Imprimatur
What a nice birthday present – Jesus and Mo complaining about me over the urinals. They are so sweet to say so – I’m tactless, my language is disrespectful and offensive, I’m a rude aggressive fundamentalist atheist. [dabs eyes with silken hanky] I know; everyone says that; but when it’s Jesus and Mo themselves, it means something. And then on top of it all Jesus says I have a point. I always said he was a shrewd bastard.
Happy Birthday [La Breithe Shona] to a very witty and talented person. Slan!
Am rushing to post this greeting.
Thanks Marie-Therese!
Many happy returns, Ophelia! May you continue to be tactless, disrespectful and offensive to all and sundry for many years to come.
:-)
G
P.S. Offhandedly referring to Jesus as a “bastard” is delicious in its subtle accuracy.
Thanks, G! Offensive continuation for many years is my plan.
Yeah, I enjoyed the ‘bastard’ joke too.
OB: Offending the religious by questioning their beliefs and practices is laudable, but I must ask you: how constructive is it for secularism for you to in effect refer to Christ as a bastard? The “subtle accuracy” play off Christ’s ludicrous immaculate conception will be lost, and only the offense come through. This is a public dialogue: will it be seen by the religious and those who are forming a decision as malicious and aggressive? How about calling Dawkins et al a bastard in a similar context by a religious wag?
A few posts back you referred to the pope nastily with his threats of hell for unbelievers; that was justified, I thought. But I can’t imagine how it will profit the secular cause by attacking the imaginary friends or the religious as you did.
How will this win those hearts and minds in a vacuum that religion is only too happy to fill? We all know how word gets around on the web. You can be certain this site is regularly attended by certain religious people.
Would you be as willing to give equal offense to the Mohammed character?
Does the nature of some kinds of offense only serve to harden and polarize the religious and promote vilification towards the secular?
Steve
I don’t know, and I can’t say I much care. It was one very brief post out of many; it was obviously jokey and self-referential; somehow I don’t think it will have any effect at all, for good or ill, on secularism or the winning of hearts and minds. I don’t think it will register. I think it’s a great deal too trivial for that.
Besides, ‘bastard’ is a term of endearment more than it is an ‘attack.’
OB’s right about ‘bastard’ being a term of endearment, especially in British culture. I’d put money on the male members of the royal family referring to each other that way in private (only it’d be pronounced ‘bar-stard’, as is their wont).