And the one that best captures his spirit:

Rollerfucking!

RIP

I would also do his cheer that made no sense (as most cheer don't) at my football games in Dallas. Got me a lot of looks in the stands. So, one last cheer for you George (his explanation of the lines in parenthesis) :

Rat Shit, Bat Shit, Dirty Ol' Twat (perfectly good way to start a cheer, as far as I'm concerned)

69 Assholes Tied in a Knot (I don't know what that means, either)

Hooray!

Lizard Shit!

Fuck!

People in Saint Louis wear a Pujols jersey not a Jesus one.

Are half asleep in church. But they perk up later for the ballgames. Sports is God here.

That's a distinction without a difference.

Or just a catholic that didnt give a fuck?

is the plain white one

I think this digression is oddly apropos to Carlin's passing. To wit, my favorite bit of his is the "invisible man in the sky" routine.

Carry on, crusaders!

enderjed wrote:

No, atheists don't go to anti-church, or try to put the smoke back into incense. But they begin their beliefs from a position of faith.

No, they do not. That's ridiculous. That's no different from asserting that if I refuse to accept my neighbor's claim that he saw a 300' long UFO I am approaching it from a "position of faith".

No, I am not. I am approaching it from the POV that HE is the one making the extraordinary claim and it is HIS duty to support it not mine to disprove it (especially as Logic 101 shows, one cannot prove a negative).

Again, the most generic atheist position is implicit, simply passive withholding of the investment of intellectual or emotional capital and resources in an extraordinary claim ALREADY made. There is NO active component. OTOH the God believer is making an active, positive claim. It is his job to support it.

When you get your head together on this, let me know. Until then I will regard you as a loon.

Can we please contain this thread to Carlin and Sports and not have yet another tiresome "my belief system is better than your belief system" debate?

Sheesh, next thing you know someone will link Carlin's passing to Hillary Clinton somehow ;)

No, atheists don't go to anti-church, or try to put the smoke back into incense. But they begin their beliefs from a position of faith.

Robert A. Heinlein once wrote (approximately), "There is no compelling evidence supporting the theory of life after death. Neither is there any evidence against it. Soon enough you will know, so why worry about it?"

Is there any evidence to show that God DOESN'T exist? And if there isn't any, why doesn't denying the existence of God count as an act of faith? You don't really know there's no God; you just believe it. Personally I have no idea who's right and who's wrong so I go with the true system of evidence and non-faith: a-gnosticsm. What happens when you die? i dunno. Does God exist? i dunno.

And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!

But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money!

I'll miss you Maestro.

Lynx wrote:

Thanks for showing that just because you're a fan of some intelligent comedy it doesn't necessarily mean you yourself are intelligent.

Framing atheism as a "religion" is one of the oldest tricks employed by religionists, but it shows they understand neither religion or atheism.

First, the most common and generic form of atheism withholds belief, it dooes not invest it, even as a negative belief. This alone separates atheists from religionists or people of faith.

Second, atheists make no positive claims for any transcendent existent that requires their worship or obeisance. They simply

acknowledge no god or entity with which to build a religion in other words.

Third, atheists maintain no sacred works, scriptures, or ancient artifacts, from which their “truths” are extracted.

They have no analog to a Bible, Qu’ran, Talmud or anything remotely similar. Instead, atheists pursue objective truth via open inquiry predicated on current science, which may provide fewer certainties or answers than if they merely placed their faith in a book.

Fourth, atheists convene no regular rituals, services or ceremonies to honor, or propitiate any entity. By contrast, the centerpiece of 99 percent of religions is precisely some social ritual, for the purpose of assembling together like-minded believers toward a common goal. Moreover, their churches, synagogues, temples etc. dot the landscape, taking up room that could be used to house the homeless in each respective area or locale.

Perhaps most importantly, there is no “acceptance” of atheist principles from any “congregation” since there’s no homogeneous congregation to bestow it. Atheists often disagree on as many things as they agree on, precisely because no

formal coda exists to fix beliefs within a uniform dogma. This means one is just as likely to encounter a wholly Materialist-Naturalist atheist as a non-material one.

Despite this, there remain some who insist that if an atheist simply “doesn’t believe in the supernatural or God” he is expressing a belief. If expressing a belief, then he is professing a religion. This is nonsense. It would be akin to asserting that if I decline belief in UFOs as extraterrestrial spacecraft I still have “UFO belief” and therefore am a practicing Ufologist! The error inheres in asserting that

an absence of belief is the same as a belief.

This error repeats the canard that the onus is on the atheist to disprove the believer’s claim, instead of acknowledging it

is impossible to prove a negative.

Georgie will be missed especially for his often splenetic eviscerations of God belief and religion. My favorite is when he leads in by noting "God is all seeing, all powerful, and ALL loving. He really loves each and every one of our little selves. But.....He won't hesitate to burn us in Hell if we cross Him!"

Thanks for the memories, George. I am glad I have most of your latter HBO specials (since 1996) on tape.