today only

Only today can I remind you that utopyr's inspired choice of username for me means "little joke" or "I'm kidding" depending on whether you read it as a Late Latin noun or first-person-singular verb.

and remind you that his own username comes from his invented Czech word for "utopia," which at the time he thought was the actual Czech word.

The rest of the year, I can't say that.

"the feast day of my people," as utopyr calls it

I have been reluctant to mention, much less to commend, a splateriferously blasphemous cartoon site I discovered through someone else's blog (I will not say whose, because I have forgotten). "Jesus and Mo" is by a cartoonist who has set out to be murdered by as many different warring sects as possible, though presumably only one can do the honors. The cartoon features the adventures of Jesus and Mohammad, frequently engaged in debate with the foul-mouthed atheist barmaid in the tavern that they frequent.

The curious thing about this cartoon, which appears to be updated daily (I haven't looked for it since the day I discovered it but I trolled through the depths for a while), is that the creator is thoroughly versed in the religions of the Abrahamic revelation of which he or she is making such salaciously sophisticated fun.

It fits the requirement I have begged of the cheaper forms of atheism peddled by Christopher Hitchens and many others: if you are going to declare something ludicrous, at least know it in sufficient detail to ridicule it intelligently and in depth. Otherwise you deserve the refutations you get, if not the murderous intentions.

In other words, if you disbelieve, know what it is that you choose consciously not to believe. I do not disbelieve in a large number of nonsensical opinions about the world, because I do not take time out to find out what it would mean to believe that, for example, an arcane method of assigning taxation removes all burdens from the rich but leaves the poorest of the poor much wealthier than they otherwise would have been. I just take it on faith that it is not worth my while to believe in or refute such schemes, and I maintain the right of those who so choose to show a similar lack of concern for matters to which I am inclined to devote a disproportionate amount of mental energy. Just because something is an obsession does not mean it is trivial, essential, correct, or incorrect. Just as because something is believed without proper evidence does not mean that there would be evidence to support it if one thought differently about it. (I meant "that there would not be evidence," but as you know I regard Freudian slips as revelations from God, so I shall leave it.) ( click? )

But I need to remember some people can't take a joke.