People told me I had to draw a Christmas comic this week
December 19, 2011
12:00 am
All the people who think I’m harbouring anti-Christian sentiments are endlessly entertaining me. No, I’m sorry, I just think the Rick Perry-esque idea that Christians are a persecuted bunch in America and the godless left is trying to kill their holidays is pretty laughable, considering the malls are in Christmas mode nearly a quarter of the calendar year.
I’ll still fight for your nondescript spacefuture freedom to draw whatever you want. This is awesome.
Is that Chuck Norris?
Well, Chuck Norris is a conservative Christian who believes in prayer in public schools, so I’m assuming yes.
And he showed up in an earlier strip with Jared and Mr. Fish
That strip was a fan based strip during the anniversary of MGDMT.
its chuck norris’ cousin. Phil Norris
Isn’t Chuck Norris basically everyone in his own family?
By Plette from Shot Down Again
The Commander is wearing a scarf. Scarves are officially cool.
The coolness of the scarf is directly proportional to the coolness of the man or woman wearing it.
The pattern doesn’t hurt matters, trust me.
That happened way back with the Fifth Doctor. ;) Also, fezzes and bowties are very cool.
Whoever you are, you are automatically an awesome person if you read this comic and watch Dorcot Who. Congratulations.
I ment Doctor Who, not Dorcot Who.
Hey, don’t diss Dorcot Who. He knows where you sleep.
Though slight negative kudos for not getting the right Doctor. Four was Tom Baker with the awesome scarf, not five! :O
Doctor Who and the Commander… Am I the only one that thinks we should see them meeting at some point?
Please?
I think you mean the 4th Doctor, Tom Baker.
Yeah, scarves are pretty cool, for a HIPSTER!
oh man, don’t start the hipster circle again – I get dizzy!
It’ll also lure out Syndrom. We don’t need that.
It clearly already has, look at his name you hipster
You didn’t use a period, hipster.
HIPSTOR!
I always pegged the commander as Muslim,myself.
Because as we all know: Islam is the manliest religion.
I now await your -completely civil and in no way hateful- responses.
(I’m Muslim btw)
I’ll just put it out there that I delete overly venemous and offensive comments.
I love your comics and I’ve been following them for ages. Only thing that bothers me is the Marlon Brando religion. He was a bit of a dick. Have you ever thought of a competing spacefuture religion of Paul Newman, Gregory Peck or even Robert Redford? Newmanology and its Prophet Redford is a nondescript spacefuture I can believe in.
Man, this brings me back to the day when I used to get like three letters a week from people whining about positive sentiments towards Marlon Brando.
Is there a competing religion to Brandoism by any chance? People who nay-say the Brando trying to espouse the supremacy of … whoever?
Chuck-Kun-Do.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention that Brando declined to accept one of his awards (for “The Godfather” if i’m not mistaken) due to the mistreatment of Native Americans. Sounds pretty Manly to me, not as manly as the guys shooting back at the FBI at the time, but pretty manly all the same.
I just figured that like any religion, the positive stuff was look at more closely then the negative. Marlon Brando’s manliness is remembered and celebrated where as that one time he held a “Drop Kick 3 Legged Puppies Contest” is toned down. The time he turn one wimpy man into a macho man is exaggerated into a hundred macho men. You get it now right? It’s not Marlon Brando that is worshiped but the “idea” of Marlon Brando.
That’s glorious
seconded, thirded, and fourthed! i would be part of robert redford’s religion.
To be fair, I can’t think of a Deity or half-god who wasn’t a bit of a dick.
I disagree Mr Ksaotaku, not to disrrespect any religion.
But i do not think that the moslim religion is the manliest,
Nor do i think that any other religion is super manly.
because religion does not make you anymore maliyer than you allready are my good sir
Culture can make anything manly. The bible I’d say as a whole is average maliness. Translate it into Klingon and then back to English and it is “manlified”. Same thing happens with cooking directions.
By chance, are you referencing Vegan Black Metal Chef?
No, but you have my curiosity peeked.
Mine too….VBM Chef?
Just look him up on youtube. You’ll see that his name is exactly what he is.
Vegan Black Metal Chef.
that is true , my dear GothamGirl
But i was talking about the religion in its pure forn without any changes
but you make a good point
There is no such thing as a religion in it’s “pure form” because every religion can be interpreted differently depending on the individual.
If that is your opinion, then I will respect you for it ofcourse :) Though… You are aware that that is completely provocative and absolutely arrogant right? ^^; The commander just said himself that he worships Marlon Brando, and your comment was just to try and troll other people.
Personally I find a religion whose followers talk about how they treat women fairly, yet have a majority of said religion act completely different in practice anything BUT manly. Nor do I find one in which many it’s followers talk about peace, yet use violence against anything who disagrees with that also anything but manly. Nor one in which many of its followers they say their religion is misjudged and oppressed, but murder children by the dozens and just breed some more to compensate do I find manly. Nor do I find it manly for a religion to point the finger to the catholic church, yet has so much pedophilia in Afghanistan that it’s pretty much has become a part of the culture.
But that is just my opinion, your entitled to your own :) Though next time, please don’t act cocky here. I know a lot of muslim men tend to do that, but not in a “manly” way, and you only get on people their nerves.
In advance, sorry for my spelling. English isn’t my first language, so I probably made some slips there ;p
Okay I’m confused about the “Nor do I find one in which many it’s followers talk about peace, yet use violence against anything who disagrees with that” part of your speech. Are we talking Islam or Christianity?
I believe he (she?) thinks he (she?) is talking about Islam. It’s kind of surprising how almost every religion preaches peace but acts the opposite.
Below he makes even more incorrect points by mentioning that the Bible’s different books are all in random order. That isn’t true: the Bible is split in two as well, and the New Testament is higher canon than the old. The other points he makes there just seem like propaganda to me.
That’s a common factor in humanity: preach peace from behind loaded guns. The part you refer to as propaganda above is, near as I have seen, no different from the recent hubbub over that recent reality show (Real American Muslims or something like that, I regretfully don’t recall the name) that got slammed by a lot of ignorant types who complained that the show didn’t show the “real” Islamic ways– which was by their definition the radical, kill-the-American-infidels, bombs-in-the-underpants extremist. Instead, they showed a relatively ordinary Muslim family, going about their relatively ordinary days. Shocking!
It would sicken me to recognize such people (the ones complaining about the lack of radicals in the show) as Americans, but I’ve stopped considering myself an American long ago (although born and raised here).
Apparently, to be American, you have to have your nose in everyone’s business (for all the worst reasons, of course), deny any wrongdoing on your part (while openly committing the atrocities you are denying), oppress those who bear different views to your own (and claim that they are “infringing on your rights”), and do everything in your power to prove that everyone else is horrible for not being American.
Your first two points could just as easily be said about Christianity. And Islam certainly doesn’t have a monopoly on sexism – women are treated poorly in most cultures, with or without anyone using religion to justify it.
[citation needed] for the bit about murdering children by the dozen, especially if you’re going to claim it’s something all 1.5 billion Muslims do or support. As for your line about pedophilia : just because it’s a problem in a majority-Muslim country doesn’t mean it’s a problem rooted in Islam. You do know the difference between “Afghanistan” and “all Muslims”, right? And as you pointed out, Catholicism also has a problem with pedophilia – almost like it’s a cross-cultural problem not rooted in any one religion.
@EPW and Flopadopkis
Yes and no. Other religions tend to have that as well like you mentioned, however Islam is the only religion with Sharia law, and because a) Islam says that all the texts in the Koran near the end override the previous texts, and all the violent texts are at the end of the Koran, while the peacefull ones are in the front. In christianity these are all in random order, so no text is more important then the other. b) Islam gives you permission to lie if it is for the spread of the religion c) According to islam, there is only true peace when everyone follows their religion.
There are good muslims out there, but I”m just saying that Islam is much easier to be badly interpretated. It is a fairly young religion when you think about it. And at the mean time there have been a lot of cases of both violent extremism, and more subtle extremism amongst it’s followers.
You know why 4 out of 5 converts to Islam are women? First of all they are the main target of the more fundamentalist ones. They believe that Islam is “spread through the womb”, so their gone after and sweet talked into joining to spread the religion (not to save their souls, the spreading is more important). Second, Muslim women are not allowed to marry non-muslim men, but the way around it IS allowed.
I sadly had a friend one who fell in love with a muslim man (hence why I don’t like Ksaotaku his comment, even though this is just personal to me), who sweet talked her into converting, and when mistreated her. When she tried to leave he and his “brothers” went after her and threatened her with violence. She luckily managed to find shelter away from him, but her life hasn’t been the same since.
not all muslims are like that mind you, I have a old school friend who was muslim and a great guy, but even he admitted that his religion has some “issues” right now. And while I am against saying their ALL bad people, I”m also against saying that there aren’t a lot more problems with their religion then those of others, problems which DON’T condemn them, but just problems they have to face as a religion.
That is all.
Right, time to stab this in the foot before it gets any further. As far as ‘tolerance towards women’, or ‘pedophilia’ or any of the other claims you’re making about Islam.
Christianity is NOT a two-thousand-year-old religion, does not have a history of religious and sexual discrimination and violence, does not continue to segregate genders, races, sexual orientation, and religious beliefs for arbitrary reasons. It has never wages a series of conflicts over several centuries aimed at wiping out entire religions and peoples, nor did it host and fund a series of violent inquisitions in an attempt to hunt down anything science-y.
The aforementioned inquisitions did not usher in hundreds of years of technological stalemate, nor did they result in the destruction of hundreds of years worth of human history in the form of burnt texts and scrolls. The leaders of this movement have never shown themselves to be corrupt, self serving individuals, nor have the various lesser members ever proven themselves to be less-than-wholesome.
Further, this religion does not continue to try and oppress advancement of any form at ever turn, as not handed down from its highest authority. It does not preach an outdated, contradictory scripture filled with archaic beliefs, and the Pope does not look at all like the Emperor with more hair.
I could go on about the atrocities and nonsense the Roman Empire “didn’t” commit, but I’ll get to the point.
No one religion is completely spotless (except, possibly, Buddhism). Christianity, as the largest modern religion and significantly older than most other widely practiced ones (a good four centuries on Islam IIRC) has a significantly longer rep sheet. As such, if you’re going to get angry at any religion, or say any religion is less than another religion, hate on Christianity (don’t do this). It’s still tops chipper on oppressing women and being generally just-not-PC. The only reason this doesn’t happen is because most Christians are neither A) mostly uneducated and/or from a third world country or B) really freaking fervent on following scripture to the letter.
That’s all the important things, I think.
Right, made a couple little grammar errors, but eh. Too many words.
Sigh… you didn’t read my post did you?
I never said that following Islam automatically makes you more “violent” or any of that nonsence. But I am saying that right now there are really a lot of followers who say A, but do B. And instead of tackling that they don’t do anything about it, or even support them for being in the same religion.
I’m talking about the PRESENT. I never said that the church never did anything wrong, but at least they largely evolved. Granted, they still have some sick priests that their really ashamed off and try to cover up, which they shouldn’t do as we all have figured out by now. But I am noticing that while people tend to focus on christianity, it is almost forbidden to say anything bad about Islam. Remember that south park episode with Jesus looking at internet porn, and buddy snuffing coke? There they couldn’t even SHOW Mohammed, out of fear that people might start killing each other.
Many followers of Islam are still living in the dark ages, yet live in an era of machine gun and atomic bombs, and it’s important that they adept to the present time FAST. And what I said about Islam having two forms of extremism: 1) the violent one 2) the deceptive one, is sadly true. Women are their main target, and are sweet talked into the religion. Yet often they are stuck then, either through pressure or violence. Not all, since there are converts who do this under good circumstances, but this sadly happens more then you might think. I’m just telling you how it is, no matter how nasty the truth might be.
Also tell me something, are you saying this because you have heard similar arguments before and saying this makes you “political correct” thus a “good” person. Or are you saying it because you did some streetwise research on the issues the religion has and made a objective conclusion from it? That is something your going to have to think about
Well, you really can’t say that Christianity doesn’t oppress women or have problems with pedophilia in the present, because about 80% of the lawsuits against Christian religious groups are child molestation lawsuits, and in Africa, where Christianity has taken root, they oppress women pretty hard there. Same goes for the Phillipines and parts of Asia.
In fact, in Africa where Bishop Tutu has a great deal of influence, there’s a lot of violence committed in the name of Christianity. A great deal of maiming and threats against non-Christians. So it’s not just something Christians did a long time ago and don’t do any more. Just not in Europe or in North America presently.
I think that’s where a lot of Christians – which included myself until I turned 23 – get tripped up. Christianity doesn’t just exist in peaceful, flourishing countries. It also exists in places like Africa, the Phillipines and Asia. And it’s not as nice as it is here in the States or over in Europe or down in South America.
I know that, and I agree with you there.
Look, maybe I started in a wrong manner. I live in a area where there are a lot of Muslims. I’ve seen some of both the best and the worst that Islam has to offer (see my examples). And while I am under no way saying that Islam is a bad religion compared to others, I AM saying that the religion has a lot of issues right now, and I mean a lot. Christianity and Buddism also have their share of problems, and I never said they didn’t have that. I just said that there were much more pressing ones in Islam.
This doesn’t make it a bad religion or any of that nonsence. It just means that it DOES have problems, which you can’t just ignore out of fear of being called a “racist, bigot, ignorant redneck” or any of that nonsence.
I know that my first comment might have come over as a bit nasty, but that was only because the guy reminded me of one of those “worst cases” that I’ve experienced when dealing with followers of Islam, and I just wanted to point out that while its good to be proud of your ideals, you also shouldn’t be arrogant, stuck up or cocky about it.
That’s all I was saying. I’ll leave it at that if that’s alright with everyone here, because this has really dragged on longer then it should have.
Now not to fan any flames or anything like that, but you refer to Sharia law as an example, well I don’t mean to cite history but the Church greatly opposed the separation between Church and State, before governments, kingdoms and the like decided that Catholic law was bad for business we had little things like, oh I dunno…
The Crusades. (Started by Christians, not Muslims)
The Inquisitions. (There were two, not just the Spanish Inquisition for those who don’t know.)
And even up to today you get isolated cases like the Witch Burnings of Salem, like the ramblings of the Westboro Baptist Church, the entire “Religious Right” and its insistence that Christianity must be taught in school. Or that Creationism has any place beside Evolution in science.
Let’s put it this way. If Islam had “won out” over Christianity during those formative years it’d be Christian Extremists putting on explosive jackets and filling trucks with TNT and the Muslims who’s biggest complaint would be not enough religious education.
You’re missing the point. Historical events are not equal to contemporary, happening-today events.
nielspeterdejong is not complaining about what Islam was, but what it is. He is simultaneously not complaining about what Christianity was, but what it is. Bad things happened, yes, but that’s no excuse for bad things to keep happening.
Nielspeterdejong, I am a muslim, and in no way do I believe there will be true peace ONLY if all people are muslim. This is a misconception held by many people, both outside and inside Islam, having to do with the meaning of the word, which may be translated as “submitting to God in peace.” You can submit to God in peace without ever hearing of Islam. So while by this definition, if everyone submitted to God in peace, there may be true peace, each individual praying in Arabic in a Mosque is unnecessary.
Don’t worry Garrekun, I know that. Heck, a really good friend of mine is Muslim as well, and he doesn’t believe it either.
I’m not trying to badtalk your religion, but I was just saying that there are sadly a lot of issues with some stupid people misinterpretating your religion, something my friend really hated himself. I also know that not all Muslims do the things I listed, at all. But I was just telling to Ksaotaku that it was arrogant to make his claim, and listed the number of things that his religion first had to tackle before making such a claim.
I hope you didn’t feel bad about me making that argument, but I”m just worried that if nobody says anything about it, nothing will be done about it. Heck, a lot of people are now even afraid to make pictures of your prophet, or naming teddybears after him, which is sad because now they connect your prophet with violence and everything, so that all backfires.
The Koran is a book written by men, and over time there were sadly a lot of people who made bad interpretations in it. heck, there are even korans in the middle east now where they talk about “fighting the enemy of Islam with bombs, machineguns, grenades”, which is absolute rubbish. Personally I think they should focus more on the texts in the start which are more peacefull, and keep in mind that it was a book written by men with their own view of the faith, and through that make their own interpretation of it.
I personally don’t believe in it myself (don’t like some of the things the prophet did, though it was a different time I suppose), but I always respect people for believing in it, as long as they don’t misinterpretid it, and say they are now part of a peacefull and good religion yet trying to spread the religion by all means necesarrily no matter who gets hurt.
So don’t worry, I know there are good muslims out there, you and my friends included, I just wanted to make my point to the first poster. I hope that’s ok.
Any book written that long ago was written by men.
Women weren’t taught how to write until the 1800’s, IIRC.
That specific part is incorrect when it comes to Judaism. Women and men alike (though segregated) were taught to read and write from as early as King Solomon’s times. The problem is with the subtext – the reasoning was to ensure that the children will learn to read and write fast – with the help of their mothers as the main care-taker (it wasn’t about enriching the mother).
In King Solomon’s times, several sects in Judaism saw women priestesses who were just as strong and well taught as their men counterparts.
On the other hand, one of Judaism’s first laws after the ten commandments stated that women’s testimony is not valid in courts and to this day, women are ‘bought’ by the husband-to-be from the bride to be’s father. In a manner of speaking, she is seen as a child who cannot take care of itself and therefore is passed on from one guardian to another.
That statement is untrue. Even if you only meant Europe. There was actually a French kingdom(?) in Middle Ages Europe where women had just as much rights as men including the owning of land, and the right to titles (no, I don’t remember the name of the kingdom, I keep trying to find it though, I just remember hearing about it on History Channel once). And if you don’t mean only Europe, there are plenty of women who were able to read and write including the author of the Genji Monogatari.
Droll.
Not to be rude, but it’s impossible not to hear of Islam after the Taliban screwed stuff up.
Let me clarify: I really don’t want anyone to believe all Muslims are like them, but it’s what you’re known for. Sad truth, sorry.
Well, most Xians aren’t like those fundy nutjobs, either, but the extreme folks are the ones who get the publicity, and then everybody else with the name gets stuck with the stereotype. I mean, not all priests are pedophiles, ya know? I suspect at least 99% of Muslims aren’t terrorists.
YAY, nothing like stirring religious debate for the solstice!
I apologize but I felt my gorge rise when I started reading the same fencing moves again so I’m gonna pass on reading the whole religious nonsense, I’ve got enough of that in my immediate future to want to read it here.
GO BRANDOISM!
As an atheist, I find it much cooler and more respectful that they all believe the “Brandao”as Coelo puts it in an earlier comic.
I like how you simply said you were a muslim and a religious war ensued.
I like how this religious debate considers itself “Muslim vs Christianity” yet is not about the differences in the Bible and Koran but rather about how various groups of people who claim to be in said religions have acted. There are many denominations of both religions, and people can say they are any religion they want.
Just because a batch of chocolate chip cookies turned out bad, does that make all chocolate chip cookies a bad idea?
Hmm, replied to the wrong line. My bad.
Yeah, i honestly don’t see any problem with the cookies, and cookies cut out into the symbols of different religions are a fun and delicious treat. circles and stars and moons and tees are just that much more delicious.
I strongly disagree with you Jiffy! Chocolate chip cookies ARE a bad idea. I never asked for chocolate in my cookies because while cookies are great, I can’t stand chocolate….. Everyone thinks that’s weird but they never complain when people hand out free chocolate. In fact they all gravitate towards me with an eye on the chocolate piece I was handed.
It wasn’t THAT he said he was a Muslim, it was WHAT he said in combination with it :)
Heck, a friend of mine is Muslim, and I couldn’t care less that he is. I just wanted to point a few things out to Ksaotaku.
Don’t make it seem like something it isn’t ;)
Do you realize that every time you say “I have a friend that is ____” to excuse a bigoted and/or ignorant point of view, you do yourself AND that friend a grievous disservice? Having a friend that is muslim does not mean you cannot be ignorant or offensive with regards to religion. Having a black friend or a gay friend does not mean you cannot be ignorant or offensive with regards to racism or homophobia. We all bite our tongues around our friends sometimes, because wouldn’t it be a funny old world if we were all the same?
Oh wait… so just because I say anything negative about a different religion, even if it’s the truth, i’m automatically a “bigot” or “ignorant”? So if for instance a black or gay person would do something wrong I couldn’t say anything about it either I take it?
I’m normally against swearing, but I highly suggest you get of your high horse and put that head of yours out of your arse.
What I said was largely from my Muslim friend, because unlike you HE accepted that there were issues with some of the followers of his faith, and that those would have to be handled. That in no way condemns his faith, but it does mean that those issues have to be tackled.
What YOU do on the other hand, is screaming “racist, bigot, ignorant” the moment people have any critisism about black people or muslims or what not because in your mind their all “poor misunderstood oppressed” “brown” people who you as a liberal need to protect right?
Wrong! Their people like us, all with their own problems which they have to face. You want to know why America currently has an issue with a lot of black guys talking racial slurs to others? Because everyone was so afraid to be condemned a “racist” that they let them get away with pretty much anything. Which is bad, because that way your rewarding bad behaviour, which causes their youth to misbehave and not pursuit a education or go the length for a proper job.
You my friend, are also part of that problem. Because you take the easy way out, instead of giving these people critisism where critisism is due. After hearing for years about how everything bad done to them is the fault of “the white man”, they pretty much have followed that idea, while the reason why so many young black kids for instance grow up without a daddy is not because of “the white man” but because they don’t tackle that themselves. Obama said so himself as well, and he is right in that regard.
The racism is not identifying that a minority has a problem, the racism is assigning the genesis of that problem falsly to the race, religion, or what have you. It is not racist of me to say that most people in American prisons are black, because that’s an objective fact as much as an african american’s predisposition to certain diseases.
It IS racist to draw from those figures a conclusion that black people are unhealthy, or that they commit more crime. Not only does that violate basic science (you cannot draw a causal relationship from a correlation), it plain ignores every other factor that contributes to the problems addressed.
From your statements, it seems that you feel Islam is more likely than other religions to inspire violence in it’s followers, which is a racist conclusion, whether you like it or not (if this is not your position, It certainly seems that way). You’re ignoring every other societal factor that contributes to extremism among a group, as well as the simple fact that most of the world’s muslims do NOT live in countries which oppress women.
You know what else? I DON’T have a friend who is muslim. Come to think of it, I haven’t had a close friend who was black in years. I don’t choose friends based on who will give me the most clout when I’m accused of saying something politically incorrect.
Leaving aside your fervent defensiveness…
I think you might be misleading yourself into believing that we live in a world where the prevalent practice is to treat everybody equally, which is odd since you’ve spent considerable effort and time convincing us that there’s a sizable group of people for whom that is not true. Even if the purpose of my comment was to blindly defend marginalized people, it would still be a minority action amongst the people who blindly, and ignorantly, marginalize them.
However, it wasn’t. The purpose was to point out that your ignorant viewpoint–and it is ignorant, biased, un-researched and highly inflammatory–was not made less ignorant just because you’ve got a Muslim friend, and that excuse is tried on by many stripes of people, all to the same effect. It is not a defense and, had you not been aware that you were being ignorant, you would not have felt you needed the defending.
To address the rest of your response to me, all I can really say is…really? Really?!
“Because everyone was so afraid to be condemned a “racist” that they let them get away with pretty much anything.” Do you listen to yourself?
“…rewarding bad behaviour, which causes their youth to misbehave and not pursuit a education or go the length for a proper job.” Right, because nothing says “get away with anything” like enforcing poverty.
I think people are responsible for their own actions, and yes, that includes people who choose to perpetuate stereotypes and destroy themselves. But not as much as people with no social strictures on themselves who nevertheless feel the need to prove that it’s THEM who need to be better people, not US.
Extra points for “while the reason why so many young black kids for instance grow up without a daddy is not because of “the white man” but because they don’t tackle that themselves” too. It’s like you’re TRYING to prove me right.
I”m sorry Layogenic, but I’m going to have to cut you of there.
You keep calling me “biased, ignorant un-researched”, however I have mentioned time and time again how I live in a very Muslim dominated area. I have met bad ones, and good ones. Also, while you keep throwing around those accusations (wow, really good way or arguing there /end sarcasm), you never really go to as to WHY I’m apparently like that. All you do is talk around the issue, and try to create as complicated a vocabulary as you possibly can in your sentences.
Sorry, but do you honestly believe that using more “fancy” words makes you look more “educated” or “intelligent”? Sounds like something a troll would do if I may be so bold.
If your calling me that because you say I make unfair accusations, then I’m going to have to say that what squeejee said pretty much works against her. She said that it wasn’t racist to say that there were a lot more black people in prison, because that was fact. However, there are currently a lot more cases of Muslims tending towards extremism at this present time, which is also fact. Like I said, this isn’t because Islam is a “bad” religion, but because it just has more pressing issues at the moment which you can’t ignore. Under no way am I saying that Muslims are bad, I”m just saying that they have a few bad apples which you have to be carefull for. But I”m also saying that there are a lot of great worshippers of the faith at the same time.
Saying Muslims automatically are tended towards extremism is wrong, saying that there aren’t a lot of bad apples which you have to accept and keep in mind amongst their rank is wrong as well. That is all.
Look, to be honest, I think this arguing is getting pointless. You will always have this viewpoint of anyone who says anything bad about those who you feel should be protected by you to be a “ignorant racist”. The way you threw those accusations around is quite proof of that. I”m never going to be able to convince you, and your never going to be able to convince me. How about we keep it at that before this gets any more nasty?
Shine on, you crazy diamond.
Well, that was fun.
How many times has this happened to you?
Except sub in any particular viewpoint for Islam.
I for one think this comment is awesome. Islam is totally manly. In a good way.
I disagree since the manliest of religions is no religions, you can’t get any manlier than being a man of your own fate. Besides, the only manly being in a religion is the ‘god’ of the said religion, everybody else is merely an instrument of that being and also, koran is not only one of the lesser moral codes I had displeasure to read.
Or, in fact, you could be a Subgenius. They advocate MANLINESS and WOMANLINESS to the extreme! Send 20 dollars.
Islam isn’t the manliest religion; Norse Paganism is. I think their entire religion is based on killing people, getting drunk, stealing everything that isn’t nailed down, and then setting fire to the rest. Also, I love the bigotry going on here. It’s really cool to be a jackass and try to smear others’ faith or lack there of. Either that or there are a lot bad trolls in here. Comedy comic threads aren’t the place to debate religion.
For the love of god this is a comedic webcomic about manly men from popular geek culture. Is this really the best forum for this kind of back and forth?
While Norse Paganism is quite manly, I think the Ásatrúarfélagið (the Norse Paganism religious order in Iceland) would probably disagree with the “killing people, getting drunk, stealing everything that isn’t nailed down, and then setting fire to the rest” idea.
I wanted to say the same thing about norse paganism, but you beat me to it. ):
Don’t forget the “the entire world is doomed / there’s no way to save it / but we’re going to fight so that we can get that ONE survivor through to the next world” aspect of it.
I love how you accuse people of religious bigotry right after claiming that Norse Pagans are all alcoholic, kleptomaniac, arsonist vandals.
Successful troll is successful indeed!
Jews are manlier.
I don’t know, considering half of it’s followers are women I’d say it can’t be that manly.
What would be the manliest religion would be a religion that was so manly all it’s followers spontaniously turned into men, regardless of previous sex.
Of course it would only last one generation and kind of suck for the previously-women but that’s not the point.
Apparently a lot of people thought this was due cause for wall-of-text time.
I obviously disagree on both counts. =)
I couldn’t possibly approve of this message MORE.
(Seriously, screw Chuck Norris)
Bloody hell. That’s a lot of replies.
… is that Chuck Norris?
That was my take too.
That did not occur to me.
The only way to be sure is to see if she draws him round house kicking a guy in the face with both legs. Only Chuck Norris can do that.
And probably break a hip doing it. Then try and sell the guy an exercise machine while also trying to convince him to play World of Warcraft.
-_-
Shame on WoW people for accepting that ad 6 years after it would have been a good ad.
Chuck norris is a frail, dying old man.
there is no way in hell that he can even lift his leg high enough to do it with one.
Cant be. Have you seen the guy recently. He’s all old and leathery.
Indeed, screw that bigoted old bastard.
As a service member, I approve this message.
Yes, yes it is. Chuck Norris is a hardcore conservative. Didn’t know that?
Uhh… Threading glitch?
Does the Commander have a Space-Commie rival who is another palette swap like Canadian guy but Russian?
More importantly, will we ever see them fight?
I demand a Manly Guys flash-based fighting game!
I was thinking if I had time to try cobbling together a Commander sprite for MUGEN.
That… would be … gaahhhh … can’t help it….. AWSOME! (reaches for the extra coins for the cooky jar)
No, no, awesome is an acceptable word. Epic, Fail, and Win are the ones you must avoid.
Also, if there was an evil Commie Commander who is Russian…he probably wouldn’t be a commie, or very evil, probably more cheerful and always listening to 80s and 90s pop music. Probably keep the guns from his evil commie days though. Probably be the one guy that annoys the Commander than Canadian Guy.
you Do realise that you just described… Heavy from Team Fortress 2…
I wouldn’t know. Don’t play Team Fortress 2. Maybe if it had skills, abilities, and equipment that you can learn via spending skill points, and the ability to drop not only into a crouched position but also a prone position, and the ability to perform stealth besides turning on a disappearing power, and free climbing…grappling line…oh and cover, and near future technology (basically a combination of Brink, MAG, Just Cause 2, Gears of War, and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier).
Sorry…I ranted.
Chuck Norris should really just stick to lame WoW commercials and being the subject of overused jokes. Leave politics for the crazies at Washington.
And selling exercise machines.
see. this is why i like the commander. he’s a rightious badass, who for al her does cares about what matters, ((perfect example, back in the comic with poison)) why does it matter if my omnipotent imaginary friends are diffrent from yours? thanks commander! you sir are a true man. i should start the brando religion. well i wouldn;t really call it a religion…. but … well you know what i mean.
Referring to Mr. T?
If so, I agree 100%!
uh… no i just kinda made that up as i went, i do that alot, and it sounds like things others have said… sorry. that really is how i feel though.
I always imagine it to be a religion the same way that Buddhism is a religion. Buddha wasn’t a god, and never became one (he is just the Buddha), nor is he worshiped like a god. The Commander doesn’t worship Brando, he merely follows the teachings of Brando.
Or like, say, daoism.
Actually, in Mahayana Buddhism, Buddha is the name for an omnipotent deity which becomes one with Nirvana, which anyone can potentially become. Going further, a bodhisattva, one who gives up the chance to become Buddha in order to help others achieve nirvana, is worshipped as a god (or saint) by some. Siddartha Gautama (the historical Buddha) is believed to have been an emanation or illusion of one who was already Buddha. (Thank the Maker- of beliefnet.com- for the info.)
So this definition puts Buddha(s) even higher on the celestial pecking order than gods! you may be referring to Theravada Buddhism, which considers a Supreme God either irrelevant to their beliefs or nonexistent.
Confucianism and Taoism, philosophies treated as religions, are some nondescript spacepresent analogies for Brandoism.
And now you know.
the commander is a man’s man. the kind of man we should all aspire to be more like
Yay! Dude we’ve had a huge amount of people complaining about how saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” is destroying christmas.
But they mean THE SAME THING! They both mean like: “have a nice day!” It’s just polite! Seriously people are so stupid.
Honestly, I get sick of both sides of the debate. I’ve had people get pissy at me over both so I say neither.
In fact, recently, on my G+, I made a post which pretty much describes my attitude towards the whole “war on Christmas” and both sides of the whole silly thing.
————————————————————————————————–
(Nov 28, 2011)
Oh %&#$! I saw my first “war on christmas” article for the year….except this time the secularists beat the Christians to the punch this year with a smug little “Let’s talk down to people” article.
These things just **** me off about the season (and I have a long enough list of irritations about what has become a spiritually devoid holiday as it is). Both sides flipping out if you choose the wrong thing between Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays then accusing the other one of being the only ones to do it.
If I were Emperor, I’d institute a special law to punish people for this behavior. Everytime someone flips out at another person greeting them with the inappropriate greeting, the greeter is legally allowed to punch them one in the mouth.
The funny thing is this whole argument started because of a giant ball of plasma that was seemingly omnipotent and purposeful years and years ago. For people who pretend to be so clearly focused on the interests of “all people” it’s kind of hilarious that they’re arguing about who has the right to express a sentiment of well-intentioned good cheer to anyone who can hear it.
Well, the Catholic church actually picked the xmas holiday date purposefully to overwrite the pagan celebration of Solstice. Easter is exactly the same, overwriting fertility celebrations. Sad part is, it worked. You don’t see people saying, “Keep the Solstice in Winter Solstice!”
…okay, except for me. Happy Solstice, everyone. It’s my birthday. ^_^
Zeitgeist is not a valid documentary. The date was picked coincidentally because it’s really convenient. A lot of things happen on the solstice, mainly to do with hiding away from all the gaddam snow and bleeding cold. As such, it’s always been a perfect time to break out the worship mats/crosses/large, spiked sticks covered in honeyed blood of the lord-of-the-we
Wait, I think I lost my train of thought somewhere along the line.
Except it’s not just in Zeitgeist where this was discussed. It’s been a topic of discussion, even during the Protestant Reformation, that they’ve moved the holiday of Christmas from July to December to try and upsurp older traditions. One of Martin Luther’s complaints was that the Catholic Church had a terrible habit of uprooting traditions to overlap Pagan worship in the hopes of converting Pagans, which actually had the opposite effect (drove Pagan worship underground and actually spread it out across larger areas). Of course, it’s the least of Luther’s complaints, as his real beef was with idoltry, the selling of indulgences and forced celebicy of priests.
Granted, I only know this because I attended one year of Seminary and took a biblical scholar class on the Protestant Reformation before I decided that priesthood was not my calling. At all.
Unless you live around the equator or lower, in which case you’re not avoiding the cold at all, are you?
Well, that and they stole a TOOOON of symbols from the Aesir. Not… that Odin and Christ are particularly dissimilar in their accessories, but, you know.
That and Santa looks a lot like Odin sometimes. Pointy hat. Big giant man flying across the sky in a car drawn by a magical ruminate. Occasionally punishing naughty children by stuffing them in wardrobes that transport them to snow-covered lands populated by evil witches…
… No, wait, I got confused about which Christian thing I was complaining about ripping off other things. Dang it!
I love the people who complain about taking the Christ out of Christmas and replacing it with an X.
You know, like the character for Christ. X.
JESUS X. HE’S BACK, AND THIS TIME HE’S SERIOUS.
Okay, sure, I’m sold on this idea.
Oh, you.
Megaman-Christ? I never knew.
No he’s the tenth reincarnation of jesus. He’s armed with some kind of jesus sword
Or something
Yeah, Jesuses one through nine just lived their regular lives and died all regular. Jesus X is a Jesus for all time.
(hahahahaha)
They really should have stopped after Jesus 3 – Holy Vengeance. The writers totally ran out of ideas, and were just ripping off other messiah stories. Though I’ll grant you X was a decent reboot.
Jesus X’s superpowers are claws, regeneraton, and the ability to be in fifty different superhero teams at the same time.
Yup, I like that too. And it was a Christian friend who first told me that fact, when another Christian friend was annoyed when I typed Xmas (out of laziness, not secularism, it has to be said).
I don’t feel like it’s the same thing, but at the same time I don’t really CARE. As long as no one’s breaking into my house and telling my family we can’t celebrate the birth of Christ, I couldn’t care less.
For the record, though, I think the so called “religious” Christmas music tends to sound a lot nicer than the modern drivel we’ve got playing all the time. ;P I’m not even Catholic, and I’ll take Ave Maria over John Lennon any day.
….
Did you just say that John Lennon is “modern drivel”? Really? Reaaally?
Of all the crappy modern Christmas music, you pick on one of the Beatles? If you were going to refer to all the people shamelessly covering music, I could back you up. But damn.
It’s actually funny, because the only relation between xmas and Christianity is it’s name and the fact that some people implement some christian rituals, most of the christmas traditions are as religious as ‘Speak like a pirate day’ ones.
Except the ones that originate from pagan customs. Like Mistletoe, Wreaths, the Yule log (christmas tree), and in places where turkey isn`t a main course, the holiday Ham.
By the way, did you know that children are not allowed to pray in America’s public schools?
Even though EVERY public high school I’ve been in (I used to substitute in a fairly large district, so that’s kind of a big number compared to most people) has had fliers up for Christian prayer groups led by the students–and held on campus?
Silly religious-right talking points! Oh well, guess I can just hope that more people develop the awesome live-and-let-live attitude of the Commander.
Wrong.
I’ve heard this misnomer debunked before, so be aware that I’m only passing on second-hand knowledge (it doesn’t affect me as a Canadian), but:
It’s illegal for American public schools to MANDATE prayer. Children can pray all they want, but the teachers aren’t allowed to tell them they HAVE to. People in (some of) the media love to spin that up as “prayer has been BANNED because THE BAD GUYS ARE TRYING TO DESTROY CHRISTIANITYYYYY!” but it’s really, really ridiculous.
Just shove your hands in your pockets and put your shoulders up. It should help set the mood.
The thing that gets me is that you’d think after all the weird stuff that Chuck Norris has done in the past in his personal life that he’d be more liberal than he is. But apparently he roundkicked his hippie liberal-lovin self in the face.
And as an ex-service member, I also approve this message and would fight for his spacefuture right to express himself.
It’s funny. I’ve been hearing people screaming about how we’re not allowed to say Merry Christmas anymore, and that they’re called Holiday trees not Christmas trees, and all that junk, for well over 15 years now. Still see Christmas this and Christmas that in every store I go into, so I’m wondering if everyone I’ve heard complaining was just talking about that neighboring town that they never go to but swear they heard someone discussing.
It’s not funny, it’s hilarious.
I’m going to tell people Happy Holidays, because there isn’t a singular religion out there. But I’m also not going to regulate what other people can/can’t say. I don’t give a rat’s ass if someone tells me Happy Hannukah, because, like somebody said earlier, it means the same thing. “Have a nice day.” I’ll continue to call a Christmas tree a Christmas tree, but that’s because a Holiday tree sounds idiotic. The stores GOT the message, they just don’t care. Business is business, whatever label you slap on it.
Its the same deal as the prayer in schools problem. People confuse “are not required to or expected to have to” with “are not allowed to” and get all pissy.
It’s basically overreaction to how schools and churches have been dictating their own procedure, and act like that it also applies to regular life, when it doesn’t. Anymore, though, with the stress that people seem to feel the need to pile on themselves for a holiday that really doesn’t mean anything to them, maybe wishing them a Happy Kwanzaa would be the better thing to do.
or a happy yule
Kwanzaa isn’t a religious thing it was a holiday to enforce th message of black empowerment at the time.
Yeah, but most non-Pagans don’t recognize Yule as anything other than “another word for Christmas,” so that may not have the desired effect. :P
So say we all, Commander! I support our nondescript spacefuture troops.
Chuck Norris is a crazy right-wing conservative bible thumper?
Did I miss something here?
Yes. Everything he’s done since he stopped selling his action jeans, effectively. He took a hard right turn a while back!
Is that… Chuck Norris…? If it is why all the hate on Chuck Norris in the comments? Its just his opinion he has the right to it even if it differs from one’s own even the Commander agrees, so don’t be a disrespectful Norris-type fellow, and also who cares what people do or celebrate for the holidays, just because one doesn’t like certain holiday aspects doesn’t mean they should ruin it for all those who do, so light the Menorah or spend time with family or do whatever it is anyone does to enjoy themselves for whatever reason and just respect their beliefs and such, the commander has the balls to not be a whiny bitch about it so the end… but that is Chuck Norris right…?
Well man it is his right to say that but its their right to hate on him for it, its like the WBC we all hate em for what tey say but its their gods given right to say it no mater how terrible they are.
good point I guess…
It is a man given right. And they don’t even have it everywhere. Some places label what they say as “Hate Speech”.
Most gods (that still have a significant amount of followers) I know about say things like “If they try to convert you, your hands should be the fist ones on them. Put them to death.”.
Man god samething at some point
I need to split hairs here. You said “gods [sic] given right”, but actually, that right was given by man. Specifically, the founding fathers of the USA. I don’t know any religions based around worshipping them as Gods, so, well, yeah.
Actually, I don’t think that’s Chuck Norris. I think that was suppose to be some Hill Billy type ignorant Red Neck that coincidentally looks like Chuck Norris. (Note: I do not meant to say that all Hill Billy’s and/or Red Necks are ignorant. I’ve known a few scary smart Red Necks.)
Chuck Norris is a Hill Billy ignorant Red Neck that coincidentally looks like Chuck Norris! :D
Except he does know a lot about roundhouse kicks. He probably has a doctorate.
He has his right to express his opinion. Unfortunately, his opinion kind of goes against the idea of separation of church and state which is one of the foundations of our country.
Also, he’s kind of an asshole about the way he says it. He has his right to say stupid stuff and we have our right to call him out on it.
“Sorry it’s late, I was airport hopping all weekend.”
your legs must be tired
It’s like a grasshopper. For airports.
Were you doing it on those people-sized conveyor belts? Because that sounds like fun, actually…
There’s a reason why people generally avoid politics and religion in polite discourse. They’re terribly polarizing issues, and by sneering at either side you’re going to alienate some percentage of your audience.
I’m glad you’re popular enough you don’t have to be concerned by that anymore. You’re a talented artist and storyteller. I wish you could’ve avoided this turn, but it’s a sign of the times.
Thank you for the laughs.
Wait, so… you consider standing up for someone’s freedom of speech no matter their political beliefs to be a “polarizing” stance?
You sound like a riot to be friends with. Did you not notice that the Commander hasn’t changed HIS stance, and that was ALL there was to the reply? Or are you so set on reading into this and finding your own–oh wait, you are.
It’s not the Commander’s stance he’s talking about. You see, the thing about this kind of comic is that it’s usually read like “This guy doesn’t deserve my respect, but I’ll tolerate him anyway ’cause I’m Tolerant like that”. I know the idea is not to be polarizing like that but that’s the contradiction of Tolerance for you: you need to actually dislike the other guy to say “never mind, I’ll tolerate him”.
No, Kelly. I said nothing about The Commander’s response, which I find both reasonable and admirable.
But setting up someone with Christian sentiments as a foil to be defeated by that reasonable and admirable response is taking a stance. The same point could’ve been made with a religion every bit as fabricated as Marlon Brando worship, but it wasn’t.
Myself, I’m an agnostic, but seeing Christians set up as the bogeymen so frequently is getting tired. I respect Coelasquid’s body of work and my thanks to her was sincere, but I feel this episode came off as a cheap shot.
It’s okay that you disagree with me. I didn’t comment because I was looking to win a popularity contest, I commented because it’s how I felt about it.
Thank you for standing up for me [/us/Christians] even though you don’t agree with my beliefs. I wondered if the exact same comic could be made with a slight change.
Panel 1: (someone who isn’t Chuck Norris) “Doesn’t it just make you sick that Christians say ‘Merry Christmas’ and aren’t considerate of other religions?”
Panels 2-4: no change
I think we can decide for ourselves what we do and don’t find offensive. Setting Christians apart as somehow exempt from being the butt of any jokes because some people take it too far is no better than singling them out as proselytizing lunatics. I’ve been a faithful Christian all my life, and while I know my own experiences and opinions don’t dictate how others perceive things that happen around them, I personally don’t find any part of this offensive. It’s a joke about one person being closed-minded (who happens to BE a rather closed-minded individual). It’s a single page in a single comic. It’s not a running commentary on the Christian agenda, and it’s not even portraying the subject in question as a “bogeyman” unless you apply a much deeper implied message to this comic based on your own expectations of anything referencing zealous Christianity.
When we start making exemptions for groups because some people think “too many” comments have been made, we start limiting the freedoms of others to express themselves. I’d rather have my faith be the butt of a joke, even a tired joke, than force others to keep silent.
Kelly, I never said anything about a “running commentary.” Quite the contrary, my comment was based on surprise that she threw this in after keeping the series so refreshingly neutral for so long.
Just as your experiences color your perception, my experiences with my fellow “godless heathens” in various newsgroups and fora color mine. After exposure to so much bile directed at organized religion in general (and the relatively safe target of Christianity in particular) which can’t be reconciled with any aspect of modern Christianity as expressed by friends and neighbors in real life, yes…I do reflexively question stereotypical portrayals of “Christian beliefs” in a negative light.
As I said I’m not Christian, so it’s not a matter of offense; more disappointment than anything. And for the record, no, I don’t delude myself by believing that will matter to Coelasquid, or you, or anyone else. If there’s one thing we can agree on, it’s that we can all decide for ourselves what we find offensive, and comment accordingly.
As a Christ follower, thank you. It’s… a little tiring sometimes. I used to frequent Fark a lot, but the rampant anti-religious hatred drove me off.
successful discourse is successful? I’m in shock. why can’t yahoo comments be like this?
“But setting up someone with Christian sentiments as a foil to be defeated by that reasonable and admirable response is taking a stance.”
The sentiment being expressed in this comic (“Doesn’t this liberal agenda to kill Christmas and rip the Bible out of the school and the military just make you sick?”) is not a sentiment shared by the entirety of Christians.
In my entire life (which includes 17 years and counting in the Bible Belt), I have only ever personally met one special individual who agreed with that bullshit. If I were one of the majority of rational and sensible Christians out there, I would be far more insulted that you just lumped me in with the likes of Chuck “Dick Knuckle” Norris.
I have no idea what you’re considering “sneering at either side”, based on your post and the comic.
Based on what I know of Mr. Carlos “Chuck” Norris I could see my way to “sneering at a ‘christian'”, but not “sneering at Christians”.
I love it. Now if only we could get some recognition of the wars on Hanukkah, Yule, and Saturnalia which have been much longer running! Well, that or get people who genuinely think there’s systemic oppression of the religious majority to realize Christmas has been expanding over the last fifty years to take up two to three months a year and some of us are sick of it. I’d venture the former goal is more likely.
I hardly ever see any promotion for Hanukkah or related events this time of year, its a sorry sight in my opinion… heck at least people know about the existence of Hanukkah but Yule?! Its almost non-existent… :(
Meh my family ain’t to bothered by it, they’re jewish and take it in the traditional jewish manner… asualy mentioning how channukah has eight more days a cool top and better food.
Growing up, my family celebrated both Hannukah and Christmas. The latter definitely has better food but that comes down to personal preference.
I always get a bit depressed with how little things there are for Hannukah celebration out there, but Jews really are a very small minority. We also don’t celebrate Hannukah the same way Christians celebrate Christmas. Well rather, the way America celebrates Christmas.
A religious Christmas will have a lot more in common with Hannukah than a commercial Christmas.
But, isn’t Christmas just a more tame Saturnalia? I mean, looking from a logical standpoint at the traditions of the two Holidays and ignoring the differing religious reasons they are mostly the same. Both involve gifts, and family, and one a giant well… Lets not go into that one.
Tough at times it does feel as if there was tolerance for every religion except Christianity in various forms ;P
But yeah, Commander would probably be the least suitable person to complain about it to.
How about this: you can complain about christians being persecuted as soon as you have less than 90% of senate, 100% of the supreme court, 80% of the population, and forty consecutive presidents. Until then I reserve the right to say you sound like an asshole for saying people are prejudiced against the largest majority in America.
“You’re the majority so it’s okay” is the most ridiculous possible defense of bigotry in any form.
Bigotry against the majority is what’s trendy these last few decades. And I’m Jewish, so according to anonymoose I can complain all I want, right?
It’s fine when that “bigotry” is not recognizing a holiday from which 90% of its features are stolen from pagan sources as a Christian one. The “bigotry” towards Christians in the west is occasionally having someone be kind of mean towards your beliefs. While on the other hand if you are a Muslim, Jew, or Atheist you have to contend with people thinking you you as a potential terrorist, stupidly greedy, or having no morals respectively.
When there’s a group of people who hold almost all of the power, making all of the rules, and fucking over all the people who aren’t them, then I’m pretty sure it’s not bigotry. It’s responding to assholes in a way that they deserve to be treated. Sorry to say, but in the USA Christianity has a strangle hold on anything and everything that gets passed here, to the point that basic human freedoms are restricted to many groups of people. It is not bigotry to express anger and hatred toward a group of people who at the fault of dicking over other people.
It’s a natural reaction to being shit on. If you want people to stop being pissed off at bigoted Christians, then stop shitting on anybody who dares criticize those assholes, and start putting pressure on your bigoted brothers to not be bigots. Because they’re the ones who started this mess, and they’re the ones in control of it. If they can stop abusing their power to enforce their prejudice then there won’t be any bigotry for people to get pissed off at.
So yes, responding to bigotry with this sort of response is perfectly valid. Because bigotry is something that is worth getting mad at. Bigotry is a big problem, and being nice about something that often dehumanizes people isn’t something that we should try and dress up pretty. It’s an ugly thing that hurts a lot of people in some really sickening ways, and people who support it don’t deserve to be treated with the decency they refuse to give to other people. Bigots don’t deserve to be treated with respect. They are not deserving of pariahs.
Deal with it.
What a shockingly assumptive and ridiculous post. This sort of response is why it’s so difficult to engage in civil discourse online; congratulations on perpetuating that particular problem.
For the record I’m not a Christian at all, so you can put that little assumption of yours to bed. I simply dislike seeing “you’re the majority so I’m allowed to treat you poorly” used an excuse for rude, unconstructive behavior. Bear in mind that your target du jour isn’t necessarily the majority everywhere, whatever it may be, which just makes you come across as myopic. Food for thought :)
If people were required to say Happy Channukah instead of Merry Christmas, I might see your point, but trying to be inclusive of multiple points of view via generic greetings isn’t automatically hatred of the majority, its just trying to set things so the majority AND the minority get “robbed” equally.
Mm, christians too shouldn’t want religious coercion to be a thing. Christianity isn’t always the majority religion, so that kind of stuff isn’t good for anybody in the long run.
Hah, I will take any comic featuring Chuck Norris that isn’t about his tears healing the sick or fists under his beard. Though of course I support the right of people to giggle incessantly at played out memes.
I was half expecting Mr. Fish to come and scare the hell out of him like he did in that guest spot by Jacob Plette…Mr Norris…You’re afraid of my fish aren’t you?
And this is why the Commander is a badass.
the world would be a better place if we all worshiped the Brando
Nah I like my ladies and gentemen
I can’t wait until some Wallymart checkout slave is telling me to have a happy nondescript spacefuture.
Oh gods that would make my day. ^___^
The cruel oppression that is Wallymart has no place in the nondescript spacefuture.
Holy shit! “Happy Nondescript Spacefuture Day” is TOTALLY replacing my standard salutation of “Happy Decemberween” for the next week!
Heh.
Despite the whole Brando > Norris following in this webcomic…
I am still incredibly psyched for The Expendables 2. They got Chuck Norris, now all they need is Vin Diesel.
Vin Diesel is in Expendables 2. He’s the villain.
Oops, sorry that’s Claud Van Damme. LOL
What I could like to see is Chuck Norris as the main villian.
Oh please. Chuck Norris would only be well cast as the hopeless plucky relief character. Extra points if he dies to a hopeless enemy mook.
Actually, I think Norris makes an awesome villain – especially when Bruce Lee whips his ass in the third act.
War on Christmas? That is a silly idea, if there ever was a war, Christmas clearly won. Why else does it show up the day after Halloween and start raping people with cheer and tacky decorations.
That’s the commercialized version of Christmas.
As much as people complain about Christmas, I think we’ve basically raped every holiday for what it is and turned it into another reason to BUY stuff.
Well, we don’t really have September 11 sales or V-J Day sales, but that’s about it.
Say wht you want about the commercialization of holidays, them lights are beautiful
Yet.
That’s only a matter of time. It took 25 years to turn Valentines Day into the commercialized abmonation that it is today. 9/11 Day is little more than a decade old, so they’ve only had time to plan how they are going to trick us into buy cards, candy and other hardware items to decorate for it.
There is already a thriving 9/11-sploitation market, it just needs more time to go mainstream ;)
That’s my birthright as a good American citizen though, to pillage all other cultural and religious celebrations as a reason to eat lavish turkey dinners and buy more shit I don’t need.
Hahaha. Amen.
Chuck Norris without eyebrows looks kinda weird…
Commander Badass is so level-headed. I just never appreciated how much until now.
Well I always thought Voltair was a badass. Nice of the Commander to reference him.
For everyone who thinks that this is an issue to be discussed, I’d like to remind you of the first amendment.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The first amendment clearly states that not only can the government not limit the religious choices of the people but it also cannot promote (or establish) a government supported religion. That means that religious iconography of any sort cannot be displayed by government institutions unless EVERY religion, regardless of the number (or lack) of worshipers of that religion, is represented equally.
So the next time you hear someone complain that their favorite pagan symbol is being called a ‘holiday tree’ just point ’em in the direction of the First Amendment and tell them to argue with the Continental Congress.
While I do agree with almost everything you said, I got to make a gripe about the iconography part. While congress can not make any laws regarding religion, the first amendment does not bar government officials from displaying religious iconography. The whole ten commandments in the court thing? Under the constitution, it’s legal. In fact I wish they would bring them back, even if, as a wiccan, i may not agree with a couple of them. This country really needs some moral kicks to the head.
Sorry, just griping. I hate it when people don’t understand the reason behind the first amendment. It was not to get rid of religion in government, but to keep government out of religion, so as to avoid what happened in Europe in the past. Since 1789, Congress has maintained a paid chaplain service (including muslim and other major religions, not sure about wicca or other not-so-mainstream religions). They even have a prayer room in the Capitol building itself. Of course the majority of religion-based iconography in government is Christian, but that’s more of a reflection of the majority christian population.
So to end this rant, I would love to see more open religious stuff in government. Seriously, if government actually held itself to some morals, I think the US would be in better shape.
The courts are already full of actual laws. Many of those laws even make sense.
Beyond “steal” and “kill”, the commandments are pretty much all filler, legally.
Compared to other western countries the USA is very religious, so do the other countries have even less morals?
That’s all well and fine until the majority religion starts affecting the government. Preventing civil rights due to religious doctrine is counter to the separation of church and state.
“And ye harm none” is a much better underlying religious saying to put on our money than “In God We Trust”. So many have been harmed under the name of religion. Religion needs to stop influencing our laws. They can still do whatever they want in their church provided it doesn’t interfere with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
I like the Commander’s thinking!
See, that’s okay, I’ll still fight for yer nondescript spacefuture freedom t’troll that
Sorry to double post but that was in response to ksaotaku
I don’t think Chuck would say that, because one of the rules Chuck follows says “if you can’t say anything good about someone, then it’s better to say nothing”.
It must be some lookalike and nothing else.
Have you…heard what Chuck’s been saying lately?
No I didn’t, but I guess it must be something contradicting his rules if you had to reply me.
Sadly, yes.
Am I the only one who noticed that Chuck doesn’t have eyebrows?
We need to put Marlon Brando BACK INTO THE SCHOOLS AND MILITARY.
Its important for our Troops and Kids to learn how to be appropriately awesome and manly.
Does this mean that the guest comics posted are all canon now?
I like how Chuck Norris is so badass that he is speaking without opening his mouth. Weirder still, however, is that the Commander wearing a scarf and holding his cigar the way he is in the last panel make me read him with a french accent. Combine that with the fact that I read him like Grayson Hunt from Bulletstrom and it makes for some pretty odd dialogue.
IMHO, I think Buddhism is one of the best religions out there. It doesn’t really say, convert or you won’t go to Heaven. It just tells you to treat everyone/everything around you with patience and compassion. Most Christian teachings nowadays teach exactly that, but historically speaking, that’s not a stance that they took years ago.
Granted, things have changed, but Buddhism has stayed pretty much constant as far as I know. I’m a Buddhist myself and Buddhism respects the religion of others, the choices of an individual and allows the world to do it’s own thing. It’s kinda cool.
Anyways, I’m rambling on here. I’m not unaware of the pros of most major religions, such as Islam, Christianity and others. But I’m also aware of the cons and their history. Just wanted to put this out there, so don’t burn me, please. :P
Buddhism is certainly on the low end of the “Messed Up Acts Committed In The Name of Religion” scale, but it still registers somewhat respectably.
Buddhism as an institution has never been as powerfully centralized or as self-propagating as, say, the Christian Church, but it’s still done a lot of the same things – empowered tyrants, prompted and sanctioned assassinations, taxed and tithed the non-elite, started wars, sold pardons and blessings, stolen land, executed dissenters and heretics, perverted and subverted other religions, tolerated corruption, taken bribes, concealed abuses… hell, right this very moment there is still Buddhist pederasty going on in what are merely the most recent incarnations of traditions that stretch back centuries.
It’s not a problem with Buddhism as a religion. It’s not even a problem with religion, per se. It’s a problem with human society and heirarchical structures and cultural expressions and anthrolopogical weirdness. The abuses of any religion are really just the manifested symptoms of larger underlying cultural problems.
That said, I think part of what makes Buddhism seem so “constant” and less perverse in the West, compared to (in particular) Christianity, is that it is kind of a few degrees removed. Not only is our understanding of Buddhism filtered by language and cultural barriers, cultural biases on both sides of the equation, and the very nature of the novel in contrast to the familiar, but Buddhism also has the benefit of most of it’s major controversies having happened long ago and being poorly recorded.
Speaking from what I’ve seen, a lot of Americans belong to forms of Buddhism that are really kind of offshoots of the traditional branches. It’s not just second-hand religion – it’ eighth- or tenth-hand. Buddhism has been imported only very recently in terms of the historical timeline, and through some very odd channels.
The earliest substantial Buddhist influences in America are mostly from the Japanese, who have a very different view of Buddhism than many other Asian Buddhists, flavored as it is by centuries of their own history and culture. More recently there have been schools imported from Southeast Asian cultures such as Malaysia and Indonesia, which have very different views of the religions. Of course, Tibetan Buddhism has a special place in the popular imagination of Americans, but it’s actually one of the most unusual and insular interpretations of Buddhism around. The Chinese had an interesting take on the religion, but the Communists distorted it immeasurably by forcing it underground, and European influence took it’s toll before that in the 19th century. India, where the religion started, has it’s own understanding of Buddhism as flavored by local religion and culture, particularly as the region is a massive cultural melting pot which draws on everything from Islam to the great Persian epics to the effects of the British Raj to Bollywood and the influences of capitalism!
So if you’re in some place like Kalamazoo or Sioux City, the Buddhism you’ll likely be exposed to might be entirely different than the Buddhism in San Francisco, or in New York. But of course, even if you went to New Dheli or Tokyo, you might not really find “Buddhism”, but a local expression of it.
So anyways…
Buddhism IS pretty chill compared to the Abrahamic Religions. Probably has a good bit to do with not feeling rushed to get it all right in a single lifetime. *wink*
~D.
I think ‘bible’ is supposed to be written as ‘Bible’. It doesn’t appear to be actually capitalized.
People who don’t believe in it don’t capitalize it. A bible is a collection of information on a certain topic, whether the words within it have any sense or not.
However, when one says “The Bible”, it becomes a proper noun as a result of “the” being placed before it rather than “a”, much akin to “the prince” being capitalized in reference to Machiavelli’s work.
One may attempt to make a statement of opinion by not capitalizing works like these, but such is not according to proper English grammar.
Well, fortunately there’s no bible on the subject of proper English grammar. It’s merely convention, and conventions change.
English is a bastard language, and worse – it’s a vagabond and a tramp. It follows other languages down dark alleyways, clubs them over the head, and steals their loose terms. Then it misuses and mangles the half of what it plunders that it really likes, while casually discarding the other half. Finally it tromps off to try out the new twinkets and show off to unwary passerby, all the while continously picking out and discarding old and now-uninteresting words that it used to treasure in order to make room for the new.
~D.
Eh, Chuck Norris should go back to leveling his huntard on WoW.
This comic was great but the comments are lame. Its sad to see people taking offense from something so small when it was a great message. Personally I find it dumb that christians complain all the time about persecution when the fact is they’re the majority and control most things in the public. I’m christian myself and find the self-pity disgusting that christians seem to have the view that they’re persecuted when I have never seen any evidence of it. I support everyones right to say what they will, and think how they wish, or whatever else they want. The comments prove however that not everyone in the world has put on their bigboy pants.
What bothers me most about this comic is that CHUCK NORRIS’ MOUSTACHE IS OFF-MODEL IN EVERY PANEL
It is a feral, symbiotic life form.
xD
Half the persecution Christian’s receive is a result of their own members stupidity. I know Christians who I cannot imagine anyone ever trying to harm unless they are just sick-minded, and I know Christians that I want to bludgeon to death with their own Bible.
I am Christian myself, but I always appreciate a good joke, conversation, or even a debate against my religion so long as both sides remain in good spirits and do not turn it into a personal war. I tend to focus on the part of the Bible that says to love others and to not call attention yourself by praying in front of others and, well, being obnoxious about your religion, but the Christians who focus on the “YE SHALL ALL BURN IN HELL!” part are rather loud and obnoxious so they tend to give Christianity a bad name =( just… run away when you see them and remember there’s a less vocal and nicer side to Christianity.
Yeah, this is more specifically about the persecution complex kind of folks who believe that you’re openly disrespecting their religion by saying “happy holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas”. And if I alienate people who think like that, well, so be it. I doubt many of them read this comic anyway.
Nah, if they’re that easy to upset they probably don’t belong on the internet ;)
That’s exactly how I feel.
I’m Christian, and my main focus – the part I take most seriously – is the spread of love and tolerance for my neighbors that Jesus taught. I think what’s lost on most Christians nowadays (at least the radical noisy ones) is the whole LOVE THY NEIGHBOR portion. That condemning and annoying people of other religions is required by the Bible. I hate that jazz. Stop annoying other people with your incessant whining about religious stuff. Let’s just do our part (lol just had a moment of Starship Troopers there) and be content that we’re lucky to have our lives.
As that old, out-dated saying goes, “Lord, save me from your followers!”
I’m an atheist myself, but this right here is win. The sooner people stop holding entire groups responsible for the actions of a handful of members, the sooner we can move on as a society and start talking solutions.
Yeah, because being a Christian is SO HARD. Seriously, do these people even know what persecution means? It does not mean “we arent in control of every facet of society anymore, and we actually get punished for racism and homophobic practices”. I can pretty much guarantee that any jew, muslim, atheist, bhuddist or hindy knows a hell of a lot more about being persecuted against for their spriituality, or lack of one. In the western world anyway, theres plenty of places where christians actually ARE persecuted against, but the US is not one of them.
After rigorous analysis of past comics and comments through revolutionary statistical techniques (also known as pulling stuff out of my hat), I have concluded that the opinions expressed in this issue are those of the Commander and that the author is not using this strip as a vehicle for her own opinions. I prefer to assume good faith in situations like this – one thing that Wikipedia actually teaches you.
I saw some good points in many of the comments, and I compliment you all on the civil discussion. As a catholic going through a bit of a crisis of faith right now, I would still much rather you said “I don’t believe in your false god” straight to my face (though you’d probably hurt my feelings for a little while) than fling snide zingers from standoff range like they did when I lived in the UK. Even then, those people are still my friends; there’s more to a person than what they happen to believe about the nature of the cosmos, and I like to think that’s why the Commander hangs out with Chuck Norris.
There’s a difference between “I don’t believe your group is quite as persecuted against in the United States as you claim” and “I don’t believe in your false Gods”.
That’s very true, I didn’t mean to equate the two and I’m sorry if it came across that way. For the past 5 minutes I’ve been trying to come up with something witty to say, but I can’t think of anything so perhaps I’ll just leave it at that.
Oh no, I hope this isn’t going where I think it is… If this starts preaching politics, I’m out.
Jesus Christ, this isn’t preaching politics anymore than the Poison one was.
Haha, this reply is funny because of the preceding epithet. I still very <3 the Poison page.
You (and the others) seem to be mistaken. I’m hoping that the comic doesn’ turn political, not claiming that it already has.
Sorry if I offended. Please create more comics.
Crawling back under my rock!
(Its just online comics folks lighten up!)
If this level bothers you, perhaps you should.
She’s nowhere near the level of preaching politics like the author of Ratfist does.
Holy crapola does that guy never stop talking about the evils of non-Christian Liberals and government.
Fred “Slacktivist” Clark had a good article on the self-deception of persecution some American Christians have:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2009/04/23/the-burkhalogic-of-nom/
Can’t do anything about religion without brewing some kind of shitstorm.
Honestly, I can’t do much of anything without brewing some kind of shitstorm. When I’m at the level of notoriety where saying something like “I recognize that [a particular television program] has high production values and understand why people enjoy it but I am not particularly interested by the story” makes people want to pick a fight with me, trying to avoid confrontation at this point would mean I’d have to draw a lot of bland toast militantly non-confrontational Disney comics.
These comics are excellent and I appreciate you going to the time and effort to make them for us but I really don’t know why you do it! Personally I would’ve taken one look at that stupid religious war going on further up the comments and just called it a day. So I’m very grateful to you for continuing this comic despite the morons of humanity.
Too true. The more well known one becomes the bigger the target on their back.
*sigh* As a Christian (and future pastor) I’m pretty harsh on Christians myself. And given, I think this whole War on Christmas thing is silly. But, while I do like your comic and respect your opinions, I think it’s a bit unwise to do this subject matter because it leads to all sorts of nonsensical debate among the commentators. That’s not to say I’m like, SILENCE! But, I would like to avoid such subject matter, for the sake of all our intelligences.
But then again, what do I know? I’m a metrosexual. :P
Topics shouldnt be avoided because people like to fight about them. Nothing ever gets confronted that way.
You say that though as if there’s not ten million debates roaring on already about it on the internet. This is ground that’s long been and well covered.
And yet there is still “War on Christmas,” so one more poke in the wound isn’t much one way or another, AND we got to see the Commander in a scarf. What’s the big deal?
His scarf isn’t fashionable enough.
HERETIC!
That’s the basis of a lot of comedy, though. Pointing out strange inconsistencies of large majorities and their social norms.
Normally, something annoys the comedian and they go about pointing out how crazy it is. This comic does just that – people go crazy about saying Happy Holidays at Christmas time. Drives the author crazy. Author creates comedy around the thing that seems largely inane.
“Honestly, I can’t do much of anything without brewing some kind of shitstorm. When I’m at the level of notoriety where … I’d have to draw a lot of bland toast militantly non-confrontational Disney comics.” – Coelasquid
Basically her comment addresses your point. Anything she makes is going to piss someone off so it’s silly to try to be inoffensive.
You all seem to miss the point of the Christian side of the discussion. I’m a Jew but I get it. The mall pushes Christmas, but the sectarian commercial holiday, not the Jesus one. Schools push any religious reading by anyone, even for their own benefit, as required to be off campus. Stores try not to offend non christians by saying Happy Holidays, and so offend all the Christians (who ARE still a majority of the country).
When not particularly catering to one group “offends” that group and we all have to talk about it for four months out of a year? That group has way too much power.
Except anyone who gets offended at the “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” has to be very insecure in both themselves and their own religion.
My grandparents on my dad’s side are staunchly Christian, go to church every week and volunteer at it. They have no objections to others saying “Happy Holidays”. They will personally say “Merry Christmas” themselves.
My grandpa on my mom’s side was very devoutly Jewish. His father helped found a synagogue in Denver and Passover was always held at his house. He would say either one and would accept either. Being diplomatic does not lessen your religion.
Also schools are *required* to push religious texts off campus because of national law. Whether it would be for their benefit is irrelevant because there are thousands of religions that believe that theirs is the best.
I wanted to leave a comment about “war on christmas”, to make it sound like I care, but than i remembered that I am not American, and so isn’t about 97% of the world. So I don’t care.
As for the comic: I was always confused by the voltarian thing of “I don’t agree with what you say, but I’ll give up my life defending your right to say it”
Because if you live up to this phrase, and actually die for somebody’s right to disagree with you – than your opinion dies, and his opinion lives.
He wins in the long run, because he lives to tell his tale (the wrong one, since he doesn’t agree with you) – and you are too busy being dead to tell yours.
Now, I can understand a position of “I feel passionately about this issue we disagree about, but I feel much more passionately about freedom of speech. So I will go and fight for our collective right to express ourselves, even if it means that you will be sitting back in safety spreading your false opinion on this one issue I am passionate about.”
The distinction might be very slight, but it removes freedom of speech as an absolute priority and instead measures it against the the person in question. If you preach hate, destruction, violence and degradation – I will not fight for the freedom of speech, I’ll fight you first.
You are just the bigger problem at the moment.
Well, fighting for freedom is a noble proposition that doesn’t always end with the guy fighting dying. Actually, when the person who fought to win you your rights comes back from the war, they expect you to respect the right and give equal weight to both sides of the argument.
It’s not about fighting for the opinion, but fighting for the RIGHT to voice one’s opinion. It’s very hard to ignore the sacrifice if it keeps one’s rights intact.
I always have to shake my head when people bring up the sins of Christianity to excuse the sins of Islam. First off, the inquisition, the subjugation of women, the wars to extend property (ie. the Crusades), the witches burned at the stake, etc etc? Those happened centuries ago. They are NOT a part of mainstream Christian beliefs today. The belief that if you die while killing infidels you will go to Heaven, if any good Muslim dies in your attack to kill infidels they will go to heaven, that women must be covered and can not go out in public without a chaperone, that a woman who is raped did so by ‘seducing’ the good muslim from the path of righteousness with her wicked evil ways as a daughter of Shaitan and thus shall be stoned, that homosexuals should be strung from cherry pickers (as they do in Iran), that it is ok to kill infidels to spread religion…sadly that IS a feature of modern, mainstream Islam. Heck, I’m a freakin athiest, and ya’ll got me defending Christianity. I know this for sure; I can go to the Vatican, hold up a picture of Christ and say, “I do not believe in him!”, rip the picture up, then walk away. Nothing will happen to me. BUT: If I went to Tehran, walked up to the Ayatollah Khameini, and did the same thing with a picture of Mohommad?
Now to get away from the boring crap, great strip! Perfect delivery from the Commander.
“If I went to Tehran, walked up to the Ayatollah Khameini, and did the same thing with a picture of Mohommad?”
First problem there is that Islam’s prohibition against graven images would make that picture of Mohammed somewhat hard to come by.
Second problem there is that I beliebe Khomeni was buried somewhere other than Tehran.
Also, if you walked up to the Pope and started tearing up pictures of Jesus and yelling, the Swiss Guards would probably beat you up.
Hahaha. I’m sure if there was a Cardinal around and he thought no one was watching, he’d get a kick or two in as well.
But imagining someone getting beat up by the Vatican Swiss Guard for being insane makes me chuckle. People always underestimate them, since they wear those silly hats!
Not sure how much you want it, but maybe you’ll find something nice here:
http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/
Because comparing a fundamentalist nation to one that is subject to the rule of regular laws isnt an absurd comparison? The issue here is that Christianity has just as many cruel and arbitrary practices as Islam does, the thing is that there currently isnt a nation that is putting them into practice as written down in the holy text, but some muslim nations do. That doesnt make Christianity any less cruel, it just means its predominant in countries that are stable enough to not fall prey to fundamentalist leaders. And even then, you have to force the more conservative ones to actually accept that they dont get to make all the rules themselves.
As for that thing about ripping up a picture of Jesus in the Vatican like that, you wont get thrown in prison for it, but I can guarantee you you will get an angry mob after yourself.
Exactly.
First off – I hate the term Mainstream Christianity, because there’s nothing really mainstream about six flavors of Christianity that teach six different traditions and hold virtually six different versions of Mass. As a whole, there are things that Christians agree upon, but that’s mainstream opinion from Christians, not “mainstream Christianity.”
Second – it’s exactly the same with Islam. There are many flavors of Islam, and they all believe in the same message, just not the same practice. So the reality is that there are Muslims who don’t believe in the oppression of women or violence in the modern age. Unfortunately, most Westerners/non-Muslims don’t have enough knowledge or care to learn about Islam, so they lump all Muslims in one of two groups (when there are actually EIGHT groups of Muslims) – Shia or Sunni. None of them are MAINSTREAM MUSLIMS. The ones that we seem to focus on are the ones that oppress and commit violence, and we seem to reject there can be a non-violent, non-oppressive form of Islam (see the group in Florida trying to get the Muslim reality TV show pulled from the air because they believe that there’s no such thing as a non-violent, non-oppressive Muslim such as the kind depicted on the show).
And I made a comment up there to another guy that there are still Christians that molest children, oppress women and commit violence in the name of Christ TODAY. Just because it doesn’t happen in Europe and North America doesn’t mean that it isn’t happening elsewhere (like the Phillipines, Africa and in Asia). A lot of folks get maimed in Africa for being something other than Christians, for example.
And, of course, it IS happening in North America, too, we just dismiss it as a one-time looney each time, not recognize it as part of a huge underlying tradition of power exercise. Because we’re a first-world nation and that sort of thing doesn’t happen here, right? Right?
Cannot believe I am all caught up. Just found this comic.
To give my .02 there is actually limits to speech, even in the USA.
You cannot yell fire in a crowded theater because you could hurt other people.
Hate speech is illegal. Racism is illegal. To say garbage about another culture is frowned upon.
That said, I want all the people that believe weird crap to pull off their hoods so I can see who they are. Let me march, they just have to put their money where their mouth is.
Speaking of everyone who said they just want to kill a specific group join up and serve. We need people to kill people. I am tired of good people getting killed. Lets go back to the dirty dozen and empty all the jails. We have plenty of ready trained killers, no need to make nice people into them. IN the old USA we have people that will EAT the Talyban (Misspelled on purpose). Hannibal Lecter messed up the A-team guy Hannibal for me.
Wow getting tired meant let them march.
Ok English teacher is correct my grammar is crap.
English is not easy even for native speakers. Sad it is the only language I speak.
Except for broken French and Spanish.
Yeah, because forcing prisoners to serve in the military doesnt violate civil rights at all. And you do realize that if you think collateral damage is bad now, what do you think it will be like when all your soldiers are criminals?
I am talking about harden murders on death row. The stuff of peoples nightmares. Collateral is a bad thing but at least it would make sense. I can handle that people are evil more than people just hit the wrong button.
In the bad old days people who broke the law would be given a choice join the military or go to jail. The military has created structure and support for a lot of people.
By that logic you should just turn the violent murderers lose on whatever civilian population looked at you wrong this time, since you apparently have complete disregards for their lives anyway.
I’m compelled to point out that, in the USA, hate speech is NOT illegal. It only becomes illegal if it becomes “fighting words,” meant specifically to incite violence.
Also, we have enough problems already with keeping troops from attacking civilians WITHOUT hiring a bunch of murderers, thank you very much. As a member of the military community, I find it highly offensive that you think so little of us and what we do as to support filling our ranks with criminals.
Actually, I think very highly of the military.
What I want is for good people to stop being shot up by the low life’s of the world. Fight low with low.
A lot of other countries have been using the worst of the worst on our best of the best. It is not right for our people that matter to come home in body bags.
As for people in other countries that the U.S. is fighting in they hate us anyway.
The U.S. should stay out of centuries old conflicts. The people were trying to kill each other before we showed up and will continue to kill each other after all of our soldiers are killed. Democracy works in the West because there was common laws before that most of rules and laws were based on.
I vote against wars because I want to keep our military people safe. The National Guard should never have been used in battle outside of the United States.
Racism isn’t illegal. Well, it is but not the way you positioned it in your comment. Race is a federally protected class which means a lot.
However, if you’re not representing a company, not backing your words up with violence or threats and just saying racist things, it’s still considered free speech. People are terrible creatures but you have to be careful with how you phrase laws.
So no love for the Church of the Machine?
I don’t care about politics. I don’t care about Christians or my fellow Muslims raging about their crud left and right. I care about a good comic, though, and the only complaint I got about this one is that I guess it’s just too short.
Coelasquid’s spoiled me with 6-panels thus far. I blame her for my affinity towards 6-panel Webcomics. Otherwise, I liked it.
Also, everyone above me? Keep arguing. It sustains the smile on my face that signifies the uselessness of your words in the larger scale of things, and the illusion of the significance of your arguments in such a world.
It fuels my bacon grease mobile.
Oh my god, I want a bacon grease mobile, where can I get one, it’d make a wonderful Christmas present for my sister. ^^
I just enjoy talking to people who don’t have any background in studying the Bible and religion, but claim their view is the absolute view for the entire religion. It’s fun to point out inconsistencies with factual information in terms of their belief.
My favorite so far is “Christians don’t commit violence or oppress people any more, but Muslims do.” Uh, there are large groups of Christians in Africa and Asia who presently maim others for being non-Christian, oppress women and commit violence in the name of Christianity. The people who make that initial claim have somehow limited their own idea of Christianity as just being in the North America and Europe.
After seeing all this grief in the comments, I just wanted to say this.
I’d like to see Marlon Brando in a Jesus beard. Or fuck, I’d settle for a santa hat.
i dont like chuck noris he kinda annoys me and the whole folklore around him is kinda stupid.
I would have responded with something witty and intellectual in response to all the bull above me, but then I found out I just didn’t care.
Good comic, love the Commander even if his religion confuses me….who is this Marlon Brando?
Merry Nondescript Spacefuture Brandonmass!
I somewhat expected Jared to jump out and scream “Chuck Norris!” or something at the end.
And then Chuck Norris roundkicks him in the face, so the Commander has to step in and crush Chuck Norris for being a total douche.
I think we all know that the manliest religion is anti-theism.
Only a true badass has the nuts to want to punch god in the face.
Yip,
That’s what I want to do. Punch that clown in the face.
Religion was created to explain all the stuff humans are curious about because we were not smart enough for science. Superstitions and fairytales are used on children and child-like adults that control the media and government. If it keeps you warm at night and makes you feel alright believe whatever you want. However, don’t show up on my doorstep try to make me believe.
I’m from Arizona you cannot tell me to go to hell. I would put on a sweater and tell you it is cold. Someone told me it might be more humid then I like. Asked how would they known? I always point out hell does not exist except on Earth.
Christmas time with the family has probably got all of us riled up. I think spending time with the family is not only overrated but a really bad idea.
ok so here is a link to to George Carlin mostly safe for work if you wear headphones. It is just Carlin speaking. Damn, I miss him!
Religion is bullshit
Hmm, upon reflection the word BS is in it and some workplaces might be offended. Mine is not.
So Kratos?
You know what’s awesomely manly?
Religion based flame wars (no not really)
I think the “malls are in Christmas mode nearly a quarter of the calendar year” is the part that’s actually troubling and being called the liberal agenda (you know, shifting focus of the masses from god to buying stuff during christmas).
Except liberals are supposedly filthy commies while the right is supposed to be about capitalism. I love how a “liberal” can be twisted to be anything.
Here’s a novel idea… Why don’t we all stop trying to create debates about religion on a webcomic which is purely for entertainment and no-one ever SAID you have to agree with it?
Honestly, people, I figure as long as someone’s not being a jerk about it, I don’t care if they worship Jesus, Ganesh, Allah, Satan, or friggin Barney. It’s their goddamn right, and how they choose to go about it is their right too.
Before anyone asks, I’m Christian in the form of believing there’s a God but not choosing to subscribe to the myths put out there by any of the churches.
…And can I just mention that I love that Chucky looks so tiny next to the Commander?
You know, I love the last panel. Commander Badass is, well, badass: he has FAITH in the Word of Brando and he doesn’t care one bit if others believe in the Word of Brando or not, or think that’s a stupid religion.
Wish some religious people could be so sure about their faith instead of crying out loud everytime someone says something not entirely nice about their religion.
Happy Festivus everyone! Festivus the holiday for the rest of us.
Ah when tv was fun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS7-jcsB_WQ&feature=rellist&playnext=1&list=PLD5D0DB3300390896
This nondescript spacefuture sounds like an excellent and thoroughly accepting place to live. When is it located? :)
Yeah, sign me up.
I find it interesting how people keep bringing up horrible things some Christians are doing worldwide to try to deflect the conversation away from the horrible things that some Muslims are doing. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Refusing to deal with it entrenches the problem further. Kind of like how you can’t talk about “racially*” related matters without someone (usually the white person) being called a racist (usually by the black or other “minority” person.)
*I dunno, I’ve never met a dwarf or an elf, we all have “human” on our character sheet.
You think that might be because lots of (us) white people are racist? Or at the very least, racially insensitive?
Okay, but, who gets to decide what constitutes what? I’m not trying to trick anyone into saying anything here, but talking about or asking a question about anything honestly apparently makes you a racist or bigot of some kind. How does this promote understanding, acceptance and tolerance between different groups of people in any way?
I think putting off a problem just makes it snowball and makes it harder to tackle later.
I think perhaps you are falsely equating the damage done by being a racist and being called a racist. To clarify, saying or doing racist things is far more problematic than having to hear that you might be doing or saying racist things. No, I don’t think that every cry of racism is inherently true, but since white people, almost unilaterally, do not have to deal with racism that constitutes both privilege and power, I think the least we can do is stand back, take a breath, and take the possibility on board. If we stop a conversation on racism because we’re offended, in a group of people who are actually victims of racism, we are the perpetrators of the problem, not them.
It’s not being put as a way to excuse Islam’s problems. Almost any major religion is going to have a lot of violence done in its name because people will always twist it to their advantage.
The people pointing out the sins of Christianity are doing it in response to people saying that Christianity is infallible, not to say that because Christianity does it, it’s okay for Islam to do so.
Why does everybody take the chance to voice their opinion on religion every time it’s mentioned. It’s really fucking annoying.
Because some (or many, or all) people feel like they aren’t being heard, and that their views are unique enough to be the one that changes people’s minds about things.
No one wants/likes to talk about things like politics, religion and “race” so people get ideas, some of which aren’t close to reality at all, in their head and they sort of gel there after a while if they’re allowed to.
It’s like when you have a huge fight with your friend over a misunderstanding and don’t talk for years. When you finally run into each other, you can’t even remember why you were fighting, only that you were right and they’re a big fat jerk, because things were allowed to fester for so long.
I find it really fucking annoying when someone voices how annoyed they are that people are discussing a topic that they have an interest in. I’m not really annoyed, I’m just responding on par with your surly comment.
I mean, people talk about religion and politics because it’s something they are interested in. If they weren’t interested in it, they wouldn’t talk about it.
I mean, I understand it’s repetative and not always constructive. But people like to talk, and the Internet is a great place to express your opinion. I look at it that we’re a bunch of people talking about something we like, and if you don’t want to talk about it, then you don’t have to say anything if you don’t feel like it’s worth your time.
Exactly why I voiced my opinion. I enjoy actual debates but every time I want to talk about religion it comes down too calling me stupid and wrong. They don’t give me a reason I’m wrong, just that it should be obvious. People tend to assume everyone else should think like them and are so uptight if you don’t. I believe you can learn something new from everybody. You just have to be smart enough to know what you need to learn.
Well, you just need to find the right part of the Interwebz to debate, my friend.
But I do understand what you mean by people going nuts when they talk about something they are passionate about. But that’s EVERYTHING – religion, politics, video games, RPG versions, sex, etc.
http://www.badassoftheweek.com/babadeepsingh.html
He’s an ancestor of mine. If you don’t know what Sikhism is, look it up =D
P.S. I’m a practicing Sikh =D
Get behind a REAL manly religion – Dudeism. Sit around all day drinking beer in your house coat and slippers, and go bowling a lot. I can dig it, so can you!
This girl has it right on the money. Squiddy we can’t thank you enough for your fantastic comics that are incredibly witty, poke satirical fun and even the ones that are plain simple family and cute with the Commander’s children and such related.
These lovely FREE comics need no extreme right/left wing debates going on at all. It’s like making a sweet trifle and custard pudding but with salt and vinegar instead of sprinkles on top. It’s invasive and makes it bitter for the worse.
Freedom to speech or not, you really dont need to discuss such inflammatory crap here
Thanks for breaking tradition though and writing+drawing something that breaks the norm of a usual Christmas themed comic :D
But… Isn’t Christmas really just a giant collaborative holiday of a shitload of different religious traditions?
Is it really so much to ask that people of any belief from Atheist to Zoroastrian just be respectful to one anothers’ beliefs?
I know the strips can’t all be gems but this is my least favorite one so far because not only is the timing rather tacky in which to use it (did it have to be posted during a major holiday week?) but it just feels like flame bait. I get the joke, don’t get me wrong, it’s just ill timed.
For the record, retailers will of course pimp the holidays big time because they are their main money makers. Marketing seasons do not equal everything being free of persecution nor prejudice. Does that mean everything is as bad as some say? Who even knows anymore.
And no, I don’t think you’re anti-Christian for the strip Coel, that’d be just silly.
Any religion is stupid. It’s based on hate, nothing more or less :p Except buddhism I think.
Almost all religions are based on things we consider ethically good, actually. It’s just the organizations behind them that tend to screw things up for everyone involved.
Like I always say, Christianity was cool until the church came along and ruined it.
Church was the ones that started it. It’s the other people who twisted things to make God look like some cruel emotionless bastard killing people who disobeys him by using huge waves of water. Bible was created by humans, not guided by anything but personal issues like homophobia.
That’s the basic idea, anyway. So what you really hate and think is stupid is ORGANIZED religion.
Trust me, I’ve stopped supporting organized religion a long time ago. I still have my own personal religion, just nothing resembling the oppressive regime of the last centuries.
Technically, Christianity is supposed to be about the teaching of Jesus Christ. That’s the important part and if they lived by his teachings, it would be wonderful. The church came in and screwed it up. So no, they didn’t start it.
If I could reach the epitome of manliness such as the Commander has, I could die a happy lady.
Also, Christmas sucks. I’m just in it for the presents and money.
I think debates like this are always hilarious, but I suppose being henotheistic offers me a unique view point. Honestly, when you strip away the bullshit and the mythology and look at the principles of every religion, you’ll find the same message. It’s even in the Commandments, though Christians are notoriously bad at remembering this. That message basically equates to “don’t be an ass.” To me that’s the purpose of religion; to offer a base code of ethics that amounts to the fact that you don’t have to love your neighbor, but you really shouldn’t hit him with a 9 iron. Especially if your reason for doing so is less that he’s a terrible neighbor and more that he doesn’t believe in the same cosmic reasoning as you do, or his skin is the wrong color, or even -gasp!- he may happen to be interested in other males.
On the subject of God him/her/itself, I say IRRELEVANT. Besides, god is (allegedly) omnipotent and omniscient. Do you really think you, as a mere mortal, can understand what’s going on in his/her/its divine brain? Most humans can’t figure out what they want for breakfast, much less what the destiny of every living thing forever is was and will be.
And as for the whole ‘holiday season’ thing, I take it in the base symbolism common to almost every religion and civilization that has a holiday for it: it’s about light when things are darkest, heat when things are coldest. It doesn’t matter if that light is from some new star or just the turning of the seasons- winter solstice is the longest night of the year. I think people should stop thinking of people as Christian/Muslim/Black/White/whatever and start thinking of them as human. Because apparently people can’t seem to remember that NEWSFLASH!: The season isn’t about getting moody because people say ‘holidays’ instead your festivity of choice, it’s about giving people what they can’t get for themselves and being civil with each other. Which, really we should be doing all year long.
Now if you don’t mind me I’m going to go back to helping the sick and feeding the poor.
Some religions are really quite specific about whom to be an ass to, when, why, and how.
For example, back in Deuteronomy, there are various exhortations to murder people who adhere to different religions.
He said “if you strip all the BS away.” A lot of “kill these dudes for not being this religion” in religion is a lot of BS written in by – if you’re paying attention – not the prophet or savior in question, but by their followers. Who have no direct connection to the divine and are more or less just observers.
Precisely. When you look only at what the mouthpieces of god have said themselves, most of them preach peace. It’s just that there’s also a lot of kings and such in their mythologies that took the more vague parts and used them as an excuse to kill each other. And because these mythos were written by men, not god or even the prophets themselves. Ordinary men who have no idea what their God really thinks (if he/she/it really exists but that’s a different matter) there’s a lot of filling in the blanks.
Not to mention the butchering the original meanings in translation. Look at the King James bible: “shalt not suffer a poisoner to live” becomes “shalt not suffer a witch to live” because hey, nobody likes witches and who else in town knows the most about local herbs, including poisons? Better to let an innocent die than a guilty one go free, right? Right? (Yeah, no.)
Deuteronomy is from a series of speeches supposedly given by Moses, on the plains of Moab. Moses may not qualify as a prophet or savior where you’re from, but he’s quite a celebrity in the Abrahamic religions nonetheless. Here is a refresher on Moses:
Exodus 32:27-28
And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.
Deuteronomy 13 is practically all that kind of thing:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+13&version=NIV
I find it funny we are discussing the Old Testiment, in which a lot of major people – including Moses – continuously make errors and bad judgements, upon which they have words with God or an epiphany of faith that makes them change their viewpoint, and even then, in retrospect, they still get it wrong.
King David made a ton of mistakes, including misquoting God on occassion (because he’d bend what Nathan told him).
That first one there, Moses is coming back down off the mountain carrying some commands written by his deity, when he discovers that a case of explosive idolatry has broken out in the camp behind him. He congratulates the survivors thusly:
“You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”
He speaks with God immediately thereafter, and is not criticized for the action. The other part, of course, is prefaced thusly:
These are the decrees and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess—as long as you live in the land. Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods.
Later on, Moses and Aaron are forbidden from entering the Promised Land because he smacked a rock instead of speaking to it.
Wil Wheaton says, “Don’t be a Dick”
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/113091
*Like so hard*
EPISCOPALIANISM FTW!
I’m from the nondescript earthpresent were we realize that 90% of Christmas is pagan in origin. So if the Christians want to take their ten percent and make a new holiday I say go for it. We get to keep all the good stuff anyway you don’t even get to keep the date. So ya take the name and the baby Jesus stuff I prefer Saturnalia anyway.
The birth of Christ should be celebrated in July, anyway. I mean, that’s when the Franciscan monks determined it was and the Vatican recognizes that it’s probably correct.
Just that this guy named the Pope back in the twelfth century said Christmas is in December, and since Cardinal Law is never wrong or revoked, we’re always going to have it on December 25.
I’m a Christian-flavored theist and this. A nice year-end holiday is fun and all but Christ’s actual birth fell way closer to Easter.
Not that I mind celebrating Togetherness and Sharing and Cuddles and Awesome Stuff in winter, though. That is cool.
Hey, I think I found the image of marlon brando that they worship in the nondescript future.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045943/
oh course personally i’m a believer in our lord and savior Randy Savage.
for did he not say “Oooooh yeeeah! I want everybody to freak out! Freak out! The Nacho Man is right here, and I’m gonna take it to the limit! Yeah!” as he elbow dropped the gates of heaven averting the apocalypse and rapture?
Expect the unexpected in the kingdom of madness!
I’m a Texan and I want to take offense to your characterization of Rick Perry. Your description of him still sounds too salient and altruistic for it to be even remotely accurate, and the presented issue is hardly either of those two things in the first place!
Now I feel embarrassed to call myself a texan D:
Rick is pretty laughable himself and he did that to himself. Not author. The guy ain’t even running for GOP I think and It’s smart choice if he dropped out too.
“When you are 21, you can vote!” Quoting Rick Perry
Just putting that out there ;D
I think it’s more insulting to certain Christians to say Rick Perry is like them. LOL
Rick Perry is just as fraudulent as Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich. Between the three of them, there might be one good idea, but independently, their lack of common sense and ability to talk in public is largely embarassing for most. I mean, they aren’t uneducated, just lack real common sense in context of the economy, human rights and foreign policy.
Out of the three. Ron Paul is my vote even though I don’t like him 100%. But there will never be someone running for president we all like 100%
Which is fair.
Politics nowadays is always the lesser of two (or three) evils.
Well, being better than Gingrich and Perry is still no reason to give him a vote, when he’s interested in gutting protections for gays, non-Christians, and reproductive rights.
If ron is fighting for gays’ rights then that gives me more reason to vote for him then. Atheists too. We’re all humans and looks like you forgotten that. You’re not only one who forgotten you are human being though.
Awesome comic page coulasquid, I love the commanders humour at the end :)
Being chill with religion is now the manly thing to do. Take notes, everyone.
Best thing about the Commander is he recognises the difference between blind, chauvinistic machismo and masculinity. A real man doesn’t fly off the handle and scream in a fit of ‘roid rage every time he encounters something with which he doesn’t wholly, explicitly agree – or try to legislate it away. ;)
My religion is better than anyone else’s religion, and I am by far the manliest man of my religion, therefore I win.
And if anyone disagrees, it because you are trying to oppress me. Well, I won’t be oppressed, Oppressor!! You just try it, and I will start such a campaign of whining and loud protesting that you will concede just to get me shut up about it.
Therefore validating my previous statements that you are Oppressors, and I am Manly.
So there.
I win. I am the ever-vigilant Warrior, always wary of Oppressors and ready at a moment’s notice to fight fight fight for my religion.
Because my religion is a the One True Religion Of Peace.
And don’t you forget it, Oppressor.
Of peace? Actual peace? o.o Can I join your religion?
“Nerxual”???
I don’t really know which brand of “alternate lifestyle” a “Nerxual” would pursue, but the One True Religion of Peace explicitly forbids any sort of relationship except between one man and one woman, and/or that man’s side action.
We do not condone homosexuals, bisexuals, trisexuals, or any other sort of sexual, so a “Nerxual” like yourself should probably reflect on the Glory and Majesty of My Lord and Savior, and change yourself to fit our narrow definition of acceptable behavior.
Work hard, deny your true self, completely and irrevocably destroy your current “nerxual” relationships, and then ask us to join.
…and we will probably let you, but always harbor resentment and suspicion that will flare into overt blatant discrimination at the first sign of nonconformity, real or imagined. You recovering “nerxuals” are notorious for your backsliding.
Oh, and be sure to keep current with your tithing. We will be checking and rechecking your donations, so be sure to check your checks, and send your checks, and don’t chintz out on the amount. After all, we may be the One True Religion of Peace, but we need that satellite dish so we can broadcast our TV show and get other desperate shut-ins like yourself to donate to our overflowing coffers. Gotta keep your eyes on the prize if you want to run with the big dogs.
Lawl I don’t do donations but thanks for the offer :D
Use radios or youtube videos btw ;D
Chuck Norris gets served by the Commander. This has made my week.
Peace on earth and good will towards my fellow man and woman! Sexy commanders in scarves for all! Haha. But no seriously. This Catholic knows that she’s only “observing” Jesus’ birthday and her religion stole a lot of stuff way back in the day to convert people. So instead of screaming HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS like a lunatic, I use this as a month-long celebration of feeling warm and fuzzy about loved ones and doing extra nice things for people.
So this whole WAR ON CHRISTMAS? Yeah no. I’m gonna say Happy Holidays because that double H sound it makes sounds totally awesomer than Season’s Greetings and Merry Christmas. Be happy I’m greeting you at all with a holiday greeting. If you tick me off enough, no warm wishes for you at all.
And this is why you are awesome. I’d +1 you if I could.
Feck me. The arguements above ARE entertaining. Thanks for the heads up squid. Excuse me whilst I piss myself laughing for a bit longer =P ah the joys of organised relgions.
What’s odd is the sentiment that we are badly persecuted here in America. Yes, certain things such as the removal of prayer in public schools bothers me. Yet we forget the countries and regions where Christians are prone to actual persecution (some of which are no longer around): the Roman Empire, the Soviet Union, the present-day Middle East, China, North Korea, among other places. You know, places where admitting you’re a Christian is like marking yourself for death. I fear that it is possible for America to go down that path, but we’re not that way yet.
Being Christian in China won’t mark you as anything other than a member of a rather small minority. There are both foreign and Chinese Christians here who do their usual thing with impunity. I’m not actually one of them, but some of my colleagues and students are practicing Christians and they’ve never encountered any real difficulties. Just thought I’d share.
So you need to avoid setting a precident of letting religion intertwine with state matters. Should Christianity ever become the minority and … say, Islam … become the majority (it is one of the fastest growing religions in the world), if you have set precident for religious groups to have authority over law, you have given them the ability to abuse that precident and thus put you in a very bad place.
So we need to avoid allowing religious groups to have authority or integrating religion with state so we don’t give religious people who do not agree with our religion the ability to screw us over. And vice-versa (we don’t screw with them).
<3
… Shit, here’s a crazy idea… why don’t we just do away with religion?
Let’s get rid of politics too. Oh, and violence. Violence isn’t needed. No more peace, either. It’s boring. Also, we should do away with beliefs as a whole. Theory and law can be tossed right out the window, as well. Hell, let’s just nix ideas altogether. Let us all sit blankly as we wait for our deaths. No need for hope, because that needed to be buried with everything else. /sarcasm
*shrug* Alright, whatever. Just wondering when people are going to get tired of waging wars and persecuting entire populations of people just because they don’t believe the same thing as they do.
As long as Man reigns supreme on this earth, we will always have war, poverty, hunger, and general destructive lifestyles. It’s a fact of life. The fact that religion is used as a front for war is moot. We, as a species, have caused harm on others for a lot less.
Also, I’d like to apologize for the rudeness of my first remark. I don’t wish to be viewed as a raging douche-canoe.
Well, your apology, combined with the word douche-canoe, has caused me to forgive you.
What I”m amused about is that the strip sparked this whooole debate/rant about this religion vs. that religion, and virtually NOONE that i can see has commented on the commercialization of crhistmas vs. the observation of a religious holiday. All the stuff about the shopping that starts up after haloween, chirstmas trees, etc…that’s all stuff that was ADDED ON. Hasn’t anyone watched the Charlie Brown Christmas Special lately? While we’re discussing the pros and cons of religion, and one religion vs. the other, let us not forget the OTHER conflict going on…religion vs. the Almighty Dollar. (the dollar is winning)
It’s worth noting that he has a right to call it a stupid religion. Lots of people feel Scientology and Mormonism are stupid religions. Saying you think it is stupid is not saying that you think all Brando-ists are on a crusade to destroy all other religions. I can respect a person that allows one to have a differing opinion. So yea to both. Jedi is a religion in the UK. And yes, as much as I like Star Wars, that’s a stupid religion. The people that need to grow up are Christians and Muslims who overreact to any kind of criticism. Christians believe in free will (unless they’re super-calvinist), so they need to let people practice free will.
I don’t think anyone has really said that he doesn’t have that right. Well, one person said that we don’t have the right to say mean things about him because he has that right so really they’re just kind of stupid.
Im Catholic but I really hate it when Christians think that they’re being persecuted when they still have the right to do everything their religion calls for. It’s not like we’re outlawing the religion.
On another note: Have you ever thought about doing a comic with Batman? Or the Dragonborn?
Meh, im with the jehovahs witnesses on this one, I dont believe christmas is a real christian holiday. The only reason I care about it is that it really makes kids like my nephew happy.
I suppose if I didnt see my family members as often as I do id value it for the chance to be together, but thats not really an issue for me.
Christian btw.
I hope this comic series goes long into that nondescript spacefuture
Explain to me please; why do people need religion? Because the way I see it everyone with even the slightest form of education could see that everything about religion is illogical to the point of absurdity. Take for instance the plagues of Egypt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagues_of_Egypt
How wonderfully atheistic. I need it as it gives me purpose in life. Just because you don’t share my view, shouldn’t mean eradication of religion. Explaining religion to non-believers, is like explaining color to the blind. No matter how much I can tell you, you still won’t see it.
Why do you need to convert people to atheism? Why does it matter to you if someone else believes in religion if they aren’t causing harm?
The only time it should matter is when religion is being used to oppress others. Which is pretty much all the time because humans at the very core are like that, religion or no. It’s used as a tool and if it wasn’t there, humans would find another way.
Not that your point was that religion is bad because people use it as a way to abuse others but that people who believe in it are stupid.
Well, I’m a professional physicist and I don’t see it your way at all. So that knocks out your “everyone” statement for starters.
(I know this is over a year old and he’ll never see the reply, it just bugged me)
I enjoy this comic. I feel that’s really as far as I need to take this comment.
Okies, I’m pretty far at the bottom of this comment thread but I have two things that need to be said:
1. Let’s not pick at each others religions. It’s not “nice” and pretty much every religion has it’s “skeletons in the closet”; meaning they having crazy fundamentalists or have done horrible things in the past. Let’s just get over it and read the comic.
2. Aren’t we all here to read and enjoy the comic? Why have the comment board be place to point fingers and say who is wrong and who is right? Perhaps we can keep the comment threads on topic and discuss the comic content?
Heh. The comment threads are very rarely on topic. This is true for all of the internet. Same with being “nice”. That being said, these discussions have largely been pretty respectful.
I’m a Christian and on another note I find it disgusting how early they start selling Christmas stuff in stores. Whatever your reason for celebrating the holiday is, the stores just view us all as walking piggy banks and play up on the material happiness you can give your loved ones that they have for sale during the winter season. Makes me want to stop giving people gifts! Bah humbuggery.
Yup.
The Internet,still, does not get sarcasm.
Sorry for any headaches that it might have caused, Kelly.
YEESH!
Reading up on the comments cements how “ill advised” my joke was.
You’d think ,me saying my religion is manly would be construed as a joke…
…Its a RELIGION strip in a comic called MANLY GUYS DOING MANLY THINGS.
I feel like tremendous jackass, here.
Goddamn, I’m just happy i didn’t mention where I’m from.
Religion AND politics.
*SHUDDER*
Well you know geeks. Even if they understand the joke, they can’t let it slide if they think they have a better fit for the competition at hand. The competition being which religion is the most manly.
its good to know that people still dont take religion at face value.
why dont we talk about politics? i dont think religion will save us from another economic depression.
ps (my invisible man is better than yours =p)
My dear, I could tell it was Chuck Norris at first glance. His well styled bangs and gorgeous, wavy locks must thrown you lovely people off.
http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwkts5SHkp1r5na5qo1_500.jpg
Both sides have merit, yes christianity has become a designated “ok target” but no, no one is trying to kill the holiday and ruin jesus’ birthday.
At any rate, I am curious if there’s a sub-religion to worshiping Brando Marlon’s grandson, Tuki, maybe as a saint of some sort. As a carrier of the XX chromosome, I will say that I will not mind paying my respects to . :D
Speaking as a semi-devout Christian, I can say from my personal reading, you haven’t shown any a sign of any kind of “anti-Christian sentiment”. In fact, I think if you have any kind of agenda it is an agenda that been a ‘roid ragin’, Dark Age comic anti-hero, “badass” does not equal true manliness.
I may not be a a follower of the Bran-dao, but I can absolutely respect that.
and there i was.
thinking this wouldnt cause a religious debate.
oh how fucking stupid i feel -_-
Heh. I like your viewing of this time of year. I wish people could just be happy that they can freely celebrate as they please with family without feeling threatened by someone saying ‘happy holidays’… I mean seriously wtf… I celebrated the solstice with some friends on the 21st and when I went to visit family and it came up… oh wow did they give me the beat down… sigh…
squid my religion feels SO VERY THREATENED by your comics
okay typing that out made me laugh almost as much as finding out that people were accusing you of anti-Christian sentiments
I honestly wonder sometimes if I just missed catechism classes on the days where they were teaching us to be completely ridiculous, I don’t know where some people get these kinds of ideas about “this, that, and the other thing are anti-Christian! burn!”
I originally wanted to put in my two-cents worth about the whole Christmas and Religion matter in my earlier post but after re-reading, editing, a reply for the good 20 minutes made me realize I’m making too much of a big deal out of it.
The horrible truth is, that there will always be people who will disagree on me on many things. I have the option to either (a) debate it on the comment page and know that the argument will never go anywhere, or (b) let it go and do something more fun to do, like playing Recettear.
Did I miss a memo or something? I’m a practicing Christian that goes to church and I haven’t noticed anything even mildly offensive in these comics? I check the site on Mondays religiously for updates I enjoy the clever writing and adorableness of Commander and his kids so much. Was that a pun? I’m not sure… people are just weird I tell you, put too many in a room and they start picking sides, and then the fat slow kid looks sad because someone picked him last.
Let’s be fair, Commander Badass is my new role model just for these strips.
I honestly think the Commander is one of the greatest heroes that could ever exist. He’s got all the elements of badassery, but he has an equally impressive personality that makes it so nearly everything he says is borderline philosophical.
Commercial take on Christmas =/= Christian take on Christmas
This can be rather great. Which is is there a challenge.
Funny ! proper….
This is the (main) reason why I’ll ALWAYS pick Bruce Campbell over Chuck Norris
These days I leave my anti-religion crusades to things like Dragon Age… where the existence of such things as deities is actually in question (and it is fun to relive old habits).
Realised plenty long ago that a lot of people are wrong about a lot of things. Took me a lot longer to figure out that it isn’t a crime to be wrong… nor to live in a fantasy. A guy who spends as much time on RPG escapism as I do has no business trying to drag people out of their own fantasies.
Besides… I’m a misanthrope. I hate everyone to some extent.
Who the heck is marlon brando?
Get out.
Isn’t it funny how Christians feel totally free to say that X other religion is stupid, yet if you even hint that you feel that way about Christianity, they go NUTS.
To be fair, the malls spend a quarter of the year devoted to Secular Christmas, not Christian Christmas. Secular Christmas is a different holiday that just happens to be on the same date, and is celebrated by a great many people who aren’t christian, as well as a lot who are.
Discordianism FTW
Even it doesn’t know if it’s a real religion!