Allah U'Akbar, Hare Krishna, Praise the Lord, and Merry Christmas

[vovat]

As is my wont, I'm going to comment on the newest Chick Tract. There isn't much new in this one, although I am kind of curious about the idea that Jesus "holds the universe from flying apart." So it presumably WOULD fly apart if he weren't constantly working on this? Even while dying in agony on the cross? Chick apparently also thinks that Jesus personally holds atoms together, so I guess I'm not surprised. The most interesting panels, however, are the first two, where we get some of Chick's typical wacky characters. Since some of them are holding drinks, I guess they're all at a party, but it's kind of hard to tell. The "It's Jesus!" guy is being played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, while poor Max Headroom has been reduced to angrily claiming that Jesus was black. Next to him is a hunchback with a comb-over, while the next panel has a junkie with happy-face earrings, the Mini-Führer arguing with a gypsy, and the love child of Santa Claus and Groucho Marx. As usual, we get some of the totally unrealistic "Jesus? Who's He?" and "I hate Him!" dialog. In Chick's universe, every non-Christian (or, to be even more specific, everyone who isn't part of Chick's specific brand of Christianity) is ignorant, confused (like the guard captain from Disney's Aladdin in the first panel; Jesus is an important personage in Islam, but I doubt you'd find too many people claiming he actually was a member of a religion that wouldn't exist for another six centuries), or hateful. I'll admit that I don't have a representative sample, but it seems to me that non-Christians are more likely to think Jesus was either a generally good guy who was wrong about some things (like the whole "being the Son of God" thing), or a figure so heavily mythologized that there's no way to know WHAT he was actually like (if he existed at all), neither of which would likely lead to hatred. And it bears repeating that even people who have no clue who Jesus is/was still know to refer to him with capitalized pronouns.

Another Bible-related item that I just finished reading today was Asimov's Guide to the Bible, an interesting reference work that puts Biblical passages into their proper historical context. The book was written in the sixties, so it's not entirely up to date as far as historical knowledge goes, but Asimov does a good job of using both then-current research and his own ideas in coming up with what I suppose could be considered a rational interpretation. His commentary isn't negative toward believers, but does offer possibilities for how certain stories could have occurred or developed without miracles being involved.

And if you're interested in commentary on other holy books (which you probably aren't, but I am), this person reads the Quran so you don't have to. I've seen a lot of snarky Bible commentaries on the Internet, but not so many for the Quran. Incidentally, there was another blog where someone was trying to refute the one I just linked to, and the blogger suggested that The Arabian Nights was an accurate manual of human-jinn interaction. Come on, I don't think that even the book itself claims its stories are true! They were supposed to have been made up by Scheherazade, right? Anyway, that blog apparently no longer exists, but there's some discussion of it here.

Comments

We read the Quran so you don't have to

[bec-87rb.livejournal.com]

Haha - man, that lady is ticked off.

[revme.livejournal.com]

I like that the "Jesus was intolerant!" guy is Bill Gaines in a Groucho Glasses Mask.

[onib.livejournal.com]

Chick apparently also thinks that Jesus personally holds atoms together, so I guess I'm not surprised.

Obviously! I mean, Jesus is the most powerful force in the universe. Thus, he must be responsible for the strong nuclear force which holds quarks & gluons together so that we can have protons and neutrons. Without him, there would not even be dust. With him, we will get to have an eventual universal collapse of all matter as he pulls it all back together again, destroying everything else in creation. Yay!


Oh, in an unrealted topic, have you seen Comic Book Tatoo yet? It's an enormous tome of a book (480 pages, 6 pounds, nearly 12"x12" sized pages). Basically, it represents 80 comics creators each taking a turn at turning a Tori Amos song into a graphic novel style story. It's gorgeous and really quite fantastic to read through. Right now, Amazon has it for $20, and you really can't beat that for the value. Anyhow, we saw it in a store and immediately grabbed it up. I had a feeling you & Beth would enjoy it as well. (There's a big write-up on it here as well if you need more convincing.

[onib.livejournal.com]

Actually, one other thought came to mind. The tract says that Jesus cannot lie. That means Jesus is physically incapable of lying. I assume this is said to show how very holy he is, but doesn't that take away from the whole point of the crucifixion? I mean, if Jesus chose not to sin at all despite temptation, then his sacrifice can be in the place of all men. If he had no temptation or was unable to sin, then his sacrifice is meaningless. This is what happens when Chick just says whatever comes to his mind rather than reasoning through his rantings.

[bec-87rb.livejournal.com]

That was what they taught me as well. He had the free will, but made a perfect sacrifice, because He was metaphorically a lamb without spot.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

If Jesus COULDN'T lie at all, that would be an odd sort of omnipotence.

a rock so big you can't lift it

[bec-87rb.livejournal.com]

That's the thing about omnipotence - it allows you to do ANYTHING, including the breezy violation of causality and logic.

As a matter of fact, if I am truly omnipotent, am required to be able to both be able to lie and not be able to lie simultaneously. Wrap yer heads around that one, puny humans.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Well I guess if you believe GOD is the force that holds the universe together, and if Jesus is God, then it MUST FOLLOW that Jesus holds atoms together right? Ah, the mysteries of the Incarnation.

Somehow saying "like a square is a rectangle but a rectangle isn't necessarily a square" doesn't feel very theological but that's the only thing that's coming to mind.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well I guess if you believe GOD is the force that holds the universe together, and if Jesus is God, then it MUST FOLLOW that Jesus holds atoms together right?

I suppose so, but couldn't God have just created the Universe so that it WOULDN'T fall apart unless He really wanted it to? Seems like that would take less effort than Chick's version.