Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for September 23, 2011

Religions, flexible?………I think not

In the beginning, man created god. And it has been downhill ever since.

Dogsniff…regarding your posting yesterday, you need a dictionary. You don’t understand the difference between a fact and a belief.

My Karma ran over my Dogma….

It’s on Yahoo! News, too. Warp speed, anyone?==In science, there isn’t really such a thing as fact. Only hypotheses, evidence, and theories—until better ones come along!

Good comeback! Very funny!

Never let the facts stand in the way of your opinion !

Okay this “dog and pony show” of all your comments was fun and entertaining, but now it’s getting old. You realized withoutwithout religion in daily lives, we would all cease to exist!

…it’s a tea party sort of thing…

Unquestioned dogma can’t be flexible! We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!

Danae always makes it up on the fly!

Religion is only a temporary escape from reality.Like all escapes, some can stop after work for a few.Others don’t when to leave.

She’s just condensing into minutes (days) what every religion does anyway. They adapt to new facts and change. Not sure why this is surprising.

Don’t you mean “any” candidate for president?

Aw come on, we all know that many religious leaders conveniently adopt ideas that they themselves would rather see for some reason. Take some who would ban musical instruments in their services, but have pianos in their homes. What’s up with that?

Overall, Danae is a perfect example of opportunistic ignorance over perceived substance.

Ah, yes….the “Religion Haters” are in the house. Let’s consider some of the most prominent atheists of the 20th Century…Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Kim, Pot…lovely men who worked out their atheistic philosophies to their logical ends – “for all intent and purposes, I am god!”

Darwinist philosophy provides so much more hope! Bullying, for example, is a natural progression of Darwinism in our day. Weak, undeserving kids in school (as judged by those with power – at least on the playground, bus stop, etc.) are beaten into submission and if they end up committing suicide, the gene pool has been improved and some competition for resources has been eliminated.

So I’ll ask you “religion haters” why you get up in arms about bullying and teen suicide. With no absolute authority in your universe there can be no common morality. If you really hold to all of us being nothing but accidents of evolution, why do you care if weak ones get weeded out? Why does life have any meaning to you at all? In the scope of billions and billions of years, what difference does it make is you or anyone else dies at 15 or 105? It’s all meaningless.

Most “egotheists” (I am my own god – I am my own absolute authority) cannot live out their own philosophy to its logical conclusion, because it is almost universally hateful. It moves very quickly to genocide, eugenics, etc.

Atheism is mankind’s greatest threat because it makes man the absolute authority and we have proven time and time again that we are our own worst enemy.

True – this is pulled a bit too far…

OBAMANOMICS!

Yea, we used to have to eat fish on Friday. All of a sudden, oopps, church bad, Friday meat is fine.

It’s not really a religion until we kill someone in her name.I’ve got a list if that will help.

resembles every religion i have ever seen!

for the record. i believe in God, not religion. ALL religions are based upon someone’s interpretation of what they call God’s word – therefore, fallible. at their most basic, all religions seem to share the same tenet. live in peace with each other, treat others the way you would want to be treated by them, etc. that’s as far as i choose to go down the religious path.

It’s a comic strip, not a religious forum, and these comments are a lousy venue to argue your points one way or the other.Lighten up, please.

If that is a sincere question, I would ask you to first read the Westminster Confession of Faith in its entirety and then comment on whether or not you think the authors had any illusion as to who the supreme authority in the universe is. If you read the original version, you will find a severe anti-Catholic theme, as their position was that the Pope inappropriately assumed authority reserved solely for Christ.

I think I concur with your underlying thesis that man cannot get earthly authority perfect, but I submit that acknowledging a perfect, supreme Creator God, at the very least, gives society a position from which to form a common morality. Despite the errors that Christians have made through the centuries, and I admit they are legion, it can be quite well argued that without the rise of Christianity the concept of human equality would be unheard of. The New Testament is chalk full of teaching that in Christ there is no Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free. All are equivalent in God’s eyes. Children are addressed directly as sentient beings with wills and given direction, as are parents – to not exasperate their children but to raise them well. Before this, children had no more rights than slaves. The Bible does teach different roles for different people, but not different statuses. Those who argue via rhetoric rather than logic treat those concepts as equivalent. They are not. A quarterback has a different role than a linebacker, but their status as team members is the same. Just an example.

@masterkrain, So all war is religion based? Does that include the USA Civil War 1860-1865, or the War of 1812. French Revolution, etc.

stands up and applauds wildly

Interesting that it has long been debated the “speed limit”, and the equation includes “mass”- if a particle has no mass, is there a limit? Neutrinos ARE strange “critters”. As to dogma, it changes all the time when “religious teachings” are re-interpreted by baptists, Roman Catholics, etc- to fit what those folks who created a “god” in THEIR image have trouble rounding up the wag-tail puppies.

Einstein also said the more he learned of the universe, the MORE he believed in “God”- because of the fascinating things in the universes “Man” could not have accomplished. Now a dude with a beard and staff sitting on a cloud is NOT WHAT he considered- the image of “organized religions” from the bible, is WAY TOO IMPOTENT to have accomplished this. The “Charlton Heston Effect”- is very misleading, and weak.

Holy Scripture say … According to a panel of experts … A government study shows …

Dirk, the only authority needed is the law. Society has the ability determine what is right and wrong. I don’t need God to tell met that it would be wrong if someone killed my mother,, or stole my stuff.

found the end of the comments. for now. Gee – Danae flexiable? Must only be if it suits her at the time. .to the posters that commented on Einstein – its truly cool that a particle was found to beat the speed of light. Einstein wasn’t wrong. He had to work with the materials at hand at the time. If he were here now – who knows what his equations would have been.

Now that is cute; she should run for office; just as ‘flexible’ as a congressman…..flexible that is b…. s……

Masterskrain-You forgot about communism and fascism. Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and Pol Pot never killed anyone in the name of religion and they killed a very large number of people.

The comments became overwhelming but I feel a need to weigh in. I also am opposed to organized religion especially for myself and that does not mean I am an atheist -not at all because that is irrational. In my youth I tryed many religions (even lack of one) and finally had myself baptised at the age of 18, but left that church when I felt they looked down on me after divorcing an abusive man (they would have approved if I had an annulment – making my 4 children . . . illegitimate? I don’t need that community because I belong to a large group where we share other interests, and I prefer to pray outdoors in my garden or pool.

In the beginning, God created Man. Then She realized Her mistake…

Thank you for the polite, adult and thoughtful conversation. Rhetoric is much too easy and accepted these days, especially on the net…..in response….

I must admit that my understanding of Orthodox theology is rather superficial. I have read Timothy Ware’s “The Orthodox Church” and have attended exactly one Orthodox service in my life.

As you have surmised, I do hold to the WCF and, in general, the tenets of the Reformation of the 16th century. That said, I think it critically important for all "true believers’ to acknowledge that, being fallible human beings, it is impossible for any of us to have 100% perfect theology. By definition then, that leaves all of us short of the mark. What do we do with that? What stopped me in my tracks is the concept of divine sovereignty. If God is the supreme creator and Lord of the universe, then he must be omniscient and omnipotent and may do what he pleases. “Knowing” God, as you point out, appears to be the whole intent of God’s revelation to man as well as the incarnation of Christ.

How do we know God? By the revelation he left for us. I’m sure you are quite well-versed in the arguments of Sola Scriptura, so I will not delve into that here. I find the claims of Sola Scriputra (and the other “solas”) compelling, especially the concept that I, in and of myself, can do nothing to appease God, let alone win his favor. It must be Christ and his righteousness imputed to me simply by his good pleasure, and made evident to my psyche by work of the Holy Spirit, vice any work of my own intellect to achieve even a modicum of godliness.

Cheers!

If “facst” contradict theory, disregard them.

Without Religion, the Sumerian civilization would never have existed. Without religion, the Jewish race would never have existed. Without Religion; Babylon, Greece, Persia, Rome, and every other “great” civilization would never have been founded. Without Religions, we would all speak Russian, have The International as our National Anthem, and live in an anarchical society where everything goes no matter how shocking it is to anyone’s conscience.

A particle was found that seems to travel faster than light but it won’t be accepted as fact until the experiment can be duplicated. Most physicists at this point have serious doubts about the initial measurement and are waiting for independent verification. This is the difference between science and religion.

without Wiley there is almost nothing……go Danae!!!

Danae can spew BS better than Sarah Palin.

Why do I picture Johnny in “Airplane” saying “Just like Gerald Ford”? lol

Periodically I try to read this strip. Then I see a strip with Danae in it, and I turn purple with rage. No thanx. I enjoy the social / political commentary, tho. Just have to censor myself, I guess.

Please note that every statement you make here is an opinion that you expect everyone readily to accept accept as unquestionable fact. If I blindly accept what you say to be true, that is “faith.” It’s more than a bit ironic that you expect us to accept your opinion as fact while excoriating “religion” for doing the same thing. Your “anti-religion” has some significantly religious overtones.