This has always bothered me. Why is it that you take “god” as his name? God is a title, the reason you call him god is so you don’t say his name. How did that morph into “saying God=Blasphemy”?
ThatGuy
you arent suppose to invoke your God for petty anger swears if you respect him. Its kinda like the religious equivalent of IDK blaming Obama because you squirted Ketchup on your shirt.
This is of course ruined by the fact that many people who are against this swear also will act like they know what God wants when its for their agenda.
Ana Chronistic
I looked that up a while ago and it sorta resonates with me that if you shouldn’t call upon God to curse trivially, what about its opposite, “God bless you”? Pretty sure we know you don’t sneeze out part of your soul like it was thought!
anyway I think Sal’s mostly giving cool points for legitimate effort, why stomp out that hope
Lumino
However, since sneezing is often a symptom of sickness, we can use ‘God Bless You’ as wishing that no illness befalls them. I mean, God was pretty big on the whole ‘kindness and caring’ thing, regardless of which God you happen to believe in.
mrskippy
What if I believe in Sithrak?
Ana Chronistic
my bro likes to answer the door, if Jehovah’s Witnesses or whoever are there, with “I worship Crom.”
Smashwidget
Then you believe in the angsty poetry of a teenaged god
I went to high school in the liberal town in North Carolina. The main street downtown, where we tended to hang out on Friday nights, was frequented by street preachers coming in to try to convert the heathen. So we, of course, being a bunch of smartass atheists and pagans and really actually heathens, would entertain ourselves, and perform the public service of keeping them from harassing other people, by messing with them.
One of my favorite tricks was, when they approached and stuck their hand out, to give them that little two-handed clasp-and-shake, and say, earnestly, “Hi, my name’s John. Have you been saved?”
That generally rendered them speechless for several seconds, because that was supposed to be their line, and they didn’t know how to respond to it.
And then I’d take advantage of that momentary hesitation to tell them that if they didn’t accept Eris Discordia into their hearts and beds, they would go to Thud when they died, which was a lot like Cary, but somehow even more boring, and carry on giving my best shot at converting them to Discordianism. This had the huge advantage that I was making everything I was saying up on the spot, including citations of chapter and verse in a holy book that had never been written, whereas I generally knew their holy book better than they did. (A lot of those churches strongly discourage any unguided reading of the Bible. (By which they mean “without a church authority present to tell you what it ‘really’ says, or better yet doing the reading of selected passages for you”.)) This made for very uneven footing in a debate.
Then there was the night that we exorcized them. They left, so I guess it worked…
Agemegos
Even now Sithrak oils the spit.
Deathstalker
One of the most fun things to do to actually make religious people think. I think my favorite was 2 people who were outside my apartment complex, I was on the balcony, and they approached me. I asked why they thought everyone else was wrong. I continued this line of questioning, while working on a 3D printer. Pointing out that in anything that the track record of churches saying anything which can be tested in the natural world has a really poor track record. So they’ve basically stopped doing it. I challenged them to point out something that had been shown to be true after observation. They said faith, and I pointed out that they thought everyone else was wrong, so was that really arrogance? (That sounds a bit rude when I write it, but nothing in the conversation was rude on either side.)
One of them seemed to actually be thinking about it, then the other one hurriedly pulled her away. I think that’s why they send them out in pairs.
Kinoko
The god who hates you unconditionally!
No0ne
Actually the whole Sneeze = Respond with “God Bless” thing SUPPOSEDLY started because sneezing let the evil spirits in. But I have no source other than a pastor whom I suspect of being present for the Resurrection (Cause he’s old)
Rabid Rabbit
I’d always heard because sneezing expelled your soul from your body, so the blessing was required to keep it in.
maxyai
a textbook I read said it started during the black plague and if you were sneezing a lot it meant you weren’t long for this world. So God had better bless you.
“Gesundheit” to be pedantic, means basically “good health”.
ThinkEdem
And that is, basically, because the “enlightened” eastern european countries believed that when you sneeze, you actually sneeze the devil out; it’sthe yawning that lets them in, thus the hand-over-mouth to prevent them jumping in.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
I prefer to respond to sneezes with the much more puntastic “Gesundwidth”. 😛 Then again, I also respond to Jehovah’s witnesses with “thanks, but I’m an Atheist and happy”. 🙂
Mostly though, I’m currently happy for Joycy. YAY SHE MADE A GENUINE SWEAR! Now go you two, and save Becky! (I hope Ruthie gets there in time to help relieve Toe-Dad of his femurs, too)
Agemegos
So does “wassail”.
Varius
I prefer “goes in tight.” To which proper response is “comes out loose.” I, of course, would then respond with “if you did it right.”
Bicycle Bill
And “Gesundheit”, in our family anyway, was always followed by “das ist besser als Krankheit” (translation: “it’s better than being sick”).
Which means that even we dumb Krauts knew that we were sneezing germs *OUT* of our system.
fogel
? But there are tons of people who blame Obama for EV-ER-Y-THING.
Deanatay
Fortunately, very few people actually worship him.
Karen Lynn
Dammit, Obama, get your worshiper count up.
fogel
Sure, but that’s because his followers are all Muslim-Atheist-Satanists, right?
There’s a really interesting perspective on this in the Jewish faith.
So, you have the tetragrammaton, YHVH (yud-hay-vav-hay). This is the true name of God, according to the faith, but no one knows how to say it. Hebrew letters are all consonants, with implicit vowels, and the actual pronunciation of the tetragrammaton is lost to time. One possibility is Yahweh (pronounced more like Yah-veh), but there’s another, and it ties into the next point.
Often, God is referred to by Jews as “Hashem,” meaning “the name.” This stems from “Adoshem,” meaning “the lord’s name,” and that from “Adonai,” meaning “our lord.” When the vowels from “Adonai” are applied to the tetragrammaton, you end up with “Yahovah.” It’s not “Yahovai” because the “ai” is a combination of an “ah” sound and a yud, which makes a “y” sound. Anyway, you’ll notice that this looks very similar to Jehovah.
So either of those might be God’s true name, or it might be something else, but we don’t know. Stepping back a bit, why are there so many different ways to refer to God? There’s “Adonai,” which then gets abstracted into “Adoshem” and that into “Hashem.” There’s a philosophy among the more religious that, because we no longer know God’s true name, when we refer to God by one of these formal titles, it’s, to us, akin to using His true name. And so we abstract them for casual use.
So, akin to “God bless you,” you won’t hear a lot of “Baruch Adonai” someone wants to say “God bless.” You’re more likely to hear “Baruch Hashem.” A lot. Like almost every other sentence. It’s kind of creepy.
Christian practice seems to follow similarly in this manner. You have a lot of “The lord” this and “Our shepherd” that. You don’t get as much “God,” really, with “God bless you” seeming to be the notable exception. That said, I think even in Christianity, “God” really is seen as a title. After all, how often to you sneeze and here someone say, “Jesus bless you”?
DarkVeghetta
Interesting perspective. Thanks for elaborating.
Andy4Hire
Interesting indeed. I knew some of that, but not all of it, so like DarkVeghetta said, thanks!
At least among some Christians I’ve talked with, there’s a further elaboration on the Name of God, which runs roughly like this:
When God appears to Moses in the burning bush in Exodus chapter 3, Moses asks God what his (God’s) name is, and God replies in Hebrew with a phrase that’s usually translated into English as “I Am Who I Am” or “I Will Be Who I Will Be,” and he instructs Moses to tell the people, “I AM has sent me to you.” (The phrase “I AM” would be the yud-hay-vav-hay Tetragrammaton to which sreiches refers.)
The thing about names is that the main reason you even need a name is to distinguish you from everyone else. Like, if you’re the only human who exists, you can just call yourself “the human,” and anything else that might want a label for you can just call you “the human,” but if there are other humans around, you and the rest of them will need names so you can tell each other apart.
By that logic, if there are a bunch of gods, there’s a reason to call one Ra and another one Anubis and another one Set and so on, since it might be useful to know which one you’re talking about at any given time. But if there’s only one god, you can just refer to him* as “the god” or treat “God” as his name, even though it might function more like a title.
Likewise, again by the logic that names are used to distinguish their owners from other entities, when God says his name is “I AM,” he’s declaring that the difference between himself and all the other gods people worship is that he actually exists.
When the Hebrews were in slavery in polytheistic Egypt (as they were when Exodus 3 takes place), when the Israelites were surrounded by polytheistic Canaanites, Phoenicians, and other peoples of the ancient Near East (as they were when the story of the Exodus was being told and retold), and when the tribe of Judah was in exile in polytheistic Babylon (as a few scholars think they were when the story of the Exodus was finally written down), a story like that would have served as a reminder that there’s only one deity whom it’s worth their time to worship.
*Masculine pronoun used for convenience only; by many people’s reckoning, the God of the Abrahamic religions does not have a sex or gender.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
Growing up amongst Christians (and in a Christian family – loosely Methodist, though I myself am an Atheist), I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody say “God bless you”, just “bless you”. I tend to say “Gesundheit” instead when people sneeze, just because I like the way it sounds. Or something silly (“Gesundwidth” being my personal preference).
And in the case of my dad, I skip all that and just announce how many times he sneezed (he’s hopeless at sneezing, so instead of one good sneeze, he’ll often do about 10 small rubbish ones immediately after each other – I think his record is 12 or 13 without stopping)
SomePerson
Um, actually, the Jews had many names for their god. Actual names. That’s why they use “Lord” and “God” so that they WON’T use his name in vain.
It was a sin to call upon the Divine for petty matters. For example, asking the Divine to damn someone, or calling for help from angels because you lost your keys…….
John Small Berries
And yet, I frequently see the use of “G-d”, often explained as “Out of respect, Jews do not write any Name of G-d out in full.” But if “God” is a title rather than a name, one would think that particular self-censorship would be unnecessary. Unless maybe God is so touchy about the subject that it’s considered best to be doubleplus safe?
There ARE a wealth of actual names, but only a few are considered so holy that, once written, they can’t be erased. The Tetragrammaton is one of these, and is both the most commonly seen in the Torah and the only one so guarded that the pronunciation has been lost. Other names of God show up fairly regularly, and are even integrated into Hebrew names. Any name ending with “-el,” for instance, such as Daniel or Gabriel.
I’ve been aware of that since Tim Burton’s Batman film. “Never rub another man’s rhubarb!” They got away with it in context, but even then it still comes off pretty damn filthy.
Naw, it’s totally ok. It has Noah’s Ark as a card so it can’t be Satanic.
Ghostforge
It isn’t Satanic. It does however, promote Eastern Religion.
Beoluve
It promotes all religions, if you think about it.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
Does it promote Atheism? ‘Cos some people still can’t decide if Atheism is a religion or the lack thereof. If it promotes Atheism as well, then Atheism must be a religion right? xD
DarkVeghetta
Then those people don’t understand the basic definition of ‘atheism’. Religions require belief and dogma. Atheism is the exact opposite thereof, requiring neither. It is a point of view. Heck, depending on the variant of atheism (there’s multiple), it can simply be a negation of someone else’s religion or religion in general.
Fervor is besides the point – you can still be fervent in your atheism and it not be a religion, just as you can fervently have any opinion and it won’t count as such.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
I dunno about that – I’ll agree with the bit about dogma, Atheism definitely doesn’t have that (clearly). But there are, loosely, two types of Atheism as far as I know – weak and strong. Weak Atheism (sometimes overlapping with Agnosticism) is roughly defined as lack of belief in God or any gods. While strong Atheism is generally defined as a definite belief (on par with any strong religious belief) that God or gods most certainly do *not* exist.
But yeah, certainly no dogma, so even with the “strong beliefs” bit down, doesn’t count. Like my hair colour being “bald”. 😉
526 thoughts on “Escalate”
Ana Chronistic
“Ah’ll accept your GD-bomb in lieu of a proper F.”
HOSPITAL ROOMS ALL AROUND
*rebrands comic “SCRUBs“*
…
I prolly would’ve used that Joyce-face if I’d known it would be her SWEARDUMP
Mollyscribbles
GD carries more weight when said by someone religious(normally Joyce would be worried about taking the lord’s name in vain), so she allowed a bonus.
Mr. D.
This has always bothered me. Why is it that you take “god” as his name? God is a title, the reason you call him god is so you don’t say his name. How did that morph into “saying God=Blasphemy”?
ThatGuy
you arent suppose to invoke your God for petty anger swears if you respect him. Its kinda like the religious equivalent of IDK blaming Obama because you squirted Ketchup on your shirt.
This is of course ruined by the fact that many people who are against this swear also will act like they know what God wants when its for their agenda.
Ana Chronistic
I looked that up a while ago and it sorta resonates with me that if you shouldn’t call upon God to curse trivially, what about its opposite, “God bless you”? Pretty sure we know you don’t sneeze out part of your soul like it was thought!
anyway I think Sal’s mostly giving cool points for legitimate effort, why stomp out that hope
Lumino
However, since sneezing is often a symptom of sickness, we can use ‘God Bless You’ as wishing that no illness befalls them. I mean, God was pretty big on the whole ‘kindness and caring’ thing, regardless of which God you happen to believe in.
mrskippy
What if I believe in Sithrak?
Ana Chronistic
my bro likes to answer the door, if Jehovah’s Witnesses or whoever are there, with “I worship Crom.”
Smashwidget
Then you believe in the angsty poetry of a teenaged god
John
I went to high school in the liberal town in North Carolina. The main street downtown, where we tended to hang out on Friday nights, was frequented by street preachers coming in to try to convert the heathen. So we, of course, being a bunch of smartass atheists and pagans and really actually heathens, would entertain ourselves, and perform the public service of keeping them from harassing other people, by messing with them.
One of my favorite tricks was, when they approached and stuck their hand out, to give them that little two-handed clasp-and-shake, and say, earnestly, “Hi, my name’s John. Have you been saved?”
That generally rendered them speechless for several seconds, because that was supposed to be their line, and they didn’t know how to respond to it.
And then I’d take advantage of that momentary hesitation to tell them that if they didn’t accept Eris Discordia into their hearts and beds, they would go to Thud when they died, which was a lot like Cary, but somehow even more boring, and carry on giving my best shot at converting them to Discordianism. This had the huge advantage that I was making everything I was saying up on the spot, including citations of chapter and verse in a holy book that had never been written, whereas I generally knew their holy book better than they did. (A lot of those churches strongly discourage any unguided reading of the Bible. (By which they mean “without a church authority present to tell you what it ‘really’ says, or better yet doing the reading of selected passages for you”.)) This made for very uneven footing in a debate.
Then there was the night that we exorcized them. They left, so I guess it worked…
Agemegos
Even now Sithrak oils the spit.
Deathstalker
One of the most fun things to do to actually make religious people think. I think my favorite was 2 people who were outside my apartment complex, I was on the balcony, and they approached me. I asked why they thought everyone else was wrong. I continued this line of questioning, while working on a 3D printer. Pointing out that in anything that the track record of churches saying anything which can be tested in the natural world has a really poor track record. So they’ve basically stopped doing it. I challenged them to point out something that had been shown to be true after observation. They said faith, and I pointed out that they thought everyone else was wrong, so was that really arrogance? (That sounds a bit rude when I write it, but nothing in the conversation was rude on either side.)
One of them seemed to actually be thinking about it, then the other one hurriedly pulled her away. I think that’s why they send them out in pairs.
Kinoko
The god who hates you unconditionally!
No0ne
Actually the whole Sneeze = Respond with “God Bless” thing SUPPOSEDLY started because sneezing let the evil spirits in. But I have no source other than a pastor whom I suspect of being present for the Resurrection (Cause he’s old)
Rabid Rabbit
I’d always heard because sneezing expelled your soul from your body, so the blessing was required to keep it in.
maxyai
a textbook I read said it started during the black plague and if you were sneezing a lot it meant you weren’t long for this world. So God had better bless you.
Deanatay
I always used ‘Gesundheit’ (health) myself.
Time Sage
There are reasons I much prefer Gazuntite
CptNerd
“Gesundheit” to be pedantic, means basically “good health”.
ThinkEdem
And that is, basically, because the “enlightened” eastern european countries believed that when you sneeze, you actually sneeze the devil out; it’sthe yawning that lets them in, thus the hand-over-mouth to prevent them jumping in.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
I prefer to respond to sneezes with the much more puntastic “Gesundwidth”. 😛 Then again, I also respond to Jehovah’s witnesses with “thanks, but I’m an Atheist and happy”. 🙂
Mostly though, I’m currently happy for Joycy. YAY SHE MADE A GENUINE SWEAR! Now go you two, and save Becky! (I hope Ruthie gets there in time to help relieve Toe-Dad of his femurs, too)
Agemegos
So does “wassail”.
Varius
I prefer “goes in tight.” To which proper response is “comes out loose.” I, of course, would then respond with “if you did it right.”
Bicycle Bill
And “Gesundheit”, in our family anyway, was always followed by “das ist besser als Krankheit” (translation: “it’s better than being sick”).
Which means that even we dumb Krauts knew that we were sneezing germs *OUT* of our system.
fogel
? But there are tons of people who blame Obama for EV-ER-Y-THING.
Deanatay
Fortunately, very few people actually worship him.
Karen Lynn
Dammit, Obama, get your worshiper count up.
fogel
Sure, but that’s because his followers are all Muslim-Atheist-Satanists, right?
David Alexander McDonald
You forgot the alien lizardmen.
fogel
Dang, I always forget them!
sreiches
There’s a really interesting perspective on this in the Jewish faith.
So, you have the tetragrammaton, YHVH (yud-hay-vav-hay). This is the true name of God, according to the faith, but no one knows how to say it. Hebrew letters are all consonants, with implicit vowels, and the actual pronunciation of the tetragrammaton is lost to time. One possibility is Yahweh (pronounced more like Yah-veh), but there’s another, and it ties into the next point.
Often, God is referred to by Jews as “Hashem,” meaning “the name.” This stems from “Adoshem,” meaning “the lord’s name,” and that from “Adonai,” meaning “our lord.” When the vowels from “Adonai” are applied to the tetragrammaton, you end up with “Yahovah.” It’s not “Yahovai” because the “ai” is a combination of an “ah” sound and a yud, which makes a “y” sound. Anyway, you’ll notice that this looks very similar to Jehovah.
So either of those might be God’s true name, or it might be something else, but we don’t know. Stepping back a bit, why are there so many different ways to refer to God? There’s “Adonai,” which then gets abstracted into “Adoshem” and that into “Hashem.” There’s a philosophy among the more religious that, because we no longer know God’s true name, when we refer to God by one of these formal titles, it’s, to us, akin to using His true name. And so we abstract them for casual use.
So, akin to “God bless you,” you won’t hear a lot of “Baruch Adonai” someone wants to say “God bless.” You’re more likely to hear “Baruch Hashem.” A lot. Like almost every other sentence. It’s kind of creepy.
Christian practice seems to follow similarly in this manner. You have a lot of “The lord” this and “Our shepherd” that. You don’t get as much “God,” really, with “God bless you” seeming to be the notable exception. That said, I think even in Christianity, “God” really is seen as a title. After all, how often to you sneeze and here someone say, “Jesus bless you”?
DarkVeghetta
Interesting perspective. Thanks for elaborating.
Andy4Hire
Interesting indeed. I knew some of that, but not all of it, so like DarkVeghetta said, thanks!
At least among some Christians I’ve talked with, there’s a further elaboration on the Name of God, which runs roughly like this:
When God appears to Moses in the burning bush in Exodus chapter 3, Moses asks God what his (God’s) name is, and God replies in Hebrew with a phrase that’s usually translated into English as “I Am Who I Am” or “I Will Be Who I Will Be,” and he instructs Moses to tell the people, “I AM has sent me to you.” (The phrase “I AM” would be the yud-hay-vav-hay Tetragrammaton to which sreiches refers.)
The thing about names is that the main reason you even need a name is to distinguish you from everyone else. Like, if you’re the only human who exists, you can just call yourself “the human,” and anything else that might want a label for you can just call you “the human,” but if there are other humans around, you and the rest of them will need names so you can tell each other apart.
By that logic, if there are a bunch of gods, there’s a reason to call one Ra and another one Anubis and another one Set and so on, since it might be useful to know which one you’re talking about at any given time. But if there’s only one god, you can just refer to him* as “the god” or treat “God” as his name, even though it might function more like a title.
Likewise, again by the logic that names are used to distinguish their owners from other entities, when God says his name is “I AM,” he’s declaring that the difference between himself and all the other gods people worship is that he actually exists.
When the Hebrews were in slavery in polytheistic Egypt (as they were when Exodus 3 takes place), when the Israelites were surrounded by polytheistic Canaanites, Phoenicians, and other peoples of the ancient Near East (as they were when the story of the Exodus was being told and retold), and when the tribe of Judah was in exile in polytheistic Babylon (as a few scholars think they were when the story of the Exodus was finally written down), a story like that would have served as a reminder that there’s only one deity whom it’s worth their time to worship.
*Masculine pronoun used for convenience only; by many people’s reckoning, the God of the Abrahamic religions does not have a sex or gender.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
Growing up amongst Christians (and in a Christian family – loosely Methodist, though I myself am an Atheist), I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody say “God bless you”, just “bless you”. I tend to say “Gesundheit” instead when people sneeze, just because I like the way it sounds. Or something silly (“Gesundwidth” being my personal preference).
And in the case of my dad, I skip all that and just announce how many times he sneezed (he’s hopeless at sneezing, so instead of one good sneeze, he’ll often do about 10 small rubbish ones immediately after each other – I think his record is 12 or 13 without stopping)
SomePerson
Um, actually, the Jews had many names for their god. Actual names. That’s why they use “Lord” and “God” so that they WON’T use his name in vain.
It was a sin to call upon the Divine for petty matters. For example, asking the Divine to damn someone, or calling for help from angels because you lost your keys…….
John Small Berries
And yet, I frequently see the use of “G-d”, often explained as “Out of respect, Jews do not write any Name of G-d out in full.” But if “God” is a title rather than a name, one would think that particular self-censorship would be unnecessary. Unless maybe God is so touchy about the subject that it’s considered best to be doubleplus safe?
sreiches
There ARE a wealth of actual names, but only a few are considered so holy that, once written, they can’t be erased. The Tetragrammaton is one of these, and is both the most commonly seen in the Torah and the only one so guarded that the pronunciation has been lost. Other names of God show up fairly regularly, and are even integrated into Hebrew names. Any name ending with “-el,” for instance, such as Daniel or Gabriel.
motorfirebox
It’s true. Religious people have an inherent +5 racial bonus to swears.
Wack'd
And it only took five years, give or take five days.
Van Jealous
9 weeks in Willistime.
inqntrol
Yes! She finally gets to be on the bike!
Doctor_Who
Probably not the way she expected it to happen.
Calmcalamity
I was hoping we’d get something where Sal chases them on her motorcycle, now to queue up the Matrix car chase music.
Cas
Sal knows that Fuck is strong, but God damned is even stronger from someone like Joyce. I love this. So hard. Called it way back and I’m happy I did.
Cody
IT IS TIME.
invisiblemoose
YOU ARE FINALLY READY.
Explosions
AND NOW WHAT YOU’VE ALL BEEN RUBBING YOUR RHUBARB FOR
LeslieBean4Shizzle
That… is not a masturbation euphemism I had previously been aware of.
6Qubed
Maybe it’s a southern thing.
Lan Mikoto
Not even close. We’ve got chicken choking but not rhubarb rubbing. Try like Cuba or the super-nednecks from the Florida/Georgia area.
ninja_jesus
Do super-rednecks have super redneck powers?
Screwball
Having no necks & looking like a toe?
inqntrol
Waking at 4 am in the morning to feed the animals and tend the field has to be a superpower. I can barely wake up at 8 am!
Yugnat
(Oh my gosh, is this a Zombillenium profile picture.)
ninja_jesus
@Yugnat Yes it is.
Questionor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FBQetJqAwk
David Alexander McDonald
I’ve been aware of that since Tim Burton’s Batman film. “Never rub another man’s rhubarb!” They got away with it in context, but even then it still comes off pretty damn filthy.
Porthos9438
Because you NEVER rub another man’s rhubarb!
Bantha
Jack…you….are….my….number one….guy!
T1MiH
I caught the Dom Fera reference!
Porthos9438
Becky is about one F-Bomb away from going full-blown Super-Saiyan on Toedad.
Bermuda
IT FILLS YOU WITH DETERMINATION
Inkblot
something something card games on motorcycles
Wack'd
Joyce’s Blue Eyes are very effective.
Inkblot
but toedad’s special effect though
AgentKeen
Toedad: Fool, you’va activated my trap card, Divine Retribution!
Joyce: Wait, shouldn’t you think that YuGiOh is Satanic?
Tacos
Naw, it’s totally ok. It has Noah’s Ark as a card so it can’t be Satanic.
Ghostforge
It isn’t Satanic. It does however, promote Eastern Religion.
Beoluve
It promotes all religions, if you think about it.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
Does it promote Atheism? ‘Cos some people still can’t decide if Atheism is a religion or the lack thereof. If it promotes Atheism as well, then Atheism must be a religion right? xD
DarkVeghetta
Then those people don’t understand the basic definition of ‘atheism’. Religions require belief and dogma. Atheism is the exact opposite thereof, requiring neither. It is a point of view. Heck, depending on the variant of atheism (there’s multiple), it can simply be a negation of someone else’s religion or religion in general.
Fervor is besides the point – you can still be fervent in your atheism and it not be a religion, just as you can fervently have any opinion and it won’t count as such.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
I dunno about that – I’ll agree with the bit about dogma, Atheism definitely doesn’t have that (clearly). But there are, loosely, two types of Atheism as far as I know – weak and strong. Weak Atheism (sometimes overlapping with Agnosticism) is roughly defined as lack of belief in God or any gods. While strong Atheism is generally defined as a definite belief (on par with any strong religious belief) that God or gods most certainly do *not* exist.
But yeah, certainly no dogma, so even with the “strong beliefs” bit down, doesn’t count. Like my hair colour being “bald”. 😉
LuckyStar7
You can be my wingman anytime, Inkblot.
anna
Well, now, this is totally going to make everything all better.
Durandal_1707
I know. Yeah Sal, you *could* just call the cops, but enough of that crazy talk!
dailybrad