Apparently so! Matthew sent me this strip from Existential Comics with the note, “You are Bad Cop.” (Click to enlarge; it’s gonna overlap with website text on the right.) I am sad. . . .
Am I the bad cop?
February 22, 2018 • 2:15 pm
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Oh my 😂
PCC(E) – when did you start smoking?
Existential despair depressing suspects into confessions. Confess, or we’ll read Camus to you.
Is that allowed under the 8th Amendment?
Glen Davidson
Actually, after looking around the web a bit, I think that existential despair cop is Camus.
Glen Davidson
Yes, that’s Camus. This is a pretty solid strip, and Camus pops up a lot.
He says right at the bottom of the page that the philosopher is Camus.
So, what did the guy do? Run a red light or some other awful felony.
Well, to be realistic, this is a big bump religious folk have to overcome to be OK with losing their faith. And even those of us who would not believe no matter what must struggle with the reality that this is all there is, it often sucks, and our lives are a blip in time. Yes, yes, all that great stuff Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss like to talk about re the awesomeness of the real universe, but appreciating our lives as much as we can doesn’t change that other unpleasant stuff.
If atheists could come up with a really good reason to not find the fleetingness of our existence depressing and scary, it would help us immensely to stamp out dangerous religious dogma. It should not depress Prof. CC(E) that he is the bad cop, though; no one else has come up with a good enough answer either.
Kittens. Chocolate. A good book. Owning a dog. Falling in love. Growing old together. Having kids. Playing with the grandkids. Learning. Wondering.
I could go on.
None of this is exclusively ‘ours’, of course, but they are real.
Exactly the things that make us real miserable to realize we’ll be leaving them behind.
Who was it who said, “It doesn’t bother me that I have to leave the party… it’s that the party continues on without me!”
It was the Hitch of course – dunno if he was the first though
Here is the video for your pleasure:
https://youtu.be/hJ0eOUVnyFA
Thank you for posting this. I had to smile through the tears. Thank god this doesn’t go on forever.
Though Hitch is saying it’s good to be able to leave the party…
No need to be sad; I think you’re getting a bad rap. If you need cheering up, however, see my favorite good cop / bad cop cartoon here: https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a19817
Ha!
Great cartoon! As a gradually-over-six-decades deprogrammed Catholic I find the truths expressed by The Man In Black liberating.
Free will is over-rated & angst ridden.
But which is the bad cop is a personal choice.
The cop seated is surely the bad cop, the other officer is actually offering a way out.
The whole thing may be a “pointless, absurd affair,” but it’s still the only place to find a decent steak after midnight.
lol
Exactly.
That time Jerry Coyne said “Once you die the world will quickly forget you and all of your actions will have amounted to nothing. It would be no different than if you killed yourself now.”
I could count on one hand the number of critiques I have seen of “the new atheist types” that were not blatant straw men.
And isn’t existentialism the idea that life has no meaning and is pure absurdity unless you create meaning out of thin air? Aren’t we the one’s saying that nature has given us abundant meaning in the form of evolved feelings, emotions and desires?
I think I’m going to go into the strawman slaying business. It’s like being a driftwood artist. It’s too easy and people actually buy that shit!
Looks like a strange creature is one Bad Cop’s shoulder!
seems “they” always want to shoot the messenger…
…the only thing bad about bad cop is the hue of those eyes 🙂
Rather than listen to (reality) the perp is taking the easy way out. Jail time. (Duality)
… killed my soul off sometime ago so i would never fess up.
It is probably on the cards that when dualist hear about non free will, our non special place in the universe, they hear it like the cold hard delivery of bad cop, the truth can be tough as we all know. Let it bleed.
Love it!
I love it. A wonderful expression of the deep existential despair I feel every day.
I probably don’t mean that…
If it’s so important to you to be remembered after you die, then your ego is making you unhappy.
It’s the premises that religion sets that are more likely to make you miserable. If you have no expectations, then every experience is amazing and life is an adventure.
yes
This “problem” came about with development of intelligence in human beings,the ability to question reality and make up stories to create meaning. I doubt that all other life forms on this planet worry about longevity, meaning and hereafters. Our intelligent brains create meaning for each of us that differs from person to person unless we have been rigidly acculturated. Enjoy the party. I’m glad to have been invited. I was born with severe asthma that I was fortunate enough to outgrow when my parents moved to a better climate. I consider that most of my life has been a gift.
Ha ha. I just can’t see PCC as a bad cop. He’d tell the culprit that he couldn’t have done otherwise, it was all determined at the Big Bang, and he’ll let the judge know.
sub
A dementor
What’s to be sad about. The “bad cop” is well spoken and dresses quite flash, don’t you think? I would think you would be flattered. Geeky intellectual transforms into fey bad cop. I’d have my agent trying to get me that role!