Thursday, October 29, 2009

WP2: Culltural and Context Analysis

The two figures in this comic are a man named Jerry and the Lord. The comic creator is named Jerry so it would not be a stretch to believe that the man in the comic is in fact the author himself. In the comic Jerry cannot sleep because he feels that "safety" is unnatainable because of the gaseous star called the Sun can explode at any given time, thus, erradicating life as we know it. The Lord is there acting like a father figure to try and quell Jerry's fears by telling him something he may want to hear to make him feel better; as most parents do to children who wake up from nightmares. They may tell them that it was all a dream and that they are safe and nothing bad can harm them, when in fact, there is an entire world waiting out there to do that very thing; harm them. It is not responsible to try and lie to them to make them feel better and Jerry sees right through this because after God says what he says, Jerry replies with, "Not at all."

And what was it exactly that God said to make Jerry react in this way? After Jerry shared his fears and paranoia of Earth's pending destruction, God says, "Would it make you feel better if I told you that everyone gets to go to Heaven?" Jerry replies that way because he knows for a fact it was a bold face lie. In the bible in 1Corinthians 6:9-10 there is a list of those who do not inherit the kingdom of heaven. The passage says this:

9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Therefore because Jerry knows the truth, God is in fact lying to him, just like any normal parent would do to make him feel better, it does not make him feel better. And with this new information it is clear that not everyone gets to go to heaven and Jerry probably feels that if God can lie than his impending doom is most likely closer than expected and thus, God created and adverse effect and probably made him feel even scarier about being "safe".