I post this cartoon at great risk to my personal safety, in the full and awful knowledge that it will cause enormous offence to any visiting Christian bloggers. As word gets round about my heinous offence against the Almighty, I fully expect crowds of placard carrying religious zealots, nuns and Seventh Day Adventists to crowd outside in the street chanting for my blood. But I don't care - publish and be damned is what I say! There God sits at his computer, playing with our destinies like a teenager zapping aliens in a shoot-em-up computer game. This isn't the benign, all-seeing God of the established church and The Bible but a mischievous technological overseer - "as flies to wanton boys are we to the gods, they kill us for their sport". Yes, I know, I'm wicked! Perhaps this is because long ago, men in longboats came from Denmark and colonised Yorkshire. The evil was already in my Viking veins... (Pause) Oh Beelzebub! They're already outside burning the Yorkshire flag and smashing my car with baseball bats, grey haired women in cardigans, choirboys, Catholic priests and charity shop helpers shouting "Death to All Cartoonists!". Gotta go...3 February 2006
Cartoon
I post this cartoon at great risk to my personal safety, in the full and awful knowledge that it will cause enormous offence to any visiting Christian bloggers. As word gets round about my heinous offence against the Almighty, I fully expect crowds of placard carrying religious zealots, nuns and Seventh Day Adventists to crowd outside in the street chanting for my blood. But I don't care - publish and be damned is what I say! There God sits at his computer, playing with our destinies like a teenager zapping aliens in a shoot-em-up computer game. This isn't the benign, all-seeing God of the established church and The Bible but a mischievous technological overseer - "as flies to wanton boys are we to the gods, they kill us for their sport". Yes, I know, I'm wicked! Perhaps this is because long ago, men in longboats came from Denmark and colonised Yorkshire. The evil was already in my Viking veins... (Pause) Oh Beelzebub! They're already outside burning the Yorkshire flag and smashing my car with baseball bats, grey haired women in cardigans, choirboys, Catholic priests and charity shop helpers shouting "Death to All Cartoonists!". Gotta go...
14 comments:
Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.
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I like the cartoon.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few things you said in there that make me remember why I question religion. A good and benign god? I won't go further with that one. Share your cartoon, Darlin'. It was meant to be funny and it is!
...it will cause enormous offence to any visiting Christian bloggers
ReplyDeleteThis is an intense generalization, my good man! I would be very surprised if anyone could say (n all honesty) that s/he didn't feel this way at some point in his or her life. When curiosity and discussion become crushed by rigid thinking, there is nothing left but emptiness, no matter what one claims to believe.
I hope we're all wrong, and that the truth is even better than we could have ever imagined. I hope that the God who sits as his computer is only an outward display of my pessimistic thinking and frustration with the rampant injustice in the world.
Whether or not there is someone up there manipulating us, letting us be, intervening at certain times... or whether there is no one at all, I have to go on as if I have free will. The heavy load may land on my head tomorrow, but that's not going to change how I act now. Whether I am "rewarded" for goodness, "punished" for badness, or end up in sweet oblivion, that doesn't let me off the hook to act in any way but that which is most honorable. Perhaps I am projecting my own values onto the Vikings, but I look up to them for their heroism and courage in the face of Certain Destruction. I imagine a Viking following up Gloucester's words about wanton flies & schoolboys would be something along the lines of, "They kill us for their sport-- but they'll have to catch us first."
My Landlady gets a bit longwinded at times. She's awfully protective of everyone.
ReplyDeleteLovely.
ReplyDeleteYou've cheered up my woeful soul.
Thanks for the rationality.
Love the cartoon and the rant! I hope you're still in one piece and keeping the militant Christian hordes at bay - watch out for the one with "Bell, Book and Candle", some of those curses can be the very devil to shake off!
ReplyDeletePosting in my blog soon about this very subject.
ReplyDeleteYou know my feelings.
Hey there. I hope my last post wasn't too heavy. Brad the Gorilla is right-- I am protective of everyone and hate the idea of an exclusive Heaven Club. Post your cartoons and your opinions-- I'll back up your right to do so with the last breath I have!
ReplyDeleteDramatically, AtG
ALKELDA - You can get as heavy as you like my dear. I hope you understand the satirical edge to the cartoon blog entry - given what's been happening with regard to certain cartoons printed in a Danish newspaper last September.
ReplyDeleteYP,
ReplyDeleteIt's ringing a faint bell, but the satirical edge was lost on me... time for me to do my research, eh? If you are able to do so easily, please post a link.
Thanks, Yorkshire Pudding. Once I searched for the pertinent information, I got the context of your cartoon. I'm not sure how I missed that news item except that I periodically go on news sabbaticals to protect my mental health. Aieee.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be as worried about the Christian bloggers so much as the Copyright Infringement attorneys. Or, better yet, the Christian copyright infringement attorney bloggers. They're a fierce bunch.
ReplyDeleteWas there a cartoon scandal in Denmark recently? Unfortunately that didn't make it into the one inch of space in the newspaper devoted to International news over here ... But, then again, most Americans think Denmark is in North Dakota ...
Some people just don't care who they offend - someone said the other day that "Geoff Boycott was a bit rubbish" . I mean, I like a laugh as much as next man but you go attacking the Prophets like that and you're due a pasting !
ReplyDeleteOoops, turns out this was, uh, on the cover of a little local newspaper called "The New York Times" yesterday; I just didn't read it. I guess it's easier to blame the media for the fact that I didn't read what they published (taking a cue from our leaders ...).
ReplyDeleteMr Pudding,
ReplyDeleteThis post is more shocking than I can say. You and Alkelda both have the quote wrong. There are no "wanton flies" in King Lear. There are wanton boys. Ergo:
"As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods;
They kill us for their sport."
After reading such a post, I need my smelling salts and my lavender-scented hankie.
Ho ho! I fooled you that time, Mr Pudding.
Really, what is so shocking is that I've not seen cartoons I've enjoyed so much since the end of both The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes.