Posts filed under ‘Cartoons’
The Faroe Islands
This comic strip was inspired by a trip to the Faroe Islands, a group of islands with more sheep than people:
“I Think, Therefore I am” – Descartes
I made this cartoon as a playful take on the phrase Cogito ergo sum by René Descartes: I think, therefore I am.
Though you wouldn’t be able to tell from the cartoon, I actually take Descartes very seriously, particularly when it comes to the amount of certainty I have about my beliefs.
About some things, I have great certainty in my mind, but the certainty about my belief being true is still in my mind, and I’m aware of the fallibility of my mind. Since my deficient mind is all I have to work with, work with it I shall. I commit to beliefs, I defend and critique, I’m passionate and outspoken – but all with the humility of admitting the fallibility of the instrument that is my mind.
I firmly believe that there is something outside of my mind – that you, for instance, really exist and are reading this somewhere on this globe – but I might be wrong. I have no absolute proof that I’m not in the Matrix, or, as Descartes put it, that some demon isn’t playing tricks on me. For all I know, you might not really exist.
Not existing is an absurd thought for you, of course, but I can only access your thoughts via my own thoughts, and therefore it doesn’t help me if you say: “But here I am! I exist.” That, too, might be part of the Matrix or the spiteful demon or my own insanity.
I am imprisoned in my mind. Therefore, any statements I make about the outside world have to be prefixed with the admission of my inescapable subjectivity and hence fallibility.
That’s more or less what Descartes was driving at by his famous saying, not what I made it to be in my cartoon. That is, if I really made it and did not just imagine making it 
.
Martin Luther in the Bathroom
“Here I stand, I can do no other” is one of my favorite sayings, which I take very seriously. But there is a time for everything: a time to be serious and a time to poke fun. Here’s an example of the latter:
Matthew 25
OK, maybe this isn’t the funniest cartoon I’ve ever done, but it does illustrate a point: Upon seeing his friend the priest, the unbeliever Hux Lee immediately thinks of God and tries to make fun of him, whereas the priest is mostly concerned for the people in his parish.
Throughout history, many believers have recognized that God is to be met primarily by helping others. It’s the whole Matthew 25 thing – the parable about the sheep and the goats. You might want to read it sometime, if you haven’t already done so.
Amos: A Cry Against Social Injustice
A few years ago, a German magazine asked me to write a series of articles on the Minor Prophets in the Old Testament and to draw a picture for each article. Here’s the one about Amos, who lived in the eight century BC and preached passionately against social injustice. I think the picture needs no further explanation:
Recent Comments