17 Dec. 2014
Disclaimer:
Dear reader, I will here advise you that some of the content of this particular article, while accurate, might not be suitable for some audiences.
While spending my more than five years in online religious discussion forums, I have seen plenty of attempts at comedy, satire, and arguments for and against particular religious beliefs.
Nine Lives:
One of those attempts at comedy or satire appears as the meme photo here. In the meme, the notion of Islamic suicide bombers combines with the common saying that “cats have nine lives.” The consequential thought is that if Muslim terrorists used cats, they could kill more people.
I here note this meme because it is rather odd in the general discourse online. Typically, cats represent atheists––not Muslims. (This is epitomized in part by the quote attributed to Christopher Hitchens concerning how cats and dogs behave concerning their owners. Dogs behave very much like theists, as it were.)
Actually, the white clothing of the cat in the first meme reminds me of the video game Assassin’s Creed, where the white-hooded gamer can stealthily stalk and slaughter people as needed.
Significant Announcements:
Sometimes people will use debate forums in order to make rather significant announcements concerning their plans. Alexander Cameron, for example, announced plans to try to create a play, then tentatively entitled “Son of Man,” that would be about how Jesus was an illegitimate child who, in part due to (or in spite of) being an illegitimate child, thought that He was the Son of God (AvT, 2014).
The guy that was talking about it gave a link to this Facebook group. (There is no need for you to join the group. But I’m posting this so you all know ahead of time, just in case it comes to fruition or eventually becomes popular. This link could be dead by the time you read it.) Anyway, though, the guy had before asked me what caliber of influence Christianity had on Western morality.
The bizarre findings go on further with a beat though, as that of the Michael Jackson song “Billie Jean” from the CD called Thriller. Yeah, “be careful what you do” and “think twice”––even online. While we are on the topic of unexpected intentions, perhaps I should also mention that going online in forum discussions has its hazards. For example, sometimes spammers can be potentially dangerous.
“I am good in killing. I need work. Whoever [will] have it, just contact me +25471300$^%#. N/B no jokes please”
—John Kiano ([possibly a pseudonym], AvT, 2014)
Now, many online debate members do not feel the need to have hitmen come on religious debate forums. People must even take jokes about being a hitman seriously, since debate can become rather heated. Many people would not want a hitman coming to their door to do a whack on behalf of someone else on a forum who got angry at them. (Admins of such debate forums get enough hate mail in their “other” inbox from disgruntled forum members too.)
Concerning the situation described above, the forum admins, upon being alerted, reported the potential threat to Facebook. Before that, however, one forum member (not me) suggested that the hitman should kill Justin Bieber.
Now, my great grandpa indeed was in the mafia in Pittsburgh. (His nickname was “the banker.”) However, that does not mean that I desire to be on the sending or receiving end of an ordered kill.
Oh, but the oddity does not stop there.
Now, in one historical book that I am working on, one of the characters claimed to be Jesus Christ. However, on at least two occasions online I have seen someone apparently seriously claim to be Jesus Christ. For one of these occasions, someone banned the claimant. The person requested an apology from the person who banned him. Here are some of his words:
“I want you to know that I am indeed Jesus Christ incarnated…
I am the peace-bringer and the God-informer religions foretold I will be,
It’s just that the interpretation has all been misled.
Anyway, I knew what I needed to know when I was 24; at that point, I done writing a book that had a theory about life, and how God created the universe and made it go through stages.
Every human being goes through stages similar to it on a much different scale”
—attributed to Jameel Nadour (AvT, 2014).
Perhaps I should here remind readers that in Matthew 24:4-5 the real Jesus Christ actually claimed that, later in history, other people would claim to be Christ.
Of course, the world of memes has its own oddities. So many eyebrow-raisers appear that multiple blog articles are necessary simply to give an impression of that variety of the bizarre. However, one need not address memes to know that sometimes conversation topics go awry. Too often, talk of religion ends up covering topics on reproduction, politics, and sex.
For a brief time, I participated on a forum that I could only depict as “madhouse” debate. The forum was almost an anything-goes forum on religion. At the time, the group’s admins allowed members to post in English or Filipino. Filipino jokes were common. Of course, a few of the members of the group at the time promoted the notion that all consensual sex was ethically okay.
Anyway, one day later on, a young member on that forum reported how wonderful he felt after his very first sexual engagement. He was Filipino and (judging by his general language use and physical features on his Facebook profile) apparently about thirteen years of age or so. His report? He could not imagine being cruel to his partner after his emotional thrill that he had just had with her. After all, he had just had sex with her “with my penis,” as he put it (AtB, 2012?). I will spare you the rest of the details. By now, I think I’ve deliberately forgot them anyway. Fortunately for everyone, to my knowledge no images of the event appeared on the forum.
On another day over a year later, I found myself just getting on Facebook. I looked on a different religious debate forum and started reading comments in a thread. Some young new member asked “the question.” This led to one of the forum’s admins giving the young member “the talk” concerning how human babies arrive on the scene (AvT, 2014). Well, that was awkward and public.
Legendary Names:
But the oddity does not stop there. As could be expected, occasionally real people impersonate fictional characters. After all, we even have someone impersonating “God” on Facebook (likely for jokes). In my own experience on social media forums, a person has impersonated Kyle from the cartoon South Park; another had his name as Damien Cockburn, a character from a different show (AvT, 2013-2014).
However, more classically, one person from the secular side of the debate goes by the pseudonym Mack the Turtle. (I personally asked Mack the Turtle why he chose such a pseudonym. His response was that it was an allusion to an underdog fight-the-power account in one of the Dr. Seuss stories.) Another person who gained quite a bit of notoriety in forum circles for his or her aggressive secular thrust might be going by a pseudonym (i.e., Angel Ripper). Both Mack the Turtle and Angel Ripper have been influential in spreading a few of the memes that I have encountered on multiple occasions online.
Conclusion:
However, since the topic of memes is another whole category of discussion, I will leave it to another article or so. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, I am tempted to ask, “Can I really do this eight more times?” Lol. I think I will limit the craziness I see online if I can. I think you get the picture of some of what you deal with on the frontlines doing apologetics online.
But this is only the beginning.
On second thought, I guess since cats are halal (generally permitted) and dogs are haram (generally discouraged or forbidden) in Islam, the idea of a cat suicide bomber might make a bit more sense. After all, would anyone ever get around to strapping the bomb on a haram dog?
Hey, I never said any of the above was completely logical.
Note: The last four digits of the contact number for “John Kiano” have been deliberately censored to prevent use of this number by anyone who would seek to use hitman services.
AvT = Atheist versus Theist: The God Debate (social media forum)
AtB = The Agora: The Battlefield (social media forum)
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