Cartoon my daughter sent me

[Goblinmonger]

I love her for a lot of reasons. We had a great discussion about our shared atheism when I drove her back to college this last weekend. Her atheist student group had a celebration for Blasphemy Day. Contrary to the views of many in Religion, it didn't consist of anything more than hanging out and playing board games.

[trotsky]

1. Great cartoon.

Such a simple concept - if sin is bad, why create it? Why not just create heaven where everyone can have free will and no sin?

If only we could get on board with that New Theology.

[onager]

2. You mean the New Theology that says...

God is not an omnipotent sky wizard? Completely reversing 2000 years of Old Xian Theology, but we're not supposed to mention that.

Also the New Theology that embraces science. And by "embrace" I mean: fighting science tooth and nail until a scientific theory becomes such common knowledge that a third-grader understands it. At which point religion tries to hog all the credit for the discovery and claim it supported the theory all along. We're not supposed to mention that, either.

Speaking of which...the Wikipedia article on "Catholic scientists" is a hoot and a half. Here's the very first line, and note the very first Catholic scientist mentioned:

Thousands of Catholics, both clerics and laypersons alike, have made significant contributions to the development of science and mathematics from the Middle Ages to today. These scientists include Galileo Galilei, Rene Descartes, Nicolas Copernicus, Louis Pasteur, Blaise Pascal...

As I remember, that first guy mentioned had a spot of trouble with the Catholic Church. Talk about chutzpah!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Catholic_scientists

Good cartoon, GM. I'm glad your daughter is on our side.

[trotsky]

3. One of the people banned from this group is big into the "Catholics CREATED science" meme.

Never mind that they helped keep the populace illiterate and ignorant (easier to keep 'em coming to church that way), making scientific progress only possible through the church. (So long as it was approved, of course!)