The Road to Hell Is Paved with Good Inflections
on May 9, 2017
at 11:41 pm
I heard a news story regarding British actor Stephen Fry being accused of blasphemy. Hope it doesn’t happen because I sure as hell don’t need that precedent hanging over my head.
A complaint was made by an irishman (anonymously) over comments he made on Irish TV, where blasphemy laws not only exist, but were written into law in 2009. The charges were dropped because – I shit you not – not enough people were outraged over his comments
I dunno… Whizzing on a church nowadays seems less like blasphemy and more like political commentary.
Not always, though… http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/25/travel/ulm-minster-urine-damage/
Wizzing on a church isn’t blasphemy, and wizzing on some of the churches out there would be a physical interpretation of what God must think of them. Blasphemy is the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity. Context must also be considered: standing in downtown Riyadh and shouting “Allah is Satan” would be considered blasphemy (and also your last words) while the same words in my house would be considered an astute observation
I like how, in Bug World, crosses are mounted on swivels so one can casually invert them like setting the hands on a grandfather clock.
Dhusk: brilliant observation. This cartoon was kinda funny. Okay, it was funny. I especially liked the 2nd panel.
Seems like blasphemy has generally hinged on how much one’s stance affects church coffers or power. Or their Friday night bingo games. ;D
Hmmm… do churches get kickbacks from exorcism movies?
Or you could slap the guy across the face and yell “That’s for blasphemy!”
I was leaving a store once and a missionary was selling crosses his youth group made, complete with little wooden Jesuses nailed to them.
I had to ask.
“How did the kids feel when they personally nailed their little wooden Jesuses to their crosses? I can own that experience for twenty bucks? Hell yeah, dude, sign me up!”
Turning a cross upside down isn’t even blasphemy, contrary to what edgy antitheists and poorly researched horror films will tell you. It represents Saint Peter, who, according to the story, didn’t believe he was worthy of being killed in the same way as his Messiah, so they crucified him upside down. It represents humility.
It’s also for dyslexic Christians.
I know I know… BAD SNOOTS! :d
Yeah, that’s the story I heard about St Peter. I always figured it was appropriate because he was the first Pope to kill for money (see Acts). That kinda turned me off to the whole religion thing!
You musta read something wrong Zed. Can’t just skim it y’know. ; )
Okay, so I’ll give you Ananias because his death could have been brought on by a heart attack caused by the discovery that he had lied. But given the power of God directed by his representative on Earth – Peter – Saphira (sp?) dying appears to have been directly caused by Peter. And because of her death, the death of Ananias is questionable, also. Maybe we should get a special prosecutor to investigate the charges! Oh, can’t ’cause they’re all dead. How convenient is that?
I hesitate getting in a Biblical debate on Bug Martini, because that might be considered blasphemous to the strip itself but… it comes down to if you believe in God or not. Religion has little to do with it. Close examination reveals that most religions are about as similar to Christ as Bug Martini is to actual ants. So we have to examine the Book, not what we hear from the pulpit. That brings several things into account: 1) Peter didn’t kill Ananias and Saphira; God did. 2) Unlike humans, God’s judgment is perfect. He can read intentions. He is also perfectly righteous, perfectly just. He cannot make a mistake; it is impossible for him to do an evil thing. That means 3) If He judged them deserving of death, they were. Their hearts were black and if left unchecked, they could have done real harm to others.
So, Peter killed no one, he just announced the pronouncement of God. Peter had no power of his own, didn’t kill them himself. He basically served as spokesman. Now, if as humans we decide to judge God Himself by our limited understanding and standards, that’s on us. Religion on the other hand, I don’t blame you for giving that a shove. When we look at what has been done by religion (Christian or not) over the centuries, we see one of the bloodiest and most hypocritical records ever. But the Bible presents God as being very merciful and only lowering the death hammer when someone really has it coming. It takes quite a bit of study to understand some of it because as humans we’re pretty dense– and most people don’t bother to study the Book thoroughly and with an open mind. But it presents a far different picture than the “you’re condemned to hell unless you do what I say” picture religion paints of God. In truth God is bending over backward to try and save people– which is evidenced by the fact that Bug Martini can poke a little fun at religion and no lightning bolts. 😀
I mean, I’m a person of faith and I still enjoy this strip (most of the time). I can tolerate that it steps a little over the line sometimes because it’s hard to judge that gray area and none of us is perfect. I like to believe God’s the same way. So when He zaps someone for being an intentional liar and deceiver, have to remember that God’s worst enemy is exactly that– and look at the mess he’s caused.
Stephen Fry was accused of blasphemy, but the charge was dropped due to a lack of outrage. Basically, nobody seemed to be offended.
Blasphemy laws are idiotic. Most religions are blasphemous towards the other religions, especially among the major religions. If Islam is the “One True Religion”, isn’t that blasphemy towards all other religions? Isn’t it saying that all the others are false? And many other religions claim the same thing.
Since all religions teach different things from one another (even Christian religions don’t agree with each other), it would seem the only alternative is to study the Book like we’d study anything else that we took seriously. Either that or rely on YouTube and Wikipedia.
Upside down crosses aren’t blasphemous. It is the Petrine cross, a symbol of humility before Christ. Whizzing on churches, I’m not sure. Maybe.
When I was a kid I was forced to go to vacation bible school every summer. It was basically a 2 week church day care service for school-aged children. It was boring.
One year we were tasked with making felt banners with various religious symbols and messages on them. Me and another kid were assigned the “God Cares” banner. We quickly discovered that “god cares” was an anagram from “Dog Races” and proceeded to make a large “Dog Races” banner.
We thought we were hilarious. The adults were not amused.
Ayyy, there’s that St. Peter’s cross again!
Blasphemy is passe, all the cool kids yell “HERESY!” now.