I was going to add to the joke… but then I thought of this ridiculous snowmobile arcade game that was on the ferry the last time I took it (I was going to PAX). It vibrated so hard that it shook the floor for 6 feet in every direction.
I bought a game and convinced my buddy’s girlfriend to pay it. Then I asked for an evaluation – for science!
It’s like the question “what is a good knife?” A good knife is a knife that is proficient at being a knife. So a good crack whore is a proficient crack whore, maybe an excellent crack whore. Either way, she deserves a star.
It’s not even Joyce, really; quite a lot of theists avoid realizing that “all goes according to God’s plan” mean “God is the one who is deliberately putting me through this crap. While he watches. Possibly while laughing and munching popcorn.”
And yeah, yeah, the good things are God’s fault, the bad things are our own fault. Heard it all before.
That’s not what it means. God is allowing the bad things to happen, sometimes for no real discernible reason (to us) at the time. I’ve gone through some crazy stuff that had me wondering how on earth I could consider it part of God’s plan (things that were not my fault), and then I realized everything I’d learned through the experience put me in a place to sympathize with others and to offer valuable advice. God does not relish your suffering. God uses it like a crucible. If He did enjoy it, then why would He send His Son to die to save us? Why, throughout Scripture, are both Father and Son described as being moved by suffering?
– The main difference between allowing an act and perpetrating that act is the difference in awareness and effort – nobody is impressed by Parker’s decision not to stop the thief in the first spider-man movie, since he knew about the problem and could have easily stopped it. God is omniscient and omnipotent, so to him allowing something to happen is *exactly* the same as actively causing it, particularly from a moral perspective.
– Quite a lot of hardship does not teach lessons. In fact, it’s been known to actually kill the victim, particularly when the hardship is fatal. Like, Pompeii. I’m sure those people learned *lots*.
– Jesus’s death saved us how, exactly? I’ve heard it described as a sacrifice, which raises the question of who accepted the sacrifice, and why did Jesus’s execution alter their behavior? Typically it’s claimed that God’s the one who will be personally handling our ‘judgement’ – why does an unrelated party getting casually killed put God in a merciful mood? Or does some bloodthirsty demon have the real decision-making power? (Not that the bible rules out the possibility that God is itself bloodthirsty – quite the opposite.) And no, ‘scapegoat’ sacrifies aren’t even slightly just; if we deserve punisment, inncents getting slaughtered doesn’t change that fact. Blood sacrifies logically cannot be about justice; they are about blood and the monsters that like it.
– God is only sporadically described as being moved by suffering. Far, far more often he’s described as dishing it out – a quick google turned up cited references to 2,552,452 killings by him – and that’s NOT counting cases where numbers aren’t given, like the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, the firstborn Egyptian children, etc. That’s just the ones where actual kill numbers are given. (Chronicles includes some impressive slaughters.) Presuming that the descriptions of God’s emotions aren’t just wishful thinking on the part of the writers (which is fair enough; I’m accepting their kill numbers after all), I find myself viewing God’s sympathy the same way I do the ‘love’ of an abusive father, only moreso.
So yeah. I’m thinking that describing God being a massive fan of schadenfreude is an extremely generous interpretation. The ‘good book’ more suggests a rage-filled psychotic serial-killing tyrant. Who had his own son killed just to watch him bleed.
Let me answer this with sex. Because sex, like God, is awesome.
Imagine–for a second–having sex with _insertsexperthere_. You would likely have to work out, a lot, before being fit for sex with said person. There is a reason people work out. A lot of it is attraction or being-fit-for-reproduction-driven. That’s some serious self-inflicted suffering there. Your muscles are probably like WHAT THE HELL MEN WHY ALL THIS LACTIC ACID WHY YOU HATE ME BRAIN GOD WHY
And you’re all like, “no, muscles, I’m preparing us for awesome banging times with __insertname_.”
And when you finally are capable of handling _insertname_, you will be buff. You will be strong. You will have stamina like no one else. And you will feel helluva good.
Are you following this metaphor? It’s crudely strange, I know. So was Paul (told some dude to castrate himself–oh, and God TOTALLY moons Moses in the original Hebrew).
God’s like the brain. We are like the muscles. And sometimes we’re put through some really awful times–times we can’t even imagine have any good purpose. That’s because we’re limited. We don’t have omniscience. Your point about omniscience is very good, but overlooks that YOU don’t have omniscience. You don’t know the end of the story. And you don’t know that it’s frikkin awesome, and to get there you have to be prepared. Yeah, the cost is high. The cost is enormously high, higher than anyone can ever imagine, and I think Paul and James in the NT make it clear that sometimes God makes those he loves suffer more than others. Just like a martial arts master gives his best student harder, more intense classes than anyone else. Yeah, it’s an awful cost. Yeah, God is really, really dark. But until you know the value–the worth–of the thing you’re paying for, you will never be able to understand that cost.
God is nothing like a martial arts master. People choose to learn martial arts. People enter into an agreement with a martial arts master and pay them to teach them until the contract has been fulfilled. It’s a consensual relationship. God just does mean crap to you without your permission. You don’t approach God and ask him to teach you to be a better person. He gives you cancer without asking. He orphans you without asking. He puts you on a doomed airplane flight without asking. He causes your mom to miscarry you as a fertilized embryo before she even knew you existed without asking.
Martial arts masters don’t show up at your doorstep unsolicited and start punching you in the face. And if they did, when they get in trouble and face a judge, I don’t think “I was just preparing this random stranger for later hardship” will cut it. Why? Because that’s insane.
You know what else is insane? Telling me “it’s worth it.” Because the only alternative to being insane is that you’re stupid or a liar. You can’t possibly know. You don’t have first-hand information. You’ve been told things by other people, other people who also couldn’t possibly know, and that’s the extent of your knowledge. You’re not competent to tell me “it’s worth it.” You don’t know the value. You’ve been told the value. And so I hope that you’re insane, because the other alternatives are you’ve been duped or you’re a jerk.
God’s also not like a brain or sex, because brains and sex demonstrably exist.
It tends to make much more sense if you believe, as I do, that we gave God permission before we came to this life and, in fact, that is precisely the reason we’re here. Not trying to convince you, just letting you know that there’s an explanation that isn’t just “God is the biggest jerk in existence”, if you’re willing to accept the premise that we existed before we were born on Earth.
I’m personally really glad at how maturely Ethan’s dealing with all this. Not pitching a fit or being all offended and stuff. Just…dealing with it and likely to have a well thought out and calm discussion with Joyce afterward on anything he may (and likely will) have issue with.
And I thought he meant another Eastern Orthodox Church, the Greek Orthodox Church. In my defense, I live in Germany, so I can hardly know every single Christian church, sect etc. in America.
Is Mike in church for future inventments with Joyce’s mom or for trying to pay off a tab owed to Joyce’s mom for an unfortunate lack of nickles? ‘Cause you know, who carries and abundant supply of nickles to make change nowadays?
Damn it, Angry Crotch is obscured by a word bubble.
I loved Angry Crotch. Go view the wordless Panel 2. You’ll rejoice in finding our one true master, Angry Crotch.
For the record, this is the first time he’s said it in comic, but he’s said it a good number of times in his character twitter account, which IS this universe.
The complete first verse to that song goes, “Oh God! You are my God! You reign from heaven above with wisdom, power, and love. Oh God, you’re an awesome God.” I know these things because I was in a Christian private school until age 12.
“step by step”
Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
I will seek You in the morning
And I will learn to walk in Your ways
And step by step You’ll lead me
And I will follow You all of my days
{Repeat}
And step by step You’ll lead me
And I will follow You all of my days
Really? It wasn’t the dogma, or the internal inconsistencies, or the outdated morals? You switched to atheism just because there are a few nutty religious folks?
You do know that atheists can be just as deluded and righteous, right?
Really?
Because it’s people like Joyce that give me, as an atheist, some respect for organized religion.
She’s a genuinely good person. When she comes across something that clashes with what she’s learned about the world, she might be shocked at first, but she generally does try to understand and accept differences. What’s the craziest thing she’s done so far? Ask an atheist to attend one service with her?
The Joyces of the world are not the ones we have to worry about.
The craziest thing Joyce has done so far is try to beat the shit out of somebody in a furious rage for ogling another woman. Unless you consider the fact that she hired somebody to punch oglers while in a calm state of mind to be crazier, that is.
Joyce has a very admirable attitude to certain kinds of non-her-religion people and behavior, but her acceptance is not universal.
Also, a person being nice and a person being nuts are not mutually exclusive. I’ve met many nice and…well, somewhat accepting people, whose blind faith and the tortured logic they used to support it convinced me of the error of their beliefs regardless of their personal politeness.
Not wanting to interfere with god’s plan was apparently part of the reason mother Teresa opposed to things like community micro-start up loans. Those people were supposed to be poor, you see.
Not wanting to interfere with God’s plan is why I try to act like a complete dick. Because I act that way, it must be how God wants me to act, and I wouldn’t want to go against God’s will, would I?
What hate? I see people joking about characters and making puns, like always. There hasn’t even been much in the way of religious discussion. Seems pretty calm here to be throwing the word hate around.
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I’ve never been happier to see Mike.
Now THAT made me joyous
and Joyce so far less joyous.
And her mom more joyous
OH so joyous!
See, she needed that nickel…
She assumes correctly, however.
In the FAAAAAAAAAAAAACE? For a nickel?
I have. I was extremely happy to see him in Walky and Dorothy’s class.
Always figured Mike would burst into flames if he entered a church. Or the church would.
Your mom burst into flames when Mike entered her….for a nickel.
Wow, that one took some serious skill. Well played.
About as much skill as Mike has to be getting so much tail for nickles on the booty.
Nickels on the booty is like pounds on the dollar.
Or reserving your place in line – like quarters lined up on an arcade machine. Except you’re not haveing sex with the arcade machine.
At least, I never did – it would give a whole new meaning to earning an extra ball…
I was going to add to the joke… but then I thought of this ridiculous snowmobile arcade game that was on the ferry the last time I took it (I was going to PAX). It vibrated so hard that it shook the floor for 6 feet in every direction.
I bought a game and convinced my buddy’s girlfriend to pay it. Then I asked for an evaluation – for science!
Nickels on the Booty is a bongoin’ band name…
Nickels on the Booty would make a great band name…
I’d pay money to see that… but only a nickel.
Well played!
What would happen if you saw that show, and the opening act was Nickelback?
Yet pounds on the booty is not a thing?
Fivepence on the booty?
Oh, it’s a thing.
Wait…you mean currency. Nevermind.
Gasoline is too expensive for him to make that happen.
It’s probably a baptist church.
Actually if you look at the church from outside it has begun smoldering.
Mike tends to do the opposite of what you want.
God must have paid him two nickels not too.
I figured he would be shot on sight. By the legion of church snipers.
The Iscariot always tries to ruin his plans.
In another universe, Mike is just the fairy who gives you a nickel whenever you say, “Boy, if I had a nickel for every time _______.”
Then my alternate counterpart must’ve been rich in that universe.
We’re all rich in that universe. Got enough nickels to shake a pickle at.
If I had a nickel for every time I shook a pickle at my pile of
nickels… infinite nickles 0.0
as opposed to Mike shaking his pickle for a nickle?
But we still wouldn’t have as many nickels as Samsung sent to Apple HQ.
Just one nickel, or the requisite number of nickels?
Boobs
dammit willis you’re making me straight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlg7ywvn9V8
Mike always have the last word on everything.
For a nickel.
“Zyzzyva” is the last word in my dictionary. Some kind of tropical American weevil. Does Mike have a hoard of zyzzyvas?! Protect the crops!
Mike is here to spike the holy water. With your mom.
Or just outright replace it with vodka.
Pretty sure that would get Billie to start attending.
Mike and alcohol don’t mix…and not for the reason you would immediately think.
Mike + Alcohol = Fire
Mike + Alcohol = Creepy
“I’m sorry in advance for caving in your skull later while you sleep peacefully in your bed. I’ll be sober then, you see.”
No no no … its even worse ….. Mike + Alcohol = “Nice Guy”
Based on the comments, I’m actually wondering how many other people on here read shortpacked as well…
Joyce is learning well. XD
I hate to agree with Mike…but Joyce would make a TERRIBLE crack whore.
Yes, but in another reality I wonder how she’d do as a phone sex operator.
Like a missionary, I guess?
“She just kept screaming ‘premarital hanky panky’. I was about to fire her when we started getting requests.”
there is a fetish for everything XD
Holy crap, I wish I could rate comments…
I so know what you mean.
On every page there is atleast one comment that deserves, at the very least, a thumbs up
To be fair, is there really such a thing as a “good” crack whore?
A dead one, of course. That and a reformed one.
It’s like the question “what is a good knife?” A good knife is a knife that is proficient at being a knife. So a good crack whore is a proficient crack whore, maybe an excellent crack whore. Either way, she deserves a star.
One that… uh… really enjoys her work? A ‘crack artist’, if you will?
That would definitively be a … Deviant Art.
*ba-dum tish*
Actually, a good knife is a fish knife. Tool of the hungry civilised gentleman.
And it’s evil twin is the hunting knife, the tool of the starving uncivilised redneck
She’d be the one hanging up embroidered signs saying “It’s not a crackhouse, it’s a crack HOME”.
Finally someone burned Joyce.
I feel like burning Joyce is not a difficult task and am positive it has been done several times within the course of this comic.
You know what would burn Joyce? These jalapeno poppers.
http://www.wonderwigandalfredoboy.com/?p=302
You gave us the recipe. This is amazing.
Now you may go forth and munchify.
I wasn’t aware she was a witch.
She turned Joe into a newt!
Joe got better.
But if he takes another bite, will he explode?
He got better!!!
But is he an individual?
Well, he’s definitely not the Messiah. (He’s a very naughty boy!)
NI!
He must cut down the mightiest tree in the forest. With a herring.
Took me a second to understand what Mike was saying.
I love the character interactions in these comics so much.
Next time on Dumbing of Age. *Flashback* Mike pays Joyce’s mom a nickel to drive him to church.
Somehow, with today being so depressing for me and my whole life seeming downhill, panel two felt like someone pissing in my face.
Sorry to hear it, man. I’m sure Joyce didn’t mean it.
It’s not even Joyce, really; quite a lot of theists avoid realizing that “all goes according to God’s plan” mean “God is the one who is deliberately putting me through this crap. While he watches. Possibly while laughing and munching popcorn.”
And yeah, yeah, the good things are God’s fault, the bad things are our own fault. Heard it all before.
That’s not what it means. God is allowing the bad things to happen, sometimes for no real discernible reason (to us) at the time. I’ve gone through some crazy stuff that had me wondering how on earth I could consider it part of God’s plan (things that were not my fault), and then I realized everything I’d learned through the experience put me in a place to sympathize with others and to offer valuable advice. God does not relish your suffering. God uses it like a crucible. If He did enjoy it, then why would He send His Son to die to save us? Why, throughout Scripture, are both Father and Son described as being moved by suffering?
I’ll do this as bullet points.
– The main difference between allowing an act and perpetrating that act is the difference in awareness and effort – nobody is impressed by Parker’s decision not to stop the thief in the first spider-man movie, since he knew about the problem and could have easily stopped it. God is omniscient and omnipotent, so to him allowing something to happen is *exactly* the same as actively causing it, particularly from a moral perspective.
– Quite a lot of hardship does not teach lessons. In fact, it’s been known to actually kill the victim, particularly when the hardship is fatal. Like, Pompeii. I’m sure those people learned *lots*.
– Jesus’s death saved us how, exactly? I’ve heard it described as a sacrifice, which raises the question of who accepted the sacrifice, and why did Jesus’s execution alter their behavior? Typically it’s claimed that God’s the one who will be personally handling our ‘judgement’ – why does an unrelated party getting casually killed put God in a merciful mood? Or does some bloodthirsty demon have the real decision-making power? (Not that the bible rules out the possibility that God is itself bloodthirsty – quite the opposite.) And no, ‘scapegoat’ sacrifies aren’t even slightly just; if we deserve punisment, inncents getting slaughtered doesn’t change that fact. Blood sacrifies logically cannot be about justice; they are about blood and the monsters that like it.
– God is only sporadically described as being moved by suffering. Far, far more often he’s described as dishing it out – a quick google turned up cited references to 2,552,452 killings by him – and that’s NOT counting cases where numbers aren’t given, like the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, the firstborn Egyptian children, etc. That’s just the ones where actual kill numbers are given. (Chronicles includes some impressive slaughters.) Presuming that the descriptions of God’s emotions aren’t just wishful thinking on the part of the writers (which is fair enough; I’m accepting their kill numbers after all), I find myself viewing God’s sympathy the same way I do the ‘love’ of an abusive father, only moreso.
So yeah. I’m thinking that describing God being a massive fan of schadenfreude is an extremely generous interpretation. The ‘good book’ more suggests a rage-filled psychotic serial-killing tyrant. Who had his own son killed just to watch him bleed.
Let me answer this with sex. Because sex, like God, is awesome.
Imagine–for a second–having sex with _insertsexperthere_. You would likely have to work out, a lot, before being fit for sex with said person. There is a reason people work out. A lot of it is attraction or being-fit-for-reproduction-driven. That’s some serious self-inflicted suffering there. Your muscles are probably like WHAT THE HELL MEN WHY ALL THIS LACTIC ACID WHY YOU HATE ME BRAIN GOD WHY
And you’re all like, “no, muscles, I’m preparing us for awesome banging times with __insertname_.”
And when you finally are capable of handling _insertname_, you will be buff. You will be strong. You will have stamina like no one else. And you will feel helluva good.
Are you following this metaphor? It’s crudely strange, I know. So was Paul (told some dude to castrate himself–oh, and God TOTALLY moons Moses in the original Hebrew).
God’s like the brain. We are like the muscles. And sometimes we’re put through some really awful times–times we can’t even imagine have any good purpose. That’s because we’re limited. We don’t have omniscience. Your point about omniscience is very good, but overlooks that YOU don’t have omniscience. You don’t know the end of the story. And you don’t know that it’s frikkin awesome, and to get there you have to be prepared. Yeah, the cost is high. The cost is enormously high, higher than anyone can ever imagine, and I think Paul and James in the NT make it clear that sometimes God makes those he loves suffer more than others. Just like a martial arts master gives his best student harder, more intense classes than anyone else. Yeah, it’s an awful cost. Yeah, God is really, really dark. But until you know the value–the worth–of the thing you’re paying for, you will never be able to understand that cost.
Lemme tell you, it’s worth it.
God is nothing like a martial arts master. People choose to learn martial arts. People enter into an agreement with a martial arts master and pay them to teach them until the contract has been fulfilled. It’s a consensual relationship. God just does mean crap to you without your permission. You don’t approach God and ask him to teach you to be a better person. He gives you cancer without asking. He orphans you without asking. He puts you on a doomed airplane flight without asking. He causes your mom to miscarry you as a fertilized embryo before she even knew you existed without asking.
Martial arts masters don’t show up at your doorstep unsolicited and start punching you in the face. And if they did, when they get in trouble and face a judge, I don’t think “I was just preparing this random stranger for later hardship” will cut it. Why? Because that’s insane.
You know what else is insane? Telling me “it’s worth it.” Because the only alternative to being insane is that you’re stupid or a liar. You can’t possibly know. You don’t have first-hand information. You’ve been told things by other people, other people who also couldn’t possibly know, and that’s the extent of your knowledge. You’re not competent to tell me “it’s worth it.” You don’t know the value. You’ve been told the value. And so I hope that you’re insane, because the other alternatives are you’ve been duped or you’re a jerk.
God’s also not like a brain or sex, because brains and sex demonstrably exist.
It tends to make much more sense if you believe, as I do, that we gave God permission before we came to this life and, in fact, that is precisely the reason we’re here. Not trying to convince you, just letting you know that there’s an explanation that isn’t just “God is the biggest jerk in existence”, if you’re willing to accept the premise that we existed before we were born on Earth.
As a theist, I always gave credit for good and bad events to pure chaotic happenstance
A reasonable explanation for Mike’s presence is that he is chaperoning for Joyce again, and will hit her date if he has an naughty thoughts.
Thankfully, Ethan is in the clear.
*any naughty thoughts. Maybe I will learn to proofread one day.
Hey, didn’t specify who the naughty thoughts had to be about.
*POW*.
“Mike, why did you punch Ethan?”
“He looked at me.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I hope I’m there when you figure it out.”
I’m personally really glad at how maturely Ethan’s dealing with all this. Not pitching a fit or being all offended and stuff. Just…dealing with it and likely to have a well thought out and calm discussion with Joyce afterward on anything he may (and likely will) have issue with.
I suspect Ethan will do anything and everything to avoid having that conversation with Joyce, which is not even slightly mature.
(I know this because I’m exactly like Ethan in that respect)
Joyce may not be judging Ethan’s book by its cover, but she could at least take a hint by what section of the bookshop she got it from.
I… I’m not sure what this metaphor means.
It means you like books.
That’s okay, so do I.
Maybe she didn’t understand the Dewey Decimal System.
Decimals make her dewey? Whodathunkit?
0.5
Has Joyce ever encountered the Eastern Orthodox Church?
Is there something special about it?
It’s in Ohio.
So…nothing special?
I love Ohio. Just had to put it out there since someone had to bad mouth it. 😉
And I thought he meant another Eastern Orthodox Church, the Greek Orthodox Church. In my defense, I live in Germany, so I can hardly know every single Christian church, sect etc. in America.
But was is so special about the one in Ohio?
It’s the same one.
Greek Orthodox in Ohio?
…Ohio is east of Indiana.
…
IT WAS A JOKE.
I love you Mike.
For someone who loves God and church so much, Joyce sure is being disrespectful by talking during the service!
Everyone else is talking too; they’re just being more melodious about it. (Well, in theory.)
Hey, I know this song.
I would have thought that Joyce would know better than to take Mike to church.
Not that I’m complaining, mind you.
Mike came on his own, which is more than he can say for your mom last night.
Luckily she groaned in advance for this pun otherwise he’d have to pay another nickel.
Best DoA comic? I think so
I’ll bet he’s there to out Ethan in front of Joyce.
Calling it.
Is Mike in church for future inventments with Joyce’s mom or for trying to pay off a tab owed to Joyce’s mom for an unfortunate lack of nickles? ‘Cause you know, who carries and abundant supply of nickles to make change nowadays?
Change artists.
Damn it, Angry Crotch is obscured by a word bubble.
I loved Angry Crotch. Go view the wordless Panel 2. You’ll rejoice in finding our one true master, Angry Crotch.
Its only been 2 weeks, but she already knows Mike so well… Bravo Joyce. Bravo
“Part of David Willis’ long game. David Willis has a plan for me”
Fixed it for you, Joyce.
Yeah, the meta-context is thick and chewy right here.
It’s all he could do…
But is it the best he could do? With no regrets?
COULD HE DO LESS?
Wait the Best he could do?
…DINAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! [cries]
correct me if I’m wrong. but this seems like the first time Mike has said for a nickle in this universe.
could someone check. I don’t feel like scouring archives right now. I’ve got too many other archives to scour already
He still hasn’t said that.
I still don’t think ‘nickle’ is a word in English.
For the record, this is the first time he’s said it in comic, but he’s said it a good number of times in his character twitter account, which IS this universe.
Actually said it sure… he has made that joke at least once in writing though… here
I only know that mind you because Willis linked to the scene by the fountain a couple pages later from the Roomies rerelease.
Where did he come from?
New York City? I forget
“Oh, God! You are my God!” isn’t a hymn I’m acquainted with, I must admit. It does seem familiar, though.
“God, you’re my god, and I love you man!”
“Oh my God, it’s GOD!”
The complete first verse to that song goes, “Oh God! You are my God! You reign from heaven above with wisdom, power, and love. Oh God, you’re an awesome God.” I know these things because I was in a Christian private school until age 12.
“step by step”
Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
I will seek You in the morning
And I will learn to walk in Your ways
And step by step You’ll lead me
And I will follow You all of my days
{Repeat}
And step by step You’ll lead me
And I will follow You all of my days
Thanks. Lucy. I think I’ve heard it before, but I wasn’t sure, and Willis isn’t above monkeying with things.
Too bad it isn’t the Baaaptist’s ‘Doxology.’ I’d’ve been all over that. Or, ‘Just as I am.’ We tended to spin that number fairly often, too.
This church needs more Whoopi Goldberg as a nun. 🙂
Thatnks to all the Joyces in public school and college, who convinced me through their batshittery, how valid a precept my Atheism was.
Really? It wasn’t the dogma, or the internal inconsistencies, or the outdated morals? You switched to atheism just because there are a few nutty religious folks?
You do know that atheists can be just as deluded and righteous, right?
I agree with Wack’d. There are batshit crazy people everywhere; that’s hardly enough reason to give or take an entire worldview.
Personally I continue to be atheistic because theism doesn’t make sense.
To be fair to sandbridgekid</b?, batshittery is a warning sign that what the person is talking about might not make sense.
Personally I found the most valid reason for Atheism was actually reading the Bible.
Agreed.
Also, your icon is perfect for this comment.
Really?
Because it’s people like Joyce that give me, as an atheist, some respect for organized religion.
She’s a genuinely good person. When she comes across something that clashes with what she’s learned about the world, she might be shocked at first, but she generally does try to understand and accept differences. What’s the craziest thing she’s done so far? Ask an atheist to attend one service with her?
The Joyces of the world are not the ones we have to worry about.
Thank you good sir, for reminding me there is some good in this world.
*slow clap*
The craziest thing Joyce has done so far is try to beat the shit out of somebody in a furious rage for ogling another woman. Unless you consider the fact that she hired somebody to punch oglers while in a calm state of mind to be crazier, that is.
Joyce has a very admirable attitude to certain kinds of non-her-religion people and behavior, but her acceptance is not universal.
Also, a person being nice and a person being nuts are not mutually exclusive. I’ve met many nice and…well, somewhat accepting people, whose blind faith and the tortured logic they used to support it convinced me of the error of their beliefs regardless of their personal politeness.
Who else flashed back to Moral Orel on panel 2?
No, Mike… she’s going to find a career in phone sex. Don’t you read Something Positive?
No, because Mike ha actually good taste in webcomics.
Or he has more fun being an asshole than reading about ones.
I can’t get over Ethan’s deer-in-the-headlights look through this entire strip. He’s so O.O
Roflmao
Not wanting to interfere with god’s plan was apparently part of the reason mother Teresa opposed to things like community micro-start up loans. Those people were supposed to be poor, you see.
Not wanting to interfere with God’s plan is why I try to act like a complete dick. Because I act that way, it must be how God wants me to act, and I wouldn’t want to go against God’s will, would I?
Ha! Called it!
I KNEW Mike would move onto Ethan after screwing with Walky!
(Reads other comments.)
Wow.
Lots of hate on the posts today.
Well, have fun with all that.
I’m out’ta here.
What hate? I see people joking about characters and making puns, like always. There hasn’t even been much in the way of religious discussion. Seems pretty calm here to be throwing the word hate around.
Enjoy your blood waters!
I really like the artwork in this strip!
Great job on the overhead view. 🙂
I like to think that Willis being forced to relive his old artwork is making him push himself to be as much better than that as possible.
So… no one’s shipping Mike and Sierra yet?
Mike/Joe/Ethan OT3
Mike raises a valid point here!
Mike raised a valid point with your mom.
Mike raises a valid point with everyone’s mom. Why else would her change jar have so many nickels?
Ok, that’s a Rich Mullin’s song. Well played. He and Steve Green are two of the best things to come out of the Christian music scene.
I’ll but your mom a nickel Mike will then say “A woman will not be tolerated to speak in chuch” and punch Joyce.
I’ll but your mom a nickel Mike will then say “A woman will not be tolerated to speak in church” and punch Joyce.
Banks have nickles in 2 dollar rolls… so that is 40 moms for two dollars. Nice Mike.
I’m always tempted to change the lyrics to nonsense. One of my female friends expected me to be struck by lightning.
Man, fuck Mike.
In the last panel, Joyce reminds me of Starfire from the Teen Titans cartoon.
I can actually here it in Starfire’s voice!