Your misery at the lack of a [Like] button is absolutely scrumptious.
Devin
Then you must be absolutely living off of my misery, because I feel this every dang day.
Demoted Oblivious
It was a morsel, tasty and short and laced with comedic cyanide. The rest of the time I don’t enjoy other’s misery unless they’re known assholes who are reaping their just desserts. So unfortunately I can’t reassure you that your suffering is as fulfilling. I can let you know that you aren’t suffering in silence however, as you have been heard. I acknowledge your statement of despair in this absurd existence and respond in kind. Only my like button does not express me liking, but rather I’d prefer it to _create_ like of myself, so thatmaybe I could have a single moment that would allow me to escape the meaningless futility of breathing.
I feel like dinosaurs just wouldn’t come up a lot in biology class unless you were doing a paleontology course. Even if the lesson was on evolution, the classic examples are things like Darwin’s finches because they were observable.
Because a harsh verbal lashing is always effective.
Rabid Rabbit
Honestly, Sarah’s current reaction might work even better. Completely failing to *care* about their shtick, but not in an annoyed way. I mean, Sarah’s always claimed not to care about things, but now she’s doing it to Booster and not even being grumpy about it.
I mean, seriously, Booster, if she’s happy, why are you trying to fix the -way- in which she’s happy? It’s fine for her to just be happy for whatever reason, you know?
Zerodime
With the soft exception of that Sarah might try to make herself happy by making other people miserable.
You see the problem in being happy by seeing/making other people miserable?
Sunny
She didn’t make anyone miserable, though. They already were or decided to be of their own volition.
FacelessDeviant
Turning at analysis on Booster might work though.
“Why do you feel the need to analyze other peoples behavior, is it a way to externalize your own problems?”
Hm. . . I feel like Joyce wouldn’t suffer as much from Science class from this point. She’s grown quite a bit from the time that she might have imploded.
That aside. . . Religious Scientists *are* a thing and despite what some may think. . .that’s not in any way a contradiction of thought or values.
Still it’s interesting to see if this whole thing will be gone into or not.
I mean… Joyce doesn’t seem like the religious scientist type, at least she didn’t last summer. She didn’t react well to Sarah’s gotcha about the flu vaccine, or the contradictions implied by the reality of evolution. But that was last semester and it seemed to be pulling her worldview apart, so maybe you’re right and she’s somewhat past it now.
Sarah knows Joyce is an atheist. Sarah also knows that Joyce isn’t entirely comfortable with her atheism yet, and that she used to be a dedicated creationist in a way Becky, for example, never was. The next hour of Joyce’s life is sure to be interesting
Amanda Kettell
I’m pretty sure Sarah’s the first (only?) person in the comic to have actually explicitly called Joyce an atheist.
Needfuldoer
She’s also the only other person we know Joyce has confided that in so far.
Agemegos
Sarah knows that Joyce is an atheist. And also knows better than to out her as one before she comes out os her own accord. There would be social repercussions to Joyce from being out, and only she ought to decide whether she face them.
But it’s not just the god thing – I cannot stress how much the age of the earth caused problems theologically, and still does. Geologists were heretics, when they started calculating the age of the earth.
It’s mindboggling old. Even things like, how old are we as a species? Mindboggling old *and* unbelievably young, at the same time. Horseshoe crabs have been around for over 400 million years! Humans have been around for maybe 200,000! 300,000 tops! And we only really know about the last 10,000 years!
First of all, Joyce is actually an atheist now, and she’s said she’s going to embrace empirical evidence.
Second of all, religious thought contradictory to scientific thought at the very least in the epistemological sense. Science knows what it does and doesn’t know based on evidence, and knows what needs further investigation (if science really did know everything, it would stop). Religion, on the other hand, involves assumed knowledge about what is ultimately unknowable (an afterlife, the true nature of existence, etc).
Be it belief in heaven, nirvana, reincarnation, simulation theory, the grand hallucination, etc, none of these so called “explanations” of what we call existence can be falsified through experiment, and are all open to ad hoc justification.
Will we get another red-background Horrified Joyce Face when she finally gets her head around the idea of Deep Time*?
* That not only that the Earth is not less than 10,000 years old, but that 10,000 years is an insignificant speck compared to the billions of year the universe has existed.
There is definitely disagreement between pure science and fundamentalist religious doctrune. That said, life is full of contradictions and chaotically unstable situations, and we’re all getting along like a dumpster on fire, so maybe it’s ok.
Now just how could science class do that? I though Joyce was an atheist now. Oh wait. Sarah doesn’t know that yet, does she? This could get interesting…
Definitely. People are talking as if becoming an atheist immediately frees you from all the interlinked patterns of thought and unexamined assumptions that have been The Truth up till now.
She’s still going to be finding philosophical logs to trip over for quite a while yet, and experiencing a considerable amount of stress and distress.
Pilgrim
Which is why so many people ditch one religion just to fall into another or a so-called philosophy that is a religion in all but name. The belief in the dogma is gone but their need to believe remains.
Many US universities have generalized intro science classes. In part they have them because of the huge variability in quality of primary and secondary science education in the US. Quite a lot instead just shove that stuff into the first term of every graduation requirement science course for non-science majors (Phys 101 and Chem 101 courses for example).
The Geology 101 class I took in the waybackwhen included fundamental instruction on the Scientific Method because High Schools rarely imprint that on their inmates. (kinda like how many people were taking 098 Algebra or Geometry because guess what else doesn’t get taught very well? “It’s Connected!”) given that our society has decided public schools are babysitting services and ‘no child left behind’ has given us three generational cadres so far of people who can’t think beyond what’s pushed at them through their favored media??
yeah, for an institution where you have to PAY to LEARN, it’s a good idea to have some fundamental, basic subjects so your public school products can actually start learning what they’re there to learn-usually starting sometime in the sophomore year.
Does the tower hold the 8th largest bell, or is the tower itself 8th largest, or both?
Delicious Taffy
The tower is 165ft tall, and the biggest bell is about 11,000 pounds. I’m not sure how the bell itself ranks, but when the tower was built in ’83, it was actually the sixth-largest and was still reported at that ranking at least until 2010. So I guess two people wanted theirs bigger in the past decade.
Discussion (219) - “Giddy”
Ana Chronistic
“YOU CAN’T TRAMPLE ON MY SCHADENFREUDE”
Kaidah
Comments like this make me wish there was a like button.
Demoted Oblivious
Your misery at the lack of a [Like] button is absolutely scrumptious.
Devin
Then you must be absolutely living off of my misery, because I feel this every dang day.
Demoted Oblivious
It was a morsel, tasty and short and laced with comedic cyanide. The rest of the time I don’t enjoy other’s misery unless they’re known assholes who are reaping their just desserts. So unfortunately I can’t reassure you that your suffering is as fulfilling. I can let you know that you aren’t suffering in silence however, as you have been heard. I acknowledge your statement of despair in this absurd existence and respond in kind. Only my like button does not express me liking, but rather I’d prefer it to _create_ like of myself, so thatmaybe I could have a single moment that would allow me to escape the meaningless futility of breathing.
Somsphet
You are just making me hungrier….
Proto_Eevee
If this isn’t proof enough for Dina, I don’t know what is
Demoted Oblivious
Dina is fully aware that correlation doesn’t imply causation.
“but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing ‘look over there’.” –Randall Munroe
Suet
A combination so vile.
It bstter not be about evolution and/or dinosaurs.
Thag Simmons
I mean I think that’s the implication. I don’t think you get the same sort of clash between a fundamentalist worldview and say, a chemistry class
Pilgrim
Chemistry is a lot easier when your periodic table only has four elements
Alaric
There could be some problems in an astronomy class, though.
Nono
I feel like dinosaurs just wouldn’t come up a lot in biology class unless you were doing a paleontology course. Even if the lesson was on evolution, the classic examples are things like Darwin’s finches because they were observable.
Stanistani
“Over time, viruses adapt to their hosts and become less lethal.”
Linda
Nobody asked you, Booster.
Thag Simmons
Ain’t gonna stop ’em
Kyrik Michalowski
Duct tape might help with stopping them.
Blindness
so would a harsh verbal lashing, Booster neds it
Clif
Because a harsh verbal lashing is always effective.
Rabid Rabbit
Honestly, Sarah’s current reaction might work even better. Completely failing to *care* about their shtick, but not in an annoyed way. I mean, Sarah’s always claimed not to care about things, but now she’s doing it to Booster and not even being grumpy about it.
I mean, seriously, Booster, if she’s happy, why are you trying to fix the -way- in which she’s happy? It’s fine for her to just be happy for whatever reason, you know?
Zerodime
With the soft exception of that Sarah might try to make herself happy by making other people miserable.
You see the problem in being happy by seeing/making other people miserable?
Sunny
She didn’t make anyone miserable, though. They already were or decided to be of their own volition.
FacelessDeviant
Turning at analysis on Booster might work though.
“Why do you feel the need to analyze other peoples behavior, is it a way to externalize your own problems?”
misanthropope
psychology: the study of lesser minds
William Leonard Reese Jr.
Hm. . . I feel like Joyce wouldn’t suffer as much from Science class from this point. She’s grown quite a bit from the time that she might have imploded.
That aside. . . Religious Scientists *are* a thing and despite what some may think. . .that’s not in any way a contradiction of thought or values.
Still it’s interesting to see if this whole thing will be gone into or not.
Linda
I mean… Joyce doesn’t seem like the religious scientist type, at least she didn’t last summer. She didn’t react well to Sarah’s gotcha about the flu vaccine, or the contradictions implied by the reality of evolution. But that was last semester and it seemed to be pulling her worldview apart, so maybe you’re right and she’s somewhat past it now.
Linda
Last semester, I meant.
timemonkey
She still gets to be upset as she realizes how much crap science she was fed as a child.
aelfwine
Joyce is an atheist, so I don’t know what Sarah is even talking about now.
Wagstaff
Oh, you may know that. But Sarah sure doesn’t!
RacingTurtle
Sarah knows Joyce is an atheist. Sarah also knows that Joyce isn’t entirely comfortable with her atheism yet, and that she used to be a dedicated creationist in a way Becky, for example, never was. The next hour of Joyce’s life is sure to be interesting
Amanda Kettell
I’m pretty sure Sarah’s the first (only?) person in the comic to have actually explicitly called Joyce an atheist.
Needfuldoer
She’s also the only other person we know Joyce has confided that in so far.
Agemegos
Sarah knows that Joyce is an atheist. And also knows better than to out her as one before she comes out os her own accord. There would be social repercussions to Joyce from being out, and only she ought to decide whether she face them.
jam
But it’s not just the god thing – I cannot stress how much the age of the earth caused problems theologically, and still does. Geologists were heretics, when they started calculating the age of the earth.
It’s mindboggling old. Even things like, how old are we as a species? Mindboggling old *and* unbelievably young, at the same time. Horseshoe crabs have been around for over 400 million years! Humans have been around for maybe 200,000! 300,000 tops! And we only really know about the last 10,000 years!
It’s a perspective thing.
Wagstaff
First of all, Joyce is actually an atheist now, and she’s said she’s going to embrace empirical evidence.
Second of all, religious thought contradictory to scientific thought at the very least in the epistemological sense. Science knows what it does and doesn’t know based on evidence, and knows what needs further investigation (if science really did know everything, it would stop). Religion, on the other hand, involves assumed knowledge about what is ultimately unknowable (an afterlife, the true nature of existence, etc).
Be it belief in heaven, nirvana, reincarnation, simulation theory, the grand hallucination, etc, none of these so called “explanations” of what we call existence can be falsified through experiment, and are all open to ad hoc justification.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
Will we get another red-background Horrified Joyce Face when she finally gets her head around the idea of Deep Time*?
* That not only that the Earth is not less than 10,000 years old, but that 10,000 years is an insignificant speck compared to the billions of year the universe has existed.
Demoted Oblivious
There is definitely disagreement between pure science and fundamentalist religious doctrune. That said, life is full of contradictions and chaotically unstable situations, and we’re all getting along like a dumpster on fire, so maybe it’s ok.
Rainhat
Booster tries UNASKED-FOR ANALYSIS.
It’s not very effective.
sillygoose
I think it’s time for them to learn a second move.
Needfuldoer
They should stick to weaving deep-sounding analyses of their photos of everyday objects.
Wagstaff
Now just how could science class do that? I though Joyce was an atheist now. Oh wait. Sarah doesn’t know that yet, does she? This could get interesting…
crow
Sarah knows. She mentioned it at the start of the time skip.
Agemegos
But she’s not outing Joyce to Booster.
Dawn T
Sarah is one of the only people who knows, I think.
aelfwine
Sarah knows: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-11/01-this-bright-millennium/unpacking/
Bicycle Bill
Plays R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” on the hacked Muzac……
Emperor Norton II
Getting rid of your religion can often turn very… complicated, OK?
Arian
Definitely. People are talking as if becoming an atheist immediately frees you from all the interlinked patterns of thought and unexamined assumptions that have been The Truth up till now.
She’s still going to be finding philosophical logs to trip over for quite a while yet, and experiencing a considerable amount of stress and distress.
Pilgrim
Which is why so many people ditch one religion just to fall into another or a so-called philosophy that is a religion in all but name. The belief in the dogma is gone but their need to believe remains.
Jamie
Wow, Indiana University has “science” class? I thought generic science classes were a Grade 1-8 thing.
vlademir1
Many US universities have generalized intro science classes. In part they have them because of the huge variability in quality of primary and secondary science education in the US. Quite a lot instead just shove that stuff into the first term of every graduation requirement science course for non-science majors (Phys 101 and Chem 101 courses for example).
Daniel M Ball
The Geology 101 class I took in the waybackwhen included fundamental instruction on the Scientific Method because High Schools rarely imprint that on their inmates. (kinda like how many people were taking 098 Algebra or Geometry because guess what else doesn’t get taught very well? “It’s Connected!”) given that our society has decided public schools are babysitting services and ‘no child left behind’ has given us three generational cadres so far of people who can’t think beyond what’s pushed at them through their favored media??
yeah, for an institution where you have to PAY to LEARN, it’s a good idea to have some fundamental, basic subjects so your public school products can actually start learning what they’re there to learn-usually starting sometime in the sophomore year.
He Who Abides
Is Sarah . . . dancing?
They’re all gonna die before day’s end, aren’t they?
Clif
Joyce and Science.
What could go wrong?
Bicycle Bill
What was the name of that one branch of religion…. ?
Oh yeah; “The Church of Christ, Scientist.”
Proxiehunter
Isn’t that one of the anti-medicine branches?
Wizard
Yeah, Christian Science is a bit of an ironic name for a belief system that rejects medical science.
Blindness
…better than calling it “your kids will die from easily treatable diseases”
sillygoose
Everytime someone says “Christian Science”, Jesus rolls over in the grave he’s not in anymore. I can prove it through Faith.
Delicious Taffy
My hometown has one of those right across from the library. Also the eighth-largest bell tower on Earth.
Demoted Oblivious
Does the tower hold the 8th largest bell, or is the tower itself 8th largest, or both?
Delicious Taffy
The tower is 165ft tall, and the biggest bell is about 11,000 pounds. I’m not sure how the bell itself ranks, but when the tower was built in ’83, it was actually the sixth-largest and was still reported at that ranking at least until 2010. So I guess two people wanted theirs bigger in the past decade.
Keulen
I always find it ironic that they use the word scientist in their name when they ignore the science when it comes to them getting sick or whatever.
Joe Moose
The way Sarah is drawn in the last panel is reminding me of Schoolhouse Rock for some reason.
Needfuldoer
Up next, Sarah stars in a three-minute animated musical short explaining schadenfreude.
Roborat
Then a song that explains how a bill is passed, or something about cheese.
Plain Marie
I would pay money to see that!
Kyrik Michalowski
Booster your comments are unneeded and unwanted, so perhaps consider this: fuck off and quit trying to analyze people.
In other news, Sarah continues to be amazing and I hope her glee continues after Joyce’s science class.
Slartibeast Button, BIA