There are also reasons D, E, F…etc., that I’m sure any sufficiently apologetic Christian will trot out for us, but they’re all of ever-increasing absurdity. Most seem to subscribe to a less comical version of A, blaming his reluctance to manifest on a Divine Snit over the Fall.
Personally, I favor answer answer Ω: there never was any god to blame. Simple, clear, reasonable, and it fits all the facts.
At last, biologists get some respect from xkcd…and it features cephalopods. Seriously, no other branch of science has anything as wicked cool as the diversity of life to play with.
By the way, the artist reveals his physics bias when he has the cuttlefish crudely zapping their targets with boring old electricity. A much more subtle and powerful strategy would be to use them as vectors for a modified strain of Vibrio that would infect the brains of their victims, causing them to both glow in the dark and have an irresistible desire to close out their bank accounts and mail the contents to me…but no, I have said too much. He almost got me monologuing there.
Lack of self-awareness is a tragic disease running rampant in the fundagelical community. Here’s an amusing instance: what happens if you tell children about Santa, and then they find out the truth? Why, they go on a terrorist rampage of murder and mayhem, of course.
Right. I’m sure you all remember that day when you discovered Santa Claus was just-pretend, maybe when you were 4 or 5, and you right away ran out and burned down the pre-school and strangled the cat. Funny, isn’t it, how everyone reading this figured out that Santa isn’t real and managed to survive the trauma without committing any felonies.
Not this poor kid, though. Look how he ends up.
Guess what? I bet Osama bin Ladin doesn’t believe in Santa Claus either.
Alas, this Chick comic has a very muddled message. It seems to be that you shouldn’t teach kids to believe in fairy tales, because they’ll be disappointed when they find out the truth…but somehow, he thinks the fairy tale of Jesus is different.
Since everyone is sending me this link, I’ll go ahead and mention the amusing comparisons between various religions and programming languages…however, I am deeply offended. They left out the greatest programming languages of all, Pascal (especially Object Pascal) and Modula-2. What’s with all this praise for obscurantist C and its dialects? Wirth’s languages win on clarity and structure.
Perhaps it is because they can’t be compared to religion in any way.
Yeah, they’ve got us there.
…then the gospels would have been written like this.
I must object to this list!
The differences are obvious. If you’re good, Santa brings you toys every year, and if you’re bad, you get a lump of coal. Jesus, on the other hand, offers nothing but vague promises that will only be redeemed after you’re dead, and neither alternative (hovering about in the clouds with a harp vs. crackling fiercely in a hellish fire) sound particularly attractive.
If you really must believe in some magic man flying through the sky, I recommend Santa.
This must be why he used a flood, last time.
