Although, when the temperatures are down around -25°C, we people in the Northern hemisphere don’t associate Christmas with drinking white wine in the sun. The sentiment is great, though, so I’ll do my part and overlook the interesting seasonal reversal there.
The godless must have some fans in the comic book world. In an issue of The List: Wolverine, the heroes Fantomex (a genetically engineered supersoldier) and Captain Marvel are faced with an army of zombie-like creatures, people who have been infected with an evil virus that can only take over your mind if you believe in some sort of god. So they swing into action, safe from the infection, because neither one believes in gods.
Nice. Well, except that I do think atheists will save the world…but not by putting on a mask and drawing a pair of pistols. That’s just nuts.
It is the Cephalopodmas Season, when tentacles and the deep sea are on everyone’s mind, and that concentrated contemplation of all matters squidly must occasionally erupt into artful self-expression. Below the fold you will find a few beautiful images that have leapt into my mailbox lately.
I had no idea cartoonists wielded such vast power. First it was the Danish cartoons that outraged the Muslim community, and now an Austrian named Manfred Deix has drawn the ire of the Catholics: the Viennese archdiocese has ‘tattled’ on him to the public prosecutor for violating the National Socialist Prohibition Act and for degrading religion (it’s in German; there is a horrible Google translation).
He has mocked the EU’s ban on crucifixes in the classroom with a cartoon that argues that the “ban shall be deftly circumvented,” and which includes a “multicultural compromise” — Jesus on a cross with a crescent and a Buddha on it, wearing robes with both the hammer and sickle and the swastika on them.
The top right example is familiar — that’s a typical American classroom, I think.
Another one that has spurred Catholic outrage is a cartoon that speculated about just what this god we’re supposed to worship looks like, and asks, “we know the church, but just who is god?” (nudity and some scatological content in portraits of the deity…click at your own peril).
How odd that people would react with such anger at depictions of what the earnest apologists for religion are always telling us is just a metaphor. If their god really is the grand creator and maintainer of the entire universe, reducing him to a sketch in a magazine is really no more degrading than reducing him to, say, a set of stained glass windows, a liturgy, and a holy book. If he really is a cosmic being who loves everyone, I should think he’d love a cynical cartoonist as much as he does a pope. Or are they going to declare certain renditions of the deity privileged, while others are proscribed? How will they determine which vision of god are true and accurate, and therefore protected by secular law?
For more thought on these kinds of issues, read Greta Christina’s article on the great metaphor myth of religion. If religion really were an abstraction, a metaphor, a personal sentiment about a universal divinity, we’d expect a certain kind of response to satire, art, and opinion about this god-creature…and it’s not the reaction we see. The Austrian Catholic church seems to have a fairly specific idea about what kind of portrait of god you are allowed to paint — I wonder where they get their specific details?
This is Asher, who made a squid in his sewing class. I wish I’d had a class like that when I was his age.
(via Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub)
It’s God’s Cartoonist, a documentary about Jack Chick. That guy is a complete and utter loon, and a hateful ideologue, and a bizarre recluse…all of which would make him a fascinating subject for a documentary. I’m surprised the media haven’t been trying to track him down before.
It’s available on DVD. I think I’ll have to get a copy.
Kooks are like stray cats: give them a little bit of attention, and they end up following you everywhere, making annoying squalling noises and clawing at your door. A perfect example is David Mabus aka Dennis Markuze aka That Insane Prat, who, now that registration is a barrier to posting his little kook-droppings here, has taken to trying to flood my mailbox. Ha ha, the laugh is on him, my mailbox is already flooded! Also, I’ve got filters up the wazoo there, anyway.
There a whole lot of skeptics (and the entire faculty of the University of Minnesota Morris, too, who have marveled and laughed at is output) who have been getting these lunatic emails, but I just filter them and delete them. However, Rebecca Watson has pointed out one felicitous random phrase from his recent eruption: GOATS ON FIRE! It’s just sitting there. I have no idea what he’s talking about. But it does seem to me to be a useful term for flagging weird stuff, so I’ve added it to my email filters to highlight any comments that use the phrase. It’ll be handy for bringing the crazy to my attention…as long as you don’t abuse it.
And again, the stray cat effect: crazy David Cumming, author of the God Equation, really wants my attention, and sent me a four page summary of his reasoning. It was too long and too stupid, so I only skimmed it, but in case anyone else wants to add it to their cracked pot collection, I’ve scanned it in. No, don’t thank me. I’m just hoping one of you will shred it apart so that Cumming will follow you home.
It’s very GOATS ON FIRE! There is a section that asks, “Where is the science?”, but when I looked, there isn’t any there.
It’s only two weeks until Squidmas! Squeeee, I say, Squeee!
You’ve only got a few days left to enter: Everything Octopus is giving away a cephalopod tree ornament, and all you have to do is subscribe to the site and leave a comment. Easy!
I already own this very same ornament, and will be putting up our family christmas tree this weekend. I’ve received a lot of ‘pod gear from readers over the last few years, and I’m planning to decorate the tree with lots of it (I’ll put up a photo when it’s done). If you won this ornament, you’ll be on the path to outdoing the awesomeness of my tree. It’s something to dream of, you know.
