Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling for January 02, 2015

By far the best predictor of religion is the myth your parents believed in. Unless, of course, it’s MY myth, then it’s the truth.

We’re all born atheist. Then some of us get brainwashed.

I was born Southern Baptist. Once old enough to think, I converted to atheism. Happy with the decision, too. Unlike others, I don’t condemn or mock those of a religious bent. To each his own. Live and let live, and all of that. I truly understand and accept that religion can play a very important role in a person’s life. I certainly don’t agree that it is a sign of being weak or simple minded.

I was raised Buddhist but became Episcopalian because the Episcopal chaplain at the Midwestern hospital I worked at was a terrific guy. (Not so much the Buddhist priest at my parents’ temple, who was caught stealing from the temple’s accounts.) My father however is convinced that I will be judged by the Buddha when I die because “you were born Buddhist! You can’t change that!” I told him there’s nothing in Buddhist scriptures that says the religion is genetic, or that the Buddha is even judgey. Dad said it’s “written on your heart.” I said I have to check with my cardiologist about that. (And yeah, that was mean, but getting hammered with that argument every holiday gets tiring.)

I’m not religious, but I don’t scoff at religion. it’s pretty widespread — most cultures at most times (so far as we know) have been pretty religious (depending on how you define religion). There has to be a reason. Perhaps religion has a certain survival value — perhaps it helps a large society to bond if the people in the culture all think of themselves as belonging to the same religion. So they can all unite in fighting some other culture with some other religion.

nothing funnier than a holier than thou atheist.

Which is why all Anglicans become Roman Catholic, then Pagan or Jewish. QED.

Nothing like anything mentioning religion at all to bring out the Church of Outspoken Atheists Who Are Totally Superior In Every Way. They’re even more obnoxious than Jehovah’s Witnesses, and twice as pushy about converting you to their religion.

You will never convince anyone you are right by belittling them and telling them that they are in all ways inferior to you because they believe differently. But that isn’t your goal. Your goal is to reaffirm your beliefs to yourself, because, just like any religion, you cannot prove you are right, and must rely on faith in your beliefs.

In your world, apparently.

This seems clearly inspired by Richard Dawkins: ’I have said that LABELLING children with the religion of their parents is child abuse….What I am against is labelling a child a Catholic child, Muslim child etc. I am, of course, equally opposed to labelling a child an ‘atheist child’. Panel 4 drives the point home even more strongly.

Religion functions much the way language does — to keep some people together and other people out.

Religion functions much the way language does — to keep some people together and other people out.

what is deconstructional relativist

“Half the people in the world think that the metaphors of their religious traditions, for example, are facts. And the other half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result we have people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because they think religious metaphors are lies.” ― Joseph Campbell, Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor

(biblical literalists are people who, when brought to an art museum, attempt to climb into the paintings—said by me, whoever that is)

I think this strip is one of the most incisive commentaries on the idiocy of ascribing religious beliefs to one’s children that I’ve ever seen or read! Thanks!.

@lonecat

I’m not a slave owner, but I don’t scoff at slave owning. it’s pretty widespread — most cultures at most times (so far as we know) have been slave owners (depending on how you define slave owning). There has to be a reason. Perhaps slave owning has a certain survival value.

@lonecat

I’m okay with slave owning as metaphor, though I suspect most slave owners wouldn’t accept that description.

I’m not a slave owner, but I don’t call myself anti slavery, except if pressed.

Ahhh, “smug self-satisfaction”, the antidote to actual thought.