by Marty Coleman | Dec 4, 2012 | Where's The Evidence? - 2012 |
I know it’s extraordinary, but today is only day #2 of Evidence Week!
Three Scandinavian Women
Have you ever proclaimed something has happened for which you have no evidence to back it up? It can be pretty disconcerting since you know it happened you just can’t prove it. I have story from high school about 3 Scandinavian women on a boat in a cove where we were water skiing that is pretty darn extraordinary. But the climax of the story happened with no one else around, no one else to corroborate the events (except the Scandinavian Women and they were long gone the next day). So, I can tell the story and I know it’s true, but listeners have no way of verifying it. There is no evidence.
The Religious Moment
This is especially true of religious moments. Where is the evidence that what it is you have gone through came from God, Satan or some other spirit being or force? How do you prove such a thing? The truth is you can’t prove it. You take it on faith that it came from that source and people choose to believe your story on faith as well. If they don’t believe whatever it is you went through came from God then they are still most likely going to believe that YOU believe it came from God.
The Pudding
There really is only one way to even get close to proving something like that is real. If you say your mind has been illuminated by God and as a result you have a new way of thinking about something, then your behavior is the proof. The key is to realize that SAYING you have made the change is not the proof. All the talk in the world about a conversion to a new way of thinking and understanding is not the conversion. That is just a description of the conversion. The true conversion is in the action. As a matter of fact, the real conversion doesn’t even start until the action starts. True change takes place and becomes permanent when it is practiced. Talking about it isn’t practice. Practice is practice.
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Drawing by Marty Coleman, who wonders what ever happened to them
Quote by Carl Sagan, who was a billion time smarter than I am.
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by Marty Coleman | Dec 3, 2012 | Where's The Evidence? - 2012 |
Don’t fear, it’s only day #1 of Evidence Week!
Evidence-based Fear
What do you fear? Is it based on evidence? For example, I fear getting shot in the heart by a bullet because the evidence shows that people getting shot in the heart will almost certainly die. If I am in a situation where that looks like it might happen, you can damn well be sure I will be both afraid and will do everything I can to not let it occur. However, I do not fear Friday the 13th, black cats, walking under ladders, breaking mirrors or spilling salt. Why? Because there is no evidence that those things hurt anyone in any more proportion than any other day, color of cat, walking anywhere else, breaking or spilling anything else. Those who believe they are dangerous are believing a superstition, meaning something that has a tradition, but no evidence, as being a bad thing.
Superstition-based Fear
Yesterday at the church we attend the Pastor asked a woman to come up to the alter and read an email she had sent him a few months prior. The woman had written it in response to a sermon he had given. In the email she told the story of living a fear-based life. Her fear was directly connected to her overhearing a conversation when she was very young between her father and her pastor. A man in the church who had voiced his disagreement with the Pastor’s direction for the congregation had been in a terrible automobile accident. He was mortally injured but suffered greatly before he actually died. The pastor was overheard by the young woman telling her father that it was probably a good thing that he had died, and it was also a good thing he had suffered before his death because it indicated he was being punished for being outside the will of God. This led the young girl to live her entire life with that fear of God punishing and hurting her or others if she did not obey exactly what the church told her to do and be. She had written the email to our church’s pastor to let him know how liberating it was to hear him rebut that idea and instead replace it with a vision of God being loving and caring and not out to crush and hurt her or others over theological or any other differences.
This is a perfect example of the acronym of fear. She was captive to False Evidence Appearing Real because she listened to an authority whom she trusted and she wasn’t old enough to understand cause and effect, science, biology, and other evidence-based areas of life that argue against that vicious, superstitious and self-serving way of seeing the events in life.
What do you fear?
Is there good evidence that makes the fear valid?
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Drawing by Marty Coleman
Quote by Neale Donald Walsch, American Author of a book series, ‘Conversations with God’.
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by Marty Coleman | Dec 1, 2012 | Art, Artists I Love, Roger Brown |
Hey Everyone, it’s wintertime again and that means I am going to restart my ‘Artist’s I Love’ Series. I will do an artist each weekend or so for a while. Let me know if you have a favorite artist, it might jog my memory and I’ll want to include them too!
If you want to see last year’s series, check it out under ‘Artist’s I Love‘.
Roger Brown Exhibition – 1981 – Catalog cover
First up for this year is Roger Brown. I first saw his work while I was a student in Graduate School at San Jose State University. I don’t remember the exact circumstances but I saw a show of his work and it blew me away. He combines humor, social commentary, great painting (and other media) techniques, fantastic color and spot on compositions. He is inventive, creative, always moving forward in exploring the possibilities of art.
I got this catalog from a Roger Brown exhibition that I did NOT attend. I was at a museum that had a few pieces of his and saw this catalog in the museum bookstore and had to have it. It’s been opened a LOT since I got it 30+ years ago, as you can tell by what shape it is in. He’s been one of my favorite artists ever since.
The Entry of Christ into Chicago in 1976 – Roger Brown
This image might be his most famous piece and it’s indicative of his imagery, high contrast and stylized into flattened patterns with repetitive elements. The subject matter is both contemporary and historical, which is also typical of many of his images. But there is a decided anti-religious feel to the piece, as if it is a tacky city-sponsored event.
‘Talk Show’ – Roger Brown
He frequently uses suburban scenes, most often with the banality of that world appearing to be the message. At the same time he uses it so much that I have always go the feeling that he knows and actually has affection for that world, even while leveling a sort of frustrated critique on it.
‘Devil’s Surprise’ – Roger Brown
‘Jim and Tammy Show’ – Roger Brown
As is obvious, he has no love lost for organized religion in this painting. The surprise that the churchgoers are the ones in hell probably has a lot to do with his being from the south and having been raised with that baptist fundamentalism all around him. His tacky, paperdoll cut out view of Jim and Tammy Bakker, preachers who fell from grace in the 90s, also give that message.
‘Post Modern Res Erection’ – Roger Brown
He has also played around (pun intended) with making light of America’s sexual obsessions, which isn’t unrelated to our religious ones.
‘Family Tree Mourning’ – Roger Brown
His social commentary wasn’t restricted to just two of the taboo dinner subjects, religion and sex, he dealt with the third as well, politics. Here he connects all our wars up until that time into a gigantic national family tree. He obviously felt that war had come out of and had overwhelmed the goodness of our founding.
He did a number of fine art prints and in this case made sure the viewer knew it was a print by saying so right on it. I like that cheekiness.
‘Twin Towers’ – Roger Brown – 1977
Brown delved into 3D work in his later career while not actually straying very far from his thematic and visual focus. This is obviously done much closer to the construction of the World Trade Center than it’s destruction, but it has a very moving feel to it, with the emphasis on the silhouettes in each window busy doing their work.
Here are just a few more I think are of interest.
‘Crater’ – Roger Brown
“City Expanding’ – Roger Brown
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If you like his work you can read more about him at:
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Fall/Winter 2016
Winter/Spring 2015
Summer 2014
Winter 2012/2013
Winter 2011/2012
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by Marty Coleman | Nov 30, 2012 | Secret Jesus - 2012 |
I am crushin’ on the fact I finished 5 fun drawings this week about Secret Jesus. Here’s number 5.
Jesus and Puberty
So now we reach the obvious final question about Jesus’ lost teenage years. Did Jesus ever have a crush, fall in love, have a girlfriend and even perhaps ever marry? The stories of Jesus in the Bible and elsewhere say nothing specific about these things. But I know this: if Jesus was real, meaning a real human, then I assume he went through what humans go through when they reach certain ages. What that means to me is that when Jesus reached puberty and beyond he had the same feelings most other boys have and that is a new found attraction to girls.
Crushing Jesus
If Jesus had a crush and later maybe a girlfriend or two, it is safe to assume he also had break ups. Some might have been his choice, others might have been the choice of the girl. I can hear it now, “I am so sorry Jesus, but there is just TOO MUCH PRESSURE dating the savior of the whole world. I have to break up with you.”
Feeling What We Feel
But seriously, what this means is, once again, Jesus felt what we feel. If he was a real human, then he went through what we go through. Isn’t that why we pay attention to him and his teachings, because we know that he knows and understands?
Do you follow Jesus and his teachings? What caused you to do so?
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Drawing by Marty Coleman, who follows sometimes.
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by Marty Coleman | Nov 29, 2012 | Secret Jesus - 2012 |
I am not afraid to tell you, it’s day 4 of Secret Jesus week!
Jesus Takes a Trip
Jesus had to have gone places on his own when he became an older teen. Maybe to visit his relatives, maybe to sell something his father and his shop at created, maybe to get supplies. No doubt new and interesting experiences awaited him on these journeys. There were likely moments of fear and confusion about what to do next as well.
Facing the unknown
One of the most heroic elements about Jesus was his willingness to face his fears head on. He had to have learned that he grew up, don’t you think? Whether it was learning from his parents or learning while out on his own, it’s the same thing we all have been through. We can’t learn if we are curled up into a ball, afraid to move and grow. It might be scary, it might be dangerous, but if it is the path you know you need to go down, then you need to face those things, and you can.
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Drawing by Marty Coleman, who has faced a few storms.
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by Marty Coleman | Nov 28, 2012 | Secret Jesus - 2012 |
Don’t get depressed about it, but we are over half way done with Secret Jesus week!
Jesus Funk
Do you think Jesus ever got depressed? We know he struggled quite a bit as an adult, and for good reason. But what about as a teenager? I can imagine him feeling blue, lonely, confused, even depressed about things, like most teens do at one time or another. Maybe he was feeling unappreciated, or misunderstood by his siblings or parents. Maybe everyone else had something important to do for a big holiday but for whatever reason he didn’t and that led to him feeling left out.
Who is Real?
If Jesus is real, if he is capable of complete understanding, complete mercy and compassion, then it isn’t due to his academic genius or his theological brilliance. There were plenty of people high in both those categories during his day. It is due to his empathy, his knowing what it is humans go through. If he didn’t experience it himself, (which in truth it’s likely he didn’t experience every single feeling and emotion ever known to man) then he at least was able to discern and feel it when other people were going through something. And he learned from it. Not just how to be empathetic but how to move past the feeling into a new and better place.
That’s the Jesus I like and relate to. That is the Jesus I admire and want to be more like as I continue to grow.
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Drawing by Marty Coleman, who is glad he isn’t the Pope.
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by Marty Coleman | Nov 27, 2012 | Secret Jesus - 2012 |
Don’t blame me but it’s day #2 of Secret Jesus week.
Whose to blame?
This happened in my life, it happened in my kids’ lives. If Jesus is real (see yesterday for what I mean by real) then I think it happened to him as well. What do you think?
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Drawing by Marty Coleman, who didn’t do it, I swear.
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Jesus trivia answer from yesterday:
Yes, Jesus had 2 sisters (and 4 brothers), as recorded in the Gospel according to Mark, chapter 6, verse 3. The book names his brothers but does not give names to his sisters. I think they were named Ruth and Miriam, but were nicknamed Baby Ruth since she was the youngest and Miracle since she was not expected to live. Yes, I made that up.
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by Marty Coleman | Nov 26, 2012 | Christianity - 2011-2013, Secret Jesus - 2012 |
For many years I have thought about all that wasn’t recorded about Jesus’ life, especially the ‘missing years’ from age 12 to age 30 when he started preaching. Here is day 1 of my ‘Secret Jesus’ series in anticipation of Christmas coming up soon.
Jesus’ thumb
Jesus had to be trained as a carpenter, right? It was probably his father, Joseph, who did the training since chances are he himself was a carpenter. I know when my father and grandfather taught me how to work with wood they started with teaching me how to hammer. I hit my thumb plenty of times and I have no doubt Jesus did the same thing.
Two Types of Real
Some don’t believe Jesus was real but the evidence seems to point to that he was. However, there is more than one way to be real. One of the reasons Christianity is messed up is because of the dichotomy within the church. We insist Jesus was real but build a story about him that focuses again and again on how unreal he was.
Seeing as I am pretty earthbound man, I like thinking about who Jesus was on this earth, not his identity in some spiritual realm I don’t really connect with and sometimes am not even sure exists. If he wasn’t a real human; learning and growing, then how do we relate? What are we going to learn about how to be and do in our real world?
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
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Jesus Trivia question
Did Jesus have a sister?
Come back tomorrow for the answer
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by Marty Coleman | Nov 17, 2012 | Bodyless Ghirl Ghosts - 2012-2013 |
Here’s another of my ‘marker test napkin that I turned into something’ napkin.
Prints are still available. $25.00
A Short Short Story about Ghosts
The 13 bodyless girl ghosts tried to get in the beach club but the doorman wouldn’t let them in. Though they were very pretty, they didn’t meet the dress code. They pressed up against the club window and watched everyone inside dance the night away. That made them sad and they cried a lot.
They later went home to the bodyless girl ghost bunkhouse and talked about how they had to figure out how to get bodies. Their plan got as far as the question, ‘Who do we know who doesn’t have a head?’ before they fell asleep and dreamt of having to pee.
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Drawing by Marty Coleman, who thinks they should have been let in.
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Amazingly unproven and totally ludicrous trivia of the day
Ghosts love the smell of lemons
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by Marty Coleman | Nov 16, 2012 | I Love Television But...- 2012 |
It’s some sort of progress that today is day #5 of Television week.
Size Matters
For all the education that can come from TV, and yes I do believe a huge amount of education does come from TV, there is the ability for information to come out from all sorts of sources. And those sources aren’t always going to be intelligent or forward thinking. They aren’t changing their mentality just because their audience now one million instead of one thousand. Because of that the potential and proven damage is greater.
Science Matters
This is especially true in the world of sexism. We watched during this past US election cycle as a number of candidates said some things that were hard to believe. Probably the most egregious of these statements came from Akins in Missouri. He stated that he had been told by doctors that a woman who is being ‘legitimately raped’ had a built in protection in her womb that would kick into gear and stop the woman from getting pregnant. He was rewarded for his ignorance of science by being defeated. He was also rewarded with scathing criticism from all sides for general stupidity.
Standing Up Matters
What does this have to do with Television? It has to do with it because, just as on the Internet, you can have all sorts of ignorant, damaging and inaccurate information coming at you. There is no way to know what is true unless you work diligently to get a broad range of information, which many people are not going to do because they either think the broader world of information out there is dangerous, secular or demonic, or they are too lazy and don’t care to investigate and learn. Either way we end up with many people believing ideas, and implementing policy based on those ideas, that have already been proven to be scientifically false. They are going backwards and it is damaging and embarrassing for the US and it’s citizens.
We have to be diligent and stand up for what is true in the world against those who would take us backwards. And no, it won’t ever end. We will have to fight forever – on TV, the internet, and wherever else we see the stupidity and resulting damage being done.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Aldous Huxley
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Trivia question answer from yesterday
Question: What caused Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of the Television to proclaim, ‘This has made it all worthwhile.” ?
Answer: Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon – July, 1969
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