Comments on: world

By: Ben 2

Ben 2 — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:51:21 +0000

And since you’ve already got a “Ben” I’ll call myself Ben 2.

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:49:33 +0000

I know that if G_d’s out there He/She/It would hate me for this but the whole God=good thing was mostly intended to flatter G_d (and yes I’ve temporarily taken up the whole Jewish editing-out-the-vowels custom). The fact is that most people can’t except an Allmighty who like us embodies both good and evil, which is really not that complicated. I saw one Christian website argue that G_ d= Good means “Good by His own standards for Himself” which can mean anything.

By: akita

akita — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 06:00:56 +0000

None of the gods ever existed except in the minds of the fearful.

By: Nik

Nik — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:50:03 +0000

great cartoon. heckuva job, author.

By: Toast in the machine

Toast in the machine — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:18:21 +0000

Indeed Hobbes. Before you even get to the ‘Problem of evil’, I can’t see any way logically a being could be both omniscient and omnipotent.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:02:36 +0000

This is one of the best religion cartoons I’ve seen in a while.

By: Simon

Simon — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:57:44 +0000

So if I read this right, prisons are blasphemous, because by locking someone up in prison we’re depriving them of their free will to choose to do evil, thus going
against god’s will? Hmm, I’ll have to try that one next time I get arrested . . .

By: Hobbes

Hobbes — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:57:13 +0000

Great discussion! One more thing: Yahweh was supposed to have changed his mind that he “made man,” and thus decided to kill them all via flood (ala Noah, Utnapishtim, etc).

This question, here, is: How can an omniscient god change his/her mind?

This, too, is self-contradictory.

By: Toast in the machine

Toast in the machine — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:53:48 +0000

If god wants us to be or do something, he is desiring a different state of the world, in which case, he is not perfect. If he desires the world to be different from how it is, eg, by me NOT throwing a baby down the well every morning, then he would be improved by that condition being fulfilled, ie, he is necessarily imperfect until that condition has been met. The idea of a ‘perfect’ being ‘wanting’ something is self-contradictory.

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:17:35 +0000

Roman Catholics believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary had free will but was given the gift of freely choosing never to sin.
Presumably the rest of us could have been given that gift.

By: Lana

Lana — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:33:35 +0000

That’s something that bothered me for years before I realized all religions are made up. Either the god can’t stop great evil or he can and chooses not too. You can’t tell me that allowing someone to exercise free will is more important than protecting innocent lives.

By: daoloth

daoloth — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:58:16 +0000

He knows, cares but can’t act. Or, he knows, could act but doesn’t care. Or, he would care, would act but doesn’t know. Or he doesn’t know, wouldn’t care and could’nt act if he wanted to. Which God would you rather worship?
I love the “the same arguments could be made of an evil god”. Priceless! Exactly what the Gnostic heretics argued. And the loely Christians had them all tortured to death. For their own good, of course.

By: Tomminator

Tomminator — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:37:11 +0000

So it occurred to me the other day;
Can someone come up with an argument proving the existence of ‘God’ that CANNOT also be used to prove the existence of all the Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Norse gods, Santa Clause, and the Tooth Fairy?

By: Hobbes

Hobbes — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:46:04 +0000

Jerry W., maybe Yahweh doesn’t have a back end, and that’s what makes him so angry. Naw. All the crap’s gotta come from somewhere.

Paraphrasing Socrates:
Are the actions of Yahweh the right because Yahweh does them, or does Yahweh do them because they are the right thing to do?

The unexamined belief is not worth believing.

Hobbes says:
Argument: Humans do evil because they are not perfect. They are flawed creatures.

Counter argument: If a widget machine is making widgets, and the widgets are flawed, the fault lies not in the widgets, but in the widget machine.

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:04:54 +0000

I read this and immediately thought, ‘Stephen Law’.
And now I see it links to his ‘God of Eth’ and that he is linking back to here on his blog…

Keep up the good philosophical work Author!

By: Jerry w

Jerry w — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:40:34 +0000

Hobbes,
From the horses other end: Yahweh can therefore play both parts, the good cop and the bad cop?

Just curious,
http://www.boskolives.wordpress.com

By: Supremely… something « Mad Man or Slave

Supremely… something « Mad Man or Slave — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:58:23 +0000

[...] Three [...]

By: Hobbes

Hobbes — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:42:14 +0000

From the horse's mouth: Isaiah 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. So, there you have it. Yahweh is supremely good and supremely evil at the same time. Same thing with "perfection." Perfectly good and perfectly evil. A regular walking(?) contradiction.

By: author

author — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:49:47 +0000

Thanks, Ben.

By: Uncle Roger

Uncle Roger — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:30:05 +0000

Okay, so if God gives us free will and allows bad stuff to happen (even though he could foresee and prevent it), then what good is he? Why bother wasting time telling him how great he is, if he’s going to just sit around and let stuff happen anyway? If we’re going to get blown up/flooded out/starved/etc., why not just have fun until it happens?