both

March 17th, 2011

Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the Evidential Problem of Evil.

[CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP]

└ Tags: , ,

Discussion (33)¬

  1. Ketil W.Grevstad says:
    March 17, 2011 at 3:32 pm

    hehe 🙂 nice one

  2. jean-françois gauthier says:
    March 17, 2011 at 4:44 pm

    religion works like management: good comes from above, bad comes from the failings of the implementers (“agile” methodology, anyone?).

  3. Andrew Hall says:
    March 17, 2011 at 4:53 pm

    Author, you gotta do a special bit for this insipid John 3:16 Day.

  4. RavenBlack says:
    March 17, 2011 at 6:12 pm

    Pfh, evil isn’t a problem, it’s easily handwaved away with a circular argument. God is good, therefore whatever god does (which is everything) is good, therefore anything that appears to be evil is really just us failing to understand it. Therefore this is no evidence against a good God.

  5. Nassar Ben Houdja says:
    March 17, 2011 at 7:30 pm

    A some what inferior humanity
    Demands a perfect deity
    Then oppressive human scums
    Take away each others freeedoms
    Which is somewhat of a travesty.

  6. Exzanian says:
    March 17, 2011 at 8:31 pm

    Well it’s not quite my scene
    and you’re not really mean
    But the way your book
    makes me more than scared…

    So how can I laugh with you brother….

    Oh I saw your scam right there….

  7. kennypo65 says:
    March 17, 2011 at 9:45 pm

    Why does god allow evil is the wrong question. The right question–whether you are a believer or not–is what are you doing about evil.

  8. JohnnieCanuck says:
    March 17, 2011 at 9:51 pm

    Right now? Criticising lying, evil people who use the god created in their image as an excuse for what they do.

  9. passerby says:
    March 17, 2011 at 10:08 pm

    No God, no evil.

  10. Darwin Harmless says:
    March 17, 2011 at 11:36 pm

    It’s just a Teflon God. None of the bad shit sticks to Him.
    Thanks for the song and the link, Author.

  11. Darwin Harmless says:
    March 17, 2011 at 11:47 pm

    And now I’ve had a chance to sample (not read) the link. Nick Trakakis has way too much time on his hands. He needs to, in the immortal words of that contemporary philosopher, William Shatner, get a life.

  12. Darwin Harmless says:
    March 18, 2011 at 1:58 am

    Further thoughts on the Shatner reference. It’s been pointed out to me that the arguments Nick Trakakis presents are essentially the same as nerd talk at a Treckie convention. You know, is Data really the most human character in “Next Generation”? Are there farmers in the Klingon race? If they are all warriors, where do they get their food? Christian dogma is a made up story. Christian nerds discuss aspects of it exactly like Treckie nerds. I think the only difference is that no Treckie that I know of has burned another Treckie at the stake for disagreeing with him.

  13. Darwin Harmless says:
    March 18, 2011 at 2:03 am

    Damn. Trekie, not Treckie. I’m not one. How would I know?

  14. kennypo65 says:
    March 18, 2011 at 2:09 am

    Actually, we prefer to be called Trekkers. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was a non-believer. He refused to put a chaplain on the Enterprise. It was his hope that humanity would abandon superstition and create a better world. A world of equals. Religion will always treat some better than others, and he wanted to show us a reason to hope for a better future.

  15. Brother Daniel says:
    March 18, 2011 at 3:10 am

    A stated preference for the term “trekker” is the mark of a really serious trekkie. 🙂

  16. Darwin Harmless says:
    March 18, 2011 at 6:38 am

    Hmmnnnn. Interesting about Roddenberry. I’ve always felt that The Reverend Theo is the weakest character in Schlock Mercenary. Totally smarmy and irrelevant waste of ink, plus representing repressive anti-sex morality that should have died out centuries earlier. But then Howard Taylor is a devout Mormon, besides being the only guy on the planet who causes me to give that religion any respect at all.

  17. Aztek says:
    March 18, 2011 at 1:37 pm

    So is this show going to be an extremely short one or a nauseatingly long one? I can’t decide.

  18. kennypo65 says:
    March 18, 2011 at 1:46 pm

    If you want to know more about Roddenberry’s atheism, there is a great post on daylightatheism.org. Look for “Contributions of freethinkers: Gene Roddenberry. I’d post a link but I never learned how to do that.

  19. Maria Myrback says:
    March 18, 2011 at 6:56 pm

    @passerby

    No God, no evil
    Know God, know evil??

  20. steve oberski says:
    March 18, 2011 at 10:05 pm

    Author, I see a Jesus and Mo songbook in the future.

    You may want to start tagging the singing comics with a singing tag.

  21. Poor Richard says:
    March 19, 2011 at 4:02 pm

    I understand at last! Poor Richard says, “Theology is evil!”

  22. Darwin Harmless says:
    March 20, 2011 at 2:38 am

    Off topic but can anybody give us an update on Judge Luigi Tosti who was discharged for refusing to serve under a crucifix. I’m reading that he was sentenced to seven months in jail for this offense. http://www.iheu.org/node/1902
    Is he in jail now? Anybody up for picketing an Italian consulate?

  23. Blakey says:
    March 20, 2011 at 4:29 am

    @Darwin Harmless

    I hadn’t been aware of that and find it pretty horrific, but did you note the ddate on the article? Happened 5 years ago. May not be terribly timely to protest now! I’m sure there are more contemporary problems relate to that (awful) law!

  24. Darwin Harmless says:
    March 20, 2011 at 5:07 am

    @Blakey I think you may be confusing the date of the original notice with the date of the update announcing the jail sentence. I’m getting this news from Marc Alan Di Martino’s blog and it sounds very contemporary to me.
    http://marcalandimartino.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/judeo-christian-roots-theres-no-such-thing/

  25. Blakey says:
    March 20, 2011 at 5:20 am

    I stand corrected. I still can’t quite wrap my head around the timeline here, though.

  26. Darwin Harmless says:
    March 20, 2011 at 5:52 am

    @ Blakey Me too. I’ve asked mark for an update and clarification. He’s our man in Italy, it seems.

  27. European says:
    March 20, 2011 at 6:42 am

    Found this link on the case (in Italian):
    http://www.repubblica.it/politica/2011/03/14/news/sentenza_croce-13601212/index.html
    The article (dated March 14, 2011) says that the High Court upheld Tosti’s suspension, he has been struck off the role of the Judiciary for refusing to hold court hearings. According to this piece, he had been offered a court room with no crucifix but refused to go ahead because there were in other halls.
    This seems to have been going on since 2006. His prison sentence (also accoring to La Repubblica, which is or used to be a left-leaning liberal paper) was not upheld, and Tosti is still quoted as saying that he will go to Strasbourg.

  28. European says:
    March 20, 2011 at 6:44 am

    “according to”, and here’s the earlier article referred to:
    http://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2011/02/08/news/cassazione_crocefisso_tosti_non_pu_fare_il_giudice-12214510/

  29. Marc Alan Di Martino says:
    March 20, 2011 at 9:19 pm

    As far as I know Judge Tosti was removed but has done no actual jail time to date. They found a way of sparing him that indignity, apparently (the milk of human kindness, to be sure.)

  30. jerry w says:
    March 21, 2011 at 6:20 pm

    If an infinitely powerful god wanted to win converts, he, she, or it could easily stop an earthquake or a subsequent tsunami, so therefore there either is no infinitely powerful god, or at least not one that wants converts. My self, I don’t have much use for converts either, but then I haven’t achieved god status. Yet….

  31. Darwin Harmless says:
    March 22, 2011 at 7:35 am

    @jerry w Keep working on it, Jerry. We’re all awaiting your coming.

  32. Uncle Roger says:
    March 23, 2011 at 8:08 pm

    @Nassar Ben Houdja — Nobody’s perfect… and I guess that includes god.

    Only, I thought that was part of the very definition of god? Isn’t god supposed to be perfect? In that case, what is wrong with demanding that attribute be true before accepting god’s existence? And if god is perfect, then one would expect he would have come up with a better plan. Hell, the A-Team had better plans.

  33. Uncle Roger says:
    March 23, 2011 at 8:15 pm

    @Jerry w — I seem to recall a documentary that showed Kali stopping a tsunami… or, wait, that might have been an episode of Sanctuary on the Syfy channel. Still, it seemed a lot more real than anything I’ve seen from either Jesus or Mo.

Comment¬

NOTE: This comments section is provided as a friendly place for readers of J&M to talk, to exchange jokes and ideas, to engage in profound philosophical discussion, and to ridicule the sincerely held beliefs of millions. As such, comments of a racist, sexist or homophobic nature will not be tolerated.

If you are posting for the first time, or you change your username and/or email, your comment will be held in moderation until approval. When your first comment is approved, subsequent comments will be published automatically.