Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for February 24, 2012

I still say they should go with Offler. At least then they can eat the sausage sizzle.

Belief in a BOX. Does that come with fries? Or at least, a toy or something?

ONION RINGS!! Give me onion rings or a vengeful god.

I’m not sure why the crocs aren’t calling upon Sobekhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobek

Any sufficiently advanced technology will appear to be magic to less advanced people. I think we just fund the crocs level. I wonder if we can get it down to shiny thing on a string?

Nope. Mighty Anoia rising from the Cutlery shalt smithe ye unbelievers!

You’re thanking God that your an athiest? I think you’re a little confused.

Their arms too short to box with G*d…

For your sake, I hope you’re right.

(The bigots come out at night!)

A clown in a box is truly a fearsome god!

Of course the Church has “NEVER” done bad things…The Crusades, all that enforced conversion that went on in Africa and Asia, the whole “We’re so poor, mend our roof and don’t look at our gold statues, magnificent buildings”…..I’m finished for now.

@Nabuquduriuzhur

I think it is more like, there are two kinds of people who DO believe in god. Those who believe quietly, and those who want to shove it down everyone else’s throat. The ‘under god’ of the pledge is a good example of the latter – you don’t dare NOT say the pledge, and when you do, you get a smug reaction of “See – you DO believe!”

okay, the vengeful bit totally cracked me up.

Instant religion at God In The Box

Wow…all this hate for a simple cartoon. I have a deep and abiding faith in God but I also realize that this is nothing more than a joke people. I love the crocs. Always something incredibly stupid. LOL

Man, this is a comic strip. Lighten up, folks.

wow god even hates crocs.. Jeez

That God better watch out for the Duck.

God or no God— who can say? Each side thinks what the other believes is a croc.

Let a pun bring the discussion back on topic…

For heavens sake!!!!!!

“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”.-Franklin

What jumped out of the box appears to be one of the more attractive of man’s gods. Give us this day our daily toasted bun and secret sauce…

@Nabuquduriuzhur You are full of it! You are free to follow any mythology you want. I don’t care until you try to force that belief system on me and society as a whole.

Some of the earliest settlers to this country, now known as the Pilgrims, came to this country to escape religious intolerance but it still followed them here and it’s still around today. One of the tenets of this nation was, is, and hopefully always will be that you can worship God, Jehovah, Allah, Shiva, Buddha, Santa Claus, Kim Kardashian, David Hasselhoff, or whatever!!!! That is your freedom. That is your right. But everyone else also has this right so don’t push yours on others. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That was JC’s message in a nutshell. If you don’t know any other scripture, know that one.

For whatever it may be worth, I’d like to point out what the Bible itself teaches: those who are smugly claim to be religious, but without humility, kindness, compassion, honesty, and justice, will find themselves rejected by God — while those who truly live out all of those qualities will be accepted, even if to their own astonishment..Personally, I’m forever grateful that God is not as small-minded and vindictive as we are, whether as believers or critics.

I think the vengeful box G-d is going to come after most of today’s posters.

ALL HAIL THE BOX G-D!

Just because you dont believe in bears dosent mean theres not one in the woods waiting for you.

I don’t know what is popping up on everyone elses screens, but I find it funny/ironic that the ad next to the strip today is for earning a degree in Bible studies.

More people have been killed in the name of religion than any other cause since the beginning of mankind. As for me – I believe in the god of chocolate, the god who gives me hot water for my shower and the god who makes sure my car starts in the morning. Thankful for the little things.

@Number SixIt’s customary here to always hide when the Jehovah’s Witnesses come to the door. Also, when you see a bumper sticker that says “Honk if you love Jesus”, DO NOT HONK! You may get the Number One signal. (George Carlin)

I remember being taught that the three causes of war were money, land, and religion. Think of the Crusades and other conflicts.The KKK of the 1920s was big on enforcing traditional Protestant values. Jews and Catholics have been persecuted throughout history. Although the Holocaust was caused by Germany’s economic issues, religious reasons certainly helped it along. I don’t know numbers, but I do know that religion has caused many different conflicts over the years, particularly the brand of religion that advocates the convert or kill mentality. While religion may not be the biggest cause of violence, it certainly still plays a major role.

Epaminondas you be careful how you…crank that handle on Pandora’s box.Crocs you ain’t got the sense you is bairn witt…Is that a moral to this story?

I have more respect for the god-in-the-box than the god of the Old Testament (the one I was raised to believe in and no longer do). That dude is a freaking psychopath.

Our God, who art in box, hallowed art Thou among crocs…

Bob’s god just a weasel. Bob do better to believe outside da box.

wait! he was only atheist for a DAY? huuuruummph

this is a comics website, not a debate center.

oh and that dumb rant above? we live in a secular state. state actions should not endorse a religion. since religious images are pervasive in American culture, sometimes atheists object when the state piles on in an inappropriate manner.

llike teaching biblical stories in science class.

Everyone please, believe what you want to believe. No one can force you to believe in anything. if you disagree with someone about religion, have a debate based in logic and reason, not based on insults and belittling what the other believes in.

Intolerance, thy name is any of the various sects of christianity! People who are not christians behave in ways far closer to those which Jesus espoused than members of any of those sects.

Hahahahaha!

Love the 3rd Panel!

xxx

Mankind invents gods as and when he thinks he needs them. I wonder what a female envisioned god would be like.

Thank you Number Three for bringing us back to the matter in hand.

Oh you will, one day, have to worry about a “vengeful being”.

Now, let us pray to Kookla, Fran and Ollie.

I laughed out loud on the third box…

Atheists, Agnostics and Believers: Have a blessed day!

Pastis is probably laughing his arse off at what he’s created. I know he says he doesn’t read this stuff but someone close to him does. It seems it’s always the “atheists” that start the diatribe with their reasons for not believing then the believers fight back only to create an thread of tit for tat where no one wins and it creates anger and hate in a frikken cartoon website.I would love to see a toon that mentions God where there are some good puns and friendy comments and everyone keeps their faith or lack of to themselves. Oh yeah, I believe in God and we’re all goin’ to hell in a bucket anyway so crank that jack-in-the-box to full tilt boogie baby.

See yesterday’s comment.

Great, now I’m hungry for an ultimate cheeseburger with curly fries. ;-)

Stephan likes to rabbit trail, we started this week with meeting Zebra’s Biological son, and went from there to the crocs dealing with blow darts, and then to the crocs discussing.

oh yes you do. and there is no such thing as a true atheist by the way.

But can you put Baby in the corner? No. Nobody puts Baby in the corner!

♫All around the mulberry bush, the croc chased the zeeba, the zeeba used his blow dart gun, pop goes the croc

this strip and yesterdays’ probably got tons of angry email

LOL! I love those silly crocodiles.

Thank you to all commentors. Almost as entertaining as PBS. Some believe without proof, some have proof and still refuse to believe. Burt is correct “releegion very confusing.”

Belief in god is a crutch for the weak minded. It’s taking the easy way out. It’s so much easier to just say “god did it” than it is to educate one’s self as to the real cause and effect of everything, i.e. creation of the universe, evolution, life, etc. FACT: The lower one’s IQ, the more likely it is that they believe in god. Google it. Of course, these were studies done by people with much higher IQ’s than bible thumpers, so they won’t believe/trust it. I have no problem with people wasting their mental lives believing in crap, it’s when they try to force their superstitions onto the population as a whole. Then it affects me. Just like you jesus freaks would feel if we forced our FACTS upon you. Same thing. Just go to church, throw your money away into the little plate, and keep it to yourself. Then I’d have no problem with any of it. I’d only feel pity then.

“…a child I will hate for the rest of it’s life”

That’s the problem right there. “How dare I be inconvenienced because I choose to do what I know normally results in a child.” And, either way, the child pays for your lack of self-restraint - he dies or he’s hated.

This has been one of the best croc storylines. I have literally laughed out loud after reading these strips all week..

@Art Vandelay. How am I forcing anything on anyone? I’m simply stating my views on superstitions. Do what you want. Just keep it to yourselves and quit trying to force religion into public policy, and forcing it onto the populace.

There are ALWAYS exceptions to the rule with many billions of people on this rock we live on, but they are rare and far and few between. Religious types just love to grub ‘em up and trot out these “hey, but this guy is on our side” examples. Overwhelmingly, men and women of science are on the non-believer side. You guys even tried to claim Einstein until that hand written slap-down from him was discovered calling belief in god “childish”. So no. Highly intelligent people, something unintelligent people are unable to comprehend, overwhelmingly dismiss a belief in some magic man in the sky as something a child would believe, not a full grown adult. It’s really pathetic, and could actually result in the destruction of the planet… not necessarily christians, but the other/same superstition practiced by more primitive humans in the middle east.

How dreary these comments are.

121 comments ! i knew this would happen if religion was used on the strip ( i bet pastis did too)

It’s an Old Testament Jack-in-the-Box.

I find it ironic/strange that Pastis occasionally parodies religion when he is openly Christian.

I know this is late, but for all you Atheist-hating people out there: If God had a problem with Atheists, there wouldn’t BE Atheists. Since he’s “all powerful,” he would’ve gotten rid of them if he didn’t like them… so if you believe in God, let Atheists alone, let them believe what they want.