- Andrew Wakefield’s case in comic form – Sent in by everyone, including the author.
- Anti-evolution legislation in Missouri dies – From Sam.
- S.H.O.O.T. (Secular Humanist Occult Obliteration) First upcoming comic – “S.H.O.O.T. are basically militant atheists, tasked with hunting down supernatural creatures, especially those of religious significance, that they don’t even believe in.” From JP.
- Saudi woman beats up virtue cop – “When a Saudi religious policeman sauntered about an amusement park in the eastern Saudi Arabian city of Al-Mubarraz looking for unmarried couples illegally socializing, he probably wasn’t expecting much opposition.” From Glenn.
I do not understand the S.H.O.O.T. thing. Are they in a parallel universe where the supernatural exists and atheists are the deluded ones?
Or is it more of a Scooby Doo thing and S.H.O.O.T. is Shaggy and the gang, only with guns?
As a comic reader, I’ve often wondered about some incongruities in comics regarding religion. There’s a member of the Justice Society named “Mr. Terrific” – yes it’s a dumb name, and he gets ribbing for it in the books occasionally. He’s a scientist, and an expressed atheist, who has occasionally tried to come up with explanations of why superheroes come back from the dead with alarming regularity.
The thing is, he belongs to a team that has as its members a pair of reincarnated souls (Hawkman and Hawkgirl), a magician (Dr. Fate) and an angel of vengeance sent by the “Higher Power” and who regularly damns souls to hell (The Specter). He’s fought alongside angels (Zuriel), and has traveled to dimensions full of wish filling genies (The Thunderbolt). It seems to me that in this universe, the rational thing to do is verify that magic works, souls exist, and there are immensely powerful beings that claim to work for a god everywhere you look.
I think it would be kind of hard to apply the scientific method to The Specter.
But anyway, there’s a lot of suspension of disbelief and irrational stuff that happens in comics.
@redsky, I think it’s the first one. That is to say, in that alternative reality, atheists might not be deluded, but they are wrong if they flat-out deny the existence of supernatural entities, since there, they do exist and they actively hunt them down to be exterminated. In a sense, they’re not atheists, but anti-theists.
In other words, it’s the atheists the way the fundies think we are (i.e. that we believe god exists but wish he didn’t) rather than the fact that we simply don’t believe god exists at all and thus spend no further thought on the matter. Because for them, the idea that someone could think god doesn’t exist is so alien and unimaginable, they can’t even imagine what our worldview is like.
“Saudi law does not permit women to be in public spaces without a male guardian. Women are not allowed to drive, inherit, divorce or gain custody of children, and cannot socialize with unrelated men.”
I had to read this several times before I began to unclench my fists and pick my lower jaw off the floor. My question is: If a woman is socializing with her ‘male guardian’ does that count?
If i had been there I would have cheered her on! These laws are archaic, misogynistic and completely ridiculous in the 21st century. I’d like to fly to Saudi Arabia and beat up the entire Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.
@Garrison22:
“My question is: If a woman is socializing with her ‘male guardian’ does that count?”
I think they call that incest, so I assume it’s even worse …
I remember seeing a movie last year about the (world?) cup soccer taking place in Iran, and several women who tried to sneak in to watch the game. The story was essentially about how they got caught (by soldiers who don’t really want to play social police anyway but would rather go watch the game themselves). And the various reasons why they got arrested (for wanting to watch a soccer game unattended by a male guardian).
I’ve searched IMDB, but I can’t find it anywhere …
@exarch: I’m not sure about the film you speak of, but here is an interesting article about what happened when the Iranian authorities let 40 Irish women attend a match between Iran and the Republic of Ireland in 2001, the first time women were allowed in a soccer stadium since the 1979 revolution: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2001/nov/18/sport.world