Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for November 11, 2015

The other team was made up of atheists and heathens.

Rat is so not cut out for this job.

This is why I don’t pray for my team to win. It would be unfair if God got involved.

Gotta wonder how sincere some of these “I thank god” folks in sports, entertainment, and politics really are.

One could say that if God didn’t create the world, there would be no football and thus no victory.

I think you all missed the point here.

Confused?

Was there a Hail Mary involved?

My God is better than Your God.

nosirromWell MY God is non-existanter than your God…

Players thank God for the abilities he has blessed them with, that when used lead to a victory. This is not saying God picked them to win. No different than thanking God for the birth of your child.

“I’ve got the will, Lord, if You got the toe… Drop kick me, Jesus, through the goal posts of life…” -As sung by Bobby Bare.

I winder who Rat will hit with a bat first during one of his interviews ?……….Still have trouble with Rat in a suit and tie …

“If you win, it’s God’s doing. If you lose, it’s your own damn fault.”Religious logic which applies to sports, wars, and indeed to all things where you can win or lose.

Looks like the Browns won this game. That IS a miracle!

I´m my own god.

i don’t think there are many catholics on notre dames’ football team

ESPN needs more Rats. They do have Dan Le Batard and his father. Too many of the others are jock cliche enablers.

God gave him the strength, and the ability to win

Happy Veterans Day to all those who served, and are still serving the country. God bless them all

That’s a very shallow understanding shown by Steph speaking through Rat, and although some athletes undoubtedly do have this perspective, it’s equally certain that many are more mature. The fact is that we owe God our very existence, to say nothing of the abilities that allow us to play sports, or draw cartoons, or teach physics, or do whatever. We should be grateful for our existence and for those abilities. If a team avoids injury plays a good game that brings honor to its community — which is not the same thing as winning, by the way — that is a further reason for gratitude. If the team wins, it’s just gravy.

To paraphrase Fiddler on the Roof (a paraphrase that barely changes the meaning): “God would like us to be grateful even when our hearts lie panting on the floor. How much more should we be grateful when there’s really something to be grateful for!”

Oh my god, can we just move on please?

i see many are confused

God answers all prayers, sometimes the answer is “No” .

Cute but, I’m getting tired of GOD Bashing!Every where I go it’s the same thing.

If God cares who wins a game, we are all in trouble.

My god is red hot. Your god is diddly squat.

Rat is not strong on theology, among other things—many other things. But if he aims no higher than sportscaster, what difference now does it make?

Thank you, Stephan.

GT58 had the best answer, congrats!!!

What interests me is the volume of comments when the subject matter is God; the invective between reasonably intelligent people from a common sociological is remarkable. and to think of the disputes between members of different faiths puts the prior dispute to shame. and then you have the disputes between sects of the same faith, e.g., shiite and sunni. to me it seems the problem is man, not God.

Down with the Heathens, up with the Church! YSR

the other team are the lions.

There are two versions of existentialism. The atheistic variety of Sartre, and the religious form developed by Soren Kierkegaard in the 19th Century. This quote from Kierkegaard ties in the football player to God’s plan for him quite nicely:“What I really need is to get clear about what I must do, not what I must know, except insofar as knowledge must precede every act. What matters is to find a purpose, to see what it really is that God wills that I shall do; the crucial thing is to find a truth which is truth for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die." Obviously playing football well is what this player thinks he must do, and playing football well leads to victory. Of course, when both teams play well, somebody’s got to lose.

Sheesh, all this god nonsense. The goddess is not pleased.

Great. Now every theist/atheist troll on the internet is going to show up and blather the same mindless crap they do on every other forum on the internet.

Good Christians don’t pray for victory they pray for good sportsmanship and that no one gets hurt.

Even if no one prayed, the outcome would be the same…

The Lord works in mysterious ways.

So when I Lost, God wasn’t on My Side?

This is almost Scott Adams-like in how excitedly the strawman is set up to be knocked down. “I’ve stated my point, and it’s so perfect that the only answer is stunned silence.” Okay, sure.

May the fleas of a thousand camels infest thy armpits!

You sure God isnt a Broncos fan?

He should have just said “Yes” and then walked away.

Or maybe just walked away.

xxx

I’ve been saying this for years. Why even bring god into this? Did you mean you pray harder and more sincerely than the other team? Or does god play favorite and want the other team to suffer? You want to believe there’s a man in the sky, fine! But don’t make him out to be such a petty asshole who worry about trivial stuff.

It’s only my belief, but I think God just wishes a safe and good sportsmanship game. He doesn’t pick sides/

I’m reminded of a Berryman & Berryman song, the one about “a talk with your mother.”

Just so’s you guys know, God does pick sides.Him and the Devil take Bets all the time on all sorts of things.You just need to be wary, coz the Devil sometimes Cheats, and God is too Gracious to do anything about it.Which isn’t of much value anyway, coz God can’t ever Sue the Devil for Misconduct or anything. His Side don’t have enough Lawyers.

If God is, then God is radically beyond all labels, categories, limitations. To define is to diminish. “This is so and so” diminishes the subject by declaring that it is as described and not otherwise. If God, then nothing that follows “God is…” is more than a limitation. Even to say “God exists” is to limit God to whatever our notion is of existence. A radically transcendent God is (yes, human language seems to need “is”) beyond the categories of existence and non-existence, beyond being and non-being. I have no argument with either “God exists” or “God does not exist.” These both seem to me little other than matters of the inability of human thought and language to contemplate the transcendent. Even as a child, when asked the classic riddle, “Can God make a rock so heavy that God couldn’t pick it up?” I’d say yes. The follow up is supposed to be the gotcha moment, “Then could God pick it up?” My answer was still yes. So you could say I haven’t matured in my theological thinking, I guess.

I’m with Rat, and many others, here. To even suggest that God cares which team wins is pathetic and ludicrous. I rather liked former Red Sox right-fielder Trot Nixon’s solution to this problem. He was a very religious man, and his response was always to “Thank God for giving me the ability to play this game at a high level.” It left the credit for winning championships where it belonged – with the players.

Looks like Pastis is getting lazy, or has fallen asleep on the job…Rat and the player never moved an inch from panel to panel. Hey! Let’s see some animation here!

I love it! I hope he continues in this vein for a few more days.

God heard the embattled nations sing and shout:“God strafe England”“God save the King”God this, God that, and God the other thing.“My God”, said God. I’ve got my work cut out.

J.C. Squire

Stephan, Stephan, Stephan, you just love to stir things up and then step back and watch all the turmoil don’t you? You’ll probably get more comments on this strip than on any other. Keep up the good work.

“What the hell are you getting so upset about?" he asked her bewilderedly in a tone of contrite amusement. “I thought you didn’t believe in God.” “I don’t,” she sobbed, bursting violently into tears. “But the God I don’t believe in is a good God, a just God, a merciful God. He’s not the mean and stupid God you make Him to be.”—Catch-22. Joseph Heller

Chaplain to John Wayne in war movie: “Remember, my son, God is our Shepherd”. John Wayne: “Oh yeah, Padre? Well, I can’t help thinking that He’s their Shepherd too”.