Today’s Jesus and Mo strip, called seal2, is the last resurrection of an old strip before the artist comes back from holiday and resumes “normal service.” The atheist barmaid asserts her nonbelief, and of course Mo, sealing his own ears, is guilty of exactly the behavior he ascribes to the barmaid.
This is pretty common. When I came to the US many people asked me similar questions. It didn’t seem to occur to them that some people (like me) didn’t even think that god was a sensical idea. One question I recall is this: Do you resent Christianity because Christians say that those who don’t believe in Jesus will go to hell? The person who asked me the question was trying to convince me that I could have a relationship with god independently of Jesus.
I am grateful for not being indoctrinated as a child. But it does make me look down upon religious people (not just Christians, of course) sometimes. And then I tell myself: How else can I see them?
Indeed, the pry bars of emotion – Pathos – the tool of choice in thought reform (see Robert Jay Lifton, 1961).
Well played, barmaid – keep it clear, simple, based.
JWs at the door.
JW: Please come to our meetings and learn what God is doing for you.
Me: Sorry, I stopped believing in God when I was 16.
JW: Oh, you poor thing. Did He fail to answer your prayers?
Me. No, I grew up.
JW: Have a nice day. Goodbye!
Well done Barmaid… but perhaps you could do better? To say “I don’t believe in God” may well be true but it leaves the argument being about matters of belief. Arguments about matters of belief are the stuff of religious discourse and well rehearsed.
Had the Barmaid said (a bit long for a speech bubble) “I am indifferent to the existence or non-existence of a God” then it moves the debate off the well worn belief pathway.
Which is why I now say that I am a non-theist, because I am indifferent to the existence or non-existence of a God. I don’t think it matters in how I live my life.
That one says it all.