Morality Week: The Story of the Moral

From the great Dog-Matic & the Beagle

In my last post I pointed out that Christians tend to argue one of two positions.

1. Religion provides our morality through scripture.
2. Morality is objective and we all have a God-given sense of right and wrong.

This comic makes a good point why stance one is faulty, but seemly argues in favor of stance two if you believe that we "just know" because God provided the knowledge.

My last post argues how stance two works itself around to stance one. Throughout "Morality Week" I've argued for reasoning as the source of our morality. We "just know" because deciding racism, rape, slavery, and child abuse is obviously wrong in most of the modern world. I doesn't require much analytical thinking, it's obvious. It's nice to think that these values are objectively wrong throughout the ages, but there is evidence to the contrary. Racism was common just a heartbeat ago in the grand time line of humanity. It still isn't valued in many locales worldwide. That same can be said for rape, slavery and child abuse. I'm glad we live in a progressive society where equality is valued by all and not just the oppressed, but it is far from a given.

Web Comic Spotlight: Dog-matic & The Beagle

Further proof of my theory that all web comic creators are atheists (at least the funny ones) is Dog-matic & The Beagle. A comic, which I have no doubt, began with a simple pun on dogma that inspired David Cole & Geoffrey Smith to enter the world of RGB sequential art.

The Beagle is an ideal atheist. He's smart, even tempered, rational and kind. Dog-matic is a naive, child-like robot who blindly recites the tenets of his pastor. While it is unfair to pit such a well-versed and real character against a stereotype of fundamentalist stupidity, the points the comic makes are still valid. At least the two characters get along, which is nice to see.

Perhaps most important to the medium, Dog-matic & The Beagle is drawn well. It has that old-school Disney look that I miss in today's animation. There is a lot to like here, but I worry that this is only intended to preach to the atheist choir. If Cole and Smith expect this comic to convert believers, they may want to shift to a more realistic depiction of them. Their arguments may be weak, but they aren't as weak-minded as Dog-matic.