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I was looking at Cyanide and Happiness, saw this, and thought of r/atheism (imgur.com)

submitted ago by apollo666

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[–]KShults 46 points47 points ago

This was posted on their site shortly after the death of Hitchens, that's what I've always assumed this comic was written for.

[–]byte-smasher 25 points26 points ago

Hitchens would have ripped apart the fallacious logic being employed in this comic. Just sayin.

[–]KShults 9 points10 points ago

Of course he would have. That's what Hitchens does.

[–]poo-poo 6 points7 points ago

And that fallacious logic is what Cy&H does.

[–]richertai 7 points8 points ago

mmmmm, fellatious.

[–]Owlsrule12 0 points1 point ago

Yeah I was gonna say.. It's a good mind twister, but it doesn't help atheism at all.. Such fallacy.

[–]Dudesan 20 points21 points ago

False dichotomy. A world without, say, Morgan Freeman would be a slightly worse world, but I'd still prefer that world to oblivion.

[–]tcb98 6 points7 points ago

You can live in a world without Freeman? Impossibru!

[–]aarnott50 2 points3 points ago

I'd say it isn't even a matter of preference. The programmer in me says that you can't compare a number (your rating if how good this world is) with NULL.

[–]AgletsHowDoTheyWork 10 points11 points ago

The author of the comic isn't saying the "better place" is oblivion. He is saying the "better place" is the past, because the person no longer exists.

[–]byte-smasher 2 points3 points ago

Don't presume. You make a pres out of you and me.

[–]knighmare 1 point2 points ago

cool, i can make you a president?

[–]Bishopkilljoy -1 points0 points ago

Oh what you got something against fighting imps? Psh lemme guess skyrim fan? (jk)

[–]udbluehens 0 points1 point ago

Speak for yourself

[–]ShamanicAI 0 points1 point ago

Hell is trying to level your acrobatics skill by jumping off of buildings. Forever.

[–]CtrlC_plus_CtrlV 35 points36 points ago

Downvote for imgur image of comic instead of link to artists' site... &#3232;_&#3232;

[–]oracleofmist 0 points1 point ago

i came here to post this as well....thank you

[–]RootRice 3 points4 points ago

It's nicely thought out, and I may be wrong here, but this doesn't make absolute sense.

Let's say planet earth is worth 10 points. And the hypothetical place our dead man would go is worth 7.

A great person dies, and so earth becomes a 9.

Even if a great person were to die, the value of the hypothetical place the dead man goes is unchanged. So if this hypothetical place is absolutely awful to start with, Earth becoming a worse place in absolutely no way guarantees that the place after death is any better.

tl;dr Earth is a 10. Hypothetical place after death is a 7. Great man dies on earth, earth becomes a 9. Hypothetical place is not "By default" a better place.

Of course with the death of a great person increases the chance the hypothetical place after death will be better than earth, but doesn't guarantee it, or set it by default.

As always I am open to discussion and am more than happy to be proven wrong. If I'm missing something, I'd like to know it, because I do in fact like this comic strip.

-Michael

[–]civerooni 10 points11 points ago

I don't think that is not what this comic is trying to say at all... By the way this about Christopher Hitchens, this comic was posted December 16 2011 and Hitchens date of death was 15 December 2011.

The comic is saying that a world with Hitchens is a 10, Hitchens lived in a 10 world. A world without Htichens is a 9 and Hitchens never saw this 9 world in which he did not exist, Hitchens lived in a better place because of his existence.

Now someone correct me if I am wrong

[–]Stottymod 0 points1 point ago

The comic doesn't say they were in a better place, but currently are in a better place.

[–]robywar 0 points1 point ago

But they never existed in any other place. Though you can say they exist in our memories of that 10 world.

[–]rasputine 1 point2 points ago

No, because the only place the person ever was was a world with that person in it. By dint of being dead, they were never in the world that was worse for no longer having them in it.

Ergo, they were always in a better place. The place after is oblivion, which is either immeasurable and irrelevant, or at least 9.2/10

[–]RootRice 0 points1 point ago

First off: Big fan of the oblivion joke. However, I'm not arguing that the world isn't better off without them, or that by leaving it they are by default leaving a place worse than the one they lived in (They lived in a 9, and they are leaving an 8 behind) What I'm trying to say is that we cannot be sure whatever place they finally end up in will be better than the 8 they left behind.

They live in a 9, by dying they make it an 8 and therefore leave an 8, but the final destination is any number belonging to R.

Yes the world is worse off. Yes, he lived in a better place than the one he leaves. No, I don't think the place he arrives at is necessarily or by default any better.

If I'm completely ignoring some point you made, forgive me. It's not that I'm not reading it but probably that I'm not understanding something. As much as I'd like to be, I'm not a genius, so if I am indeed missing something you said I'd appreciate if you could clarify. Thanks!

[–]rasputine 0 points1 point ago

we cannot be sure whatever place they finally end up in will be better than the 8 they left behind.

Nono, we're only concerned with the claim that they don't believe in an afterlife, so presume they aren't going to one. If they aren't going to an afterlife, they aren't going to any place, better or otherwise.

With this in mind, the only other place they'd been was the past, so in leaving this world worse, they were in a better place by not being in the world they're not in!

The key point is that there is not afterlife for this discussion, there's no option of places to go, better or worse, there's just nothing. So the "better place" was the life they had.

[–]Stottymod 0 points1 point ago

The comic clearly states "They're in a better place by default", which is not accurate. This is what causes the logical fallacy, they are most certainly not in a better place by default. You even said it yourself, they're not in a better or worse place, but you're defending something that says they are.

[–]knighmare 0 points1 point ago

It was a comic about Hitchens actually, they made it shortly after his death and it was posted here shortly after that.

[–]Sinaz20 0 points1 point ago

Technically, then... He was in a better place, and by dying made it a worse place through his absence... right?

[–]SimilarImage 3 points4 points ago

Age User Title Reddit Cmnt Points
4 months Ender0811 Thought of here... here 38 443
5 months o10jack01o A small gem of wisdom from an unlikely source! here 63 561
7 months Sumaes Today's Cyanide and Happiness: "A Better Place" [comic][pic] /r/woahdude 45 594

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[–]ToddShishler 4 points5 points ago

"I was looking at Cy&H, saw this comic, decided to reupload it to imgur, and then post it to r/atheism."

[–]Not_Me_But_A_Friend 1 point2 points ago

"You should have just linked to the comic"

[–]MrMadcap 0 points1 point ago

They're in our hearts and memories, where they will continue to exist as a part of ourselves for as long as we live.

[–]Punkwasher -1 points0 points ago

Reading this, I can't help but conclude that sometimes... Cyanide is happiness.

[–]AstralBones 1 point2 points ago

A is worse than B, therefore C must be better than A.

[–]jpr11011 1 point2 points ago

Yeah but still it's a cute sentiment. I don't think it's meant as an argument for an afterlife

[–]michael2l 0 points1 point ago

Really this is the quite the opposite of clever. A precocious 8-year-old could point that out.

[–]fnord123 0 points1 point ago

Given two sets containing integers, say, R = {1,5,9} and S = {1, 4, 5}; moving 4 from S to R reduces the mean in both sets.

[–]david12scht 0 points1 point ago

I think they were comparing the past and present. For example let's take set S (humanity): {1, 4, 9}, in which nine is like George Carlin, Carl Sagan or something like that. When 9 is removed, the old set is a better place then the new one. After all they do exist in the past, but don't in the present.

That's the way I interpreted the comic.

[–]steelpan 0 points1 point ago

"technically they are in a better place". This means that he believes in a soul that goes somewhere else than this world that is better. So they don't believe in heaven because that's illogical, but reincarnation on another planet/other dimension is completely logical. Sure.

[–]drmoo66 -1 points0 points ago

You people are fucking depressing.

[–]Ditrixgaming 0 points1 point ago

anyone find this "joke" lacking logic and wit?

[–]Lots42 1 point2 points ago

And so you had to be a dick and rehost on Imgur.

Go fuck yourself.

[–]LordAnubis10 0 points1 point ago

George carlin really is in a better place

[–]D1RTYBACON -1 points0 points ago

You stole my upvotes xD http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/tzwgs/how_atheists_should_deal_with_afterlife_questions/ But always good to see a little cyanide and happiness

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