Laughter Is Good Medicine: The Oatmeal & Youth Camp

March 11, 2013 By 11 Comments

by Calulu

So, it’s a Monday, the Monday after the time change Spring Forward. I need a laugh, and I imagine other folks do too.

Have you ever seen the funny that is TheOatmeal.com yet? He has has some very funny things to say about religion and how weird it can be along with all sorts of mirthful crazy fun. I keep his books stashed with my other humoralia next to my bed to read when I need a chuckle.

The Oatmeal also has awesome cartoons/posters about the rules of English, like this one on How to use a semicolon

He drew this one about Religious Extremist and yes, it is pushing the envelope…

View more of his work..

How to suck at your religion

War in the name of atheism

…and Buzzfeed.com had a funny one about 33 Ways You Know You Were A Youth Group Kid

 

Comments open below

NLQ Recommended Reading …

‘Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment‘ by Janet Heimlich

‘Quivering Daughters‘ by Hillary McFarland

‘Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement‘ by Kathryn Joyce

 

Filed Under: Family Integrated Church, Humor, Laughter is Good Medicine, More from NLQ ..., NLQ Miscellany, NLQ Open Comments, Youth Group Tagged With: , , , , 11 Comments
About Suzanne Calulu
  • Sandy

    I have to disagree with this cartoon about Atheist extremists. Atheist extremists have also done their share of terrorism and other atrocities undertake guise of Communism. One of Communism’s tenets is absence of religion, and so a true communist is an atheist. Not all atheists are Communists but sell true Communists are atheists.

    • Mayara

      Wouldn’t then them be “COmmunist extremists”?
      I mean, there are loads of Atheist Extremists. They don’t do anything about it.
      Like you said, not all atheists are communist but all of those extremists you talk about are communists so they’re not “atheist” extremists, but “communist extremists” :)

  • vyckiegarrison

    Sandy, if you are referring to the standard Christian apologetic about the atrocities of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc., I recommend this article by my friend Ian Cromwell: http://freethoughtblogs.com/crommunist/2011/05/23/pol-pot-stalin-mao-all-irrelevant/

    Here is a quick summary if you don’t have time to read the full article:

    People are often pointing out that some of the greatest mass murderers in history are atheist. Even if they were, they didn’t kill in the name of atheism. Even if they did, atheists don’t make claims of superior morality because of atheism (whereas religion does). Even if they did, that is irrelevant to whether or not atheism is true.

    • http://biblicalpersonhood.wordpress.com/ Retha

      It is a bit strange to say “they did not kill in the name of atheism.” They killed many, many people because these people were believers or because they were pastors.
      They simply did not say: “I kill you because I am an atheist” but “I kill you because you are a Christian” (or a member of whatever religion)
      But then, “Christians” who kill never said “I kill because I am a Christian” either, but “I kill you because you are …”

  • http://krwordgazer.blogspot.com krwordgazer

    It is somewhat of an apples-and-oranges comparison to compare atheism to Islam or Christianity. Atheism, as atheists themselves say, is one single idea– the lack of belief in God. Given that, it should be compared to theism as one single idea — the belief in a diety or dieties. It doesn’t work to compare complete belief systems like Islam or Christianity to atheism. Nor is it unfair to compare the complete belief system of Christianity to the complete belief system of Communism– with the caveat, of course, that Communism is only one belief system that includes atheism, just as Christianity and Islam are each just one belief system that includes theism.
    No one ever killed in the name of atheism, sure– but no one ever killed in the name of theism, either, because theism is simply the belief in a diety or dieties, and includes no additional beliefs about what that diety or dieties might want, or what should be done in their names.
    That said, I do think the cartoon is funny, because I think what it’s really talking about when it says “atheism” is complete belief system that I would call something like “physicalist humanism.” And when humanism is included in a belief system, the result is usually a fairly peaceful sort of thing, given its emphasis on the value of each individual human life (there’s such a thing as theistic humanism also, btw). But the cartoon is quite right that the belief system many call “atheism” (when they really mean physicalist humanism) is very peaceful and should not be vilified the way it often is.

  • http://krwordgazer.blogspot.com krwordgazer

    Also, it seems to me that I have read things by neo-atheists like Dawkins that do make claims to superior morality for atheism, because of their belief that religion is a savage and fundamentally immoral thing. It’s my belief that humanists — both theistic and atheistic– should join hands against anti-humanism in any form, whether religious or non-religious. :)

  • SAO

    As an ideology, Communism is dead. Even in Russia, the Communist Party has no intention of restoring communism and the parades of the big Soviet holidays tend to be small groups of ragged and nostalgic pensioners. Sure, communism still exists, but no one in his right mind thinks places like North Korea are models to be emulated. Any communist groups that still espouse anything resembling Marxism (ie not the highly capitalistic Chinese) are fringe kooks, not a real threat to the world order.

  • suzannecalulu

    Actually,… if you click on the second The Oatmeal link, War in the name of Atheism, addresses the whole Stalin/Hitler Evil Atheists thing in a pretty funny way.

    • http:///krwordgazer.blogspot.com Kristen Rosser

      Heh. It’s funny how everyone wants to “give” Hitler to whatever belief system they personally are opposed to. From what I’ve been able to ascertain, it’s nearly impossible to tell what Hitler actually believed because he was adept at using whatever words those he addressed wanted to hear. His speeches apparently identifying with Christianity were aimed at churchgoing audiences, for instance, while he spoke much more like an atheist when among his own Nazi party members. Many of them were into a sort of neo-pagan Teutonic revivalism, FWIW.

      As for Stalin, part of his belief system was that the people should be taught to replace their trust in God with trust in the State, as embodied by himself; thus all the larger-than-life fatherly images of himself posted everywhere.

      • Rae

        Also re: Hitler, if you look at how he sent Nazis to all sorts of remote corners of the globe to chase down stuff relating to various cultures and mythologies, he seemed like he’d have been perfectly happy to believe in anything that would give him a tangible increase in power and figure out how to spin it into his philosophy later.

  • Sandy

    Thanks, Krwordgazer and Vickie, I see the distinction now.