1674 The Master.

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This dude would be exasperating as a friend, in spite of being a pretty good person. I find angry Evrina really cute. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but there we are. She’s Nina’s big teefs sister.

They made a remastered version of StarCraft… I’m tempted, but when am I ever going to play it? If it’s anything like the sequel I’ll play it for a few hours and get sick of the various restrictions they added. Plus who knows if my old computer can handle it. I think I should resist my nostalgia and just accept that StarCraft is something in my past and not my future.

the teen needed a ride home today and she lives 30 minutes away now. BLEH. That’s too far. How do people dealing with being far from things they have to do every day? It’s so annoying. She’s poor now and wants me to beg you guys for pity and support. XD Questionable life choices… When you have even less money than me then you’re really poor. I’m just a little bit past the point of not having to file a tax return. I bought her some clothes and food because… I’m dumb? Too kind? Something. I don’t think she’s enjoying adulthood as much as she anticipated.

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” I don’t think she’s enjoying adulthood as much as she anticipated. ”

Few people do…

Yeah adulthood sucks, but at least it’s better than childhood. Similar duties and problems, but at least you get some privileges children don’t have.

To be honest, Evrina doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who would know how God works. Maybe she does, and I can be pleasantly surprised. But her demeanor seems to indicate that she does not maintain a close relationship with God, while her boss’ does (indicate it, that is). Time will tell….

In my experience a person’s ‘demeanor’ is rarely telling of how well they do or don’t know how [insert name of deity of your choice] works.

Even if he exists, does anyone, really?

God exists, and yes. There are a great many things you can derive about God’s character by going in depth into the Bible.

It helps to know where to find people who can understand the old manuscripts and decipher the meaning. Hebrew is not a scientific language like English or Latin.

http://bethtikkun.com/author/luton2001/

Our coffee shop friend obviously intends to mean and do well, but it’s obvious he doesn’t study. Ever.

At this point, there is no definitive yes or no on the existence of your god, just like for every other deity that people have worshipped over the millennia.

The idea that one can know the will of an infinitely more knowledgeable and presumeably more wise entity than mere humans, seems a bit egotistical to me. Apart from the fact that I don’t see any reason to believe there is a God, nor that we can trust any holy book on telling us anything about said deity, that is something that’s bothered me for the longest time.
Here is something operating on a much higher, incomprehensible level. As David Browie below says, ‘god works in mysterious ways’.
To say one can know what god wants for us or plans for his entire creation, basically becomes saying: “There is a knowledge far greater than any ever held by mankind, and I possess it.”
Sorry, I’m not trying to start a huge argument here. It just irks me when people claim they can know the will of god. Seeing as how many people claim this with contrary ideas on what this will entails, should be enough to make us think twice about this entire phenomenon.

I have to go outside of myself and embrace the community to have any hope of being a professional. I must take those who have gone before me as credible. I have to trust that there was a reason they came up with what they have.

Living in this world requires me to have faith in SOMETHING. I cannot see the experiences of others with my own eyes. I can participate if I happen to be there. Even so, my context can be skewed, even if I’m standing right there.

Darwin found an island in an ocean. He came with a specific skillset, a series of questions, and a life experience all of his own. He observed a few things, and a thought entered his head. Through careful observation over many years, he developed his thought into something that is now known as the theory of evolution.

There were people, particularly in the religious sector, who felt threatened by what Darwin had observed. There were people who accepted what he had to say. There has been a great deal written in scientific journals about this phenomenon.

I have a problem, though. I have people on one side of me who tell me that evolution is absolutely true. I have people on the other side of me who tell me evolution is an absolute lie. My problem is that I am a mechanic; a technician, at best. I’m not very vested in biological science. I don’t know how I can observe the phenomenon of evolution for myself.

On both sides of the evolution issue are people I love and trust who feel strongly both ways. Some people on both sides become incensed at the notion that one is true, or the other is true.

I’m a mechanic. I’m not a scientist. I’m just one who believes in God. I’m not a preacher or a teacher. For me to exist, I have to take on a belief system if I want to participate in life or in humanity. The thing is, there is so little I am trained to prove, scientifically.

Even so, there are some things in life I have observed. For instance, there are a very large variety of creatures, big and small, who can be described as having forelimbs, hind legs, a tail (or at least a tailbone), lungs, a heart, a brain, a digestive tract, two eyes, two ears, a mouth, a tongue, etc.

However, there are also creatures, typically smaller, that have an odd number and arrangement of limbs. Some of them have wings, and some don’t. Some of the creatures that have wings have two, and some have four, and all still naturally have six legs.

It’s an odd difference. Why do the first set of creatures I described have a subset with wings, but the wings take the place of the forelimbs in almost all instances? Why are some of the latter creatures able to grow wings as well as all of their limbs?

What kind of experiences does it take for a person to ask questions like this? It’s such a small thing, and yet to the observer, it’s an enormous deal!

All of this to really drive the point home of my predicament. I have a lifetime of experience that has absolutely reinforced my belief that not only does a God exist, but He is the God of the Bible. However, there are many people who have had a lifetime of experience which has driven them to the conviction that there is no such thing as a god.

The most ironic thing is that the knowledge I have acquired is essentially useless to use as an argument in these cases. Many people have dedicated their entire lives to pursuit of knowledge! So, what makes my experience so different?

Hmm… The time to answer that question may be drawing near. Not today, though. This post has been long enough.

You say you’re a mechanic. Regardless of the field of it, you «have» witnessed evolution. The evolution of technology.

For example, cars built these days are, in general, more efficient, safer, and better designed in general than cars when they were first introduced into the world.

You’re using a piece of technology that evolved from another. Even if your device is some cheap thing from Walmart, the amount of computing power it has would have taken up several square feet (or more!) in the past.

If you’re using a phone to post this stuff, you’re using a device that, when they first came out, cost $3,995 in 1984 and was large and heavy enough that you could use it as a self-defense weapon.

Even your method of posting this stuff is more “evolved” than the Internet of even five years ago.

Evolution «can» be seen. If ideas can evolve, it’s not a huge step to think that life can evolve.

I know that I was just talking about evolution and nothing about God or a god or gods. That’s an entirely different matter. Figured one long post is enough for the time being. >?<

My point got lost in a wall of text. These things happen.

I used evolution mostly as an example, and I just didn’t stop when I had said enough to convey my point. I am mainly trying to say that any belief system out there must have faith in something. One cannot believe something without a large part of it being a mystery.

Ironically, I nearly used technology as my example.

God works in mysterious ways. Or so they say

There’s a sign in my old office that says,”Christians believe God to be omniscient-that is knowing or capable of knowing everything. Liberals know there is no God, and thus know more than all of religion, science, and God”

You do what you can, when you can. There’s many things in life you have no control over. Those are G-d’s domain.

If you don’t bother, assuming G-d will handle it, when you’re well capable of doing the work yourself, then you’re just taking G-d for granted.

In his statement about him needing help, and G-d sending Evrina, not only does he abdicate his own responsibility to deal with the things he can, but he removes Evrina’s contribution and attributes it to G-d work.

If I give my own glory to G-d, that’s fine. If you give my glory to G-d, yer being a jerk. Appreciate what people do for you. Appreciate what G-d does for you. Do *not* conflate the two.

Seems to be something wrong with your “o” key, or maybe your autocorrect.

Jewish people often write “God” as “G-d” like that. I can’t remember why now… maybe something to do with not taking God’s name in vain?

Basically, it’s respect/tradition.

G-d’s name is considered holy, and thus using it in a medium that might be used to line a birdcage (back in the print era) was considered disrespectful. One should not put others in the position of needing to scour every inch of the text before crumpling the paper and tossing it in the trash. As such, there’s a tradition of recognized abbreviations (even within prayerbooks in many cases) to represent G-d’s name without actually being the name, and it carried over to print.

Prayerbooks have ritual methods for disposal when they wear out, rather than just throwing them away.

This also applies to recordings of blessings. Many times if a Jewish blessing is used in a movie, or song, for reasons other than instruction (a rabbi making a recording for a child to practice the blessings wouldn’t alter it) some of the words are changed for the same reason. It’s less obvious than in print, but in general anyone who’s in a position to recognize that words were changed also knows why words were changed.

Honestly, the tradition was more common in my parents’ and grandparents’ generations, but when I’m making a considered post (rather than a quick Facebook quip or something) it feels right to abbreviate.

Dude, could not have said it better myself. God is not your servant, and will not do things for you. He MIGHT have sent you someone smart enough to be able to do the things you aren’t, but give her credit for her work, and stop asking God to do everything for you. I’m non-theistic, I guess you could say, but people like God boy there irritate me. I like Evrina better than him, TBH, even tho she’s so far come across like a judgemental B.
I also still think Evrina has a crush on God boy

Maybe furry god works different from non-furry god?

I’m going to assume that the furry god is Kizinti and say yes …

The two candidates on the Ballot this year are Kitsuni and the Green Man. Kizinti won last year.
I have a preliminary nomination in for the Spirit of the Kohoku River, up. But no chance of a win, there.

At least the remaster will be free, not the 4k HD version, but still free.

Oh, Evrina. You’re head over heels for this guy, aren’t you? Also, I feel like Alex deserves some hazard pay for this.

You know, I can almost empathize with why she acts the way she does in the club. I used a modifier.

okay, I was so taken with her rage panel, I forgot, she said “My friend alex…” nina’s bells are about to go off, aren’t they?

trying to argue with an overly catholic dude while being atheist XD

but at least the guy’s not going all “deus vult” on other people, so I guess it’s fine

Believe what you want, we’re all worm food in the end, but the only type of religious people that truly bother me are the ones that believe if they do nothing god will provide. “I know my foot is necrotic, but Jesus will heal it for me.” Those people truly disturb me. Both my parents are pastors, but my mom has a saying: Prayer without action is just wishful thinking. This shop owner is just plain irresponsible without insurance or permits. It could go sideways for some people and he would be at fault all because “god provides”.

What a fantastic opportunity for character growth.

Nice answer! I, for one, am looking forward to more of this arc, if for no other reason than it’s incredibly fun to watch it unfold. :D

You have a way with characterization that makes it looks easy, even if you are putting in enormous effort that we readers don’t see. Thank you! :)

What he said. I’ve been a fan of the comic for years, but haven’t bothered with the comments much, just recently started reading them and realized what I was missing out on.

Anyways, Your character development has been truly amazing. I’m actually coming to, maybe not like, but at least respect and identify with Reggie as a human being. Never thought that would happen. This is a truly amazing comic. More so after reading thru it from the beginning again. There are professional writers who can’t make such realistic and 3 dimensional characters

What they said. Is shocking that your characters haven’t got a crass-action lawsuit against you for defamation of, … Wait, .. that would break the fourth wall… Never mind! They won’t be doing that.
Although they would have grounds in that the way you have portrayed them, they Are indistinguishable from real people. So, in theory they could, … Oh, right! Fourth wall. Never mind.

The necrotic foot thing reminds me of a story I saw on the internet. It’s on the internet, so there is no way to verify it, as far as I know, but it comes from the hospital, supposedly, they were getting ready to amputate someone’s necrotic foot. She had diabetes, and her foot was already gangrenous. The woman initially refused the operation saying “Jesus will heal me”
She agreed to the procedure, eventually, only because the hospital staff (Nurse or Dr. not sure which) came back with “Ma’am, you have maggots growing in your foot. Jesus wants you to let us amputate”

Your mom’s saying is excellent. If God didn’t want us to do things, we wouldn’t have arms legs and a brain. Not hat God won’t help you if you really need it. My mom told me a story about one night when she was driving her car down a deserted road and she blew a tire. It was really late, she was exhausted, and she didn’t have her spare tire. She prayed, a d after awhile another car came down the road. The man inside changed her tire, and asked for nothing in return. As he was leaving, he actually called her by her name, despite that she had never told him it.

God wants us to do things ourselves, it’s good for us, and helps spread the word of God and Christ. I’m hoping this guy, as good intentioned as he is, figures that out. Going without insurance is a bad idea, nowhere in the Bible does it say “be stupid.”

Like the story of the man on a roof in a flood. Some people come by in a johnboat and offer him a ride. He says no, God will save me. The Coast Guard comes by in a cutter (or whatever one of their boats would be called. The try to rescue him, but he says,” God will save me. Lastly a helicopter comes by, but he says the same thing.(No idea how the people in the helicopter heard him.) Predictably, he dies. When he gets to heaven, he asks,”Why didn’t you save me?”
God says,” Well, I sent two boats and a helicopter, but you didn’t seem to want to be saved.”
Sometimes God’s work is done by entirely earthly people and means-like the preacher/ditchdigger that pulled me out of the ditch TWICE a few days ago.

I hate to be that guy but that is EXACTLY how god works acording to 10+ years of sunday school i was forced to go to (getting up before noon on a sunday is blasphomy imho)

God will accomplish His ends, not yours (with or without you). He isn’t obligated to enable your stupidity.

I’ve always thought from the Christian view point, that God will help you, if you help yourself. He will provide opportunity, it’s up to you to use that opportunity. He won’t do your work for you. For example: If you pray for a girl to love, and you meet one, but never talk to her or let her know your interest, well, God introduced her into your life, you need to take it from there (Since it’s 2017, I’ll add that I say girl because I’m a straight male, but the principle applies to the gender/orientation of your choice)
Again, not a Christian, more non-theistic than anything else, I guess, which is different from an Atheist, in being that I’m spiritual, but not bound by any religion, and respecting of all

I do believe you can find it in Hezekiah 32:16 “God helps those who help themselves.”

Look it up.

There is no Hezekiah 32:16 in the Christian Bible.

There’s no book of Hezekiah.
But I’m pretty sure you knew that. ;)

On an unrelated note, I’m hoping one of you can help me. I found a good webcomic that I loved a couple years ago, but it was fairly new and when I finished, life got in the way, and I forgot about it. I can’t remember what it was called or any of the character’s name, so my google for it was too vague to be effective.

It’s about a demon child who somehow gets out of the castle where she lives in the demon world. Over the course of her adventure, she meets a girl from the mortal world who helps her get home. Once home, the mother is not completely thrilled with the mortal, but allows her to stay in the hopes she will crash and burn. And that was the last story. There were also these weird horse like creatures that they rode, can’t remember what they were called, but they had spots that you could rip off and ride like a carpet, and whenever you rip a spot off, you shorten it’s life, or something like that.

If this rings a bell with anyone, please help. It’s driving me crazy, LOL

I don’t remember the name, but I’m pretty sure it’s by the lady who does Go Get a Roomie. Mandatory disclaimer: GGaR is a bit NSFW, worth a look though, if you can handle that, at least as of 3 months ago when I last checked up on it.

Also, you must be capable of handing level 3 smug omniamorous lesbians.

“Also, you must be capable of handing level 3 smug omniamorous lesbians.”

I like that.
Just as a joke:I’d like to write that on a card, + pull the card out every one in awhile, just to make people wonder what is going on. :)

People with this sort of faith are interesting and completely infuriating to those who like a little more planning in their plans. Doing it all the time is probably dangerous and I like to think that God wants our input, but sometimes you just need to take that leap of faith. It’s terrifying every time. :d

I think that’s Evrina. She’s a high-strung little doggie and yaps like crazy. But her heart is good. Or good-ish. OK, she might be a mistress of evil but I think she cares this once.

I really don’t think you can call Evrina “good”, because from her earlier appearances she is casually and deliberately cruel, even to (or especially to) her friends.

But it *does* make her interesting.

Heh, she is an interesting one. The Taming of Evrina might not be so straightforward. O-or she might have some more hidden depths to unlock …? I certainly didn’t expect her to turn up in this shop in the first place.

I agree that if you want to give God props, that’s fine. But don’t diminish people’s own actions. And don’t assume things will work out just because God has your back. Job was a man of God, and God liked him enough to mention him in the Bible by name. But things went pretty awful for Job, just so God could prove a point. You might be the next Job; things make go really awful for you, just to prove a point.
(I always want to write is ‘Jobe’ or something, to clarify it’s a name, and not a synonym to ‘career’)

And also, yeah, even if God provides, you still need to take what’s provided. Old story about a faithful man who is told it’s going to flood, he needs to evacuate, and he says ‘no, I’ll be fine, the Lord will provide.’ And the rains come, and the basement fills with water, and an army truck rolls up. Sir, it’s getting worse, you need to evacuate. ‘No no, this is fine. The Lord will provide.’ And the water rises and the first floor floods, and a boat comes along. Please, get in, we’ll take you to safety. ‘No no, the Lord will provide.’ And the flood gets worse, and only the roof peeks out of the water, and a helicopter hovers overhead. Please get in, we can save you. ‘Thank you, no, the Lord will provide, I’ll be fine.’ And the waters rise, and the house is washed away, and the man drowns. And the man goes to God and asks ‘What happened? I thought you would provide.’ And God replied ‘I did provide. First I provided you with a warning, and then I sent a truck, and a boat, and I even provided a helicopter. And each time you turned down what I provided.’

I love the dynamic you’ve set up on these two. It seems on the surface like a cliched setup for a ship, but I trust you not to play it like that.
It could be a setup to have Evrina finally get herself some real self-esteem by not being able to push *everybody* away.

Nothing wrong with you her anger is justified. I have worked with people on making business ideas and there were ones that had the “God Provides” Idea of we do 1% of the work and the rest just “happens” they are insanely frustrating people.

Are we all going to ignore the fact evrina kinda dropped a bomb on nina unintentionally just to talk theology?

Up in Alberta Canada we have this horrible story of a couple’s belief system being so important that they let there son die of a treatable condition.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/alberta/calgary-parents-found-guilty-of-first-degree-murder-in-diabetic-sons-death/article34133222/

Okay, so now that Alex has looked up everything he needs to do, is he going to actually start doing all those things? I think he is going to, because otherwise his comment “I needed help and God sent me you” doesn’t really make sense. That is, I’m interpreting what he means as “I didn’t know what I needed to do, so God sent me a helper who knew exactly who to ask to find out everything I need to do,” which would be useless if he weren’t planning to do those things when he has enough money for them.

Getting the money is obviously the hard part since the business is new and doesn’t seem to have many customers yet and he spent all his money just buying the place.

I think people are taking what “God boy” said too seriously. I’m thinking it was a joke, particularly something to get under Evrina’s skin. I mean, you don’t have to be around her very long to figure out how to do that….. Plus her reactions to annoyance are rather amusing. :3

I like the art, but: Evrina’s face in the last panel, is the spookiest art that I’ve ever seen on Between Failures. :D

Great job, Jackie!
Let’s not mess with the angry Evrina. There be tigers, here. :)

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