God in the Comics

[Starthinker]

Just saw BC by Johnny Hart in today's paper. It was one of those dictionary ones:

Science Fiction: Any scientific acclaim that omits God.

Must be nice to have an established audience to preach your beliefs to.

I know, I know, I don't have to read it but you know, you're skimming the comics and glance at all the common ones. Nothing wrong with sharing your beliefs either, I'm just saying that to me it's a dig at science, scientists, athiests, and any scientific paper, right or wrong, that didn't include a supreme being. This must be what a politician or celebrity feels like when they see all the satire and digs in the papers aimed at them.

 

[tsg]

Science Fiction: Any scientific acclaim that omits God.

This crap really annoys me. This is yet another simplistic slogan trying to be clever and give the believers another reason not to have to understand the real issues.

"In the end, even Darwin was convinced." - a bumper sticker with hellfire surrounding "Darwin". Like they know.
"Know Jesus, Know Peace. No Jesus, No Peace." - I won't even comment.
"Don't believe in Jesus? He believes in You." - how cute. If I don't believe in him, I also don't believe he believes in me. So how is that supposed to convince me?

And it's not limited to religion:

"Gun Control is using both hands." - Cute, clever and completely misses the point[1].
"Flush the Johns." - Ah, yes. Because their (Kerry and Edwards) names also mean "toilet" means we shouldn't vote for them. That's an intelligent reason.

If people spent half the time trying to understand these things as they do thinking up stupid slogans, we'd all be much better off.


[1] No, I am not going to argue about gun control. Gun control is about keeping people from being shot. Whether it's the best way to do it is what the argument is about and this cheesy little slogan doesn't address that at all.

 

[Hellbound]

tsg:

"Thoughts Good, Slogans Bad! Thoughts Good, Slogans BAd! Thoughts Good, Slogans Bad! Thoughts..."

 

[MWare]

Every groups got 'em. Even us (have you seen the Got Reason? T-shirts). I agree with tsg that they aren't doing anything to assist or promote healthy discussion, but then again, their point is comedy (regardless of how successful they are). As one who makes thousands of useless quips (entertaining to nobody but me) they don't bother me too much regardless of where I stand on the particular issue.

 

[tsg]

Every groups got 'em. Even us (have you seen the Got Reason? T-shirts). I agree with tsg that they aren't doing anything to assist or promote healthy discussion, but then again, their point is comedy (regardless of how successful they are). As one who makes thousands of useless quips (entertaining to nobody but me) they don't bother me too much regardless of where I stand on the particular issue.

Just to clarify, it's not slogans in general I have a problem with. It's slogans that completely miss the point. "Got Reason," while trite (I'm getting really tired of the whole "Got X?" thing), is at least the point behind the argument (ie. reason and rationality are a Good Thing^tm). The "Science Fiction" comment is saying science is wrong about God when, in fact, it takes no stand whatsoever on God, so how can it be right or wrong?

As far as comedic value, maybe I just don't get it, but I don't find deliberately misstating the issue so you can feel smug and self-righteous as being terribly funny.

 

[Ipecac]

The Bizarro comic from a couple of days ago had a real-looking caveman in a cave speaking to a character from Jonny Hart's BC. The real caveman was saying something to the effect of, "How can you know of this "Jesus" if he isn't even supposed to be born for another 50,000 years?"

I enjoyed it.