by Brett Stevens on September 4, 2015

Josef Haddad over at Mushroom Illustration/Design sent over this short comic strip about religious orthodoxy and paradox. Hope you enjoy it and the gentler form of recent outrage that it presents.

It brings up an important topic for all of us who are or aspire to be religious: can we frame our belief in terms of strict rules, or must it have a semi-transcendental form like the ongoing goal, never realized? Clearly religious laws exist for a reason, but in an age of commerce, like all rules they are easily circumvented.

A religion hoping to endure in any age will require some of the methods of defining itself, specifically in-groups and customs. These are almost more important than the to-the-letter following of ancient texts, in a modern interpretation, that typifies the fundamentalist-extremist front of many religions.

The question is whether that approach is necessary or, like so many human behaviors, “signaling” of obedience as a means of concealing greater disobedience.

Tags: extremism, fundamentalism, halal, josef haddad, mushroom illustration/design, religion

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