Today’s Jesus and Mo strip, called “deaf”, comes with the note, “He’s done most people.”
Indeed he has! This is a very good strip.
Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ a merciful god
September 6, 2023 • 12:00 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.
Ah – my latest hobby – spotting hermeticism – trapped in a material prison. A bit of gnosticism too – the Demiurge creator, an evil being, trapped us there… etc.
Always something new to find “right under one’s nose” (rough Orwell paraphrase).
The theme reminds me of lines from the poem Chorus Sacerdotum by Fulke Greville (1554-1628), more than once quoted by the Hitch:
O wearisome condition of humanity!
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot and yet forbidden vanity;
Created sick, commanded to be sound.
Ironically, the poem comes from a long-forgotten tragedy titled ‘Mustapha’.
So J and M are not blocked by the Israeli government then! (At least not yet)
Sound more than a lot like Romans 9.15-23, which is preceded by the completely asinine verse 14: “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.”
Sounds like maximum conceivable unrighteousness to me…
Or, as James Morrow put it (slightly edited) in his book Only Begotten Daughter:
“Why is god such a bastard?”
“Because power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
A great strip. It reminds me of all the times that g*d supposedly “hardens” Pharaoh”s heart during the ten plagues, eventually leading to the death of all the first-born in Egypt. (If that had really happened, you’d think it would have been recorded somewhere…)
It’s all in the relevant biblical document of record. No idea why you’d want a less reliable secondary source…..
Inviting your Egyptian neighbours[a] for passover celebrations would be rather awkward.
[a] No idea if inviting neighbours is something people do for passover 🙂
I remember learning about g*d’s hardening of Pharoah’s heart in Sunday school. It seemed to me then that that was a dirty trick and not at all the action of a kindly and merciful g*d. It was probably my first step on the road to atheism.
“Why doesn’t God intervene to stop rapists?”
“Because that would be interfering with human free will.”
“But God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Is that not interfering with his free will?”
“… oh look, a squirrel”