Today’s Jesus and Mo strip (banned in Pakistan!), called “star,” gives a good example of confirmation biology
Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ The Star of Confirmation
August 1, 2018 • 8:30 am
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.
I think you meant confirmation bias, not confirmation biology.
Confirmation Biology: “Everything sure looks designed, doesn’t it?”
Heh. Admittedly, confirmation bias probably has a biological basis. The study of such could be called confirmation biology.
Confirmation Biology: “Yep! That’s a cat alright.”
And the Cock and Bull is the perfect place to take this finding.
Apparently in Stony Stratford there is (still) a Cock Hotel and a Bull Hotel, next to each other. And (so the story goes) if anyone was telling a wild story in The Cock he would be told “Go and tell it in The Bull, they’d believe anything”. And vice versa. Hence ‘Cock and Bull story’.
Presumably all the Cock and Bull pubs are derivative of this.
But I wouldn’t care to vouch for the authenticity of this story. 😉
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The Playpen Theory of Reality: the universe is a giant playpen created to teach humility to our insignificant selves. We’re only babies; say please; say thank you; and say I’m sorry. Look around and find the toys. They’re all part of the Big Parental Lesson — that is, they are if they manage to trip your arbitrary meter of personal significance.
If you’re inside the theory, this sounds incredibly humble. If you’re outside the theory, it’s self-centered arrogance on stilts.
Once again, the cartoonist nails it.
Peering through a telescope and learning the light traveled millions of years, or feeling waves in the ground from a distant quake can be exhilarating and humbling. Recalling arrogant shenanigans of our youth is just plain humbling.
Well, they are less self-centred than most Young People Today, at least they aren’t taking selfies of themselves with the shooting star behind them.
I find this less credible than usual. Surely, given that Jesus and Mo find themselves together in (presumably) the afterlife,they cannot be in any doubt that there is a God who takes an interest in them?
No, they find themselves together in a bar. I think it’s in Wapping.
They are not in the afterlife – the cartoon conceit is the two delusional ‘prophets’ are relocated in time. The Author never shows anything in the strip that indicates these two are supernatural or have special powers.
Jesus and Mo might not be their real names, either. I’m going with Dunning, and Kruger.
The notion that there is something egotistical about belief in God is a major part of Ludwig Feuerbach’s critique of Christianity (especially popular German Lutheranism). He also sees God as a bloodless and abstract embodiment of virtues better appreciated in flesh and blood entities.
My father has told me several times that at age 10, he stated “OK, if there is a God I will see a shooting star right there” and indeed a shooting star appeared where he was pointing. He followed this by the statement “What a coincidence!”
He is now the author of an award-winning book on Feuerbach.
The only thing that would convince me that Jesus dropped out of the sky and went around casting out demons (within a tiny specific geographical area of the planet of course; everyone else was outta luck) and then jumped back up into the sky on a cloudy-poo would be a frozen waterfall. Other than that, forget it.
The man god is opaque reasoning, smearing natures splendour.
The barmaid knows this, for J & M it’s like looking at the world through the bottom of their empty cock and bull beer glass…