Discussion (37)¬

1. Matt says:

   November 4, 2015 at 2:01 pm

   “…has become an act of courage in the seculr west…”

   For me the irony is multipled. When I grew up in the 70’s/80’s it was social death to admit you were religious (quite rightly so). But in recent years it has become respectable (yurgh!) or even a badge of “honour” (double yurgh!) to admit to faith.

   I console myself that it is 2 steps forward and 1 back. In 20 years’ time, religious people will be openly mocked as they were in the good old days.

2. Matt says:

   November 4, 2015 at 2:02 pm

   “multiplied” although I quite like “multipled”

3. freethinkinfranklin says:

   November 4, 2015 at 2:25 pm

   very cerebral, no wonder most Americans do not understand it. keep up the good work.

4. arensb says:

   November 4, 2015 at 2:40 pm

   Is there a missing zero in the headline about Raif Badawi?

5. cynick says:

   November 4, 2015 at 2:47 pm

   Raif Badawi faces a thousand lashes, not one hundred (assuming that is what Jesus’ headline refers to).

6. IanB says:

   November 4, 2015 at 3:15 pm

   They’re so persecuted.

7. Author says:

   November 4, 2015 at 3:15 pm

   Thanks arensb and cynick. I’ve fixed the headline.

8. Atalanta says:

   November 4, 2015 at 3:20 pm

   “When a view is expressed which is informed by one’s faith… that view is often treated with scepticism, as though it is somehow less rational or ill-founded.”

   My devout belief in the flying spaghetti monster and doctorate in pastafarian theology lead me to conclude that Messrs Mirvis and Nichols produced these oxymoronic remarks as result of a brain-addling diet of boiled potatoes and that only hours of penitent spaghetti consumption will restore them to sanity, and I prescribe the same remedy for anyone who calls my reasoning irrational or unfounded!

9. Jerry+www says:

   November 4, 2015 at 3:41 pm

   “We tried to beat fear of god into the boy”, a line of dialogue from the actors who played the parents of Woody Allen’s character in the film “Take The Money And Run”.

10. plainsuch says:

    November 4, 2015 at 4:24 pm

    Why am I surprised? I thought the “brazen persecution” of Christian, Muslim and Jewish minorities was being handled by the local Christian, Muslim or Jewish majorities. Turns out it’s been those sneaky secularists and their dreaded rational empiricism all along.

11. jean-françois+gauthier says:

    November 4, 2015 at 4:25 pm

    @freethinkinfranklin: unfortunately, wide-eyed stupidity is one monopoly the united states do not own, as demonstrated with appalling regularity by polls across europe. in some regions (picardie and provence, for instance) of france, polls currently credit the front national with > 35%. the ukip has flirted with close to 30% in some polls this summer. i wouldn’t bet that their electoral base is much more enlightened or worldly than ben carson’s fans. that said, let’s start the day (here in montréal) with some entertainment: https://youtu.be/tlaeVkO-cYw (no, not the loud and obnoxious idiot, the soft-spoken idiot.)

12. Matt says:

    November 4, 2015 at 5:16 pm

    “When a view is expressed which is informed by one’s faith… that view is often treated with scepticism, as though it is somehow less rational or ill-founded.”

    Christ, do people actually think that? A faith-based position is somehow less rational or ill-founded??? That is just soooo unfair.

    I mean what sort of idiot would challenge the idea that Jesus was the son of God or that the Jews are God’s chosen people. Er…

13. Ophelia Benson says:

    November 4, 2015 at 6:25 pm

    Very sly, very dramatic. Horror movie effect – you know it’s there, you know it’s something, then in the last frame – bam!

14. Ophelia+Benson says:

    November 4, 2015 at 6:28 pm

    very cerebral, no wonder most Americans do not understand it.

    Charming. Substitute “Pakistanis” or “Nigerians” for “Americans” and see how that sounds.

15. Chris Phoenix says:

    November 4, 2015 at 7:56 pm

    Ophelia+Benson: As an American, seeing one of the major political parties teaching contempt for science and for intellectual thinking, seeing the blatantly false beliefs many Americans hold as a result, I have to say the original criticism is on-target and well-deserved.

    How it “sounds” if a different target is substituted does not change that unhappy fact.

16. Darwin Harmless says:

    November 4, 2015 at 8:20 pm

    jean-françois+gauthier that clip of Ben Carson is truly terrifying. To think that a man who believes that could be the leader of the United States. Beyond horrifying. That’s a guy in an expensive suit, talking like a reasonable human being, looking good, and saying things that anybody with half a brain would dismiss out of hand. He could be the next president? Oy vey.

    Author, you have found a new way to deliver the punch line, and this one just knocked me over. Just widen the fame and let the irony burst forth like a flood of madness. Yikes. And thanks.

17. Nassar+Ben+Houdja says:

    November 4, 2015 at 8:31 pm

    Those who’s faith is a bit
    Of the ravings of a half wit
    Do things quite obnoxious
    Or absurdly preposterous
    Of trying to think, they have quit.

18. white+squirrel says:

    November 4, 2015 at 8:45 pm

    Substitute “Pakistanis” or “Nigerians” for “Americans” and see how that sounds.

    ok lets try it

    A large percentage of Americans have religion based homophobia and misogyny
    A large percentage of Pakistanis have religion based homophobia and misogyny
    A large percentage of Nigerians have religion based homophobia and misogyny

    it looks about the same to me

19. white+squirrel says:

    November 4, 2015 at 9:01 pm

    “We tried to beat fear of god into the boy”,
    oh that must be what John 3:16 means

20. plainsuch says:

    November 4, 2015 at 9:26 pm

    Substitute “Pakistanis” or “Nigerians” for “Americans” and see how that sounds.
    Point taken…but. I don’t intend condescension when I say my expectations are not as high for countries that have spent the last millennium confined to the Dark Ages by religious ideology. As an American, I grew up believing Science would eventually understand everything and Industry would use that knowledge to build new Technology.
    Space race! Man on the Moon! Two cars in every garage, a computer in every home and a TV Dinner in every microwave. That sort of thing.

    So it’s doubly frustrating to find that I am surrounded by mouth-breathers who, willfully, don’t know and don’t care.

21. Michael says:

    November 4, 2015 at 9:33 pm

    Unfortunately anti-intellectualism is an ancient and honorable tradition here in the US. When my daughter was five or six she expressed disdain for “eggheads.” After my wife and I both told her we considered ourselves eggheads the daughter was amazed by the fact that we were willing to admit it. Apparently her circle of friends considered eggheads to be true untermenschen, although she did did confess that she wasn’t quite sure what an egghead actually was.

22. plainsuch says:

    November 4, 2015 at 9:37 pm

    I’m partial to Mathew 6:5 also Mathew 6:20-21

23. plainsuch says:

    November 5, 2015 at 4:56 am

    Apparently her circle of friends considered eggheads to be true untermenschen, although she did confess that she wasn’t quite sure what an egghead actually was
    You could say her opinion was informed by her faith in her friends. 🙂

24. white+squirrel says:

    November 5, 2015 at 4:56 pm

    Unfortunately anti-intellectualism is an ancient and honorable tradition
    .

25. stevegallacci says:

    November 6, 2015 at 6:33 am

    Some of American anti-intellectualism comes from- perversely- our sense of fair play, and the notion that to be smarter was a cheat. There is all kinds of folk lore that held that the the common sense of the common man(especially the common man of the land) was ultimately superiour to the sneaky smart city slicker with all his book learning. To be stronger or richer was more honestly obvious, and had the mythology of something that anyone could aspire to. To be more intelligent (not just educated) was both invisible and inherent, an “unfair” advantage.

26. Jerry+www says:

    November 6, 2015 at 4:26 pm

    If people question how Ben Carson could be a brain surgeon when he may have, based on his public comments, a problem with a barely usable brain of his own might do well to consider that some gynecologists are male.

27. smee says:

    November 6, 2015 at 8:32 pm

    “simply admitting you’re person of faith has become an act of courage in the secular west” especially if you’re Jewish not only have you got most of Europe’s islamists wanting you dead, you’ve also got the BDS morons passing the ammunition.

28. Art.25 says:

    November 6, 2015 at 9:00 pm

    I have to say, I like reading the comments almost as much as reading the cartoon ! Thank you all, but especially Darwin Harmless, for making witty, funny but thought-proviking remarks !

29. Bothered-of-Tunbridge says:

    November 7, 2015 at 4:55 am

    On the subject of USAlien anti-intellectualism or “Buke lurrnin is evvull” (also known as “Boko Haram”) we have this dighted, gormless twit. The question is : how the fuck can anyone be ignorant and stupid enough to vote for him?

    Aren’t there any sane, educated, non-crooked politicians left?

30. FreeFox says:

    November 7, 2015 at 7:13 am

    @bothered-of-tunbridge: Bernie Sanders seems to fit the bill.

31. Darwin Harmless says:

    November 8, 2015 at 1:13 am

    Bothered-of-Tunbridge thanks for that link. The information it provides is both enlightening and horrifying. It’s enlightening because it explains how a man who can walk and talk and tie his own shoe laces could hold an option which is obviously absurd.

    It’s horrifying because it shows just how ignorant and out of touch with this century the man is, the more so since, after being given some facts (such as the pyramids are not hollow, have no room for grain, and held the corpses of rulers), he sticks to his opinion. Oh yes, and it’s horrifying because the man has a non-zero chance of attaining the highest office in America with access to a button that could blow us all to rat shit. That’s horrifying on stilts.

    Art 25 I posted your letter on my site and thanks for the kind words.

    FreeFox, I love Bernie. Wish I was an American so I could vote for him. Glad I’m not an American because I don’t want to be in the same country as Carson and Trump. But Sanders has been on the right side of every issue, consistently, since marching with MLK.

    BTW we seem to have had a bloodless revolution in Canada, getting rid of our wannabe Stalin and replacing him with a heavy duty progressive. Check out our new cabinet: http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/justin-trudeau-s-new-liberal-cabinet-full-list-and-bios-1.2642140 What a talent pool.
    In particular note our new Minister of Defence and our new Minister of Science (an actual scientist, she’s also a Nobel Prize winner.) Woot woot.

32. plainsuch says:

    November 8, 2015 at 3:18 am

    DH
    Is your new government cutting back on tarsands oil? People here are celebrating the death of the Keystone XL pipeline. But it seems like it was already dying before Obama put the stake in it’s heart.

33. Bothered-of-Tunbridge says:

    November 8, 2015 at 7:16 am

    I know that just after the BBC and Wiki-Pea, the Reddit/Imgur site is the dregs of the Internet but I thought this might amuse some of you.
    It takes a while.

34. Bothered-of-Tunbridge says:

    November 8, 2015 at 7:21 am

    Mr. Harmless, just before a large star dies it flares up brighter than its host galaxy.

    Not that I think Canada is the last weak flare of rationality before the endless darkness or anything.

35. Darwin+Harmless says:

    November 9, 2015 at 4:17 pm

    Plainsuch, the tar sands oil thing is still up in the air, but at least our new PM has nixed tanker traffic on our coast. He expressed “disappointment” that the U.S. has ash canned the pipeline to the Gulf of Mexico. Not sure why.

    Bothered of Tunbridge, perhaps my country is going super nova. Too soon to tell. For now all signs are hopeful.

36. two cents' worth says:

    November 10, 2015 at 6:05 pm

    Bothered-of-Tunbridge, thanks for the link to the imgur posting! It did indeed take me a while to get it, but the epiphany was a delight 🙂 .

37. Bothered-of-Tunbridge says:

    November 11, 2015 at 9:38 am

    Mr. Harmless and Mr. Worth, thank you. I don’t often get told I did good.
    Indeed, this may be the first time this year.
    I only wish I had created the thing instead of just finding it