Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for March 24, 2024

That’s no way to talk to someone who was at Selma!

You hit the nail on the head there BD, still waiting for tangible proof that any of the gods have ever existed.

No, Rev; same discussion.

Religion per se isn’t a problem. Left to itself, it’d just be a hobby, like collecting stamps, going bowling, or reading Harry Potter. No, religion is just a symptom of the real, underlying problem, namely faith — the mindset that deludes people into thinking that they can somehow or other “know” things without a shred of supporting evidence, and frequently in the face of considerable evidence to the contrary. Faith gives us not only religion but also homeopathy, astrology, objectivism, ufology, conspiracy theories, climate-change denial, false accusations of ritual satanic child abuse, numerology, anti-vax movements, a host of superstitions, personality cults, dowsing, jingoism, imperialism, racism, psi phenomena, quackery, Chinese traditional “medicine”, feng shui, and the insidious brain parasite that leads people to endlessly obsess over anyone named Kardashian.

Faith is humanity’s all-time, blue-ribbon, gold-medal, undisputed, undefeated, heavyweight world-champion worst method EVER of making decisions! Nobody ever uses faith for anything that can be tested or measured or that really matters in real life.

The priest class, needless to say, praises faith to the skies, because their paychecks depend on suckers continuing to fall for it. Religious believers are the victims in a huge con game.

Don’t believe me? Test it for yourself. The difference between education and indoctrination is whether the person at the front of the room welcomes questions from the audience. Try it the next time your minister is in the middle of a sermon.

ZING!

BD just may have a point. As Karl Marx might agree, the “masses” need all the opiates they can get nowadays!!

My 4H sister, who demands to be addressed as “Reverend” because of her internet title, would disagree BD. She will give you a couple of quotes from her Absolute Book of Absolute Truths to show you how wrong you are.

4H = HypocrItical Holyrollers Happy Hor$e$hitter$ Club

No it’s not.

Of the thousands of religions, past and present, yours is the only true one.

The Rev’s on shaky ground and digging a hole.

The analysis is too shallow. Yes, about 30% are authoritarian followers who actively hate freedom and want to be told what to do and believe and even think. (Normally that isn’t such a big problem because they are all over the place, and they are only dangerous now because so many of them think they are in the same camp.) The largest group is more neutral. These “neutrals” mostly like freedom but don’t want to work too hard at being free. I think they almost surely the majority overall. (The key there is how public education has been attacked to train them to be more easily manipulated.)

That leaves a small group of people who actively like freedom. I think they are actually divided into two groups. One group sees freedom as a zero sum game. These are the dictators who want more freedom by removing other people’s freedom. (They strongly target that 30% who want to follow.) The other group sees freedom as a win-win game, where more freedom for other people also creates more freedom for themselves. (I hope I am in the last group based on how the information needed to be free is distributed. The more widely distributed the data, the harder it is for anyone to manipulate other people, including me.)

When I toured the Vatican my thoughts jumped to things like “vow of poverty” “WWJD” Acoma pueblo, and other basic lip service values.

Exactly!

And this morning, the Christian Sabbath, I woke up to front page news that the drag story hour scheduled for the library was threatened with violence and a bomb scare and had to be canceled. Local authorities now want to defund the county libraries. I guess Christian traditional violence is stilll a thing. Not that I doubted it. And Fox News is spreading the outlandish idea that being trans has become “trendy” among teens.

70% of Americans think angels are real, a third think ghosts are. That’s a lot of crazy.

Pretty much on point. I have had discussions with a few of my progressive christian friends on the subject. It usually starts on their side of the discussion with a comment like “But they are not real Christains.” or "How can someone believe this nonsense? I try to point out how religions evolve, adopt new myths, and sometimes in a short time. Christianity and Islam Both evolved from Judaism, yet there are Christians and Muslims who hate their origins. Judaism has done the same as they borrowed from the Sumerian myths. Their writings contradict themself. One couple I brought two decades ago they were anti-LGBTQ+ it was a sin. Marriage for LGBTQ+ was wrong. Now it is okay even to where it is okay with performing weddings for the LGBTQ+. Could you tell me why? I asked them. It’s same doctrines. It was the church that changed first. They are following the secular to remain a part. The fundamentalists are choosing a different path to stay in power. To increases fears. They have done it before and will do it again. Part of what gave NAZI Germany power was a church who adopted and allowed it to survive. Same with the Soviet Union. It was supposedly atheist . Was it ? Seems like the Orthodox church was still valid the whole time. They may have changed for a while to survive. But survive they did. They are part of what gives Putin power. I not against religion. Humans have always used some form to help explain nature. However some like Shinto adapt as they gain facts in their understanding of the world and the forces. Others decides those facts are sometime to be feared because they may lose power over others, and deny the facts.

Cheap shot.

Ouch. Although the good Rev. is there arguing the importance of a rational approach to the world and none of the others are.

As an Apathesist, the best understanding I’ve found about the discussion of religion was by Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal: theoatmeal dot com slash comics slash religion

(Since they don’t allow urls in the comments, ya gotta DIY, it’s worth it – BTW the “slash” is this one “/”) or you can just browse for – the oatmeal how to suck at your religion

Speaking of evil: Despite ISIS–K claiming responsibility for the Russian theater massacre, that snake Putin is now trying to link it to Ukraine.

From WIKI: ISIS–K, … ,seeks to destabilize and overthrow existing governments … It aims to create a Caliphate in South and Central Asia, governed by Islamic sharia law, and has a history of several suicide bombings listed in more detail in the WIKI article.

As a Christian, I can draw some joy from today’s strip by recalling the Bible verse about how few people can find the door to Heaven. Garry Trudeau’s evangelism improves my odds.

Enter The Grand Inquisitor with his arsenal of Miracle, Mystery, and Authority! Even better than Magic!

On the subject of cult leaders, good news!

Google: Lisa Murkowski, done with Donald Trump, won’t rule out leaving GOP

Clergy who lead their flock down the wrong path for the sake of their political beliefs. BOO HISS

Non-fundamentalist clergy are aware that they don’t KNOW, but believe. And respect those who believe differently. Not the same thing. And the religious impulse is probably instinctive.

Let’s NOT go there: I left it in the past 50 years ago. Their “stories” just made NO sense, esp. as regards women and “their place”. . .

“You Scientologists believe in aliens reborn from volcanoes! You weirdos! Come join us and worship an invisible god in the sky!”-Pretty much every other religion

Why does Boopsie still look like she’s in a constant state of being surprised?

Thanks BD. Now the comic is complete.

BINGO

Definitely clergy.

I would argue that more evil, death and human misery has been done in the name of God than the almighty Dollar, but I hear it’s catching up very quickly!

Thousands witnessed the life and death of Jesus Christ who talked about his Father and performed many miracles. Kind of hard to refute that.

It’s easy to ridicule those who are much worse off than you, but I resist being dragged down to that level

…and republicans

At least clergy can build mutually supportive communities. GOOD clergy anyway.

No it’s not.

Especially clergy.

How do “ghosts, alien abductions and Qanon’s satanic pedophile cannibals” contribute to “certainty and hope”?

OMG! What? Tttttthhere’s no invisible almighty God flying around everywhere? No Heaven? WTF?!

Show of hands, who saw that coming?… Believing in God is fine, it’s the believing in religion i have a problem with.

Sorry Rev, exact same discussion.

There is only one true god, mine, the rest of you guys are losers. Ha ha.

" ♫ My troubles are many, they’re as deep as a well.

I can swear there ain’t no heaven but I pray there ain’t no hell

Swear there ain’t no heaven and pray there ain’t no hell♫

But I’ll never know by living, only my dying will tell

♫Only my dying will tell, yeah, only my dying will tell"

And when I die. Laura Nyro

Best strip ever!

boyhowdy, I’ll say! there’s plenty of proof if you open your eyes & mind, heart.

Go away ghost, I’m trying to watch TV.

I wonder if that right-wing newspaper owner decided the public didn’t need to be educated about this subject too.

I believe in the Satanic Pedophile Cannibals. Their music is to die for.

Well, no, not really, Scot.

“my god told me it’s ok to do or not do this.” worst excuse ever.

The ancient Greeks and Romans were certain their gods were real. They built temples to them and organized their societies around them.

Just something to think about.

And so much ‘settled science’.

Oh, is it Rev? For years I have said it all starts with Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy… then comes Jesus loves me and Vacation Bible School, Heaven and Hell, capital G God versus capital D devil, and then the big lie, self-governance. We begin a child’s indoctrination from almost before they can walk and bring it to fruition when they sign their student loan application. Anything is Possible. If you can believe it you can achieve it. You’re a princess. We lie to our children as our parents lied to us. What should we expect?

Whether God exists or not, we, you and I, have a spiritual component. Good clergy, shaman, or guru, will help you grow the relationship between your spiritual and physical elements. If you lack a good guide, work it out yourself.

Peace.

It’s believed that humans are the only creatures on Earth able to comprehend that they will inevitably stop existing at some point. A lot of people are too weak mentally to handle that knowledge, and have to retreat into fantasies in order to deal with life.

Amen

Funny how many people are being tried for election fraud this year.

…but should be part of the discussion!

The Firesign Theater used Robert Anton Wilson’s quote sardonically by having a con artist say, “There’s a seeker (sucker) born every minute.”

Mr. Trudeau should watch the documentaries made by Dr. Steven Greer. Talk about enlightening and eye-opening!

Hey, he SAID “cult leaders”!

BD has a point. To me, any religious leader who sides with Orange Republican Jesus does no honor to their god or their faith. But that’s the way of human nature, I guess. Twisting religious beliefs to rationalize allegiance or bad behavior has been done for centuries. It’s all a big scam.

I knew this was inevitably going to turn into an atheism discussion but I was more interested in some defense of the possibility that ghosts are a real thing.

…but should be part of the discussion!

“Your god is real. The other 2,499 gods are nonsense. Only your god is real.” — Ricky Gervais

As Carlin the Great would say, “Religion is cow manure.”

A lot of scared RINOs out there!

Well, a “spirited” discussion is always inevitable.

Why has Boopsie “had to let go of Cleopatra”?

I have always admired Mr. Trudeau for his willingness to take on controversial subject matter, even after a number of papers dropped ‘Doonesbury’ back in the 80s. Still, this was a jaw-dropper – one I agree with, to be sure. I just didn’t expect anyone to actually say it “out loud.”

30% of people do not believe Trump was elected president in 2016? These folks will go crazy in November.

Zap !

Works for me – they all sell snake oil and BS.

Strip’s a week early for Zombie Jesus Day.

Frank Gilbreth,, played by Clifton Webb in the first movie based on the book, called them “collar backward cheer leaders.”

And if you believe, you are already predisposed to believing myths and fairy tales…..

When you cut through — something that be cut through, a polite metaphor presently eludes me - there are ultimately only two reasons to believe anything: Either the evidence pretty much requires you to believe it or you just plain want to believe it. It’s either convincing or comforting (or both, of course). As is obvious, in some cases, some people for whatever reason don’t want to believe evidence, no matter how objectively convincing and therefore don’t believe said evidence, because they find it comforting to believe things that are unconvincing . It’s all subjective, of course. :|

The Rev is honest about the fact too many clergy are an embarrassment to their religion. He’s been an activist since the 70s, doing more than preaching and passing the plate. Well he does pass the plate, but you know where the money goes. He bought Walden Puddle and made a recovery center out of it.

Touché!!!

yeah I was reading this thinking ’isn’t he sort of professionally required to belief in spiritual beings?’

I’m not much of a believer – but I like the music.

;)

So they brought Sam in for that one line and then no further role in the proceedings. Tsk tsk.

A teeny bit of a low blow—Rev Scott doesn’t exactly have his own just provides spiritual counseling

Can’t help but think this is an inside joke regarding an old room mate. Nicely played!!

You know the difference between a cult and a religion?

About a hundred years.