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proof-2

2022-05-21 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
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proof-2
Votey panel for proof-2
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Explanation

This comic is titled "Theological Game: Running Proofs of God in Reverse" and satirizes classical arguments for the existence of God by inverting them to absurd effect.

In the first panel, the comic takes the Cosmological Argument (everything that exists has a cause, and following the chain of causation back leads to a First Cause, i.e. God) and runs it in reverse. Instead of concluding "therefore, God exists," the reversed version concludes "therefore, there is no God" by noting that nothing happening today appears to have any meaningful purpose or divine origin.

In the second panel, the comic inverts the Teleological Argument (the Watchmaker Analogy), which argues that the complexity and apparent design of the universe implies a designer. The reversed version points out that if you look at the universe for long enough, none of it seems to make any sense at all, concluding there is no designer — effectively an argument from poor design or cosmic indifference.

In the third panel, the comic reverses Leibniz's argument that we live in the "best of all possible worlds," which a perfect God would have created. The reversed version argues that existence is obviously worse than beautiful nothingness, so if God were to create the greatest possible being, that being must not exist — since existing would make it worse off.

The humor lies in how each reversal superficially mirrors the logical structure of the original argument while arriving at the opposite conclusion, poking fun at the way these classical proofs can feel like they could be argued in either direction depending on one's starting assumptions.

View History (1) Original Comic