that's freaking hilarious. what i find odd is the lack of spirituality i see in a lot of religious types. not all, but certainly many. to have a rigid belief system based on a one true all powerful other (monotheistic god) limits one's ability to perceive one's own role in community and environment. it reduces a life to one relationship with someone who never returns your calls. it takes the responsibility off the individual to think, and reason, and listen with an open mind. in fact religion as it is practiced by many is a disciplined closing of the mind. poor bastards. but atheism does not mean aspirituality. my spell check went off on aspiritual but heck with it, that should be a word if it isn't already. what could better describe religion?

and i ask myself, what is spiritual? listening, i think. paying attention. realizing that your dreams are as real as your waking experience. allowing your dreams to inform you. accepting that you are both imperfect and perfect. that your ancestors live on within you. that the water in your cells has been in rivers and oceans and other creatures, and that you are not so separate from them. why do i speak here? on this blog? i don't know. why did life emerge? is why a reasonable question? all of these delicious questions, are off limits to a monotheistic believer. any time i get angry at them, and think it over a bit, it eventually turns to real sincere pity. i wish they'd stay out of politics, though.

thanks for the thought provoking posts, 1GM, and best wishes to all.

so the fact that you christians do not believe in allah means you have two religions?

The simplicity of that question is pure genius.

Unfortunately there is a straw man in the argument: Allah is the God of Abraham, Yahweh, whom Christians believe to be the father of Jesus Christ. What the (absurd fundie) Christians in the cartoon would be more likely to object to is the Muslim's belief that the Quran is the word of God. And that wouldn't be so easy to lampoon, because there'd be no inconsistency with their belief that the Bible is the real McCoy.

It's amusing, but I don't agree. I consider a religion to be a belief system, which can entail believing one God exists and no others do, or that no Gods exist at all. The lack of a belief is to say you don't know the truth, which is agnosticism.

What the (absurd fundie) Christians in the cartoon would be more likely to object to is the Muslim's belief that the Quran is the word of God. And that wouldn't be so easy to lampoon, because there'd be no inconsistency with their belief that the Bible is the real McCoy.

The preceding is a straw-man argument.

Just replace Allah with Shiva. QED.

(Caution: Replacing Allah with Shiva in real life may result in charges of apostasy, which may be punishable by being put to death. Check your local listings.)

It's amusing, but I don't agree. I consider a religion to be a belief system, which can entail believing one God exists and no others do, or that no Gods exist at all. The lack of a belief is to say you don't know the truth, which is agnosticism. Posted by: Nebby | March 29, 2008 5:59 PM

Actually, agnosticism as it is is more religious than the so-called new atheism (agreeing with the likes of Dawkins for ex.) Agnostics believe that there is no way to find out if god exists, but (new) atheists just don't believe that's even true.

We may or may not be able to find out. The important thing is what we can find out, and so far overwhelmingly, progressively, the case for no God is far, far more convincing, especially in the light of science. Yes SCIENCE UNDERMINES FAITH. That is the simple truth, however religious scientists would like to twist it. It has been evidenced throughout the centuries with EVERY important scientific discovery having displaced some religious view into oblivion (or nutcase-world).

If anything, atheism shouldn't even be a label, but since religious people in their self-important minds have chosen to label us that, I don't even care anymore. I am an atheist just like I am an unastrologer and an a-numerologist. Atheism is a reactionary stance. It is an ANSWER, not a STATEMENT. The statement is done by the religious. "God exists". We just say, "You're VERY unconvincing, so... no". That answer gets truer and truer as years and centuries go by. It has always been one-directional. What kind of faith does it take to realize that? You can't deny god the same way you can't deny invisible undetectable dragons living in your garage.

Here's the only argument needed to counter that idiotic notion: "I don't play football. Does that make me a athlete?"

nope. It makes you a 'thlete'. ;)

Sadly the response you'll get from fundies is that they do believe in these other gods but they aren't gods, they are Satan simply disguising himself as a god to fool people into following him into hell. Only fundies have the correct superpowers to distinguish their god from the false gods, even the false gods of other Christian denominations.

I missed this one, it's a goodie.

"agnosticism" is a cop-out, free-thinker would be better, or "bright".

"atheist" embraces the cold splash of REALITY so missing from so many lives.

sorry about the ever-mutant moniker, meme-volution marches on to April's aperture, and beyond...

inwit -

"What the (absurd fundie) Christians in the cartoon would be more likely to object to is the Muslim's belief that the Quran is the word of God. And that wouldn't be so easy to lampoon, because there'd be no inconsistency with their belief that the Bible is the real McCoy."

The preceding is a straw-man argument.

Just replace Allah with Shiva. QED.

"Allah" does not appear in the text you quoted, you've demonstrated nothing at all.

Unfortunately there is a straw man in the argument: Allah is the God of Abraham, Yahweh, whom Christians believe to be the father of Jesus Christ.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter to the fundies what the heathen Muslims believe. :)