Posts: 3837
Threads: 197
Joined: August 28, 2013
Reputation:
38
RE: The difference between god and batman
September 28, 2013 at 3:26 pm
(September 28, 2013 at 7:19 am)whateverist Wrote: @ the OP: The Batman comix are much better drawn than the depictions of God I've seen. How so? I do not believe but I still admire Michelangelo.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Posts: 43965
Threads: 528
Joined: July 24, 2013
Reputation:
109
RE: The difference between god and batman
September 28, 2013 at 7:57 pm
Quote:It has the beneficial effect (for DC's writers, at least) of explaining why he won't just snap the Joker's fucking neck the next time he escapes from the loony bin and massacres several hundred people.
Actually, the REAL reason he doesn't kill that Joker is that would justify the tag of vigilante and make the Joker the winner.
Back to the OP, here are a few reasons why I prefer the Bat to the God:
1. Batman punishes evildoers right NOW. God seems to take an I'll-get-round-to-the baby-rapers-when-I-get-to-them.
2. Batman doesn't seek to punish the descendants of criminals. God wants you to suffer for something you're great-grandfather did.
3. Batman's ability to do good is the result of intense preparation and constant effort (and walloping wads of cash). God performs evil with no effort at all.
4. Batman doesn't seek to evict from Gotham City all those who disapprove of him. God help the Israelites ethnically cleanse a LOT of areas.
5. Batman is concerned with punishing evil acts. God is concerned with punishing evil thoughts.
6. Batman has self-imposed moral limits, i.e., there are some things the Bat will not do. God seems disinclined to create moral limits for himself.
7. Batman manages to be moral both as himself and as Bruce Wayne, i.e., The Wayne Foundation. God is a complete shyte in all of his aspects (Father, Son, Holy Ghost).
8. Batman is within the limits of human aspirations. God is not. In other words, people could strive to emulate Batman with a reasonable chance of success.
9. If you don't take Batman seriously, no one claims that bad things will happen to you.
10. Batmobiles are way cooler than chariots.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
Posts: 222
Threads: 16
Joined: July 4, 2013
Reputation:
8
RE: The difference between god and batman
September 28, 2013 at 9:37 pm
Look, both characters are fiction. Batman just has a better origin story. And a better side-kick.
"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”
- Buddha
"Anyone wanting to believe Jesus lived and walked as a real live human being must do so despite the evidence, not because of it."
- Dennis McKinsey
Posts: 3837
Threads: 197
Joined: August 28, 2013
Reputation:
38
RE: The difference between god and batman
September 29, 2013 at 1:48 am
(September 28, 2013 at 7:57 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: Quote:It has the beneficial effect (for DC's writers, at least) of explaining why he won't just snap the Joker's fucking neck the next time he escapes from the loony bin and massacres several hundred people.
Actually, the REAL reason he doesn't kill that Joker is that would justify the tag of vigilante and make the Joker the winner.
Back to the OP, here are a few reasons why I prefer the Bat to the God:
1. Batman punishes evildoers right NOW. God seems to take an I'll-get-round-to-the baby-rapers-when-I-get-to-them.
2. Batman doesn't seek to punish the descendants of criminals. God wants you to suffer for something you're great-grandfather did.
3. Batman's ability to do good is the result of intense preparation and constant effort (and walloping wads of cash). God performs evil with no effort at all.
4. Batman doesn't seek to evict from Gotham City all those who disapprove of him. God help the Israelites ethnically cleanse a LOT of areas.
5. Batman is concerned with punishing evil acts. God is concerned with punishing evil thoughts.
6. Batman has self-imposed moral limits, i.e., there are some things the Bat will not do. God seems disinclined to create moral limits for himself.
7. Batman manages to be moral both as himself and as Bruce Wayne, i.e., The Wayne Foundation. God is a complete shyte in all of his aspects (Father, Son, Holy Ghost).
8. Batman is within the limits of human aspirations. God is not. In other words, people could strive to emulate Batman with a reasonable chance of success.
9. If you don't take Batman seriously, no one claims that bad things will happen to you.
10. Batmobiles are way cooler than chariots.
Boru
You forget the suit. The bat suit is way cooler then a robe
Also god teaches people to be afraid while batman teaches people to face their fears. Hence the bat suit.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Posts: 6946
Threads: 26
Joined: April 28, 2012
Reputation:
83
RE: The difference between god and batman
September 29, 2013 at 2:10 am
(September 29, 2013 at 1:48 am)Lemonvariable72 Wrote: The bat suit is way cooler then a robe
Horseshit! Robe wearing Obi Wan Kenobi would make short work of your kevlar/spandex wearing Bat-chick.
Posts: 3837
Threads: 197
Joined: August 28, 2013
Reputation:
38
RE: The difference between god and batman
September 29, 2013 at 2:27 am
(September 29, 2013 at 2:10 am)cato123 Wrote: (September 29, 2013 at 1:48 am)Lemonvariable72 Wrote: The bat suit is way cooler then a robe
Horseshit! Robe wearing Obi Wan Kenobi would make short work of your kevlar/spandex wearing Bat-chick.
And robe wearing Jesus for that matter.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Posts: 7140
Threads: 12
Joined: March 14, 2013
Reputation:
72
RE: The difference between god and batman
September 29, 2013 at 2:51 am
(September 28, 2013 at 7:57 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: Actually, the REAL reason he doesn't kill that Joker is that would justify the tag of vigilante and make the Joker the winner.
That's just the rationalization that the writers use because they're not allowed to kill off the character. Not much different than the fact that Arkham Asylum, which houses some of the most dangerous criminals in the DC mythos, is pathetically easy to escape from. You can't kill off a popular character (or if you do, you have to bring him back).
This leads to the situation where Batman (or Superman, where Lex Luthor is concerned) refuses to kill the Joker when he has the opportunity, even though he must know that the Joker will escape again. The Joker's body count over the past decades may well be in the hundreds of thousands, but the next time Batman catches up to him, he'll spare his life so as "not to become like him." It's a necessary plot device in a medium like comics.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
Posts: 192
Threads: 2
Joined: September 23, 2013
Reputation:
4
RE: The difference between god and batman
September 29, 2013 at 6:29 am
See, another difference. God likes to kill people and punish them eternally after that!
Posts: 28278
Threads: 114
Joined: February 22, 2011
Reputation:
159
RE: The difference between god and batman
September 29, 2013 at 2:51 pm
(This post was last modified: September 29, 2013 at 2:53 pm by Angrboda.)
(September 29, 2013 at 2:51 am)Tonus Wrote: This leads to the situation where Batman (or Superman, where Lex Luthor is concerned) refuses to kill the Joker when he has the opportunity, even though he must know that the Joker will escape again. The Joker's body count over the past decades may well be in the hundreds of thousands, but the next time Batman catches up to him, he'll spare his life so as "not to become like him." It's a necessary plot device in a medium like comics.
In the legends of India, because of the common belief in reincarnation, there are tales of fated pairs, one good, one evil, who are destined to play out their respective karmic skeins over and over again, always coming back to play an essential role in the karmic path of the other. In Jaina legend, there is the story (or stories) of Kamatha, the evil one, and Vajraghosa, the saint. Many incarnations end with Kmatha bringing about the death of Vajraghosa in remembered rage from past lives, and having such action causing him to be 'sent down' in the next life due to the enormous amount of bad karma generated by the act. Vajraghosa, on the other hand, displays ultimate character and virtue in his response to each death, resulting in a massive boost of good karma, propelling him to a higher plane of existence in that next life. I'm also reminded of the Star Trek Next Generation episode in which the Sun and the Moon, personified as deities by a long dead culture, continue to pursue each other in a recurrent circle of pursuit and capture.
So this suggests to me that there may be more than 'mere plot device' afoot here, and that this may be a reflection of a more substantial, and enduring, theme or trope in myth and story. What it exactly means and what its significance is, on the other hand, I don't know. (My mind wants to impose some sort of triad upon it, to make it align with the standard mythological component of things coming in threes, but perhaps I'm reaching.)
Posts: 43965
Threads: 528
Joined: July 24, 2013
Reputation:
109
RE: The difference between god and batman
September 29, 2013 at 3:09 pm
Quote:That's just the rationalization that the writers use because they're not allowed to kill off the character. Not much different than the fact that Arkham Asylum, which houses some of the most dangerous criminals in the DC mythos, is pathetically easy to escape from. You can't kill off a popular character (or if you do, you have to bring him back).
This leads to the situation where Batman (or Superman, where Lex Luthor is concerned) refuses to kill the Joker when he has the opportunity, even though he must know that the Joker will escape again. The Joker's body count over the past decades may well be in the hundreds of thousands, but the next time Batman catches up to him, he'll spare his life so as "not to become like him." It's a necessary plot device in a medium like comics.
I don't disagree, but that rationalization IS the reason for the Joker's continued existence. He's too interesting a character to kill off, so the writers rationalize his continued existence by saying that his death at the hands of Batman would make him (the Joker) the winner. QED.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
|
![[Image: extraordinarywoo-sig.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/zf86M5L7/extraordinarywoo-sig.jpg)
