...he founded Buddhism just so he wouldn't have to worship her like the other sacred cows.

Yesterday I was accused of blasphemy for making a very mild religious joke. He claimed humor is an excuse for allowing the insulting of the sacred in his faith and never allowed by its followers. I have been damned to hell for blasphemy many times by the followers of the religion I was born into, so I guess I shouldn't have been shocked by this reaction. What surprised me was that even playful non-critical humor can be taboo in a faith.

Jewish comedians make fun of their own religion incestantly, and doing so is almost required in Buddhism to safeguard against hypocrisy. Beyond that, are there people who follow a path passionately, and yet can poke fun at it without fear of being boiled in a river of fire and blood (by gods or colleagues)?

If so, share a joke pocking fun at your religious or secular passion.

I think there are plenty of Christian preachers who are happy to poke fun at their religion's ideosyncracies, in sermons and elsewhere. Especially in some of the more easygoing branches of Christianity.

I think people getting uptight about these things is more often than not, an issue of the person's personal character, and not necessarily the religion's fault.

He isn't Christian, but I knew he is sensitive to criticism of his faith.
I grew up in a fundamentalist form of Christianity, so I know the flack I caught growing up is not typical.

Well, I don't really have a religion, but I watch Anime about characters who aren't fat or nerdy who hide their Otaku habits and act like they don't know anything about video games or anime, which is kinda something I do myself.

So I guess that's... ironic. Sorry, I have no idea what that has to do with this thread. I just saw "Secular passion" and somehow made that connection.

I'm an atheist... so here's one. An atheist is at home...

●Knock, knock.
☆Who’s there?
●God.
☆Who?
●God.
☆Who?
●God.
☆Must be the wind.

Tzadeck Wrote:I'm an atheist... so here's one. An atheist is at home...

●Knock, knock.
☆Who’s there?
●God.
☆Who?
●God.
☆Who?
●God.
☆Must be the wind.

That is clever

I (atheist) can recall a class mate of mine getting like "wtf are you doing?!" when we showed him a few family guy scenes when god and his son Jesus appear lol You'd have seen his face..

I wonder if there's a disproportionate amount of nonreligious people on this forum.

Also, since my first post was such an off topic one, here's something on topic.

What do you get when you cross an atheist with a Jehovahs Witness?…. Someone who knocks at your door for no apparent reason.

woo hooo hooo that one cracks me up.

Well I don't know if this is a joke but I have a pair of tireless, Jehovah's Witnesses mother and daughter, knocking at my door 2 or 3 times a month to bring me their famous magazine or just talk, specially after I explained to them that I am an atheist.

@zachandhobbes Presumably also programmers and all-around geeks.

bucaran Wrote:Well I don't know if this is a joke but I have a pair of tireless, Jehovah's Witnesses mother and daughter, knocking at my door 2 or 3 times a month to bring me their famous magazine or just talk, specially after I explained to them that I am an atheist.

Welcome them in and chat. You could actually convert them and save two desperate souls from a life of blandness.

@bodhisamaya I am afraid my Japanese is still not good enough to even try, but sure I would love to.

BTW, somewhat unrelated, but in the topic of belief, have you heard / read about the Pirahã people and their language? Interestingly, its most famous researcher, Daniel Everett, raised a Christian, became an Atheist influenced by their naturally skeptic view of the world and culture.

Hahaha
Losing Religion to the Amazonian Piraha Tribe - Daniel Everett

bodhisamaya Wrote:

Tzadeck Wrote:I'm an atheist... so here's one. An atheist is at home...

●Knock, knock.
☆Who’s there?
●God.
☆Who?
●God.
☆Who?
●God.
☆Must be the wind.

That is clever

"...to my thinking, miracles are never a
stumbling-block to the realist. It is not miracles that dispose
realists to belief. The genuine realist, if he is an unbeliever,
will always find strength and ability to disbelieve in the miraculous,
and if he is confronted with a miracle as an irrefutable fact he would
rather disbelieve his own senses than admit the fact. Even if he
admits it, he admits it as a fact of nature till then unrecognised
by him. Faith does not, in the realist, spring from the miracle but
the miracle from faith. If the realist once believes, then he is bound
by his very realism to admit the miraculous also. The Apostle Thomas
said that he would not believe till he saw, but when he did see he
said, "My Lord and my God!" Was it the miracle forced him to
believe? Most likely not, but he believed solely because he desired to
believe and possibly he fully believed in his secret heart even when
he said, 'I do not believe till I see.' "
-The Brothers Karamazov, Part 1, Book 1, Chapter 5

Confirmation bias ftw^^

It would be nice to have a Like button for posts.

I believe in God, i was raised in Christian believe, but i turned my back on the church. That said, i have a good sense of humor, and i can't stand people who take religion or their believe so serious.

To believe in God, Allah, or any other higher being is a personal thing. To make a joke about a believe in such things is not bad at all. But believers think that if you make a joke about it, you are mocking them, and what they believe in. For instance sects who try to vend their street papers are a rea lot of humorless beings ... I've been offered a newspaper, and as i knew where the person was coming from i asked: Can i have this for free? And the answer was not very nice, so i replied: And you want to make people believe in your false god? That person was mad, i can tell you, but she said nothing after that.

And here is my contribution to jokes about Christianity:

And atheists:

I'm Methodist and my boyfriend is Catholic. We are both engineers so we question everything tons. We'd probably be labeled as heretics by some people because we don't believe everything in the Bible. We also don't go to church very often (the sermons tend to be so boring I don't get what the point is! Not to mention all the people who call themselves Christians and then focus on the old testament. Jesus hung out with prostitutes and preaches acceptance and loving your neighbor, yet many Christians judge others too much. Kind of goes against the whole theme of the religion.) We make fun of each other and our own religion quite often.

Sometimes people are just uptight, other times you need to step into their shoes and be respectful. Depends on the joke and the situation.

Unfortunately, I can't remember any good jokes or stories right now....

Nagareboshi Wrote:But believers think that if you make a joke about it, you are mocking them, and what they believe in.

Sometimes I do. :p If people don't want to be ridiculed they shouldn't believe in ridiculous things.

There's no conclusive evidence of anything, so atheists have just as much faith as any other religious types. They just tend to be bigger douches about it.

Javizy Wrote:There's no conclusive evidence of anything, so atheists have just as much faith as any other religious types. They just tend to be bigger douches about it.

What exactly do atheists have faith in? The only unifying factor amongst atheists is the lack of faith in a deity.

A: I believe unicorns exist.
B: I don't, because there is no evidence for them.
A: You have just as much faith as me because there isn't conclusive evidence one way or another.
B: Okay...

I believe in the Trinity: [url=

bodhisamaya Wrote:If so, share a joke pocking fun at your religious or secular passion.

]The Flying Spaghetti Monster[/url], The Invisible Pink Unicorn and Chuck Norris.

bodhisamaya Wrote:If so, share a joke pocking fun at your religious or secular passion.

This is not a joke, but since you're looking for heretic comments, let me tell that Chuck Norris sucks Bruce Lee's b**ls.

Oh, I was supposed to share a joke poking fun at my own "position"? :p

How many atheists does it take to change a light bulb?

Two. One to actually change the bulb, and the other to videotape the job so fundamentalists won’t claim that god did it.

twinzen Wrote:

Javizy Wrote:There's no conclusive evidence of anything, so atheists have just as much faith as any other religious types. They just tend to be bigger douches about it.

What exactly do atheists have faith in? The only unifying factor amongst atheists is the lack of faith in a deity.

It could be said that atheists have faith in the nonexistence of gods.

Sebastian Wrote:

twinzen Wrote:

Javizy Wrote:There's no conclusive evidence of anything, so atheists have just as much faith as any other religious types. They just tend to be bigger douches about it.

What exactly do atheists have faith in? The only unifying factor amongst atheists is the lack of faith in a deity.

It could be said that atheists have faith in the nonexistence of gods.

If someone says "I believe that god doesn't exist" you could say that I guess, but what atheism really is is a rejection of one specific claim. Since the burden of proof hasn't been met yet by those who claim that a deity exists, we don't accept that claim - it's the exact opposite of faith.

I was exaggerating but most atheists seem to be so vehement about it that I get the feeling it goes beyond just a rejection. Maybe this is just another failed internet-based profiling like using youtube comments to judge the level of racism in a country. Personally, I prefer to avoid labels.

This goes into the whole "Non Stamp Collector" deal.

So because I'm NOT a stamp collector, should you label me as a NON Stamp collector?

That must mean I'm also a NON Guitarist.

Not believing something is the opposite of subscribing to something.