This reminds me of the two of my favorite authors and thinkers, Sam Harris and the late great Christopher Hitchens. They make the point this cartoon makes in various ways. One of my favorite things to do is to read books by those who challenge my preconceived notions and ideas. You don’t learn anything if you only listen and read those who agree with you. The last 10 years I’ve had to consider seriously my faith and beliefs, for a lot of reasons – both as a result of reading great thinkers of history and personal experiences (positive and negative). It’s worth checking out “God is Not Great” by Hitchens and the “End of Faith” by Harris, if only so you think seriously about your beliefs and religion in general. Whether you come to the same conclusion they do or not is besides the point – just as long as you think.
I thought that might be the case too, but then I looked at the original and The Oatmeal didn’t include his name on any of the three panes.
Thus whoever combined the three panes into this one jpg didn’t deliberately cut anything off, although I do agree proper credit should be given. Just ask Funnyjunk what it feels like when you steal content from The Oatmeal!
Not so fast… let’s not forget the most notable Atheist Extremist= Adolf Hitler…. Born a catholic and later denounced all religion, “The Nazi Master Plan” pointed out that he intended to wipe out Christianity and Muslims after the war. And we all know how he felt about Judaism. Again, your choosing to see only what you already believe.
Since we’ve opened that can of worms, just to try to be accurate, I think history would demonstrate, although its far from clear, that its really incorrect and a slander to say Hitler was an atheist, or a Christian for that matter. While he was born into a Christian family, he gave that up after his childhood. He certainly wasn’t a Christian in the mainline sense. He unfortunately took the worst parts like the historical antisemitism. His statements definitely don’t support him being an atheist. He was best we can tell not into organized religions, but took from various theisms, some deism, and seemed to make up some psychotic evil ideology of his own. He definitely wasn’t an atheist either though. Best I can tell he believed in some god in some sense. It was closer to a theism where this god had an active role (as opposed to the deist god who isn’t active in our affairs). Believe me, I was raised on the conservative Christian side. I was fully on board for years with the argument that while religions had done bad in the past, it wasn’t near as bad as the ‘atheist’ or secular ideologies of the 20th century – communism, Nazism, and fascism specifically. The more I’ve studied the more I’m convinced however that its overly simplistic and incorrect to call them ‘atheist’. Most of these just replaced what we consider mainline religions with other delusional ‘religions’ based on some insane idea of evil leaders who were more than just men, but gods in a sense. Whether it be a religious or ‘secular’ ideology, it just goes to show how much evil can be done if you just think that you have some ‘god’ on your side or you’ll be rewarded for it in the next life and the extreme danger of elevating any human to a god like stature. And again, this is coming from someone raised a conservative Christian. I’ve just been forced to admit to myself what were very inconvenient truths (from my perspective). To each his own though.
The guys who ran into the world trade center on 911 consider themselves men of god and the guy who launched the war on terror against them considered himself a man of god. I’m just saying.
Hey, let’s say we’re going to build an events center and float junk bonds. We’ll spend the money for steps into the river, an indoor swimming pool, and an ice rink. When the money’s gone, we’ll float more bonds for a spaceport and build the events center.
Slandering Hilter… I think I can live with that. I love how atheists become so overwhelmed when we point out their foibles. We get it,you hate religion and you don’t believe in god. I don’t believe in Valentines day and think it’s propaganda created by florists but you don’t see me defecating on someone else s belief. Power is the true root of all conflict and those with no moral compass perpetuate it. Religion is an easy target.
Classic theOatmeal comic. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any of his stuff that I didn’t like.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/extremists
This reminds me of the two of my favorite authors and thinkers, Sam Harris and the late great Christopher Hitchens. They make the point this cartoon makes in various ways. One of my favorite things to do is to read books by those who challenge my preconceived notions and ideas. You don’t learn anything if you only listen and read those who agree with you. The last 10 years I’ve had to consider seriously my faith and beliefs, for a lot of reasons – both as a result of reading great thinkers of history and personal experiences (positive and negative). It’s worth checking out “God is Not Great” by Hitchens and the “End of Faith” by Harris, if only so you think seriously about your beliefs and religion in general. Whether you come to the same conclusion they do or not is besides the point – just as long as you think.
Somebody deliberately cut off The Oatmeal at the bottom of the cartoon.
The Oatmeal rules, make sure he gets credit next time.
I thought that might be the case too, but then I looked at the original and The Oatmeal didn’t include his name on any of the three panes.
Thus whoever combined the three panes into this one jpg didn’t deliberately cut anything off, although I do agree proper credit should be given. Just ask Funnyjunk what it feels like when you steal content from The Oatmeal!
Not so fast… let’s not forget the most notable Atheist Extremist= Adolf Hitler…. Born a catholic and later denounced all religion, “The Nazi Master Plan” pointed out that he intended to wipe out Christianity and Muslims after the war. And we all know how he felt about Judaism. Again, your choosing to see only what you already believe.
Thanks for the link and credit, I wondered who did it.
“Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.†– Billy Sunday
Also well LJL!!!
Sorry LJL… The Oatmeal beat you to that argument already.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/atheism
Enjoy!
Since we’ve opened that can of worms, just to try to be accurate, I think history would demonstrate, although its far from clear, that its really incorrect and a slander to say Hitler was an atheist, or a Christian for that matter. While he was born into a Christian family, he gave that up after his childhood. He certainly wasn’t a Christian in the mainline sense. He unfortunately took the worst parts like the historical antisemitism. His statements definitely don’t support him being an atheist. He was best we can tell not into organized religions, but took from various theisms, some deism, and seemed to make up some psychotic evil ideology of his own. He definitely wasn’t an atheist either though. Best I can tell he believed in some god in some sense. It was closer to a theism where this god had an active role (as opposed to the deist god who isn’t active in our affairs). Believe me, I was raised on the conservative Christian side. I was fully on board for years with the argument that while religions had done bad in the past, it wasn’t near as bad as the ‘atheist’ or secular ideologies of the 20th century – communism, Nazism, and fascism specifically. The more I’ve studied the more I’m convinced however that its overly simplistic and incorrect to call them ‘atheist’. Most of these just replaced what we consider mainline religions with other delusional ‘religions’ based on some insane idea of evil leaders who were more than just men, but gods in a sense. Whether it be a religious or ‘secular’ ideology, it just goes to show how much evil can be done if you just think that you have some ‘god’ on your side or you’ll be rewarded for it in the next life and the extreme danger of elevating any human to a god like stature. And again, this is coming from someone raised a conservative Christian. I’ve just been forced to admit to myself what were very inconvenient truths (from my perspective). To each his own though.
The guys who ran into the world trade center on 911 consider themselves men of god and the guy who launched the war on terror against them considered himself a man of god. I’m just saying.
Hey, let’s say we’re going to build an events center and float junk bonds. We’ll spend the money for steps into the river, an indoor swimming pool, and an ice rink. When the money’s gone, we’ll float more bonds for a spaceport and build the events center.
Well OK then
Are the steps to the river to hold baptisms?
Slandering Hilter… I think I can live with that. I love how atheists become so overwhelmed when we point out their foibles. We get it,you hate religion and you don’t believe in god. I don’t believe in Valentines day and think it’s propaganda created by florists but you don’t see me defecating on someone else s belief. Power is the true root of all conflict and those with no moral compass perpetuate it. Religion is an easy target.