Quick Plats

I've been thinking a bit about the A-Chick Tracts that Telltale Atheist has been doing, and I rather had an idea for one.

First, we have two brothers.  One is an amazing artist, who devotes his life to oil painting. We will call him Teddy.  The other is a scoundrel who really isn't good for much.  We'll call him James

The two have a small dialogue, where Teddy tries to tell James that he simply needs Jesus and he'll quit being a lush. and James just kinda blows him off.  Teddy is worried about James soul, and James doesn't believe in any of that.  James responds that he's already going to hell anyway, so there's no use trying for redemption.  That is, says James, if it's even real. Teddy resigns himself to painting, as James leaves.

Later that day, we pick up James' story, and he's sitting in a bar getting quite drunk.  He has a conversation with someone in the bar, who happens to believe in god.  James tells him he doesn't believe any of that.

Cut to Teddy, who is at home.  He's working on a neat painting of Jesus on the mount (Teddy being a Christian, and a lover of symbolism), when he realizes he's going to need more oil paints.  He puts on his coat and heads out into the stormy eventide.

Cut back to James, who is rather irritated at this point and decides he's going to go drink at the bar across town.  He gets in his car, though he can barely stand. In a twist of fate, James and Teddy wreck, and both die.

Teddy and James are now both dead.  The afterlife wasn't real, and Teddy wasted his life painting stuff he didn't really feel strongly about.  Teddy was actually really interested in nude art, but he believed it was lustful and wrong, and therefore never reached his true potential.  James gave up on life because he believed that, if a god were real, it was going to damn him regardless.  Neither believed in themselves, and their beliefs in a god didn't change the fact that they both died.

In leiu of a bible verse, here we take a moment to block-text a replacement for John 3:16

Your life is valuable, and it's the only one you get.  Don't waste it, or limit yourself, because you are afraid of what might lie on the other side of death.  Death is final.  Live your life as though you've only got one, because it's precious since it's your only one.  You won't have eternity to catch up with friends and family, so value your time with them now.  Do what's right because it's right, not because you expect some reward.

Last regular page: Put some flowery picture of a sunset or something, and this text: Life isn't black-and-white like a Chick Tract.  This life is the only one you have, so live it well.

Questionnaire optional.

Q1: Do you believe your life is worth living to the fullest?
Q2: Do you feel confined by a belief you don't necessarily hold?
Q3: Do you feel as though you could create your own meaning in life?

If so, start being the change you want to see in the world.