Recently, a friend sent me a joke.

"what happens when you combine an aethiest and a jehovah's witness? Someone knocks at your door but does not say anything"

I took exception of this.

1. Aetheists often come to that position because religion has disapointed them in answering their deep questions, and pain borne out of life experience. Therefore, making jokes about them not having anything to provide reason for their position is not right. They do have something to say.

2. It is christian snobbery to assume that people of other world views have nothing to say. Very often christians, without any knowledge or understanding of the reasons why others believe other things, condemn or ridicule those views. With no intellectual standpoint to defend their own beleifs.

When I came up with these issues I had, my friend apologised, but he also said something quite interesting.

He said he felt like the danish cartoon creator of prophet Mohommad because of the spin off of, what he considered a 'harmless' joke. Wasn't this even worse than the joke itself?

The funniest thing is, he assumed that I am an aetheist when he sent me this joke.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sunday distractions at Colpetty Methodist Church

Thoughts of growing up days and church. My mother, ensured the family got its weekly share of church. For some reason, for a reason beyond me at that time, we always sat at the very back. Since it was a very big church (by Colombo standards), this meant we were very far away from the Reverend (that's what we called the preists in our church. Reverend. Hmm. Person who is reverential? Chief of revering? Interesting choice on noun for a preist. Very interesting, as compared to, father, boring, and also too family-like for us methodists. We wanted to make it very clear we were not related in any way At All. Also not, pastor. No, that was for only those neo-liberal low-churches. We, with our stip upper lips, and suede shoes, didn't need pastoring at all. We were not sheep. We were in the cat family, we chose to be reverent, or irreverant as we felt. In those days, we actually sang bona-fide hymns. No happy-clappy hand gestures and guitars for us. It was always pre-1900, and it was a...
Read more

What's happiness?

The balmy feeling on a very windy day, when it just might rain, but it just might not. The simple euphoria of being on the edge of crazy weather. Unexpected laughter that bursts from you, at what a colleague said, a colleague you thought so far was shy and quiet. A warm hug from a friend you haven't seen for a year, who hugs you though you are grubby and tired after a long hard day. That first taste, just as you bite into an almond, or a peice of feta cheese, when you come home raving hungry after a long day. The love that bubbles up like champagne when a dog you don't know, decides to like you and play with you. A funny you tube video, that shows talent, sheer fun, humor, art and love of life is not about contemporary notions of beauty and perfection. But the way human spirits shine as bright as the sun through all the imperfections. The relief at the end of a long period of self-doubt, when you come across a book, have a chance conversation, or hear something in a talk that g...
Read more

Enduring Word Commentary on Romans 1

These are extracts from the  Enduring Word Commentary on Romans 1 A bondservant… an apostle : Paul’s self-identification is important. He is   first   a   servant of Jesus Christ , and   second  called to be an apostle . There were several ancient Greek words used to designate a slave, but the idea behind the word for   servant   ( doulos ) is “ complete and utter devotion , not the abjectness which was the normal condition of the slave.” (Morris) “ A servant of Jesus Christ,   is a higher title than monarch of the world .” (Poole) The word “ God ” occurs 153 times in Romans; an average of once every 46 words – this is more frequently than any other New Testament book. In comparison, note the frequency of other words used in Romans:  law  (72),  Christ  (65),  sin  (48),  Lord  (43), and  faith  (40). Romans deals with many different themes but as much as a book can be, it is a book about...
Read more