This cartoon, from reader Pliny the in Between and posted at his site Pictoral Theology, is the answer to all those liberal apologists who tell us that “all faiths are at bottom really the same.” (That’s stupid on the face of it!). I like the liberal characterization of theistic evolution at top left.
~
Descent with Godification: hilarious!
Satan: Hollywood. Of course. Where else would Satan reside?
In the governor’s mansion in Texas?
Washington D.C., as documented in “The Exorcist.”
sub
Very clever. My favorite was “Purgatory: continue protection racket postmortem.”
Too funny! I loved “snakes” standing (slithering?) on the outskirts with no bubble connection. After more thought, perhaps Venn could link it to Hollywood: Satan. Hollywood loves their snakes, as does Satan.
I saw a Simpsons episode recently in which Rev. Lovejoy offers Lisa several choices of ice cream with different toppings representing different Christian sects. Or, he says, she can have Unitarian ice cream. But this bowl is empty, says Lisa. Precisely, says Lovejoy.
I used to attend UU meetings and as I recall there were several liberal churches (like UCC or ‘Unity’) which got along with UU pretty well. A combination of humanism and the subjective nature of personal revelation seemed to bring interfaith ecumenicists together.
My own candidate for the one and only ‘universal Christian doctrine’ would be that atheists suck — especially atheists who argue and debate (accomodationists often get a pass, on the assumption that their friendly live-and-let-live approach to religion augurs a roundabout Path to God.)
I once found myself in a group of theists who complained that fundamentalists think they have the only way to God but no, God values all ways. Isn’t it horrible when people claim to have an exclusive knowledge about God? My attempt to point out that they themselves were taking a very particular stance on God (“God doesn’t care how you worship Him”) was met with shocked incredulity. Didn’t I hear them? Fundamentalists are wrong because they say people are wrong!
Yeah, I not only heard; I followed that one down the spiritual path.
LOL.
I prophesy that I will have the opportunity to steal that one very, very soon.
I don’t think it’s “stupid on the face of it” to say that, in some sense, all faiths are at bottom the same. When I talk to people of faith, I see similarities in their quest for some understanding of the world around them. Obviously, each faith comes to differing comes to differing conclusions on the meaning of the world. Also, people use faith for all kinds of other ventures as well. But at some level, people use faith to understand the world.
I’m not saying I agree with this. As an atheist, I think reason and science constitute far superior tools for understanding the world. Nevertheless, all faiths are common in that people use them for creating meaning.
Christians say that Christ is one of the three persons of the triune God, and also that he was “begotten.” The Quran says very explicitly that anyone who believes in the trinity, or who associates the term “begotten” with God, will burn in hell for quadrillions and quintillions of years, just for starters. David Bentley Hart, one of the “sophisticated” Christians, dismisses this distinction because he finds it “boring.” He may find it less “boring” if he finds himself in a rather more tropical climate than he expected in the afterlife.
Unitarianism seems to be the closest thing to freethinking that Christianity(?) has to offer. Thomas F. Glick in “What about Darwin?”(p. 60) gives the following comment of an American Unitarian minister:
“Darwin was not one of those who cannot see the forest for the trees, who,
Viewing all things intermittently,
In disconnection dull and spiritless
Break down all grandeur.
“The parts did not obscure for him the whole. He did not murder to dissect. The healthy vision of the natural man enjoyed the lovely synthesis of outward things, unspoiled by any peeping or analysis that was essential to his scientific search. A worshiper he must have been, and was, a wonderer, for it is truly written, “The more thou searchest the more thou shalt wonder.” [Out of context, but the guy IS a preacher.] In the popular theology he made no investment. He came of Unitarian stock, and he went forward and not backward from his inherited opinions. (. . .) He wrote with perfect frankness, over his own name, “I do not believe that any revelation has ever been made.” Since it became certain that his doctrine was to become established science, the orthodox have done their best to capture him [see 2 Corinthians 10:5]. But they have only had their labor for their pains.”
This was written by John W. Chadwick in 1889. Jerry and evolutionary biology have, of course, given both orthodox religion and popular woo much additional ‘labor for their pains.’
“All paths lead to the summit” is pap proffered by people who are afraid of conflict and debate.