flemming’s site is selling it for $25 here.
http://www.thegodmovie.com/direct-sales.php
I bought it for $6.66 a while ago during an earlier promotion of his. It’s a great documentary.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
TaoAndZen: Your post about christianity having all these deities is very close to the truth - the fact is that many of the stories and figures in the bible have roots in earlier Semitic polytheistic religions, which still correspond to many of the archetypes in many polytheistic religions(Satan, the Tempter/Trickster(a staple in pretty much every polytheistic religion, except in this one he’s seen as strictly evil, never a source of good), Mary, The Mother(Cybele, Gaia, etc…), Jesus The martyr on the cross(Baldr dying on Yggdrasil, the world tree, Atys being hung upon the ash tree), or the child of a virgin birth(Mithras)…. one could go on. It’s interesting to point out that the original Jews were NOT monotheistic - they simply believed that THEIR God was the highest, and that if you didn’t worship him you would be punished.