Very sad! “An education is bad if it produces clever writers, brilliant engineers, shrewd financiers, astute politicians, but not good men.”. Father Austin Woodbury, S.M., PhD., S.T.D.
Yes, but the lines in the cartoon are lay people, who can find anything they want on line and in print. I do not think there is invincible ignorance in the Western World, but just plain apathy towards religion, owing to Original Sin and caving in to the world as well as the flesh. It is hard to be holy and to desire holiness. And, it takes effort and priorities which most lay people in the Church do not want to do and follow. If the laity really wanted truth, justice and wisdom instead of self-deceit, comfort and stupidity, they would find it. We all have an inbred desire for goodness, beauty and truth, but most lay people squash those tendencies.
Hmm…at the risk of being pedantic, the cartoon seems too pessimistic, so as to be a bit self-congratulatory.
It’d probably be more accurate to have most people go down the truth, justice, wisdom path, only to have that path fork back to the 99cent burgers right before a big mountain ridge, and show people veering off there.
In other words, it’s been my experience that most people (myself included) know that they’re supposed to make the right choice and generally do so when it’s easy. We go looking for cheap burgers, however, when things start to get a bit tough.
On the other hand, you could just keep everything the same but change “99cent burgers” to “social cachet for supporting gay marriage”. Then I’d said it’d be spot on.
“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” – Mt. 7: 13-14
Funny how the price tag is missing from the first three signs.
In all seriousness, most people these days think they already have as much truth as they’re likely to be able to get. They’ve usually been given this impression by some combination of sophist teachers (especially, though hardly solely, college professors) and all the people we employ to get us information working to convince us that the information they get us is relevant and trustworthy while the information offered by others is either untrustworthy or irrelevant. They think they already know what the Church is about, for instance, because they’ve been told so much by so many people they can’t see any particular reason to disbelieve (or at least, not any reason to disbelieve that they wouldn’t figure applied even more to preachers and religion or to philosophers who claim to have objective truth). Throw in the fact that the “truth” sign is often held, rightly or wrongly, by the crazy Baptist pastor down the street, and a lot people aren’t so much choosing burgers over truth as they are unaware that they could attain any better truth than what little they have. That the truth is just down that road, available to all, means little if nobody has any particular reason to think those signs are accurate, or if there are many various signs claiming “truth” is in lots of different directions, or if there are no clear signs at all; people have to first recognise that they can find the truth, and then learn how to find it and that the nonsense they’ve been taught before isn’t it but that that doesn’t mean they can’t really find it, before the fact that it’s out there for the finding will make much difference to them. Society is suffering from much more than apathy and an abundance of burgers, whether what it is suffering from amounts to invicible ignorance for its average member or not; and if actually using logic were a natural tendency rather than a habit that has to be trained (which you can’t do if you don’t know about it), no such obstacles would stand much of a chance, but as it is it’s more like people already at the burger diner look outside and see all sorts of random hooligans wandering by with signs saying “Come learn the truth from me!” and say to each other, “Well, at least we know it’s true the burgers taste good.”
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hahaha.. sadly.. it is da truth
I think I feel a headache coming on…
Very sad! “An education is bad if it produces clever writers, brilliant engineers, shrewd financiers, astute politicians, but not good men.”. Father Austin Woodbury, S.M., PhD., S.T.D.
Catechism, Father! Too many priests are afraid to make it mandatory.
Burgers are kind of a weak point of mine…
Oh no no, that can’t be right, they just need new glasses! ;-)
“Burgers” certainly illustrates the point. Our church is in a sad state of affairs.
Da cost of da Trut, Justas und Visdam is just tu much ta pay by salfish modern man.
‘Murica!
Yes, but the lines in the cartoon are lay people, who can find anything they want on line and in print. I do not think there is invincible ignorance in the Western World, but just plain apathy towards religion, owing to Original Sin and caving in to the world as well as the flesh. It is hard to be holy and to desire holiness. And, it takes effort and priorities which most lay people in the Church do not want to do and follow. If the laity really wanted truth, justice and wisdom instead of self-deceit, comfort and stupidity, they would find it. We all have an inbred desire for goodness, beauty and truth, but most lay people squash those tendencies.
Tru dat.
I like how the baby in the comic is reaching towards the “truth, justice, and wisdom” path. :)
Hmm…at the risk of being pedantic, the cartoon seems too pessimistic, so as to be a bit self-congratulatory.
It’d probably be more accurate to have most people go down the truth, justice, wisdom path, only to have that path fork back to the 99cent burgers right before a big mountain ridge, and show people veering off there.
In other words, it’s been my experience that most people (myself included) know that they’re supposed to make the right choice and generally do so when it’s easy. We go looking for cheap burgers, however, when things start to get a bit tough.
On the other hand, you could just keep everything the same but change “99cent burgers” to “social cachet for supporting gay marriage”. Then I’d said it’d be spot on.
As “the monk of St. Gall” wrote in his life of Charlemagne, you have to advertise that you’re selling wisdom if you want to get wisdom some attention.
It’s not a modern problem!
“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” – Mt. 7: 13-14
Everyone needs to eat. $0.99 Burgers are a good price.
Funny how the price tag is missing from the first three signs.
In all seriousness, most people these days think they already have as much truth as they’re likely to be able to get. They’ve usually been given this impression by some combination of sophist teachers (especially, though hardly solely, college professors) and all the people we employ to get us information working to convince us that the information they get us is relevant and trustworthy while the information offered by others is either untrustworthy or irrelevant. They think they already know what the Church is about, for instance, because they’ve been told so much by so many people they can’t see any particular reason to disbelieve (or at least, not any reason to disbelieve that they wouldn’t figure applied even more to preachers and religion or to philosophers who claim to have objective truth). Throw in the fact that the “truth” sign is often held, rightly or wrongly, by the crazy Baptist pastor down the street, and a lot people aren’t so much choosing burgers over truth as they are unaware that they could attain any better truth than what little they have. That the truth is just down that road, available to all, means little if nobody has any particular reason to think those signs are accurate, or if there are many various signs claiming “truth” is in lots of different directions, or if there are no clear signs at all; people have to first recognise that they can find the truth, and then learn how to find it and that the nonsense they’ve been taught before isn’t it but that that doesn’t mean they can’t really find it, before the fact that it’s out there for the finding will make much difference to them. Society is suffering from much more than apathy and an abundance of burgers, whether what it is suffering from amounts to invicible ignorance for its average member or not; and if actually using logic were a natural tendency rather than a habit that has to be trained (which you can’t do if you don’t know about it), no such obstacles would stand much of a chance, but as it is it’s more like people already at the burger diner look outside and see all sorts of random hooligans wandering by with signs saying “Come learn the truth from me!” and say to each other, “Well, at least we know it’s true the burgers taste good.”