For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for April 06, 2012

Besides, Michael, you’re forgetting the most important part of the Easter story: He rose from the dead, and because He did, all of us will someday live again, too!

You are obviously very warped. I pitty your soul.

Just ignore Baslim the beggar and others like him, people. His kind will always be around to try to suck the joy out our celebrations. He is only able to succeed if we listen to him, so let’s not listen to him, and just stick to celebrating the reason for the season instead! :)

@SUSAN NEWMAN: I wish you a sweet Pesach. I’ll be at a seder in Merida, Yucatan.

And to others: A very happy Easter, if appropriate.

God created the universe but let it run by itself; hence the evil

“Karfreitag ist ein trauriger Tag, weil Jesus gestorben ist.” Good Friday is a sad day because Jesus died.My daughter, aged 4,: “Ist Jesus ein Skelett?”I don’t have to worry, she’ll overcome both her grandmothers’ Märchen & contos de fadas using logic.“No, Papá, don’t be silly, they’re just pretend, for stories.”That’s my girl!

RDT64 said Micheal is a little young to know about or understand the concepts involved.Exactly.I struggle not to offend both my Austrian mother-in-law and my Portuguese mother, both Catholic, by asking them not to fill my daughter’s head with these tales. They’re confusing her.

WHAT?!!!? Do you know anything about what the scientists and historians are saying about the ressurection or have you decided on your own that the church is crap and kept it at that. Man, you need to do a little reading and genuinely keep your mind open!

OH MAN- you really are the disillusioned one and your religion started in the garden with the snake. Pride goes before the fall. The most devourt Christians- ie CS Lewis- were athiests before studying the historical and archaelogical evidence which then led them to look within themselves. You have seen within yourself and have found no sin- this is pride, my friend.

And yet we insist on doing our own thing, having free will, and being our own God. He gave us free will to choose who we were to love- God or ourselves/Satan.

Wait until you get older, Michael. Then you’ll get it!

Very sweet strip. Most don’t acknowledge Good Friday, anymore. Glad to see this. Those of you that don’t believe, can’t you just leave it well enough alone? We are not forcing our beliefs down your throat, and would appreciate you not forcing your lack, thereof, down ours. Thank you.

I like the late George Carlins 11th comandment …. keep thy religion to thyself!

Sometimes the greatest wisdom is silence

And once again, we have proof positive that the only thing as annoying as an in-your-face Evangelical Christian is an in-your-face Evangelical Atheist.

To my fellow Christians – blessings on this most solemn of days. To my Jewish brothers and sisters, Happy Passover! to all others, have a good day.

This strip today was done years ago. I rcall showing it to someone in our bible study group…she had a son named Micheal.

I was involuntarily immersed into all that drivel for many, many years.then one day, I reached the age of reason……….as little Natalie Wood said in “Miracle on 34th Street”:“Faith is believing in something that common sense tells you not to”

Amen!

And most all of the comments here today prove why we should never have removed prayer from school.

I found several articles about calling evil good. This one was one of the best.

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isa. 5:20.)At the October 1995 general conference, Elder Durrel A. Woolsey of the Seventy said: "Satan offers a strange mixture of just enough good to disguise the evil along his downward path to destruction, as described by Nephi, an ancient prophet, when he said:

" `For behold, at that day shall he (Satan) rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good. "

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/31671/Applying-the-scriptures—Calling-good-evil-and-evil-good-is-ploy-utilized-by-Satan.html

Good for little Michael, he’s asking rational questions.

Just love the holidays….marshmallow Peeps are marvelous. All the spring/renewal celebration, warmth and goodwill at Christmas, fall leaves and cider at Halloween….ironic that all our modern holidays have their origins in paganism, isn’t it?

To mislead children because of fear and intimidation is spineless and dishonest.

Out of the mouths of babes . . .

This is really a very thought provoking strip – I would like to see the conversation to continue between this mother and son, and see which way it would go. Will Elly persuade him to accept her religion, or will he persuade her to rethink her beliefs? And will they both learn the most important lesson of all – that we should be able to discuss these issues, and maybe learn to understand each other a little better, without feeling threatened or offended by what the other side thinks, and without passing judgement?

liar liar you just havn’t been caught yet

If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane.So… Happy Pesach and Merry Easter to all!

This is child abuse.

Baslim the begger, John Smith, thisisretarded, Yassir Thasmibebbi, The Skulker, and others of similar mind: Thank you! It’s so nice to see there at least a few rational, intelligent people here!

Heinlein fan?

We all know Michael is grossly mistaken. Michael can be sweet and innocent, but he isn’t always that way. How many times has he acted selfishly or picked on Lizzie? And wasn’t he the one who stole from the store? Michael is not saying he is perfect; he just doesn’t understand yet – at his age – that it is our refusal to admit our wrongs, and even justify them, that keeps us from God. But praise God! He reconciled us to Himself when Jesus died for us! Happy Passover and Happy Easter, everyone!

Enough about religion-it is a personal choice and leave it at that please.

To the Unbelievers … read up on history, and you’ll find that someone DID ‘magically’ (i.e. with super natural power) put a mans ear back on his head (Jesus puts the Roman Guards ear back, (Luke 22:51. “Jesus answered, ‘No more of this!’ And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.”). Check the History Books and you’ll find that all the things written about in the accounts of the Crucifixion, and the resurrection were written about – not just by Christians, but by unbelieving, Romans.

Baslim, it’s evident that you’re someone who’s been around the block more than a few times, and has a clear-eyed, hard-headed view of the world. I respect and admire that. (It’s also evident that you’re a reader of Robert A. Heinlein, who was also that sort of man. :] ).But I don’t know how someone like you can look around and not accept that humans have, down to the marrow of their bones, an impulse to be proud, greedy, cruel, and generally foolish. We’re born with it — a cranky toddler is Exhibit A. What else do you think original sin is? No one, priest or otherwise, had to “invent” it..Personally, as someone with early training in science and a career in economics, I can say that I accept the Bible account of human nature — including its mutation (so to speak) into something unspeakably perverse, and its loving redemption from what it is to what it was meant to be — as the hypothesis that explains the world I see around me better than any other. Anyone else is free to draw their own conclusions, of course.

Lynn’s Notes:The concept of being born a sinner confused me. As a kid, I was unable to process this – it just didn’t make sense. I hoped in time I’d understand. I’m still waiting.

Good Jesuit thinking! And I, for one, don’t think your thinking is “warped.”

People, people. . . .

Now Lynne Johnson has to make a jab at religion in her comics. The bible makes it clear that young children are innocent. They are not held accountable for sin until they reach the age of understanding it. Especially sad that Lynne uses Good Friday to make her disbelief known. But as usual, free speech is everything.

As we all know, everyone’s religion is A-1, top notch, the one true story above all else, with explains any number of wars, including the little one starting up right here.

Michael, you “haven’t done anything” YET. But, given the teachings of the Christian community, you certainly will.

To all who have commented on Ellie’s teaching her son about the religiously correct story about Easter and Christ’s resurection, get your heads out of your patooties. That (a parent teaching a child) is how many of us learned about religion in the first place. And that is the process by which each of us had made up our minds about the creedo we individually follow. Personally, I do not believe in a religion, and I refuse to attend a service, except as an honor (or a “favor”) to someone else. I personally believe that, absent religion, this world may have seen a lot less bloodshet over its history. But. it is just that, my belief. It is not to say that anyone else’s beliefs are wrong. And if I am a fan of Robert Heinlein (as Notgiven asked of Baslim the begger), so what? Who is to say that he might not have a right idea about God and religion?

Happy Easter and Happy Passover to all who follow those faiths.

Finally, to all those claiming that Elly is abusing her kids; I wonder if you are also the same people that insist to a child that there is no Easter Bunny or Santa Claus. If you are, than I accuse you of a greater abuse of a child, that of killing a happy fantasy for them. Leave them alone to grow up as they will. Eventually they (children) know that those two (and the Tooth Fairy) are their parents, grandparents, or others who care for them.

While a skeptic might have reason to doubt claimed solutions to original sin, and even “the priests” version of morality, original sin itself is a bald fact.

Whatever your personal moral code is at the moment, you will find yourself violating it at some point. Why is that? You may change your personal morals to accomodate the new behaviour, but the same thing will happen. Individuals can find a certain amount of support from society in resisting this progressive decay, but societies are subject to the same principle, and their standards are lowered to accomodate the behaviour of the majority of their members.

The New Testament calls this inevitable decay “the law of sin and death”. Thermodynamics describes the “death” part, and progressive moral decay is the “sin” part. If you are a pure materialist, then you may not recognize anything as moral. In that case, “the priests” are just another example of human behaviour and no more “evil” or “good” than a political rally or quilting bee – and you still have the law of death (thermodynamics). Your behaviour patterns will inevitably decay over time, whether or not you attribute any moral significance to this.

Socialism and Islam, while espousing wildly different moral standards, offer the same solution to original sin: a totalitarian State to make you be (their version of) good. That is why liberals/socialists/progressives are so attracted to a religion that wants to kill them.

Michael, you have taken a toy from your sister, sassed your mom, pushed your sister, lied to stay out of trouble, thus you have “done something”. But that’s ok, because your mom’s teaching you about the mercy & grace that can be yours if you want it.

Grace: getting something you don’t deserve (salvation)Mercy: NOT getting something you do deserve (eternal separation from a holy & just God)

Atheism is the most intolerant religion of all.

Keeping a child in the dark about a loving God on the off chance that this is the only thing they have to look forward to is abusive. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “you refuse to enter into the Kingdom of God & YOU PREVENT OTHERS from entering as well” (paraphrased). That’s what the Atheist Religion does to its children.

Baslim, you got it.

Actually the three laws were restated thus:1. You can’t win, you can only break even. 2 you can only break even at absolute zero.3 you can’t reach absolute zero.

You would not want to reach absolute zero as all the moleculer bonds break down and all you have is a bunch of random particles. that would really be losing.

Sad commentary on the continued indoctrination of children by the christ cult.

I’m not going to get into the religious argument since that’s pointless, but I’ve got to say, people, addressing your comments to ‘Michael’ is just way WAY too pwecious.

It’s a cartoon. Michael is a drawing, not a person.

AMEN, I WAS PROUD TO SEE THIS

Well, "religionists " did get pushy, but isn’t that what atheists are doing now? Christians do not have any freedoms here in America anymore without being pushed down. Atheists call all religious teaching abuse, but didn’t most atheists start out as being taught religion and then they used their own free will to "escape " later? So what’s the problem? We teach our kids the truth and they will make their decisions when they’re older no matter what we do

Woah! First Cathy with the swim suits that don’t fit, and now Family Circus!

When in doubt as to the meaning of Easter, ask a Muslim. (I’m sorry, the video’s German.)

Actually, Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday. And he was in the tomb for three days. And on that following Sunday, He rose from the dead. If He had been crucified on a Friday like so many believe, He would have only been in the tomb one day. He died for all YOURS and MY sins. We are all sinners and come short of the glory of God. But Jesus, Who is God in the flesh, paid the price for us and cancelled our debt. I think Michael should be able to grasp that. He’s old enough.

I celebrate easter by watching zombie movies. :3

Kinda nice to see a discussion of this sort without any major name calling and backbiting. Yes, there is some, but nothing like what I’ve seen elsewhere. FBoFW readers are classy.

I’m sorry, Michael, but aren’t you the same little boy that stole a scarf to give your mother for Christmas?!?!? Just because you had an attack of conscience and returned it doesn’t make the original act of theft any less sinful!

Penn Jillette is referring to Abraham being told to sacrifice his son Isaac. It was a test of Abraham’s faith. Other cultures in the area liberally sacrificed their children to false gods. Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his own son - the only one that God had promised Abraham would result in Abraham becoming a nation - was a test of Abraham’s faith in God. God firmly stopped the sacrifice before it occurred. However, God Himself provided the sacrifice of His Son - who took the assignment willingly - so that we would be reconciled to Him. You are correct —-God expecting people to sacrifice their children for Him is against His nature. The Bible makes it clear that God abhors child sacrifice and that is one reason He tells the Israelites not to intermingle with the Canaanites and other nations around them.

That was always such a sad mystery as a child. It takes more maturity to really understand it.

Love it.

Out of the mouth of babes,,,Pity is that enough conditioning and pressure to conform often defeats logical thought.

Michael has it figured out. Well done!

I hope that the audience who reads this comic, especially children and teenagers, take this opportunity to really think about what they believe in relation to sin. I sincerely hope that they avail themselves of the internet and explore all the options open to them. I’m personally glad that Michael is showing a little bit of sense, something I seldom see in him ;), life is about more than guilt, blind obedience, suffering, and condemnation.

Personally I’m going to enjoy spring and the signs of new life all around me this weekend. As a pagan Easter has nothing to do with Christianity for me. (Researching the pagan origins of Easter would be interesting reading for some people.)

My spirituality and faith does not require me to condemn those who are different from me though, so whatever you believe I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Incidentally, I refuse to sit quietly by and bite my tongue because a few posters glory in their ability to share their opinion while vigorously condemning those who believe in something different. I embrace your right to speak about your belief just as I have the right to share my pagan beliefs and my joy about the rebirth of spring. _ Happy holidays!

it’s called reincarnation :)