A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Apocalypse. . .

We all have our favourite religious jokes. Now's your chance to share them: Ship of Fools wants them.

You remember these guys: they once held a Ned Flanders lookalike competition, and their Mystery Worshippers critique church services around the world on the basis of how interesting the sermnon is and how comfortable the pews are.

Even as an atheist, or perhaps because I am an atheist, I love these guys. They realise that inquiry, debate, and the ability to laugh at themselves is fundamental to a healthy understanding of themselves and what they believe.

Strange to think, too, that a contest which promotes poking fun at the idiosyncracies of religious beliefs and practices is in a way a frontline battle against hyper-sensitivity to intolerance and prejudice. And with religious idealogies increasingly driving the news headlines and federal policies, there's a desperate need for irreverent humour.

So. Dare to mock - make a joke.

A catholic priest and a rabbi find themselves sitting next to each other on a long journey, and strike up a conversation. After discussing the weather and the cricket, the priest turns to the rabbi and says that he thought it was rather strange that he was not allowed to eat pork, and asked him whether he ever had.
The rabbi replied, "Well, when I was a small boy, I did in fact taste a small piece of bacon."
"What was it like?" asked the priest.
The rabbi replied: "Not nearly as good as sex."