Comments on: homo

By: Nassar Ben Houdja

Nassar Ben Houdja — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:56:10 +0000

October 21, 2008.

If atheists are so smart, how did they get surrounded by idiots?

By: JohnnieCanuck

JohnnieCanuck — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:22:11 +0000

Ayashi, they don’t even try to hide it. It’s everywhere. It’s in the honorifics they bestow on the clergy. Pope=Papa=Padre=Father. The last one is also used for their god as in ‘Our Father who art in Heaven’. Then there’s Lord which has an archaic meaning of father.

Then there’s all the ‘unless you come unto me as a little child’ and ‘reason is the tool of the devil’ stuff in their holy book and a whole lot more in their hymn books.

Proof that there’s a sucker born every minute.

That link needs to be: http://www.jesusandmo.net/2005/12/16/hole/

By: Ayashi

Ayashi — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:40:45 +0000

Just went through the whole comics (once again), seems the latest research in cognitive psychology agrees with me (http://www.jesusandmo.net/2005/12/16/hole/).
Maybe we’re onto something here …

By: nina

nina — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:32:17 +0000

Ayashi

I think you’ve summed up religion perfectly – an intentional continuation of the infant/childhood state well into adulthood – the mental equivalent of failure to launch

By: Karen Armstrong attacks the “new atheists” « Religion and Secularism

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 04:27:23 +0000

[...] struck me as an interesting term so I typed it into a Google search and turned up this comic strip critique of Armstong’s book. If you’re offended by comic representations of Jesus or [...]

By: TIE

TIE — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:08:56 +0000

great one, I love the “vatican to CofE, we want your bigots”

lol

By: Rosemarie

Rosemarie — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:10:58 +0000

Headbang, if you read my comments again you will actually realize that I was speaking for myself and NOT for the “entirety of humanity”. I did, however, make a typing error because I wanted to write “seeking” significance and not seeing. Any significance my life may have is for others to see. My two orphaned grandchildren whom I have raised these past ten years probably can.

By: Hamilton Jacobi

Hamilton Jacobi — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 09:57:36 +0000

The best part of the whole thing is that portrait of the pope. I think he deserves a bigger role, maybe as an occasional guest star like Moses.

By: Didac

Didac — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:27:25 +0000

Well, Homo sapiens evolved in Paleolithic era, as a hunter-gatherer species. Then, there was the so-called Neolithic revolution, and nowadays most Homo sapiens populations are producers not gatherers. As a consequence of the Neolithic revolution, slavery was introduced. Slavery was seen as a human condition and nowadays it has been abolished in the whole world. Unfortunately, there are cases of slavery, but slavement is seen as a crime against humanity and it is punished by law. The only "human condition" is the condition of self-development and self-determination.

By: Ayashi

Ayashi — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:16:56 +0000

Having a greater than ourself thingy out there that is suposed to be allknowing, all powerfull, and somehow kind, forgiving (blablabla…), is just a way to go back to being an infant, with a parental figure taking care of you and making all the bad things go away.

No need to look to deep into it, leaving all the thinking and responsability to someone/thing else is just the easiest way throw life.

By: nina

nina — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:38:28 +0000

Don – excellent theory – especially when applied to modern politicians having The Honourable in front of their names – sadly rather than reflect reality, more often than not it serves as a reminder to them how they are supposed to be.

Maggs – I dunno about meaning seeking creatures, but our brains are definitely pattern seeking – which is a kind of meaning – mostly I think it stems from our insecurity, so we collectively have to tell ourselves lies to make us feel important. So god/afterlife is just a grandiose version of size doesn’t matter and “it” happens to every guy.

By: inversejerk

inversejerk — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:18:19 +0000

i was disapointed in a way when i discovered a while back that that karen armstrong actually was a deist, as her history of god was one of the cornerstones of my rejection of religion. i wonder if she gets that a lot.

By: Maggs

Maggs — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:30:07 +0000

To get back to the comic for a bit, I wonder if it is less that humans are ‘meaning seeking creatures’ and more that humans are innately superstitious. While not understanding how things worked, humans might have deduced that there must be something ‘other’ that was in control and needed appeasing if the horrors of life were to be survived, or indeed, if what an individual human wanted was to be provided.

By: AlvinStargut

AlvinStargut — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:28:50 +0000

Brilliant! Love the “Guardian’s” headline, too. Keep up the good work!

By: Headbhang

Headbhang — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:29:50 +0000

“�humans fall very easily into despair if we don�t find some significance in our lives��
Karen Armstrong disappoints me. [...]. How many times must I tell them that in spite of not looking for the transcendent or seeing some significance in my life I have not fallen into despair. I am very happy just being alive. However, I occasionally despair at the stupidity of these people who think they know how I should tick.”
Sorry, Rosemarie, you might be disappointed about this too, but you should know that you don’t represent the entirety of humanity. Nobody really does. While YOU might not despair at the lack of some significance in your life (and I doubt you actually don’t have SOME significance in it, you’ve just managed to draw it from elsewhere), doesn’t mean that is true of everyone, or that everyone finds it equally easy to derive meaning from more mundane aspects of existance. As long as there is a majority of people that does not tick like you do, the point, unfortunately, still stands.

By: Uncle Roger

Uncle Roger — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:33:10 +0000

As I always say, stupidity will be persecuted to the fulleste extent allowed by law.

By: Ophelia Benson

Ophelia Benson — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:23:49 +0000

“Karen Armstrong disappoints me. I thought that when she gave up the nun�s habit she also gave up the habit of talking tosh.”

She did for awhile and then she took it up again – with a vengeance.

By: Berto

Berto — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:06:18 +0000

It would save us all a lot of trouble if we just called it Homo Ridiculousus

By: David B

David B — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:59:12 +0000

One of the best. I recommend PZ’s evisceration of Armstrong on Pharyngula.

While about it, there are also a couple of interesting polls at AOL which can be found at Pharyngula right now. People might want to vote – I did.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/

David B

By: Don

Don — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:26:22 +0000

nina,

With the invention of honorifics? Your Holiness, Excellency, Highness, Grace, Worship, Emminence, Majesty, Magnificence…

Unfortunately, replacing them with Citizen or Comrade doesn’t noticeably reverse the effect.