Morality is not determined by the church you attend nor the faith you embrace. It is determined by the quality of your character and the positive impact you have on those you meet along your journey
If you really look at history, humans keep making the same choices and mistakes over and over again - hence the fall of civilization after civilization and the repetitive religious wars. Knowing this convinces me even more that earth humans are merely a live chess game or reality tv show for superior beings. They probably bet on our outcomes, in a cosmic stock market..
I grew up in a very dysfunctional Catholic home and was extremely depressed as a child. I pictured God as a sadistic puppeteer pulling the strings of all his puppets and being entertained by the spectacle he had created.
IMO that was one of the points. The cartoonist deliberately drew the natives in a stereotyped way, to show how the bigoted, intolerant idiot hunters saw them. That makes the native men's laughing in their turn at the hunters' pious display of their own ignorance and superstition even more powerful and thought-provoking.
A caricaturist's work is to caricature people, no matter their skin color. It's her/his say how he draws Africans and Europeans, not yours.
If you don't see that the white characters are also very unflattering caricatures, then you're seriously deluded, or unaccountably blind to what you find "normal".
As long as one ethnicity is not drawn as outrageously more hideous than the other, what's your beef ?
Or is it that you're not comfortable with depictions of non-whiteness ?
When the grandchildren ask if I believe in God, I reply "Which one?"
Boy does THAT ever start a conversation around the old Thanksgiving dinner table!
(They all know that I've read King James, Douay-Rheims, the Book of Mormon, the Koran, the Bagavad-ghita, the Three Pillars of Zen, Alan Watts, Eckhart Tolle, A History of God, The Evolution of God, etc. etc.)
If you really look at history, humans keep making the same choices and mistakes over and over again - hence the fall of civilization after civilization and the repetitive religious wars.
ReplyDeleteKnowing this convinces me even more that earth humans are merely a live chess game or reality tv show for superior beings.
They probably bet on our outcomes, in a cosmic stock market..
I grew up in a very dysfunctional Catholic home and was extremely depressed as a child. I pictured God as a sadistic puppeteer pulling the strings of all his puppets and being entertained by the spectacle he had created.
DeleteOH MY GOD! WTF! The pic of the natives looks like caricatures of blackface. Fucking ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why you posted this racist shit.
I'm surprised at you.
Didn't really notice actually.
DeleteFocused more on the message than the illustration.
IMO that was one of the points. The cartoonist deliberately drew the natives in a stereotyped way, to show how the bigoted, intolerant idiot hunters saw them. That makes the native men's laughing in their turn at the hunters' pious display of their own ignorance and superstition even more powerful and thought-provoking.
DeleteA caricaturist's work is to caricature people, no matter their skin color. It's her/his say how he draws Africans and Europeans, not yours.
DeleteIf you don't see that the white characters are also very unflattering caricatures, then you're seriously deluded, or unaccountably blind to what you find "normal".
As long as one ethnicity is not drawn as outrageously more hideous than the other, what's your beef ?
Or is it that you're not comfortable with depictions of non-whiteness ?
When the grandchildren ask if I believe in God,
ReplyDeleteI reply "Which one?"
Boy does THAT ever start a conversation around the old Thanksgiving dinner table!
(They all know that I've read King James, Douay-Rheims, the Book of Mormon, the Koran, the Bagavad-ghita, the Three Pillars of Zen, Alan Watts, Eckhart Tolle, A History of God, The Evolution of God, etc. etc.)
Randall, I started with the basics, i.e., The Bible (three versions), the Qu'ran, The Torah and the Talmud.
DeleteI have since then branched out into many of the religious texts and quite a few of the analyses.
I have found the entire field of religious superstition to be fascinating. Dangerous, but fascinating.
This is perfect! Especially for an atheist!
ReplyDeleteIf I had to pick, I'd rather revere nature, fertility, harvest, non violence and living than man's inhumanity to man and death.
ReplyDelete