Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day

[McMouse]

Give him a religion, and he’ll starve to death while praying for a fish.

[yogi-bear]

Very profound, McMouse

[redman41]

Very true McMouse ! lol
Teach a Man to Fish and you feed him for a lifetime.......(part of Chinese Proverb)

[jake-the-peg]

Give a man a religion, he'll kill some other poor s0d, steal his fish and tell everybody that God told him to do it

[Sqad]

jake/Mcmouse...LOL

[jno]

and yet Jesus' aim (I remain unclear about how he fulfilled it) was to feed thousands with the fish, which seems slightly less uncharitable than your version, jake.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Taking the story of the feeding of the 5,00 at face value, if Jesus's intention just about sustaining a lot of people there are considerably simpler ways that this could be achieved if one has access to God's omnipotence. For example; the crowd simply happens to have enough food on it or, given that it's by a beach, have fish available in abundance.

The real purpose is to demonstrate (to the reader) that Jeebus has these powers - it's also later used as a call back to supposedly underline J's slightly suspect cannibal/bread issues. The point is certainly not about charity; that merely gives the justification for the demonstration.

[WaldoMcFroog]

D'oh - that's supposed to be 5,000, obviously.

[jno]

Waldo, my answer was slightly tongue in cheek because the original question was. The marginally more serious point about it was to suggest that jake's response (also tongue in cheek) doesn't necessarily describe the way religion, or religious people, work.

[chakka35]

Why did he need to feed the five thousand anyway? Hadn't they got food at home? Wouldn't it have been better to find some starving beggars and conjure up food for them? Strange fellow he was.. if he existed, that is.

[beso]

The story of Jesus feeding the multitude neglects to mention that the fish was off and loaves of bread were a hard as rock.

The food was passed through the crowd and everyone took a look and decided to pass it on.

[Ankou]

feeding 5,000 ? pah thats nothing, he walked on water after that.

show off.

[Rev Sermon]

Why did he feel the need to brag about it. If he was reincarnated today he'd be Chris Evans.

[naomi24]

I have a sneaking suspicion that for their day out the crowd brought packed lunches.

[bunch_of_fluffies]

ah but back to fish, ... "give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach him how to fish and you get rid of him for the weekend"