Penny Arcade...

DeVore

...often nails topics, like this one.



DeV.

Galvasean

It popped up in the Funny Side of Religion thread quite recently.
Funny only becase it is true.

Turtwig

Ahh but you see close minded atheists the difference between God and Santa is that I can feel, and see, God's presence everywhere in this world.

Excellent strip, but theists won't get the point (and possibly the humour of it).

DeVore

Santy left me pressies under the tree.... beat that for proof!
DeV.

5uspect

DeVore wrote: »

Sandy left me pressies under the tree.... beat that for proof!
DeV.

pfft, materialist pressies.

Calibos

The Santa/God Analogy

Its unfortunate that the analogy that manages to encapsulate the most serious and rational reasons for disbelieving in religion is the analogy that theists are most offended by, feel most belittled by, think is the cheapest shot, the most infantile argument etc

This analogy covers a lot of the fallacies, strawmen and appeals to authority etc

X scientist believes in God....yeah and x scientist believed in Santa too as a kid
Billions of people all over the world believe in God, there must be something in it.....Billions of kids all over the world believe in Santa
I have felt Gods presence, seen a vision......my little brother reckons he saw Santa in his sleigh flying through the sky
Religion helps people feel good, why take that away from them.....Why did you tell your 10 year old there was no such thing as Santa?

etc etc

DeVore

5uspect wrote: »

pfft, materialist pressies.

Burn the unbeliever!!!

DeV.

Turtwig

DeVore wrote: »

Burn the unbeliever!!!

DeV.

On another note, it never made sense to me how religious folks would always talk about the soul, spiritual suffering etc, but yet when someone questioned their ways they would do their utmost best to impart physical (material :P) suffering on their kin. Why not just torture the heretics' spiritual souls?

Galvasean

Calibos wrote: »

The Santa/God Analogy

Its unfortunate that the analogy that manages to encapsulate the most serious and rational reasons for disbelieving in religion is the analogy that theists are most offended by, feel most belittled by, think is the cheapest shot, the most infantile argument etc

They are offended and belittled by it because it sums up their beliefs. In calling such an argument infantile they are actually calling their beliefs infantile too.
Long story short, they have no decent comeback for it.

Malty_T wrote: »

On another note, it never made sense to me how religious folks would always talk about the soul, spiritual suffering etc, but yet when someone questioned their ways they would do their utmost best to impart physical (material :P) suffering on their kin. Why not just torture the heretics' spiritual souls?

'Cause the heretics don't give a damn about their souls' suffering.

sponsoredwalk

All Santa skeptics, please take a look at the North Carolina State University website.
Several professors in the school's Department of Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering recently asked their students to explore the
aerodynamic and thermodynamic challenges of delivering gifts to millions
of children worldwide in a single night from an airborne sleigh.
The results, posted at web.ncsu.edu/abstract/tag/science-of-santa,
posit that Santa Claus is a brilliant engineer and physicist.
One of the professors, Dr. Larry Silverberg, said the students concluded
that Santa has expanded Einstein's theory of relativity to take advantage
of "relativity clouds" that stretch time and bend the universe. "Relativity
clouds are controllable domains - rips in time - that allow him months to
deliver presents while only a few minutes pass on Earth," he said.

The site reports that his sleigh must be an advanced aerodynamic design
made of honeycombed titanium alloy, capable of altered shape in flight and
yet stable enough for landings on steep roofs. Laser sensors would help
select the fastest route, and a porous, nano-structured skin outfitted with
a low-pressure system reduces drag up to 90 percent, Silverberg said.
Silverberg confessed that he really didn't understand all of it, even though
he's an expert in unified field theory.
"The man is a genius," Silverberg said of Santa, whom he described as
"jolly, but learned."

What about figuring out who is naughty and nice? Theory: A mile-wide
antenna of super-thin mesh relying on electromagnetic induction principles
picks up brain waves of children around the world. Filter algorithms
organize desires and behaviors, and microprocessors feed the data to an
onboard sleigh guidance system.
Also, Santa must be checking kids' Facebook and Twitter accounts.

And does Santa carry all those presents in a single sleigh? Not possible,
according to Silverberg.
More plausible: He creates them on-site, i.e., on each rooftop, using a
reversible thermodynamic processor - a sort of nano-toymaker known as
the "magic sack." The carbon from chimney soot would be a common
building block.
But the students theorized that he still delivers presents the old-fashioned
way, climbing down chimneys, dressed in a fire-resistant halocarbon
polymer suit.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-12-santa-claus-et-physicist.html

One has to feel a bit angry @ santa for exploiting the principle of relativity
before Einstein, I mean if he'd published his discoveries on this topic he'd
be revered even more!

I only read this page this morning & seen this particular comment:

I am currently propagating the Santa Lie to my children.

Later I will explain to them that Santa is a personification of the act of giving.

Not everything has to be the way the media tells you it should be.

That makes so much sense! Instead of breaking childrens fragile little minds
is it not better to explain at that horrendous moment you break the news
that this is the noble lie it represents???

tim_holsters

Malty_T wrote: »

Ahh but you see close minded atheists the difference between God and Santa is that I can feel, and see, God's presence everywhere in this world.

Excellent strip, but theists won't get the point (and possibly the humour of it).

Ahh I guess you're talking about the gargantuan levels of child poverty that exist around the globe.

Zon

How many posts do I need to thank a post. I want to thank the above post.

EDIT: It's 10, nice one

mikhail

tim_holsters wrote: »

Ahh I guess you're talking about the gargantuan levels of child poverty that exist around the globe.

No, no. He means hummingbirds and rainbows. Of course, he doesn't mean little children in east Africa with a worm burrowing through their eyeballs. The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. It's God's plan. What was I talking about?

Stercus Accidit

This thread is a quagmire of sarcasm designed to trap new posters.

The only way through is faith.

Galvasean

Stercus Accidit wrote: »

This thread is a quagmire