Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for August 09, 2019

Maybe back one from there, Jeffrey.

Danae, where are your Preacher clothes or does everyone have to dress like you to go to your church.

It is a myth that all religions claim to promote peace and tolerance.

Some religions preach hate and intolerance. And some people who are naturally inclined to be haters or bigots use religion as their excuse.

My favourite god is Odin. Want to worship him? Hang someone.

Why does this series look so familiar? The only dates I see are current. Is this a case of Deja Danae?

If you don’t join my church of peace and tolerance I’ll condemn you.

Just like Trump’s rhetoric brings people together.

Only a Very Stable Genius would know that.

And His Disciples.

Danae has described “religion” in a nutshell.

My God is more powerful than your god.

No it’s not

Yes it is

Prove it

BANG

The Western worlds three great religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, all claiming to worship the same god, the god of Abraham, and all trying to kill each other in his name for centuries. All claim to be based in love and tolerance, yet they all, or some of their adherents, twist their own teachings to support violence when they feel threatened. Once humans choose a side, or have one chosen for them, we become tribal and the “other” must be evil else our side would have to be wrong. All organizations of man, religious, political or otherwise, seek to perpetuate themselves by claiming themselves superior and all others inferior. If our side is not better than we must be on the wrong side, but that is not possible because I’m a Republican, because my parents told me I am, and I can never vote for a Democrat, even if it means I have to vote for Trump, even if he was a Democrat for most of his life and is now directly contradicting the conservative values my parents taught me. God, I’m glad I hold no religious or political allegiances.

I’m an atheist and I thank God for it.

- George Bernard Shaw

Peace and Tolerance. Yes there’s a piece over here a piece over there.

I’m not a member of any organized religion; I’m Episcopalian.

I worship the sun. I celebrate by going outside on sunny days with no clothes on. For some reason the judge just doesn’t agree with my argument of “religous freedom”.

People nowadays, including Wiley, seem to have a very thin cultural knowledge of the Christian faith. It is not ”all about love and tolerance”—it never was. It is about the good news that the living God can be known in Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified but rose to new bodily life three days later. It is about getting your grave sins forgiven. It is about living in thankful obedience to the God who gave you everything.

In Christian parlance, ”love” and ”tolerance” do not have the Orwellian newspeak meanings of postmodern Western culture. ”Tolerance” means treating people respectfully and humanely even though their ideas are crazy and reprehensible—not calling crazy and reprehensible ideas good and wholesome in fear of offending someone. ”Love” means committing to the true good of the other person—not having sex with anything that moves if you are consensual and do not ”harm” (hah) anyone.

Bless you, Danea; The Moral Compass of Circular Reasoning.

Yep.

When it comes to religion I agree with Carlin the Great.

Religion – all religion – and gods – all gods – are the worst plague ever invented by mankind.

Sounds like Danae created her church after the Catholic Church. Anything she doesn’t believe simply doesn’t exist.

The History of Religion in four panels.

This goes for basically every serious belief, philosophy, or worldview. That’s why Marxism/Communism – which emphasized secular reason – killed and oppressed more people in a shorter period of time than any other belief system.

That form of “communism” became a surrogate for religion, it provided the same function as religion including icons and god-priests. Stalin trained to be an Eastern Orthodox preacher before he turned to robbing banks to pay for the revolution.

If we didn’t have any religions, some con-person would invent one. In fact, I’m more or less convinced that’s how they all get started. (Not necessarily by the nominal head of the religion, but by the person who figures how to sell it to the marks… I mean masses at a profit.)

Considering that organized religions are on the wane, it’s amazing how stirred up everyone is on the above comments. Check out the lyrics to Iris Dement’s “Let the Mystery Be” and calm down.

I’ve never understood how God could expect His creatures to pick the one true religion by faith – it strikes me as a sloppy way to run a universe.

— Robert Heinlein, Jubal Harshaw in Stranger in a Strange Land, (1961).

I have just started my own church. It’s so simple. Send me some money.

You forgot the gods, Shiva, Vishnu, and Rama.

Danae has it right.

I don’t want to get into a big back-and-forth over this, because I’m sure we all have other things to do besides arguing on a comics forum, but I will say this: I’m encouraged by the tone of the arguments here. I’m seeing mostly reasoned responses instead of cheap shots and low blows, and that’s a good thing.