Take a step back and we can begin to grasp the interconnectedness of reality and our place in it. We have an active role to fill in putting together this God-Sized Puzzle and we can't do it alone because we are each other's missing piece.
I love the internets! I somehow stumbled upon inkarttattoos.com containing odd tattoos merging the image of Jesus with historical figures, film, and even cartoon characters. Here are a couple of my favorites.
Jesus Spock Tattoo. The script below reads "Live long and prosper" in Spanish. I'll let you guys try to decipher this one ( I'm looking at you Dr. McGrath).
Jesus Rides a Dinosaur. This tattoo based on a fantastic image floating about the interwebs a few
years ago. I wrote a post about this hilarious image and
on the spirituality found in one of my favorite films "The Land Before
Time". An oldie but a goodie. Life wouldn't be the same without Creationists.
I have a couple tattoos myself but nothing this crazy. Check out the above link to find everything from Gumby and Hello Kitty dying for our sins to Zombie Jesus Fish (yeah, I said zombie Jesus fish). Enjoy and feel free to share other links or images similar to the ones above, I'd love to see them. (Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Wondering if Todd Bentley has any wild Jesus tattoos? Check out his tattoos here.) This random stroll through the internet made my day.
Somewhere there are kids in church reading slang words into the Bible while snickering during the sermon. Satan just got served! (Or was it the cardinals getting served?)
After a little digging on the interwebs I located the original artist, Cosmo Sarson, and work here. Apparently this was inspired by a Polish youth group which breakdanced for Pope John Paul II.
I'm sure all of you know about the uproar with Chik-Fil-A so I won't go into detail. But I do want to touch on a related theme of the Christian God changing her mind. Christian Piatt wrote an excellent article about a Billy Graham letter and the moral decay of America. Graham wrote in his letter how his wife, Ruth, made a comment after reading the section on America's moral decay in a draft of a book Graham was writing. She stated that “If God doesn’t punish America, He’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.” That got me thinking on two things: why can't God apologize for a past sin against Mankind, and if God can't or won't apologize/change his mind, what is preventing us from apologizing?
This also brought to mind the story of Abraham questioning God's morality found in Genesis 18.
25 Far be it from you to do such a thing —to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Genesis 18:25
Abraham's question will not the judge of all the earth do right is one of those timeless rare gems found within the archaic stories of the Bible. To stand up to a powerful force and question their authority and judgement is something we should reflect upon especially on the topic of basic human rights. Sure, Abraham was okay with the destruction of everyone else except the righteous, he still stood up to a supreme being with an ability to zap him. God DID change her mind, many times throughout the Bible. Of course this is explained away as all being part of a cosmic Divine Plan, if that plan changed before why can't it change again? Many (but not all) Christians believe that God is constant and she never changes. They hold this belief because life is chaotic and need a Rock to weather the storm of life. But if God went from complete genocide to sparring the city if ten righteous people were found, why can't we ask the question Abraham failed to ask? Will the Judge of all the earth spare the city if none were found righteous? Will the Lord forgive the city for its sins, forgive us for being human?
What if the story had ended with God never bending to Abraham's pleas? What does this say about how mankind viewed (and continues to view) the divine? And most importantly what about us? God can and does change throughout scripture so shouldn't we as a society change as well? In America we've changed our minds on slavery, genocide, and gender inequality (well, we're still working on that) so why stop there? Is allowing gay marriage worse than any of the past injustices we thought were just and righteously mandated by God? Will society actually crumble if we allow gay couples a piece of paper stating they are legally married? As I've said before divorce, spousal abuse, and infidelity are all real dangers to the institution of marriage. The God of the bible is okay with slavery, genocide, and gender inequality and since we as a nation have turned our backs on these America has not been wiped out like Sodom and Gomorrah. Are Christians actually asking us to turn back the clock? No I don't believe they are, well maybe a few of the more radical types. The reason why Christians are so upset about the Chik-Fil-A controversy is that it challenges their sense of security and safety found in God and the Bible. (Well that and they find homosexuality icky.) They know that another big civil rights change is no longer on the horizon, it is already here! Attention, attention!Christianity is not going to disappear, there will be no massive Christian persecutions, no massive gay agenda brainwashing programs in school, society is not going to crumble, and most importantly for you Christians, God will NOT strike us down. Society will adjust and gay marriage will be the new norm like freed slaves and women in the workplace. So take a deep breath, have a delicious chicken sandwich at Chik-Fil-A and go home and watch a wholesome Christian film on Netflix. Everything will be okay.
Oh and I wanted to share this comical take on the controversy. Enjoy!
I had a sudden urge to make a picture of Admiral Ackbar warning Jesus of his crucifixion but then I realized I have access to the interwebs. I bet someone already has, and lo and behold...
While searching for a full list of names for a few of the characters I didn't recognize on the far right I stumbled upon this page containing a treasure trove of Last Supper parodies. It's not completely up to date ( they didn't have the one from Lost) but it's got over 50+ parodies. Enjoy.
I've been waiting for this t-shirt to reprint for about a year. I completely forgot about it until I got an email yesterday about their recent reprint. This picture tickles me every time mainly because I'll never see this happen in real life, well at least in my lifetime. Order your t-shirt today so that we can be B.F.F. for life!
It's videos like these that I thank Allah every day for Youtube.
Fundies Say the Darndest Things is a website dedicated to archiving the most outrageous, irrational, and mind-numbing comments made by fundies from online forums. A quick perusal of the archives at first brought me to a light chuckle but after a few minutes these quotes quickly became depressing when reality began to sink in: these are quotes made by real people. You forget that sometimes while perusing through the internet.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
"The only thing a kid will learn in an American public school is that homosexuality is good, and America is bad. There is no way, under any considerations, circumstances, or conditions, that my kid will attend one of our leftist public brain laundries."Wolseley
["The Hebrews crossed the 'sea of reeds'. Most Jews agree on this. After all, the first 5 books are theirs."]
"The first five books are theirs? Um, no. Moses was a Christian. Sorry."prosperousindividual
"That's the beauty of Heaven... we can leave our brains behind." Lainy68
"Are... are you now disputing the existance [sic] of DNA???"
Yes. DNA can never be proven. Evolutionists are obsessed with it because they always say ''chimps share 97% DNA with modern man'' etc. That's great, however you would then need to prove DNA is real. Asycthian
Back in 2008 I took a Religion in Popular Media class at MTSU taught by the rascally Rabbi Rami. In that class I learned how to recognize and interpret religious and spiritual symbolism in popular media. Before taking this class I never really paid much attention whenever religion and spirituality intersected with popular media, and when I did I found myself seriously offended when my religious beliefs were "mocked". That was back in the good ole' fundie days. I never sat down to think and analyze why I found something offensive, I just did. Now I can't get enough of it, not because I enjoy mocking faith or religion but I find that the intersection of faith, spirituality, and religion with popular media does say a lot about the human condition. Take for example this latest episode of Mr. Deity (El) and Jesse (Jesus) meeting Allah in the dark matter showroom. Listen closely for the pop culture references. (Just to make things clearer, the explosion they reference towards the end is the Big Bang.)
So is this offensive? And if so which part? Is it the in the casual use of vulgarity and violence? Or could the offensiveness be found in the portrayal, lack of portrayal, or even in the passing remark that Allah and El could be twins? Maybe the offense is found in the blending of the sacred and the secular? I love Mr. Deity because the show blends the darker issues and topics in religion seamlessly with a comedic tone, topics which most people are afraid to even mention. I believe the real reason someone would find this offensive is because they're more afraid of dealing with the "skeletons in the closet" introduced in the clip than the vulgarity or even the "skewed" imagery of the divine. What do you think?
I recently started at a new job a few weeks ago and I've been anxiously hoping to join in a water cooler discussion on religion and spirituality. I would start the discussion myself but I'm sure I would quickly alienate quite a few people before I finish my first thought. Anyway, I prefer listening to others discuss religion and spirituality than listen to myself rant (that's what this site is for). Here are a couple videos on water cooler evangelism, the first one made by yours truly.
Of course my video isn't as funny as this next one, I did however find the commentary intriguing. Why are people so reluctant to talk about their faith? Is it because the majority of believers weave emotion and identity with their faith?
Maybe there's so much pressure on Christians to proclaim the gospel that they rather not try unless they know they can secure a WIN for Jesus. Most unbelievers will hear you out but rather not be sold on anything. Sharing personal stories and experiences for the sake of sharing goes much farther than out right evangelism. Because in the end you can evangelize till your blue in the face (or martyred in a foreign country) the choice is still up to the end user. That's right, I said end user. The more people wear religion on their sleeve and treat it as a "life-changing" product the more people will see it as just that, another product. But be forewarned, if you don't meet your conversion quota the Evangelism Linebacker will get you!
I've stumbled upon this animated segment from the film The God Makers, produced in 1982 by Ed Decker, a former priest and temple Mormon of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Now I'm not certain if the beliefs presented here are what LDS really believe because the God Makers was produced by an ex-communicated Mormon. You can watch a rebuttal to this cartoon here and a beautiful, although unrelated, video tour inside Mormon temples here.
And then there's this Jehovah's Witness Cartoon which emphasizes the human nature of Jesus.
And of course there's this hilarious little live action gem about Elisha and the She Bears. A bit of warning, the video is not as violent as the story told in 2 Kings.
What's the point of posting these videos? Mostly, I get a kick out of them. I don't care much for apologetics since when they literalize concepts and beliefs which should be told in metaphor and myth, it comes across as silly (e.g. God lives near a star called Kolob). But when non-believers literalize the scripture, as seen in the mauling of the 42 youths in 2 Kings, apologetics tend to be appalled and disgusted by the portrayal of the often overlooked gore in their scripture and claim the non-believers are either twisting scripture or they see nothing wrong with 42 youths getting mauled.
If any of you are familiar with the strip of I-24 from Chattanooga to Nashville you probably recognize this billboard or at least have driven by a similar one.
"Life is short. Eternity isn't." -God
My initial thought whenever I pass by is what would the people of Godspeaks.com think if I put up another billboard stating "Everything returns to Me, the compassionate, the merciful." -Allah. There's nothing wrong with ad wars, right? I mean if Verizon and AT&T can do it why not religions, they're businesses too. My following thought is that the Godspeaks billboard is so entrenched and accepted as the norm that ANY OTHER public message which carries a contrasting religious tone is considered a threat to the majority faith. How Christians handle the mental gymnastics of "equality" within a highly diverse country while proclaiming any other voices as a threat to themselves, our country, and freedom itself is far beyond me. (Someone please explain to me how this is done. Should I reread 1984 and grasp the mechanics of doublethink first?)
(Note: When I looked up Godspeaks.com and checked out their billboard section all they had was a link to their 2009 Nascar campaign. Hmm. God can put up a billboard but has trouble managing His website on the internets. Fortunately, I was able to find this photo on an Atheist site.) For those at home keeping score, churches across our Christian nation are increasingly finding themselves with rows upon rows of empty pews and stacks of dusty collection plates. At first this was blamed on the recession: sadly, like grampa at the nursing home, nobody wants to waste gas driving to visit God every Sunday (anyway, there's a game on tv).
But when the PEW survey came out last spring showing that there is a small but growing shift from organized faith to personal spiritual searching outside the control of the clergy, the religions ramped up their ad campaigns. These campaigns have been around for decades but it seems that they've been growing in the last few years. Scientologists, Atheists, and Muslims (oh, my!) have also jumped on the advertising bandwagon. The billboard on I-24 in particular got me thinking in a manner opposite of its original intent. It was meant to deliver, as Sean Prophet at Black Sun Journal describes as "a thinly-veiled threat of eternal torture and damnation". Thin enough to cause you to think about life after death as you careen down Mount Eagle at 80mph (again if you're familiar with this area you've probably also had a near-death experience coming down the mountain). The quote itself can be read in the spirit of Kohelet, the narrator of Ecclesiastes, and many non-religious folks in the South: everyone dies, there's no life after death, so invite a few friends over and have a party. The Universe was fine before we were born and it will continue after we're gone. It may seem eternal from our perspective, and it may be, but all we have are our 80+ years (if we're lucky) so let's enjoy our little blip and not worry about an afterlife which may not even exist. This is where the religious folk confuse the wisdom of Kohelet with hedonism. Ecclesiastes (along with many of us considering ourselves postmodern, progressive, realists, etc.) does NOT say that we should indulge and give in to our every urge, but to just sit back and simply be. All we want to do is sit out on our porch and just breathe. I'm not threatened by eternity, I stand in awe of it. Shouldn't we be that much more grateful for our microscopic existence and not attempt to annihilate one another over God, politics, and resources?
I got a curious search request hit yesterday that had me thinking about the topic of human sacrifice. The search phrase "abraham and isaac on mount moriah activity sheets" had me reminiscing about all the fun activities we used to do in Sabbath school. I'm afraid they probably didn't find what they were looking for when they landed on my post on Abraham's Test so I thought I'd lend them a hand (that's if they decide to return which I highly doubt). You can find Abraham coloring pages here and here, and the activity sheets on Isaac's sacrifice here. If you click on the activity sheet link and scroll down to page 6 you can read the key points of the story.
Abraham’s heart was set to be obedient to whatever God had called him to do.
Even to the point of sacrificing his own son.
Abraham believed the promises of God, and his covenant would come true.
He trusted God no matter what.
A couple things come to mind after looking over the activity sheet: 1) human sacrifice didn't bother me as a child and 2) it probably didn't bother me because I thought I was invulnerable (God would protect me) and I was too busy working on the crossword puzzle. I honestly have no memory of flinching or having any fearful thoughts throughout the countless retelling of Biblical stories. I didn't make the connection because to me (as a child) bad things only happen to bad people. The death, destruction, and horrendous genocide did not phase me one bit because it didn't feel real. Those events happened to really bad people a long time ago, so who cares let me finish coloring my picture.
But now it makes me sick to my stomach that I silently sat there week after week instead of screaming out against the injustices done to countless of people all in the name of God. If I knew then what I know now I would feel like an accomplice, or a yes man cheering God on.
This is the mindless, uncaring, and unquestioning faith that no longer appeals to me. The Yes Man (or Yes God) Faith does not leave any room to question the Master Plan (or if you're cynical, the emotional ravings) of the Old Testament God. Because to question God's morality is to question any constant ground we may have in a constantly shifting, chaotic world. Yet how can we break the cycle of injustice committed in the world (this includes acts committed by Christians) if we are constantly being reminded what is right or wrong as if we were children? Yes, the Divine stopped Abraham in the end from sacrificing his son, and children, for the most part, understand the moral lesson: obey God faithfully and everything will be hunky dory. Yet Abraham fully intended to sacrifice his son, Period. We would fail as parents if we 1) continued to construct a false sense of Divine security and 2) did not instill a strong sense of independent thought and morality. We will not always be there, and nor will God, to stop the bad people from driving a knife into their chest or counsel them on the suffering caused by adultery. We are to prepare them for all of life's suffering and inspire them to discover all of life's joys.
I got a chance to catch up on Mr. Deity season 3 episodes today. My favorite one, and probably most theologically amusing thus far, is Mr. Deity and the Identity Crisis. For those unfamiliar with Mr. Deity he's a brief rundown. Mr. Deity is a series of short 2-7 minute comedy films by Brian Keith Dalton about the behind the scenes workings of the universe surveyed by Mr. Deity (God) and his assistant Larry (the Holy Spirit). in this clip Mr. Deity and Jesse (Jesus) are attempting to figure out the theological paradox that is the Trinity. Enjoy, and see if you can keep up.
1.4 million views in 6 months. What are people looking for when they watch videos like these?
There are 3 things that does scare me when I watch videos like these and it's not about the possibility (which is nil) of him being a Muslim.
People reveal their bigotry and hatred for The Other a lot easier when hiding behind avatars in the online world. It is easier for us to throw rocks from behind a bush than out in the open. I don't fear the people who are openly hateful, I fear the ones who disclose their hatred.
People will swallow any easy answers even if it nurtures the darker side of the soul.
When we are confronted by the unknown we warp and shape it into an enemy. Suffering, pain, hunger, poverty are not tangible enough (although the people who experience it are) to confront so we must create a tangible target.
The only part of the 1st video sounding remotely close to Obama admitting he is a Muslim is at the :57 mark. The following video puts the statement into context.
People are looking for Obama to slip up and say he's a Muslim as if this would destroy America. (Just take a look at this screenshot taken yesterday on some of the responses displayed in the comment section of Youtube user, FeelTheChangeMedia, who posted the first video on his channel.) The real fear isn't based on The Other it is based on the unknown elements of The Other. People fear what they do not understand and this fear drives them to hatred. For some, it seems easier to demonize and eliminate the unknown than to embrace it. And of those who actually reach out to learn anything about Islam are faced with the difficult decision to read something that supports their fear or something that mayallayit. Most people are very uncomfortable with pulling the rug from under their own feet, and are much more willing to comfort themselves with the fact that they were right than letting go of their fear and hatred EVEN IF one doesn't agree with the faith.
I leave you with Bill Maher to settle the Obama Muslim "Controversy".
I can't seem to get enough of Alan Watts' philosophical explanations (although Watts likes the term ways of liberation) on our interdependence, relationship, and unity with the cosmos. Here is Watts on Nothingness.
Someone on Youtube has collected all the short animations created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone (the South Park guys) on Alan Watts into a 10 minute clip including the short clips entitled Life and Music and I which I've posted in the last coupleweeks. Enjoy.
There is one last clip, on Madness, not included in the video above which can be found here.
I just stumbled across this video and just had to share this with everyone. I believe this video sums up the eternal chase we experience in life. Life isn't about the end but about the experiences throughout our journey.
There were a lot of things which caught my attention this past week most importantly is the recent news of the devastating earthquake which tore through Haiti on Tuesday. Aid has been pouring in from all corners of the world along with their prayers. There are those, however, who are taking this tragic event to support their own political and religious views. Doug B. over at Groping the Elephant has two responses on this horrific crisis. The first is good ole' Rush Limbaugh "enlightening" his audience how the Obama administration is using this catastrophe for a photo op. Really, Rush, really?
The second response from Pat "Direct-line-to-God" Robertson infuriated me when I first heard it but is typical response coming from him.
I just don't understand how these televangelists, who use natural disasters as a sign of God's displeasure, sleep at night for condemning the innocent who experience the disaster firsthand. Although I personally don't believe that any natural or unnatural suffering is the cause of our displeasing God this is an example of compassionless Christianity to the extreme: collecting funds to save the very people Pat believes deserved suffering.
On a more positive note, it seems that Muslims are more Christ-like than Christians like Mr. Robertson as Aziz Poonawalla reports on CAIR and their fundraiser to help rebuild the churches firebombed by extremists in Malaysia. Muslims helping to rebuild churches destroyed by Muslim extremists over the use of "Allah" by Christians? News like this warms my heart.
Jesus Tattoos!
If any of you are familiar with the strip of I-24 from Chattanooga to Nashville you probably recognize this billboard or at least have driven by a similar one.
