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Mike Cuthbert said in Nailing Mr. Nice Guy: Douglas Adams on Jesus:
I first read Hitchhikers’ many years and thought it was very funny (sarcasm is my favourite sense of humour as I actually get it). Realising its fatalistic view of the world came a bit later. While it may be silly to intensely study Hitchhikers’ for grand truths (or the lack of same), books can often tell you a lot about their author.
Some fascinating ‘further reading’ is “The Salmon of Doubt” released in 2002, after Adams’ death. The book is a miscellaneous collection of his writings and speeches, including articles such as:
- Interview with American Athiests
- Is there an Artificial God?
The god that Douglas didn’t believe in is the god who is used by people to explain the unexplainable. What is the meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything?
“Religion” is a process where you do silly things for inexplicable reasons (such as the Jatravartid who lived in fear of The Coming of the Great White Handkerchief)
All this is great and plausible, except that you have to deal with the person of Jesus. Far easier to assume that he was killed for telling people to be nice to each other, than to acknowledge his call for repentance, his provision of salvation through his own death, and his rising from the dead, pointing to the future Coming of the Lamb who was slain.
Matt said in Learning to Hate:
hey joanna, i was thinking about the process of sin; temptation, capitulation, sin and often justification. I was thinking about the times I flippantly pray for forgiveness and go on sinning, rather than pray for a way out of the temptation, to truly ‘hate’ it, especially in regards to lust and anger.
Joanna said in “Stop Laughing I'm Dying”:
Another very interesting article Matt.
Do you reckon Black Books is just appropriating Ecclesiastes?
A meaningless life of vanity and alcohol?
I love watching it too… I wonder if there’s something wrong with us? We Christians who are supposed to be filled with joy and peace by the Holy Spirit and yet devour shows like Black Books with an almost hysterical excitement… do we not fear God ‘enough’?
Joanna said in Learning to Hate:
As much as it is a cliche to say it, this is a very thought-provoking article Matt.
I would love to understand better what you mean when you say “asking forgiveness of God, even when I’m in the middle of sinning…”
Nice storytelling too 
Karl said in Notes on the New Creation:
Thankyou for drawing attention to this bible passage. You point out that John’s vision of the new kingdom is of a new earth - rather than ‘heaven’. I think it will help the church greatly to conceive of the new kingdom as a new earth. It’s how the New Testament portrays it. See also 2 Peter 3.
Our complacency in refering to the new kingdom as ‘heaven’ is an obstacle to evangelism. In fact using God’s imagery could actually help with evangelism.
EXAMPLE 1: If JWs are right when they refer to a ‘new earth’, then they will find it hard to believe we are right about Jesus if we keep insisting we are ‘going to heaven’.
EXAMPLE 2: Hollywood loves a heaven of harps and clouds. If we pointed out that the bible speaks of a new kingdom on earth, some people might begin to realise how little they know about the bible - and perhaps decide to read it.
Thankfully, it is God’s gift of faith which brings people into the kingdom - despite our errors.
Joanna said in Nailing Mr. Nice Guy: Douglas Adams on Jesus:
Hi Drew,
thanks for your comment.
I do realise that Adams’ statement was a ‘lighthearted’ sort of ‘joke’.
The reason I was inspired to write the article is that I know of many people for whom that is actually their whole perspective on Jesus. That He was a nice guy who just said we should be nice to each other.
So I thought I’d draw attention to the faults in that perspective by using Adams as a spring board.
And yes, in fact the entire aim of my article is to get up people’s noses by presenting them with a more complete picture of Jesus and His mission.
I appreciate that this doesn’t work for everyone, obviously there is the possibility of causing offence, however I hope I wasn’t triumphalist.
thanks for your feedback though, there are certainly many ways the same object can be achieved.
Drew Dunstall said in Nailing Mr. Nice Guy: Douglas Adams on Jesus:
Nice artical Jo, and nice exploration on the reaction of the Jews to Jesus.
Hate to disagree with you though, but I thought I’d add my own two cents.
Douglas Adams wasn’t trying to make a serious statement about Jesus, of course it’s a mockery - the whole series is, as the comment above noted - an attack on ‘meaning’ in the universe. Meaning, and God, are constant jokes - I mean, 42, Arthur Dent, and ‘Sorry for the inconvenience’? The one liner about Jesus is an attempt to reduce a person who is difficult to joke about (the Pythons found it hard) to a laugh.
The tendancy we have to label other people’s takes on Jesus as misunderstood (which, of course they often are), can simply come across as a touch triumphant and self vindicating - ‘see we’re right and he/she/they/it are wrong!’. An oppositional review has a tendancy to simply get up people’s noses, instead of getting them to listen to your point.
My apologies if this comes across as unkind - I hope it hasn’t got up your nose too much.
Dan said in Nailing Mr. Nice Guy: Douglas Adams on Jesus:
Wonderful thoughts! I wrote on my own, but was sure to give you credit! 
http://tdaxp.blogspirit.com/archive/2005/07/10/caiaphas-and-diocletian-did-know-better.html
Walter said in Nailing Mr. Nice Guy: Douglas Adams on Jesus:
Perspicacious…secret Joanna code for acutely perceptive or observant… oh what a limited vocabulary I would have without the weird and wacky words of Joanna Hayes…
Steph Vaughan said in Nailing Mr. Nice Guy: Douglas Adams on Jesus:
I think Joanna is very perspicacious. [Look it up…]