Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for November 19, 2011

I think Rat needs to locate Father Mole again before it is too late.

Hell,(sorry) isn’t that what most do. Not realy sorry.

Rat is condemned to rathood for all eternity! Learn from this, ratty ones!

only 2 billion? Mr Pastis must be an optimist.

This one is deep, close to the bone. “About two billion” sounds about right, give or take a couple of billion.

Attenting church don’t make you a righteous person. Some folks use Church as a social club; as my grandmothers once said RIP…“They go to see, and be seen.”

Those 2 billion + the opiated are amateurs. Once God asks me for forgiveness, I’ll ask. An I for an I. . ..

Hallelujah…etc. (Who talked?)

Latest stats I’ve read place Christians world-wide at about 2 billion. Muslims at 1.3 billion. Hindus at 900 million. Agnostic/Atheist at 850 million. And so on. I’m sure the numbers are changing all the time.

EtherAir — Do you think only “Christians” have a conscience?

Even at that, seems like you’re counting only Protestants, not all Christians.

You’re leaving out huge populations — Catholic Latin America, Eastern Orthodox Russia, Coptic Ethiopia, etc.

Yes, there are 2 billion Christians.

And a billion and a half Muslims ….. almost a billion Hindus….

Millions of Buddhists, Jains… .hey, even a few Jews…..

I’m sure you can find a conscience or two there, if you look.

oops….cdward, you posted while I was typing…. sorry.

But I’ll leave it cos of the rest of my post.

Intriguing strip. Rat is a jerk, and it’s fun (and a bit painful) to watch his antics because we all know people like this. Rat is also totally clueless about his jerkitude, because he can’t seen past the end of his own pointy nose. His conscience, however, is calling him to account, and he’s not terribly happy about it.

“Up in the attic…the locked box…” sound familiar? What about a useful friendly interface that decodes all the messages for better behavior that are stored there, and there’s a processor that down-loads into your deepest mind those lessons and more socially-appropriate strategies for a more effective future?

No, Rat will just put it in a rocket bound for Alpha Centuri, or somewhere. Bon voyage…or not. “Might be some neat-o stuff in there. Let’s look…Oh mi god, it’ sPandora! how are you, baby?” Ooops.

Faith is fine, its the implementation of it in man made denominations that screws things up. Many people I believe would like to attend a church where they are welcome to be a part of it and have input rather than what most are like – run by a special handful that keep things the way they have always been; no changes allowed. Sorry but as a former minister, I have found a lot of people who would love church if they were truly welcome. My Christian faith is strong but I have lost my love for organized religion. There is a world of difference between Christianity and religion.

2 billion Christians. Uh. What if one added all those who proclaimed to be Christian from the beginning of Christianity. 2 billion at this specific point in time; probably. But since the beginnning of Christianity, let’s say 30 A.D., it’s going to be a lot more.

“Say there ain’t no Heaven…pray there ain’t no Hell”

I love all this talk about christianity and church attendance making you morale. Look at the areas that have the highest percent of christian and highest level professed belief have the most of all the things they claim are immoral, like out of wedlock children, extramarital affairs, divorce, murder, and gay sex.

My theory is having the all powerful master of the universe willing to forgive you for anything is a pretty nice license to do whatever you want.

OOOH! This is TOO close to reality!

Shoot… Pastis described me to a T with this strip…

Not true; there has been much growth in non-mainstream church in many countries:

UNOFFICIAL Christian population of China is 100-200 millionUNOFFICIAL Christian population of Indonesia is over 40 million (officially less than 20)My M-I-L recently told me that in Guntur City (where she lives) over half the population have become Christians—which when extrapolated means UNOFFICIAL Christian population (to become officially recognised as having changed religion, the convert has to fill out a double-ream of forms) of India to be around 8% (5% by conversion and 3% by census) or 100 million

Also, the total numbers of nominal Christians include nominal Roman Catholics (of which you have around 500 million from Rio Grande to Cape Horn)

Person of faith or person of reason, our obligation is the same: say less, do more. All of us can be involved in raising the human condition, and the less said about who is right and who is defective the better.

Yeah..who ratted us out?

Religion is not synonymous with spirituality. The former should never be considered a valid substitute for the latter.

Just in case this forum still qualifies as polite company, let me say two words: Politics. Abortion.

There, that should finish the job.

I’d like a Bently with a wet bar please.

These days, if you can’t find a church/faith that suits you, then the sad truth is that you’re not really looking.

If you ask forgivness in the last second and you are not sorry,it doesnt count rat.

No, Christians go to church, along with a whole bunch of people unclear on the concept.

Constantine the Great made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire, and so billions of us are Christian today. (As opposed to Mithraism, Sol Invictus, etc.).Constantine deliberately waited to the very end of his life to accept baptism/unction, in order to freely carry out the ruthlessness required to rule the empire (including slaughtering a wife or two, children, nephews, etc.) and then ‘have all his sins washed clean’, thus setting a precedent.

..and to think I just came here for the laughs…

Lighten up, people! It’s a comic strip, for Gawd’s sake!

Christianity is growing rapidly in China, of all places. It is also very much a “Southern Hemisphere” phenomenon right now. All that could change with the time and tide of history, but at this time, that is the reality.

Anyway, what Rat describes is pretty much what I see in most folks who say “they are spiritual but not religious.” I.e., let me do things my way, but let me sound all holy at the same time.

TheTrustedMechanic said: “So I go about my life, thanking God for the blessings in my life, treating others with the same respect and consideration as I would want to me treated, and hoping that the Lord Almighty will look favorably upon me when he calls me from this earth.” That’s the essence of Christianity of all denominations, and of morality and virtue of all times, places, and creeds..Morality isn’t in going to church…it’s in wanting to go to church, to love and give thanks to God. Maybe most who go there just go “to see and be seen” — they’re missing out on the best part, and they’ll never know it until it’s too late..In the same way, morality isn’t merely in saying “Forgive me!”…it’s in realizing with grief that you’ve done things that need to be forgiven, and in wanting to be forgiven, and in asking for forgiveness with “a humble and contrite heart”..It’s true: you know a tree by its fruit, not by a label thumbtacked to the bark.

Nah… I’d say 2 TRILLION

LOL LOL, You tell him!

xxx

Who said anything about Christians?

Next time Rat returns as a Cockroach.

Love it when Rat hides his conscious…it is always funny to see he has one…like with the cans on his tail from a few years back..

Pastis seems to have hit a sensitive nerve or 50. Yes, Christians are sinners—as well as other people. That’s why we need help from God. And (we Christians believe) God sent Jesus, his own son, to help us—and in turn Jesus founded the Church (as Catholics and Orthodox and maybe some of the othersbelieve) to guide and help us on our way. So, of course the Church is full of hypocrites and sinners. That’s not why I go, nor why I stay away. I stay to help those I can, and to get the help of those who can help me—most of all, the help of God.If the Church were full of perfect people, I wouldn’t be welcome. But it is full of sinners, so I fit into it.+++++Of course, the odd thing is the slew of people who think they can fool, not just themselves, nor even other people, but God. Or those who trust their own faulty judgment and understanding over the judgment and understanding of God, given to us so long ago through his own Son.

People who wait till the eleventh hour often die at 10:30.

I was born into a Jewish family but have been an atheist since I was ten (48 years and counting). My mother once asked me why I didn’t fast on Yom Kippur. I told her “I’ll atone for my sins when god atones for his.”

This concious thing, is hysterical. I guess if Rat did not have one, as it sometimes would seem, he would be a psychopath and he is not quite that bad. lol So, its locked up in a trunk, aha! addie

Wonder what Pastis thinks of all these conversations.

Going to church doesn’t save you. Being a Christian (different from simply going to church) doesn’t make you necessarily a more moral person… it mainly means you have realized you are a sinner and have sought God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ. Plenty of nice sinners and mean Christians… Christians, however, recognize they need God.

Anyone remember when the religious wing of the Republican party got all worked up over one issue and divided the country? Probably not, since no one was alive during the Civil War.

Hindsight is always 20/20

If the conscience can communicate can’t it call someone to get him out?

I’m pretty sure he actually cut-and-pasted this one from the one a few strips ago (i have the treasury, and i remember him writing it)

That’s some serious religious guilt.