Atheism For Dummies (For Dummies (Religion & Spirituality)) (59 page)

One character travels to the future to find that everyone is an atheist. There’s no more religious war — instead, the United Atheist Alliance now battles the Unified Atheist League, shouting “Oh my Science!” as they die.

An episode in which a character in a bear suit is said to be the prophet Muhammad drew death threats from a New York-based Islamic group and was censored by the Comedy Central network — even though the suit opens at the end to reveal not Muhammad inside, but Santa Claus.

Family Guy

Family Guy
is the brainchild of Seth MacFarland, another atheist who mines the rich material of religion. In the course of the series, his characters have founded a religion that worships the TV character Fonzi; converted to Hinduism, Mormonism, and Jehovah’s Witnesses; and time-traveled to meet Jesus in person. God burns down the local bar while trying to impress a woman by lighting her cigarette with a lightning bolt, and Brian (the dog) identifies as an atheist. In one unusually serious episode, the Christian Scientist parents of a boy with leukemia rely on prayer in lieu of medical treatment, leading two of the main characters to kidnap the boy so he can be treated.

Downloading Disbelief

Some of the best expressions of atheist humor live (like many atheists) online. These sections take a closer look at three examples.

Mr. Deity

After hearing religious leaders try to explain how a loving God could allow the deaths of 230,000 people in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, film director Brian Keith Dalton sketched out a brief satire in which God — played by Dalton as a kind of self-absorbed Hollywood film producer — works with his assistant Larry to figure out what evil would be allowed to exist.

Far from making light of the tragedy, Dalton was asking one of the oldest questions in religious thought, first proposed by Epicurus: God is said to be all-good and all-powerful. Yet evil exists. Either

God wants to abolish evil but can’t, in which case he’s not all-powerful; or

He can but doesn’t want to, in which case he’s not all-good; or

He can abolish evil
and
wants to — but then, why is there evil?

The sketch became the script for a short web video, which in turn became the pilot episode of “Mr. Deity,” a web series exploring (and lampooning) religion.

Other topics from the first five seasons include the following:

Mr. Deity asks Jesus to do him a “really big favor” — go to Earth, live a sinless life, and die in agony.

Mr. Deity explains how he handles prayers (by voice mail).

Mr. Deity is outraged to learn that humans are attributing the Bible to him, when in fact they entirely left him out of the editorial process, and it makes him look “schizoid.”

Lucifer (also known as Lucy), the Deity’s wife, hires the philosopher Nietzsche to kill Mr. Deity (see
Chapter 7
).

Dalton was Mormon until his late 20s, and several episodes take particular aim at Mormon theology, including the idea that dark skin is a curse from God. Dalton now identifies as an atheist.

Jesus and Mo

It sounds like the setup for a bad movie — or a really good comic strip. Jesus and Muhammad share an apartment. Once in a while they head downstairs to the Cock and Bull Pub, order a couple of beers from the atheist barmaid, and talk about (and criticize) each other’s religions. Moses sometimes tags along.

That’s the simply premise of
Jesus and Mo
(
www.jesusandmo.net
), a webcomic that’s been turning out thoughtful and funny religious satire twice a week since 2005. Each of the two main characters sees the flaws in the other’s religion, meaning one or the other serves as the voice of reason in a given strip.

When religion itself is satirized, the atheist barmaid is the voice of reason and a kind of Greek chorus for both. And Moses, being a prophet shared by both religions, creates a useful triangle for certain topics.

So how does the cartoonist get away with drawing Muhammad, something that Islam prohibits? It’s not Muhammad, he says, but a body double.

Adding a layer to the joke, the atheist barmaid never appears in the frame because, as the website explains, “it is forbidden.”

Eternal Earthbound Pets

When the Rapture comes, and Christians are taken up to glory, what will happen to the loving pets they leave behind? That’s the question posed by one of the most original religious satires I’ve ever seen, a website called “Eternal Earthbound Pets” (
www.eternal-earthbound-pets.com
).

The website claims to be a group of dedicated animal lovers who are also confirmed atheists, meaning they’ll still be on Earth after the Rapture leaves Christian pets ownerless. For a nominal fee of $135, Eternal Earthbound Pets guarantees that if the Rapture occurs within ten years of payment, one pet per residence would be cared for after the Christian owner is raptured away.

The “company” confirms that each of their representatives had properly blasphemed in accordance with Mark 3:29, which promises that whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. That guarantees they will be left behind when Christ returns, leaving them free to provide the needed petsitting.

In case anyone can’t decide whether it’s serious or satire, the website answers the most important question of all: Is this a joke?