Atheists like to mock religion as it sometimes makes religious people realize how silly their ideas are. One example is the music video "Meat Sandwich" by Gwar: I hope you get a laugh out of it as I did when someone showed it to me.
I like this one the best. Sometimes comedy hits the nail right on the head. In this case Carlin is absolutely brilliant.
Source on the statement that it makes people realise how silly their ideas are? In my opinion, that's mostly a poor excuse. Most mockery just gives religious people the idea that the mocker don't have a sufficient view of the situation. I think the dominant effect of mockery is that it crystallises their faith.
If you can't laugh at your own faith a little bit you're too uptight. Religious texts are comic gold. Preachers are pretty good too:
I'm not asking you how you think they should act, I'm asking you how you think they *will* act. The claim I'm questioning is that mockery makes them reconsider, not whether you think that mockery *should* make them reconsider.
Mockery does not make the faithful reconsider anything. It only stiffens their backs. The only reason people mock the religion of others is because they get some kind of perverse ego gratification. Like children who make fun of a poor kid's clothes. This is clearly all that it amounts to. Just disrespectful petty little inconsiderate human beings. This nation is filled with these poorly taught and poorly raised people. A sign of our times and the decay of culture. No the truth isn't always pretty.
There are a good many greedy charlatans calling themselves modern day prophets... Like the guy Meade who self published a book about Nibiru and predicted the end of the world on Sept 23rd. He's moved his end times date to Oct 15th.
yes, some Atheist like to mock those that try to push their religion on others, meanwhile some Christians want to deny others equal right in this country based on their religion, at one time some thought they had a God given right to own people look at the Christian the GOP just picked, he wants to blame all America's problems on non-believers
As an agnostic, atheist humor makes me more atheist. I would imagine it does for theists as well. Although some are more hard headed than others. I am glad that nothing is off limits for comedians. It exposes the absurdity of it all and makes people realize the truth. There is a bit of truth in every joke.
Well, given 90 percent of our problems are due to indecency and immorality, he is right. This includes taking away our economy which feeds our people, our foreign policy, and a gov't for and on behalf of a few rich elites, yes immorality, obviously.
republicans giving huge tax cuts to the rich and spending tax payer money on things like 10+ year wars is the issue, nation-building iraq rather then nation-building here at home, trying to push religious law on the people does nothing but reduce our freedoms want to increase our economy, raise the min wage and let the middle class keep more of their money - stop giving huge super sized tax cuts to the rich oh and tax the heck out of companies that outsource American jobs by raising corp tax 15% and only giving a 15% tax cut to those that keep jobs here at home
Of course I would also love to see religious comedians mock atheists. They are usually high and mighty and deserve to be made fun of. How do you know if someone is an atheist? Don't worry, they'll tell you.
You keep claiming stuff like it making people "realize the truth", but I still see no justification for believing that. Just like in politics, some efforts do more to polarise than to sway everyone. I at least acknowledge the possibility that these things just make future efforts harder.
Nah, I think they believe they are being persuasive. Like whoeveritis says, it persuades them, so it's not surprising that they think it will persuade others. I just happen to think that they are wrong.
It depends on the individual and how skeptical or open minded they are. I know watching that George Carlin clip a long time ago made me question God. It could certainly strengthen your faith too if you are a firm believer or turn you against atheists if it was particularly offensive. That is what comedians do to try to challenge our views but since it's comedy they can push boundaries.
Comedians get a special license, to make comedy, by sometimes attacking what some people hold dear. Yet there is a difference here for he may not believe his comedy, while the non comedian mocker absolutely believes the religious are less than the mocker. This little bit of difference is also great difference.
That's interesting! If you don't mind me asking, how old were you? Was your faith important to you, or were you already somewhat ambivalent about it? Bill Burr has a great bit about mocking Scientology, but then stopping to consider what he was mocking in light of the religion he himself was raised with, and then ultimately letting his childhood beliefs drift away. It's a shame I've never been able to find the full bit on YouTube.
I wasn't raised religious or non religious so I guess I was agnostic. I was exposed a lot to Christianity but I never remember anyone talking about atheism as a kid. I've drifted back and forth over the years. To see someone like George Carlin put it so bluntly and make you laugh about how silly God is. It really makes you think about why it was so funny and it's because it's (probably) the truth.
I find that a bit shocking. It's one thing for a personal (usually tragic) event to make someone question his/her belief in a god but a comic routine? I'm wondering if you were already unsure before you ever saw that clip. Just curious. As for me I attended religious school as a child and my indoctrination was incrementally rejected as I grew up.
I was doing a slow clap of increasing momentum and about to give you a standing ovation until I saw the above bolded. It is hypocritical to argue against mocking by mocking.
