Evil-ution and the Final Solution

[vovat]

Hey, there's a new Chick Tract! And I know I say this every time, but...he can't be serious, can he? I mean, this has every stupid argument Creationists use, including the "Darwin paved the way for the Holocaust" one that Ben Stein apparently also likes. "Survival of the fittest" was actually not a Darwinian idea, but I'm sure it would be too much to expect Chick to know this. (On the other hand, if Ben doesn't know it, it makes me wonder how anyone had any trouble at all winning his money.) Perhaps even better, however, is the line, "Since there is no God, I am a god!" It MIGHT be possible to come up with a more logically flawed sentence, but it would take some work. This tract also features the evil monkey from Family Guy (title page), a happy "polywog" (panel 6), a walking fish (panel 8), a fat nerd with a golf club representing the pinnacle of evolution (panel 12), a whole lot of Fang, atheism making a kid's eyes look crazy (panel 20 and on), what looks to be a demonic miniature cow (panel 31), and a little kid dropping dead (panel 40). And I think the girl trying to preach to Tyler is Margaret from Dennis the Menace.

Comments

[nova-one.livejournal.com]

The next time I get into a debate about this, I'm going to ask, "Hey, if apostasy is a sin, and Jesus died for my sins, then why do I have to believe? Ought we not to be saved by default, then?"

And, "Generally those who say science is a religion have never practised science. Science differs from religion in that everyone has the right (and responsibility to some extent) to validity-test ideas on their merits - their success at predicting reality. Religion has no such validity-testing."

After an appeal to God, I'd ask, "Can I speak with your supervisor?"

[vovat.livejournal.com]

It does seem pretty ridiculous to say, "Hey, Jesus died for the sins of mankind!" only to turn around and add, "except only a very small part of mankind; the majority will still go to Hell." The doctrine of Original Sin teaches that Hell is the default, and Chick obviously has no problem sending kids there. Some Christians have the idea of the Age of Accountability, making Heaven the default for anyone under a certain age. In a way, however, that might be worse, since it implies that it's better from an afterlife standpoint to die before you grow up.

I think the problem with any such argument is that anyone stubborn enough to think Chick knows what he's talking about isn't likely to be swayed if you invent a time machine and take him or her back to before they think the world was created.

[onib.livejournal.com]

The doctrine of Original Sin teaches that Hell is the default, and Chick obviously has no problem sending kids there.

I wonder what Chick's belief is about aborted fetuses. Do they go to heaven? You could argue that if we're "born into original sin," then fetuses are sinless since they haven't been born. Of course, if fetuses didn't have sould, then there's no reason not to allow abortion, so I'm sure he believes they have souls.

This train of throught leads to so many other questions. What if a fetus is still-born (not aborted), does it go to heaven without having confessed the sin it's obviously been up to? Would only the unborn babies of Christian mothers go to heaven while the unborn babies of the godless go to hell? If so, is that accepting that the fetus is a part of the mother and is thus saved, if she is? Which would mean accepting that the fetus is a part of the mother and allowing for abortion...

But what am I saying? Since when did Jack Chick think through any of his views?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

At the end of this tract (http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0077/0077_01.asp), Chick says, "If you ask Christ into your heart, you will see your baby in heaven," which he supports with 2 Samuel 12:23. This verse is about a dead baby, but says nothing whatsoever about Heaven. Anyway, this statement seems to indicate that aborted fetuses always go to Heaven, but I guess it could mean that they only do if their would-be mothers repent. If the former, though (putting aside the disturbing image of Heaven being filled with undeveloped fetuses; I guess they really wouldn't be that much weirder than the four-headed cherubim), doesn't that mean having an abortion is a sure way to get someone into Heaven, which Chick has said multiple times is the most important thing in life? Couldn't Chick be seen as taking the ultimate PRO-abortion stance in this case? Well, maybe he disapproves of abortion because it's a conversion method that doesn't involve cartoons, and hence competition for him.

[nova-one.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's an important distinction between "survival of the fittest" and "reproduction of the fittest," which is totally missed. When I read that part I was convinced this comic was a satire until I started seeing the scripture references.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Chick usually does a pretty good job making fun of himself without anyone else even needing to try, doesn't he?

[nova-one.livejournal.com]

Even from the little I've read I can certainly agree with that - in that way, he's kind of a treasure!

Haha it totally is Margaret!

[slfcllednowhere.livejournal.com]

Wow, I love how within two seconds of the mom explaining evolution he's turned into Hitler. That was quick. And um, totally reasonable.

I think I might have to make an icon of the crazy eyes.

Re: Haha it totally is Margaret!

[vovat.livejournal.com]

The interesting thing is that we never see any indication that the mom is a Nazi. She just seems to be a very lax parent. "Yes, that's right honey. You go exterminate the inferior races. I'll be here watching my stories." And she obviously doesn't have blonde hair, so does that mean her son wants to kill her?

Also, Hitler wasn't an atheist. In fact, Chick did another tract about how the Holocaust was sanctioned by the Vatican, which doesn't really fit with what we see here. But then, it's pretty typical of Chick to lump all the beliefs he opposes together. He probably also thinks that accepting evolution means turning into a vampire and playing Dungeons & Dragons.

[revme.livejournal.com]

I like the complete CONTEMPT that Chick seems to have for Tyler in this one, too. "Then Tyler croaked." Usually they, like, die in their sins, or their time has come, or somethin'.

Admittedly, since the kid was a nazi -- however inexplicable -- I can see having contempt for him.

I also like that the way the story goes where the mother talks about evolution which kinda-sorta makes sense (in Chick-speak anyway) is preempted by the Adam & Eve story which really doesn't.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I notice that the text says, "Tyler finally croaked," but he looks like he's still the same age he was in the rest of the tract. I guess less than a year later is plenty "final" for a little Nazi kid. But then, this tract (http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0094/0094_01.asp) also has an evil little kid, yet Chick specifies that he "grew up and died in his sins." I thought that Premillennial Dispensationalists usually believed that the period of tribulation after the Rapture would only last seven years, though, which wouldn't leave much time for Bobby to grow up. And I think I remember reading somewhere that the mention of Bobby growing up wasn't in the original version of that tract.

[yosef.livejournal.com]

Tyler doesn't know who Jesus or Adam and Eve are when Cathy/Margaret starts talking to him, yet several panels later he knows that Jesus is banned in school and he and "His cruel 10 Commandments" are hated. Silly Chick! Also, somehow I doubt that Tyler would actually capitalize the H's in "Him" and "His" when referring to Jesus.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Tyler doesn't know who Jesus or Adam and Eve are when Cathy/Margaret starts talking to him, yet several panels later he knows that Jesus is banned in school and he and "His cruel 10 Commandments" are hated.

Maybe his demon buddy told him about those things.

Also, somehow I doubt that Tyler would actually capitalize the H's in "Him" and "His" when referring to Jesus.

It seems like everyone in Chick Tracts knows to do that, even if they don't believe Jesus is God. How anyone can tell if they're capitalizing letters in speech isn't entirely clear, but maybe they put extra emphasis on the H, or something like that.

[bethje.livejournal.com]

Do my eyes look like that?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

They didn't the last time I looked. Maybe Tyler is actually just trying out some novelty contact lenses.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

the "Darwin paved the way for the Holocaust" one

There actually is some truth to this-- in my Vienna readings I was sickened to learn about how the anti-Semitic "intellectuals" who influenced Hitler invoked a warped idea of what they called "Darwinism" to justify their Inferior Race beliefs. Of course their understanding of Darwin was about as accurate as Chick's understanding is.

Did you ever check out that book on evolution and religion I told you about?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

There actually is some truth to this-- in my Vienna readings I was sickened to learn about how the anti-Semitic "intellectuals" who influenced Hitler invoked a warped idea of what they called "Darwinism" to justify their Inferior Race beliefs. Of course their understanding of Darwin was about as accurate as Chick's understanding is.

Exactly. Yes, Darwin was part of the stew of influences that Hitler used to justify his beliefs, but blaming Darwin for the Holocaust is like blaming video games for the Columbine shooting, or Jesus for the Crusades.

Did you ever check out that book on evolution and religion I told you about?

Not yet, but I will someday. There's a lot of stuff I've been meaning to read.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

blaming Darwin for the Holocaust is like blaming video games for the Columbine shooting, or Jesus for the Crusades.

And people do both those as well!

But well said, anyway!