Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling for November 19, 2010

Is there a theological joke here? ‘Cause I don’t get it. I get the comic book joke, but that’s it. I do think that you could have done some reference to the book of Job here.

The “theological joke” is that theology is a joke. Ruben is athiest/antitheist.

I wouldn’t say this is antitheistic per se, but definitely a satire of religious ideas, pointing out how fundamentally self-contradictory and illogical an anthropomorphic idea of a supreme being actually is. Endowing an omnipotent and omniscient being with a human-sized personality just flat-out doesn’t work. So you get nonsense like God, who already knows everything, “testing” your faith - despite the fact that, being God, he’s already aware of what the results of the test are going to be. So, then, the point of the test is just to wear away at your faith to make it … stronger?

Good evaluation, jedraft, but the religious folk (specifically followers of any of the middle-east-based superstitions), would argue that God-man does bad things to good people so THEY will know where they stand. To help these good folks determine their personal readings on the faith-a-tron, God-man is good enough to provide lessons in the form of everything from everyday injustices (like the mistaken identity example above) to life threatening illnesses to massive catastrophes. And being omniscient, he does it so surreptitiously that the statistical occurrence of these trials for the faithful is exactly the same as it is for atheists and people of incorrect religions. God-man: love him or not, you’re going to get yours!

Actually it has to do with the fact that man has free will. It is argued that even if God knows what man will do man still has the power to change his mind. The basic premise is illogical but this is religion after all. Either you believe or you don’t but never try to make sense of it.

Isn’t it obvious why God created man?

To beat the snot out of him at every opportunity!

(Why can’t he just fry ants with a magnifying glass like the rest of us?)

My mind went straight to when Abraham was commanded to make Isaac into a burnt offering and then God sent one of his angels to stop Abraham as he was about to, how we say, slit his child’s throat. Oh God, you’re such a card!

jtpozenel, not ants but “As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods, They kill us for their sport.” – WS, King Lear

NEXT ISH: Special Guest-Author William F. Buckley brings us “God-Man and Human-Man at Yale”!

Don’t miss it, True Believers! Excelsior!

“Is there a theological joke here? ‘Cause I don’t get it.”

The God-Man series operates on a number of levels, and satirizes a number of cultural phenomenae.

At one level, yes, it can be seen as a phrasing of the traditional “problem of evil” (that is, “how can bad things happen if God is omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent?”) in a broadly comedic setting.

At another level, Superman comics generate amusingly similar paradoxical considerations to those traditionally encountered in theology, for the same reason - Superman seems to require nothing and be able to do almost anything, yet his approach to combating evil seems piecemeal and inefficient, despite his high intelligence, benevolence, and massive powers.

Bolling, clearly at least as influenced by superhero comics as by theology, capitalizes on these similarities, to create a series which simultaneously makes light of profound questions about the human place in the universe, while also satirizing old superhero comics in an entertaining way.

Hope this helped.

The lesson to be learned is this : God does NOT know everything! The Heisenberg Exclusion Equation demonstrates and proves it most elegantly. Very instructive comic !

Tell Human-Man to kill his eldest son - that’s the way it’s supposed to be done…Oh, wait - God-Man already tried that with the worker dangling from the high-rise, didn’t he? Well, nothing wrong using an old stand-by like that more than once…

..as a person of faith I always get a kick out of God Man…I look at faith like jazz..you make it up as you go along..and jazz is kick’ass’..

As I just posted elsewhere, my own god of choice is Coyote. He thinks he’s omniscient and infallible, but we know better. A god who laughs and is laughed AT in equal measure. I don’t actually believe in him, but he doesn’t care; he’s not particularly jealous, unlike some other gods I might name (I won’t, but his initials are YHWH).

Thank you for your faith, st2 - you have my blessings upon you and yours. Ushindi vobisbleeep, et bleeep spiritu tuo.

(Once again, the nannybot bleeped the latin “v-o-b-i-s-c-u-m and the “et c-u-m”. In other words (of latin), Ushindi be with you, and with thy spirit.)

Never mind, it loses something when it has to be explained in order to get an innocuous phrase by the censors.

who created God-man?

When I ask what the theological joke is, I’m referring to this strip by itself. I usually get these, but I see no theological component to this strip aside from naming the all-powerful hero “God-man.” As far as I can tell the joke would be exactly the same if it used Superman and Little Orphan Annie. EDIT: When God wants to test someone’s faith, He doesn’t punch them in the face, he kills their children.

So an answer about the God-man series in general doesn’t answer my question in the slightest.

This strip harkens back to the 1960’s World’s Finest Comics, when most of the covers featured Batman and Superman in some sort of conflict against each other.

I always appreciate the comments of the militant atheists, who, living in the same complex wonderful universe as I, and who have some similarly limited perspective on it all as do I. manage to get it all figured out. Kudos to you for being super-smart!

Someone has to keep the world progressing for the rest of you.

As per: “I look at faith like jazz..you make it up as you go along..” I completely agree with your interpretation of religion over the centuries.

And we appreciate it, BrandeX. But in all seriousness, the sheer smuggery is what bothers me. You must be choking on it on a daily basis.