P.Z. Myers in the news (the catholic church communion wafer incident)

No it isn't. It's 26% Roman Catholic. About 35-40% Protestant (17% Baptist, 7% Methodist, 5% Lutheran, 3% Presbyterian, 2% simple Protestant, 2% Pentacostal, 2% Anglicant but not all of them would identify with Protestant) and 15% Atheist. So actually its a nation whose largest unified religious sect is Roman Catholic.Data from wiki's article on US Demographics. Mostly protestants, with some Catholics, Quakers, Unitarian and Deists. Because Protestants were having such a hard time. Here I was thinking it was set up to create a place without governmental/institutional sectarianism.Hi Artemis, we haven't met. Hope you enjoy your stay here. This is of course opinion. I don't see what is bad behaviour about anything he has done. It is not bad behaviour to draw cartoons of Mo with a bomb on his head - it's an artistic statement. It might not be very clever or good, but that isn't the point.There is no bad behaviour in putting a crucifix in a jar of piss. Though I'm not sure what the artistic statement on that was meant to be. It would have been bad to steal a crucifix from St Paul's and dunk that in a vat of dog's piss.There is no bad behaviour in driving a nail into a couple of pages from some books and a wafer that some guy has held whilst speaking in latin. Tens of thousands of Jews were executed because it was alleged that a few of them might possibly have done this.Also of note, that particular wafer was held hostage, sheathed in a condom by the original 'kidnappers' as a protest against the Catholic psycho-biological war they are waging against the poor (especially African nations) and the easily manipulated. I wouldn't have heard of this protest were it not for the famous face of Myers being involved.The astonishing thing is that the friend of the original student who was accused of the "most vile act imaginable" (kidnapping the host) is also facing sanctions/suspension. What the hell did he do? Associating with a blasphemer is a crime now, too? I agree, we should respect people's irrational emotional attachments. However, when people are so irrational about a symbol that they will threaten the life, education or career of a person who commits a faux pas with regards to said symbol need a perspective check. Myers is taking the flak by actually doing something offensive putting the incident with Webster Cook and his friend into perspective whilst also making a statement about the Dark Ages origin of the Eucharist (ie., its extra-biblicality) and the witch Jewhunts/massacres/pogroms/genocides that followed the Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus sentiment in the 13th Century all the way up to WWII.Humans are perfectly capable of committing horific acts based on a rumour of something horrible happening to a wafer somewhere by someone because of the RCC. We need to make sure this doesn't happen again and sometimes - that can be acheived with a slap to the collective faces of those that take things far too seriously. It's not pretty, and it's not a solution that we should rely on exclusively (and PZ doesn't for sure).Of course, PZ isn't the bad guy here: Without Donohue whipping the masses into frenzy, most people would have been mostly entirely ignorant of the powderkeg that lies within extremist Catholocism.Let's show how desperately these people need a recalibration of their sense of outrage/morality, here is an excerpt of one the 12,000 emails that PZ received:

quote:

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I don't think I've ever before come across such prejudice and hatred in print!

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Seriously, there are people who are either very very sheltered (and yet use the internet and read atheist and religious blogs) - or they really need some perspective. What is the worst thing that has ever been printed as far as prejudice or hatred is concerned. Well that's debatable but I think Mein Kampf is probably something that floats through one's mind during the thought process. Do statements about torturing a wafer really hold up to something like "If the Jews were alone in this world, they would stifle in filth and offal", or maybe "First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. ..." (Luther).Of course it isn't the most vilest thing they've ever seen in print. They probably know that too. But their passions are so enflamed by someone like Donohue or their own priest or simply based on what they have been indoctrinated with all of their lives they this kind of hyperbole comes naturally.

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Incidentally MrJack, I wasn't necessarily directing these comments straight at you: Just using them as a convenient springboard to come out of hiding and put my own 2 cents in, though anglagard's post made it difficult since he said what I was going to say However, I am curious for a further explanation on this 'bad behaviour'. What is bad? Saying that he's going to torture a cracker? Well, maybe it's bad behaviour, but I'd consider smoking a cigarette to be much worse behaviour - and yet I wouldn't point out that Hitchens was behaving badly simply because he had a ciggie during a debate with Mugabe (even in a non-smoking lecture hall!).

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Most of the time PZ is quietly mocking, informative and thought-provoking. He maintains interest by occasionally stirring things up a bit. Otherwise he'd end up like the 20 billion other blogs saying the same things out there: unread by anyone but long-running fans and a few trolls etc. I'd love Donohue to read my blog and consider it worthy enough to right a press release about it.That said: the middle ground has been tried and tested. Almost universally the good points went unheard/unread. Myers tries a different style: Mostly be a wonderful teacher of new things, explaining points using calm constructive language with occasional outbursts of emotion.