September 20, 2019
The Invocation.
"I am called to invoke the power of the true inebriated creator of the universe, drunken tolerator of all the lesser and more recent gods. May the Great Flying Spaghetti Monster rouse himself from his stupor and let his noodly appendages ground each assembly member in their seats."
He ends not with "amen" but "ramen."
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119 comments:
Some people aren't as clever as they think they are.
The Babylon Bee ridicules religion far better than these nasty creeps. Atheists are the last century's big deal.
Spaghetti, schmaghetti. We followers of the exalted Invisible Pink Unicorn want our time too!
"But where are the clowns
There ought to be clowns
Quick send in the clowns"
Hah hah hah hysterical! Those witty, goofy atheists.....
I wonder, would FSM advocates cry for their imaginary god to save them as their cities burn? Of course not. It is performance art, which only demonstrates what a mistake it was to let courts strike down the blasphemy laws which served the West well for centuries.
The rest of it:
"May the great Flying Spaghetti Monster rouse Himself from His stupor, and let His noodly appendages ground each assembly member in their seats, reminding them of the purpose of their election to this body, and helping them to stay focused on the tasks at hand. And may He help them to easily equip each of these tasks, avoiding any pettiness and irrelevant disagreement, and may He provide each of them satisfaction in the perception of accomplishment, and allow them true relaxation and an ample supply of their favorite beverage at the end of this evening’s work.
rAmen."
Why can't some people feel good about themselves unless they're putting other people down? This clown thinks he's cute, but he's really an asshole. I'm a deist, but I celebrate people who have faith, not ridicule them. I doubt this asshole would really want to live in a world in which most people did not believe in a religion.
The Anchorage Daily News suggests the invocation was so powerful that onlookers were stunned into a stupor, unable to stand:
Religion, at least, honors humility.
well they think the skydragon (the manifestation of agw) is actually real,
Yeah fuck that. Can someone point him to the Am I the Asshole subreddit?
Slandering Allah is forbidden.
Why yes, yes you are.
you think atheists would have founded this country, why would they?
Faith, religion, ideology, and tradition. To be fair, some people balance the equations with liberal doses of dark matter and energy, while others with progressive injections of brown matter. The Cult of the Carbohydrate perceives peace in simmering red matter laced with oregano. Then there is the Social Antechamber of Blood, Carbon, and Flesh.
gahrie said...I'm a deist, but I celebrate people who have faith, not ridicule them.
FSM is not a reaction against religion, it's a reaction against religion in politics, and especially against religious sects using the power and purse of government to further their own theology.
CAOPEFXLIQSZT
Faith - logical domain
Religion - moral (i.e. behavior protocol a la "ethics") philosophy
Ideology - secular practice
Tradition - carbohydrates prepared al dente with simmering red sauce laced with oregano
The Cult of the Carbohydrate celebrates our brothers and sisters in common girth and diabetes.
When the flak is heavy, you know you're over the target.
I remember just a few weeks back when Althouse was taking shit for her purported humorlessness for not appreciating satire. Y'all don't get to do that anymore...well, not honestly anyway.
The Social Antechamber of Blood, Carbon, and Flesh begins their rites with let us bray and ends with In Stork We Trust. #HateLovesAbortion
Is this guy's presentation meant to reflect an authentic religious belief or is it a satire meant to mock traditional religious beliefs? If the latter, I think the Borough assembly could easily find that, though it is a comedy act, it does not qualify as an invocation and therefore is out of order.
Ice Nine said...
When the flak is heavy, you know you're over the target.
I remember just a few weeks back when Althouse was taking shit for her purported humorlessness for not appreciating satire. Y'all don't get to do that anymore...well, not honestly anyway.
The only two blogs I read consistently are Althouse and Instapundit. The comment sections of each provide useful reminders that the right also has its version of intersectionalism, is also capable of pretending its positions are principles, and it too can be a bunch of humourless scolds.
Just on different topics than the left.
Interestingly, after the atonement death and resurrection of Jesus, the only sin left that requires an eternal judgement penalty is willful UNBELIEF.
Is this guy's presentation meant to reflect an authentic religious belief or is it a satire meant to mock traditional religious beliefs?
According to Wikipedia, it started as a absurdist/satirical reaction to the teaching creationism (intelligent design) in public schools. So, no, it's safe to say that this is not an authentic religous belief. Is it "mocking" religion? I guess that depends on whether you believe that using a reductio ad absurdum type of argument is tantamount to mocking or not.
I prefer my noodles flat, not screwy, served with Alfredo sauce, not red matter, but will indulge the latter with a separation of plates. I wonder if the Cult of the Carbohydrate... Diabetes and Girth have tasted fava beans served with a nice Chianti. It's what's Planned in the Social Antechamber of Blood, Carbon, and Flesh... Taxation.
I’d just prefer he be a dick on his own time...
As if you were the measure of all things.
How do I know god has a sense of humor? You're here.
Is there a Synagogue of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? A Mosque? A Temple? A Chamber? A Kitchen, perhaps a Diner. Why so PC?
Anti-theism such as this is just the public face of an underlying Positivism. The real target is metaphysics in general, but that's a much more difficult nut to crack, so the Positivists go after the low-hanging fruit of revealed religion.
The other reason is offense is the best defense. Once their on the defensive, they don't stack up too well either.
It's kinda hard to shit on a Deity when you believe that particles appear & disappear into empty space at random, that black holes are "hairy", & that 85% of the matter in the universe occurs in such a form that we never experience.
And that's just Physics. The existence of Consciousness is an even bigger conundrum for these guys.
I had a similar thought years ago when I was mystified by a few highly intelligent people I knew who had very strong religious faith. I realized that our secular vocabulary for the unobserved and unexplained--science, physics--is incredibly impoverished compared to some religions, which find beauty and meaning in mystery instead of frustrating nothingness. And since much must remain mysterious or at least elude the explanatory ability and vocabulary of science/physics/mathematics, that the more you study, the more you learn how much is shrouded in mystery, and really all the best parts are.
You get to use your imagination in religion: that's the reductio ad absurdum I take from this clown.
And that's just Physics. The existence of Consciousness is an even bigger conundrum for these guys.
With liberal license, inference of black matter, injections of brown matter, and indulgence in red matter, the universe, life, preexisting conditions, and everything reveals itself in a progressive conflation of logical domains.
How many people just added tim maguire to their shit lists?
I thought I had something to add but YoungHegelian pretty much summed it up.
Blogger YoungHegelian said...
Anti-theism ... black holes are "hairy"... existence of Consciousness is an even bigger conundrum for these guys.
OK, good.
So do you reckon the believers in life's a simulation are actually making the case for God?
Blogger mccullough said... Slandering Allah is forbidden.
You can't slander the infamous.
>>YoungHegelian said...
It's kinda hard to shit on a Deity when you believe that particles appear & disappear into empty space at random, that black holes are "hairy", & that 85% of the matter in the universe occurs in such a form that we never experience.<<
Yes it is - if the deity is presented as a theory. Otherwise that's an analogy fail.
I'm pretty sure you won't find a physicist who won't acknowledge that those phenomena you've listed are theoretical.
But I guarantee you that the Pope or your minister won't do the same with the phenomenon they refer to as "God."
@Howard,
So do you reckon the believers in life's a simulation are actually making the case for God?
Since I have never read a "serious" presentation of the Universe as Simulation thesis, I can't honestly say how such a thesis might intersect with Theism.
I'm not saying a serious presentation isn't possible or that the Simulation thesis is prima facie ridiculous, I'm simply stating the fact that I'm ignorant on this topic.
Flying Spaghetti Monster is no myth!
So is it ok to mock and attack the beliefs of others? Asking for a friend.
Since I have never read a "serious" presentation of the Universe as Simulation thesis, I can't honestly say how such a thesis might intersect with Theism.
I'm not sure what you mean by "serious", but Nick Bostrom has a basic outline of the simulation argument.
"But I guarantee you that the Pope or your minister won't do the same with the phenomenon they refer to as "God." "
Well, actually, at my Catholic Church, I hear quite a bit about the mystery of faith and the "unknowable" nature of God. Which is pretty close to calling God a theory.
>>Blogger iowan2 said...
So is it ok to mock and attack the beliefs of others? Asking for a friend.<<
Really? You're asking that question? OK, well the answer is yes, of course. And the more preposterous they are (not commenting on anything said here), the more OK it is. For example, it is done here many times every day.
J. R. "Bob" Dobbs and The Church of the SubGenius did this earlier, better, funnier.
Wry is better than smug, generally.
I am Laslo.
>Blogger Lincolntf said...
Well, actually, at my Catholic Church, I hear quite a bit about the mystery of faith and the "unknowable" nature of God. Which is pretty close to calling God a theory.<<
No it's not. It is quite clearly "close to" calling the *nature* of God a theory. God is presented as an absolute in your sentence.
Hey commenters, it's just a joke.
#Eraofthatsnotfunny
@Ice Nine,
Yes it is - if the deity is presented as a theory. Otherwise that's an analogy fail.
And this is where you make the mistake of believing scientists' claim on epistemology are exactly like they say they are, as opposed to how scientists behave with their "theories". Scientists are scientists. They are not epistemologists.
Everything I listed is integrated into modern cosmological theories of the origins & development of the universe. Without what I listed we basically have no modern cosmology.
How is the treatment on a cognitive level between cosmology & e.g.electrical engineering different? If you don't spit the proper "theoretical" answer back on a test, doesn't the professor fail you? When there is a regnant theory in science, such as "Big Bang" cosmology, it is enforced by the profession with as much zeal as any religious faith is. You know as well as I that even in supposedly "settled" science, the lines between theory & "fact" are on close examination much more fluid than they are advertised.
Also, in defense of Theism, "mature" philosophical Theisms (e.g. Thomistic Scholasticism) always split theology into "Natural Theology", what the human mind can know of God by reason, & "Revealed Theology", what the mind can know only by Revelation. They also admit that most of religion is Revealed, and thus, while it may be at some level "reasonable" (at least not contrary to reason), it is whatever God wishes to reveal to us, and thus is is different from Natural Theology.
"It's a reaction against religion in politics, and especially against religious sects using the power and purse of government to further their own theology."
So, they're against Israel then? And rabbi's getting involved in USA politics?
Humourless scold wrote...
Why can't some people feel good about themselves unless they're putting other people down?
Who did he put down?
This clown thinks he's cute, but he's really an asshole.
I think humorless scolds and superstitious people are assholes.
I'm a deist, but I celebrate people who have faith, not ridicule them.
I'm an atheist, but I (don't really) celebrate people who don't believe primitive, self-serving arrogant superstitions, not ridicule them.
I doubt this asshole would really want to live in a world in which most people did not believe in a religion.
Like western Europe? Oh the horror.
Much better off in the Mid-east or Africa, where there are far more people of faith.
I'm an atheist, and I get his general point; but I suspect that a lot of the people who like this kid of thing and congratulate themselves on their superior, superstition-free intellects are also lockstep Eloi in the Cult of the State. So no superiority there, statists.
Most outspoken atheists are usually Asperger Types. Look up the "Train is Fine" video.
Oddly, when the population gets "diverse" these types stop being "outspoken" and telling "Jokes". IOW, they're not against "Religion" they're against "Christians".
When the last time an "atheist comic" joked about Judaism? Or mock Mohammad? Gee, I wonder why?
Laslo wites: Wry is better than smug, generally.
When I picture the moment that elderly boomer decided to wear a colander for a hat... oh, the banality.
it's just a joke.
A lame one. Kids were using the "spaghetti monster" gag back in the 70s.
You'd think these smart fellas could come up with something new.
If the Babylon Bee were really funny, it wouldn’t need righties straining to boost it all the time. This “we’re funny too” pleading is pathetic. Stop trying to help your favored website.
J. R. "Bob" Dobbs and The Church of the SubGenius did this earlier, better, funnier.
They have actually paid me actual money - after all, it's a for "profit" religion.
I'm pretty sure you won't find a physicist who won't acknowledge that those phenomena you've listed are theoretical.
When "They" didn't understand floods and diseases, they used god(s) to explain those them; now that they don't understand advanced physics, they use god to "explain" it. It's pitiful.
Which is stranger:
- scientists (not preachers, etc) discovered that, under circumstances which humans never actually experience (interstellar space, inside a star or atom, etc), matter, space and energy have characteristics which are very different than our encephalized ape brains would expect based on their earthly adaptations and experiences, and are therefore difficult to understand, or
- all the above, plus a gigantic magician created the confusing universe, despite the magician's ignorance of things like bacteria and North America?
Spare the child, plan the feminist.
Separation of Cake and Steak.
COEXIST... CAOPEFXLIQSZT
The missing letters are statistically and historically significant first-order forcings of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming and climate change.
Why didn't those misogynists invent a female god of flying spaghetti? What, only men can fling noodles?
For shame!
@Fernandistein,
Anti-theism such as this is just the public face of an underlying Positivism. The real target is metaphysics in general, but that's a much more difficult nut to crack, so the Positivists go after the low-hanging fruit of revealed religion.
And after this is said, in comes Fernadistein to prove the point yet again.
Come on, Ferdy, you're in psychiatry, psychology, or the like. Please do give us your materialist explanations of consciousness. We'd love to hear it.
Infinity in all its forms. if god wanted you to live in a simulation then by god you'd be living in a simulation.
"Wry is better than smug"
Only to observers. It is clear from new atheist sites like Coybe's that the chance to be smug is part of the appeal. Wry is also harder, and requires a certain detachment. Althouse is never wry about the Babylon Bee for example, though she can be on other topics.
Stop trying to help your favored website.
Just as soon as you stop promoting Kathy Griffin and SNL.
I used to think this kind of thing was funny and clever, and then I graduated from middle school.
If the Babylon Bee were really funny, it wouldn’t need righties straining to boost it all the time. This “we’re funny too” pleading is pathetic. Stop trying to help your favored website.
I have never visited that web-site and only heard of BB from Althouse and Instapundit. It can be sorta funny which is tough these PC days. I cannot think of anything that is really funny that wouldn't get someone chastised.
I wonder if you have been trying to help the NYT with your constant links. Do you think they do accurate information better than BB does humor?
’If the Babylon Bee were really funny, it wouldn’t need righties straining to boost it all the time.’
Sounds like the Bee is directly over the target...
Althouse>>"If the Babylon Bee were really funny,"
...said God.
>>"it wouldn’t need righties straining to boost it all the time."<<
No one here strained. No one here went out of his way to boost it. And they certainly didn't do it "all the time" or anything close. They merely called you on your inability to see the humor in it. And we all understand that the barrier to that is your left-wing thinking. And no one really cares.
Someone has a Bee in her bonnet.
“If the Babylon Bee were really funny, it wouldn’t need righties straining to boost it all the time. This “we’re funny too” pleading is pathetic. Stop trying to help your favored website.”
Considering some of the outlandish and nasty comments appearing on this blog, I have to say I’m surprised that one about the Babylon Bee would elicited this rebuke from AA.
Sophomoric humor at best. It has been done and beaten to death.
Let us assume an invocation is appropriate (one assumes it is routine at this group meeting). The real question I have is who in this "Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly" in Alaska" thought this was the appropriate invocation?
If you want an atheist "invocation" then show up, sit down and stay silent for 3 or 4 minutes.
(eaglebeak)
Jeez, this is dumb. Gung-ho atheists tend to be just a little dimmer than enthusiastic theologians.
Kind of like the difference between Voltaire or Francis Bacon on the one side, and Thomas Aquinas or Moses Maimonides on the other.
This sure turned juicy, dinnit?
you can believe anything that suits your purpose,
https://thefederalist.com/2019/09/20/new-york-times-kavanaugh-reporter-told-source-what-to-say/
Blogger Ann Althouse said...
If the Babylon Bee were really funny, it wouldn’t need righties straining to boost it all the time. This “we’re funny too” pleading is pathetic. Stop trying to help your favored website.
9/20/19, 3:14 PM
I'm thinking someone doesn't much care for the B.
Did they make a gay joke or something and it offended you?
The B is hysterical, makes me laugh at least once a day on Twitter.
The only other time I've seen you mention the B here is when Snopes was trying to get them shut down.
You crapped all over them then too.
Mystery. What's with Althouse bias against the B?
So pompous atheist jerk gets up and acts like untold numbers of pompous theistic jerks have done for centuries . . . And how many of those scalded by a little rude political theater here would happily sit through an invocation by a Mormon, a Muslim, a Hindu, or (most repulsive of all!) a Unitarian -- would consider it a real prayer to a real deity?
My bet would be damn few.
I've sat through too many ostensibly secular meetings about secular topics to find too much grief in my heart for those who can't find enough religion in the other 22-23 hours they get every day.
Narr
And no, I can't explain Life, the Universe, and Everything--or why some people like the BBee
When you say "really funny" what you mean is: Funny to social liberals. Its a truism that while Righties will laugh at satire of the Right, liberal/Lefties will NEVER laugh at satire of the Left. Ever. In fact, they get upset and angry at it. Now, is the B.Bee as good as the Onion? No. But it satirizes and makes fun of the things the Onion refuses to.
Let me guess:
Corey Lewindowski answering a question by Jerry Nadler.
Yeah, and then there's the tiresome Liberal/Left double standard. Y'know if a Jew makes fun of Christians that's Hilarious. If its the other way round, that's "Hate". Same with blacks vs. White, libs vs. Cons, men vs. women, straight vs. gays, etc. Its only permissible for the mockery and satire to go one way. One way is "Hilarious" and the other way is "hate". Strangely, when it comes to class, this sort of double standard disappears.
And so you have millionaire comedians mocking guys that work at Starbucks or McDonalds. Or wealthy city dwellers "punching down" against "dumb hicks' or "plumbers" or whatever.
Pious agnostic nails it. She has the Bee in her bonnet.
This is characteristic of Althouse. She cannot climb down or stop digging. She doubles down. I caught her rewriting history and she went off the rails. *Trump* admits error more easily than Althouse.
Has anyone noticed a new trope from Althouse: I don’t understand you so you must be wrong. I have seen this several times recently. Its part of the same thing, an inability to believe she might have erred.
Ice Nine
Explain to me why I can’t mock Althouse for her sourpuss approach. I didn’t say the FSM guy wasn’t funny or that I objected to him.
I think he’s unoriginal and tired though. How old is that joke ? The first guy would it was funny. Now? You should watch Marvellous Mrs Maisel and contemplate the Bob Newhart imitators.
people will great many more things more ridiculous, in that Brazilian soup, the one who will be the antichrist, is all about environmentalism world government, et al,
I said nothing about you Ken B. You hadn't posted before I said that. And I have to think that you didn't understand what I said. Which was that those who got butthurt over this pretty good satire, were some of the same who called Althouse out when she found no humor in BB. (And they were right about A & BB; I was with them). I merely suggested that with this thread they have revealed their glass houses and that they don't get to, honestly, throw "humorlessness" stones at A for BB anymore.
Hey ! I have a hat just like the one that guy is wearing.
Popular with the Area51 invaders.
that black holes are “hairy”
Actually, the scientific principle is that black holes are not “hairy.” (Which means that black holes, once they form, maintain almost nothing of the complexity of all of the matter that falls into it — being perfectly described by only the total mass, electrical charge, and rotating angular momentum of the original infalling material.
There was further confirmation of this basic physical “no hair” theorem concerning black holes just the other day.
People. This is why I place a specific, and moderated, limit on the number with which I am willingly acquainted.
Next time, do it in blackface.
Why is it so important that Althouse doesn't like the B. Bee?
She's said a million times she is NOT - i repeat NOT - a social conservative. She didn't vote for Trump, and she voted for Obama in 2008. If you'd followed her posts, she never claimed to be a Right winger (lol) but evidently some of her commentators are always SHOCKED and angered when they figure that out.
Go somewhere else, if it upsets you so much.
And taste in comedy? It differs from person to person. I hate friends, I'm indifferent to the 3 stooges, i think Chico and Harpo were bores, I hate Mae West, Chico and the man, One day at a time, Carl Reiner, Tim Allen, Roseanne, Rosie O'Donnell, Tottie Fields, Buddy Hackett, and Red Skelton. And those are just comedians from my watching TV! But, are these people unfunny? of course not. Millions loved them. but i don't. and never will.
Althouse writes: "If the Babylon Bee were really funny, it wouldn’t need righties straining to boost it all the time. This “we’re funny too” pleading is pathetic. Stop trying to help your favored website."
I get it; they are not to her humor liking. I don't know how good they may or may not be, because I will see their headlines, sometimes get a chuckle, but feel no need to read the actual piece, because I suspect I know the formula.
But then she goes to the effort to highlight this:
He ends not with "amen" but "ramen."
Is this pointed out because Althouse thinks its amusing, or because she knows it's painfully hack?
I seriously would like to know.
I am Laslo.
Now those twits trying to storm area 51, believung the x files were real (based on the late stanton freedmans majestic 12 fraud)
Althouse not liking the Babylon Bee is neither here nor there. I have no interest in it, myself.
I do think it's interesting that she loathes the BB, which while not particularly funny, doesn't seem any more unfunny than The Onion or SNL or any of those clapter-oriented political comedy shows on Comedy Central. Why the visceral reaction? I don't understand that. Is it that comedy is sacred turf for upper middle class secular boomers and it's presumptuous for bible thumpers to intrude?
Rcocean
It’s Althouse always banging on about the Bee. It interests me only for the way it reveals her lack of self reflection and insight. Otherwise I am with Laslo (and the anal sex is amazing).
Seriously, Ann? Don't you find This one, just a Little Bit funny?
Ken Ham's New Life-Size Tower Of Babel Reproduction Plagued With Construction Delays
Know Your Meme shows that the Flying SM meme peaked sharply in June 2005, then quickly faded and has long been flatlined.
Which means 'Amen/Ramen' was supposedly funny almost fifteen years ago.
To put this in perspective: this is two years BEFORE "I Can Has Cheezburger?"
THEN AGAIN, perhaps Althouse is actually quoting it as a bit of Anti-Humor. According to Know Your Meme, Anti-Humor jokes only peaked in November 2011.
Time flies in "The Era Of That's Not Groovy."
I am Laslo.
This “we’re funny too” pleading is pathetic.
In other words: deplorables' humor.
Because deplorables don't struggle with their inner vachettes and ponder the depths of their own inhumanity.
I am Laslo.
"it's a reaction against religion in politics, and especially against religious sects using the power and purse of government to further their own theology."
Why should they be singled out? Everyone has an orienting philosophy of one kind or another, and everyone wants to further what they think is best.
"It’s Althouse always banging on about the Bee. It interests me only for the way it reveals her lack of self reflection and insight. Otherwise I am with Laslo (and the anal sex is amazing)."
Cool.
Off topic. you know when i was a teenager/young adult i hated johnny carson. God, he was horrible "old people's humor". Loved Letterman. Edgy subversive (for the time). Now, i go back and watch some of Carson's interviews. Damn, the guy really knew how to set other comics up for big laughs AND could do a serious interview when needed. And he was pretty good as a straight stand up comedian. I still think he was HORRIBLE sketch comic. His "Characters" sucked big time.
Meanwhile, re-watching Letterman. The guy had nothing as an interviewer. All he could do is the fake laugh when talking to other comics and serious interviews were bomb city. Hilarious that Netflix paid him $millions to do just that!
Even more off topic, cause I'm waiting for a ride. Had a Asian roommate in college. He LOVED dave allen. Laughed his head off at the Dave Allen's shows. Meanwhile, I'd sit there and look at the guy and think "This is the dullest M-F'er ever". Here's his controversial 1990 "joke":
"You wake to the clock, you go to work to the clock, you clock in to the clock, you clock out to the clock, you come home to the clock, you eat to the clock, you drink to the clock, you go to bed to the clock, you get up to the clock, you go back to work to the clock... You do that for forty years of your life and you retire — what do they fucking give you? A clock"
zzzz....
Odd how many different, strong reactions there have been to this relatively trivial item. I agree, in part, with many of them, except for Our Hostess' ludicrous defensiveness about the Babylon Bee, of all things. Strange.
I heard about the FSM pseudo-religion ten or more years ago or so and thought it was too broad and sophomoric to be funny. Not at all witty or incisive. The fact that people go on and on with it like the idiot with the colander on his head is really kind of sad, especially considering his age. College is over, man, time for adult life, right? Probably a teacher of some kind, I'd wager.
If you don't believe in religion, fine. If you do, fine. Why is that so hard? Insecurity, probably.
YoungHegelian @1:55 PM: I believe that you refer to the "dark matter" hypothesis. It is also possible that the only matter is what we can detect and that the force law is wrong at galactic scales. That alternative seems less in fashion these days, but seems equally plausible to me.
Nobel Prize goes to the first guy to disprove either one of them.
Regarding the notion of "virtual particles", refer back to what I said a couple of days ago regarding our use of metaphor in describing Nature.
I laughed out loud at that one, rc. Well done.
Must’ve been your timing.
It would be just my luck to end up in hell for all eternity for not believing in God.....Samuel Johnson had that same fear, but he got to live out all his life with that fear. By way of contrast, just a little while later, the people who didn't believe in The Will of the People were killed for their lack of belief in that redemptive faith. They were executed by people who had advanced beyond primitive religious superstitions......The human race is profoundly irrational and never more so than when they think they have figured something out.....Our tiny niche in the cosmos and our understanding of it is such a preposterously unlikely event that I'm not ruling anything out.
@rcocean
I'll see your clock and raise you a clean copper clapper.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgYbogp1Ha0&feature=youtu.be
rcocean @6:03 PM: What about W.C. Fields? I happen to really like "The Bank Dick" (1940), which is full of outrageous humor (people back then would have called it "tasteless"), including a joke about the great flu epidemic of 1918, which viewers of the time would have remembered all too well.
My mother hated W.C. Fields for some reason, by the way. I don't know, but I suspect that he may have reminded her of some of the drunken Irish she encountered from time to time when she was growing up.
Babylon Bee is not supposed to be funny. We like it because it tells truth by using a satire like Mad Magazine used to do and The Onion and Hitler's last days with subtitles do today.
I stumbled across Babylon Bee and thought they were hilarious. They make fun of churches and religious people who are usually off limits for humor--except by non-Christians who don't know anything about them and mis-characterize them. The people at Babylon Bee appear to be very familiar with current protestant church practices. I asked my United Methodist minister if he had heard of Babylon Bee, and he said he thought they were very funny. I think you have to have a current experience with regular church attendance to appreciate BB. That's why Ann may not see the humor there.
BTW, I think the people at BB probably have a Presbyterian or Reformed church background.
Automatic_Wing said...
Althouse not liking the Babylon Bee is neither here nor there. I have no interest in it, myself.
I do think it's interesting that she loathes the BB,
*************
that's because it offends her... "woke" sensibilities...(as she sniffs into her perfumed hanky.)
Just think of her as a Ms. Blifil in "Tom Jones" and you'll be spot on.
Blogger Darrell said...
How many people just added tim maguire to their shit lists?
It would be useful to me if they said so publicly so I can ignore their posts in the future.
Paddy O said...
"it's a reaction against religion in politics, and especially against religious sects using the power and purse of government to further their own theology.
Why should they be singled out? Everyone has an orienting philosophy of one kind or another, and everyone wants to further what they think is best.
Aside from the obvious first amendment issue, if you want to phrase it that way, then you have to support the FSM people to be consistent. This is their orienting philosophy.
"I remember just a few weeks back when Althouse was taking shit for her purported humorlessness for not appreciating satire."
-- See, there's GOOD satire. Swift's section of Gulliver's Travels dealing with which end to break an egg open on is GOOD satire. This Flying Spaghetti Monster nonsense is just sophomoric "gods are stupid, yo," level insight that has had no real thought put into it. I mean, whatever performance art they want, but I doubt they'd have let some one else get up and do performance art that mocked any other protected class. My God, could you imagine if they let someone get up there make a "satiric" speech about how bad certain races or homosexuals are? Even if it was very, very funny instead of mean spirited "it's funny because we agree?"
Matt Sablan said...This Flying Spaghetti Monster nonsense is just sophomoric "gods are stupid, yo," level insight
As with basically everyone here criticizing the video, you have misidentified the object of their satire. They are not ridiculing religious belief, they are making an important point about religious observances in the context of government functions. Since, and this part is not controversial, government does not get to decide which religions are real, if they insist on bringing religion into their business, they have to be open to all religions. As a private citizen, you get to say, “this is stupid,” but the government does not. So either be open to stupid or uphold the first amendment and get religious observances out of government business.
Histiory is quite clear—involving church in state corrupts both church and state. FSM, whether intentionally or not, is defending freedom of religion, not attacking it.
Oh, I don't mind if the government decides to let offensive speech run rampant. I just wonder when someone will decide "hey, if the government sanctions public speech against THAT protected class, why, exactly, am I not allowed to use the public forum to attack THIS protected class." It isn't clever. It's surface level ha-ha funny like the Babylon Bee or The Onion. Only, those two occasionally have a creative construction that has a set up, pay off not just "let's call a ball of pasta a god because theists are dumb are worship a sky fairy."
Our tiny niche in the cosmos and our understanding of it is such a preposterously unlikely event that I'm not ruling anything out.
Everything is preposterously unlikely. It's trivially easy to produce a sequence of just 80 (pseudo)random numbers between 1 and 10 (incl), but the probability of reproducing that sequence is 1/(the total number of atoms in the known universe) = 1/(10^80)
I think you have to have a current experience with regular church attendance to appreciate BB.
I enjoy the BB and haven't really "attended" church (vs looking at the buildings) for about 60 years, and even then I wasn't "really" there, I was just waiting to leave.
I am vaguely amused.
No Tim M. The history of the origin of the FSM doesn’t make it a narrow satire of government action. The reaction was more of a “for fuck sakes” last straw aggravation that expressed itself by mocking mostly Christianity (note the absence of Koranic references in the mockery). It was born of frustration about creationism but the satire isn’t limited. It’s a mockery of (especially) Christianity, period.
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