…and this is a 
I get email
Category: Kooks
Posted on: July 26, 2008 3:15 PM, by PZ Myers
Good news! While I still get flooded with email every time Bill Donohue puts my address in a press release, I'm getting 90% fewer death threats! I think that maybe the example of Ms Kroll and her trollish husband has made people thinking twice before explicitly spelling out their gruesome plans, so that's an improvement.
I'm still getting way too much repetitive crap, though. Yes, people, I know you're offended. You don't all need to tell me. If I had time to reply to each one of you individually, I'd simply tell you to tough it out — I'm offended by you, but none of us have a right to not be offended. So let me just tell you collectively: I've heard that message, and the message that you'll pray for me, and the message that I'll be going to hell, and the message that you think I need to be sent to jail or an asylum, and I don't care what you think, so put a sock in it already. OK? OK. I've now got a bunch of filters in place that trash mail that mentions certain common keywords (hint to people legitimately attempting to contact me: try not to sound too Catholic), so there's not even the point of harassment to your continued volleys. You can all stop now.
Anyway, in the hopes that at least a few of these loons will notice how silly their protestations look, I've put a semi-random sampling below the fold. Or, at least, I hope it will at least induce them to proofread before they send their whines into my trash folder.
Bryan Stikeleather is a Ph.D. student at the University of Pittsburgh, and this is the way his mind works. Actually, a lot of Catholics have been sending me email along these lines — do you all fantasize about raping and murdering people? Please stop reading the Old Testament!
Just wanted to send you a note to say that if someone publicized that they were going to kidnap your wife, Mary, and your kids Alaric, Connlann, and Skatje, rape them brutally, kill them, throw them in a trashcan, and then laugh and brag about it, then you just might have just a hint of the outrage that you have caused many good people.
Hoss Gardner wants to hurt the educational system of some mysterious state I've never heard of in retaliation. Read further and you'll discover the irony of that.
You have put y our education institution in the middle of this. So every agency, public and private, that gives to Minnisota University will be informed of your actions and letters of protest will be going to halt all funding. The bureau of Minnisota Tourism and Chamber of Commerce will be notified and a boycot started against the state of minnisota. We will hit you economically every way we can.
And there's more! Hoss keeps sending me email.
I work at a school working with high school students. If I did anything like this and publized it I would be fired for unprofessional behavior.
But beyond that, it seems to me that you are afraid. I noticed on your site that there is a small insert about violent attacks be reported. So its true that the Christian martyrs have and had more guts than atheists. After all you are afraid that now you have insult the Catholics and the Muslims, you might be hurt.
Mainly I'm afraid of the Catholics. The Muslims haven't threatened me at all. But…Hoss works in a school? That is the most frightful thing I've read yet.
This one just calls himself "Al. G.".
hey jew if you got balls say somthing about your jewish backround fag.or the moslems
Well, gosh, I don't think I have any Jewish background — at least not anywhere in the last few centuries. Why are so many of these letter writers calling me Jewish?
At least Ron Peplau is a little more imaginative in his queries.
Your actions are irrational. You must have done this before. Are you a wiccan.
Why, no, Ron! I'm an atheist! Wiccans are kind of silly, don't you think?
I read this one with some concern — I'm happily married, and anyway, I don't really swing that way. Jason really needs to find his own teddy bear and bottom.
Hello, my name is jason Larrimore, I am a 35 year old mechanic from Thomasville, AL. I am a Catholic Christian, I would like to desacrate your fat ass. I know that I shouldn't feel that way, but you are truly ther worst kind of ignorant.Give me a call {if you are man enough} and I will come to you to deliver your ass whipping. 334-410-0611. I'm sure that you won't call, I'm sure that you will know the truth eventually, hopefully sooner than too late. I will pray for you, even though I would really enjoy kicking your ass.
If nothing else, he has a future writing copy for the classified ads section of your local city weekly.
Rick DeLano is more representative — he sends his demands to both me and President Bruininks (who must be heartily sick of all this).
Please be advised that there is a limit beyond which gratuitous, evil and demonic hatred expressed toward Catholics will either be dealt with by the appropriate authorities, as it should have been long ago in this instant case, or else the victims of these hate crimes will have no choice but to defend themselves against the unopposed spread of this blatant, bigoted, Nazi-like hatred.
I strongly urge, advise, and recommend that you fire this bigot and hate criminal NOW, because if you do not, you will have opened the door to something terrible indeed, a return to the religious persecutions and ugly anti-Catholic vandalism for which this country has had plenty of occasion to be ashamed in the past.
If that particular Pandora's Box is opened up how very sorry those authorities will be, who could have intervened with a decent application of existing authoritative guidelines against such evil and vile contempt and bias.
Stop the bigots and haters NOW.
Fire this grotesque blasphemer Myers NOW.
Stop the desecrators of the Catholic eucharist RIGHT NOW.
Or we will have no choice but to conclude that our defense will have to rely upon our own resources.
Most sincerely,
Rick DeLano
Right…Surrender Dorothy, or we'll send in the flying monkeys!
Mr S. K. Kutai is very, very Catholic. And very, very stupid.
so you are a biologist, huh. I presume you are quite acquainted with amoeba; you know the thing that divides and divides and divides without doing the thing that you and your wife do as a bedtime pastime.. no, you don't know why it divides and divides and divides apart from appropriating it some kind of 'intelligence'which it has not. so you see, you are quite stupid on that. Is that all you can be, a stupid biologist? you can't even stop aging. look at your tummy!!!why didn't you learn to be a philosopher? so at least you can understand the associations of words and their effect on society. how much do you love your son. myers? or are you looking at him just as a big blob - a collection of amoeba-like entities? a blob you could abuse to satisfy your animal instinct? given your state of biology-based stupidity, i presume it's not immoral for you to fondle your son to satisfy your penis' needs, huh? afterall you are not on any moral code; you are just a plain professor of biology, someone the world can survive without....just a blob of amoeba - a blob that is hell-bound until your 9th generation..Have you heard of the candle fire at the stadium biblicum ofm in hongkong , myers? I presume not. well that fire is from Jerusalem. it is especially transmitted. do you know about the words of consecration for the consecrated hosts, myers? they are the same words used by Jesus and handed over to Catholic priests through the ages through apostolic succession. and what Jesus wants done, it goes. many martyred their lives to get His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity to the present. don't think a desecration of the Eucharist by you will go unabated. what you did was sacrilegious. you can laugh at what you did, but you have also brought abomination to yourself and your generations to come. you are hell-bound, myers!!! I can only advise you to repent. go to a Catholic priest and confess....or hell shall be your rightful dues. we'll see each other but from oppossite sides of the great divide...I'll raise my hand to remind you, and you'll raise your clenched hand with a grotesque face to acknowledge me but you'll be naked and burning all eaten up by your generations of cursed posterity.
Yeah, my brain hurts too. I hope you didn't strain yourself actually trying to make sense of that.
Dorothy Westermann of Eau Claire is a bit peeved.
Your actions described below indicate you are not fit to be a professor at any institution of learning. Your immature and irrational actions are not only hateful, hurtful and destructive, you should not be allowed access to young people. Your intentional harm to both Christians and Muslims should be punished by jail time, firing from the University staff and social ostracism.
You have used the education, position and privileges you have received in life to spew your bile from a high podium. This makes you also an ingrate and a disgrace to the University of Minnesota.
I other words, I hope you rot. You are not worthy to be called human.
What? I'm not human, but I bet she thinks a blastocyst is!
Just to be fair, let me mention the current tally: somewhere well above 12,000 hate mail messages from religious people, mostly Catholic; two reasonable messages from Catholics who said that while they are unshaken in their faith, they approve of my opposition to cracker idolatry; and zero comments of any kind from admitted Muslims.
I'm afraid that I won't be able to estimate the numbers in the future, now that they're being automatically trashed, but I think it's safe to say that the Catholics have run the scoreboard.
Comments
Posted by: Dustin | July 26, 2008 3:27 PM
A grad student writes something like this, but it's Webster Cook and the guy who did nothing but warm the pew beside him who deserve to be expelled? http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=hitchens%20hate%20speech&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv#Posted by: fhge | July 26, 2008 3:27 PM
hmm a telephon number. i wonder what you could do with that...
Posted by: Dustin | July 26, 2008 3:30 PM
Leave the phone number alone. I thought you guys learned your lesson in the Krollateral damage episode.Posted by: Jim RL | July 26, 2008 3:30 PM
As someone who was raised Catholic I have to say I am really surprised at how crazy these people are. I always thought when we were told the host "really is" Jesus it was just Clintonian word play. Even as a child I remember teachers fumbling through explanations, and I just accepted it "really is" even though it obviously isn't. Sigh, I suppose we aren't as removed from the dark ages as we thought.
I also find it weird that the religious automatically think about rape and murder when they think of a world without god. I have to think most of these people are decent human beings, but do they really want to rape and murder people? Are they constantly thinking "Oh boy, I'd love to rape and kill so-and-so. Too bad god would be pissed"? Is there really no other reason not to rape and kill people?
Posted by: Christian Ridley | July 26, 2008 3:31 PM
Such unabated ignorance!
The only thing I can do to attempt to maintain some sanity is laugh. And boy is this making me laugh.
Posted by: JoJo | July 26, 2008 3:31 PM
How long before you close that email account and start another?
Posted by: Jim RL | July 26, 2008 3:34 PM
Dustin, I couldn't agree more. Can Bryan Stikeleather really not differentiate between a communion wafer and four very real people!? Besides, do these people not realize you fucking chew, swallow, digest, and eliminate the host? This is not a very dignified fate is it? Let it decompose in a landfill. Hopefully they have methane capture and utilization at the Morris landfill. The wafer could create renewable energy.
Posted by: firemancarl | July 26, 2008 3:35 PM
Congrats PZ. I am glad that the nutties have been "turned off" by your unwillingness to back down. I suppose we should not be surprised at the absolute breathtaking stupidity shown by the fundagelicals. Thanks, above all, for being a voice of reason in a sea of stupidity.
Posted by: kerovon | July 26, 2008 3:38 PM
I just glanced at the latest press release on the Catholic Leagues website, and in it they seem to be comparing PZ's cracker desecration with a professor who was fired for having child porn on his computer.
That says something about Catholic mentality that the consider wasting food (if it can be called that, I'd never eat one) to be as severe as a crime as child porn.
Posted by: Fabulously in the City | July 26, 2008 3:41 PM
That guy didn't even spell Minnesota right...nor did he even mention your University right!!! He referred to it as "Minisota University"...
Honey, it's the University of Minnesota!!!
Ha, these people are HILARIOUS
Posted by: Logicel | July 26, 2008 3:42 PM
Jason Larrimore's missive is cracking me up so much I am now purblind.
Seriously, if this pathetic show of confused thinking and warped emotional reaction occurs while these people are supposedly under the positive influence of religion, what would they be like without such a benign influence? Would they be the same, better, or worse?
I have always kept a personal distance from Catholics, even the moderates, because they are just so boring and droningly trite, but now I am entertaining the notion that maybe I should run in the opposite direction as fast as my little atheist legs can carry me the next time I encounter one.
For you Catholics reading this thread, have no fear from me, as I will avoid you folks like the plague.
Posted by: Dscott | July 26, 2008 3:47 PM
What is Bryan Stikeleather's email address? I have to ask him something.
Posted by: me | July 26, 2008 3:47 PM
"All I said to my wife was, that piece of halibut is good enough for Jehovah!"Posted by: SEF | July 26, 2008 3:48 PM
Leaving aside the issue of Jesus being a fictional character, claiming Jesus muttered magic spells in Roman Catholic Latin rather than some local language of his era is still very much along the lines of those crackers people who declaim about the Bible having to be in the original English (eg KJV).Posted by: Cheezits | July 26, 2008 3:49 PM
There is something seriously deranged about a belief that puts maltreatment of a WAFER on a par with doing the same to someone's family. Not that there aren't sickos in every sector of society but the Catholic church actually encourages this insanity.
I can't figure out what these people want when they complain you don't respect their beliefs. I saw people on the other threads condemning the great desecration on the grounds that it was like taking a security blanket from a little kid. Is that the sort of repect they want? Because to me that is more insulting to them as individuals than any trashing of a piece of bread, or even speaking up and saying that how STUPID that part of Catholic doctrine is. At least you give them credit for potentially being able to see the stupidity; I know I do. It rubs me the wrong way when people in these discussions talk about devout Catholics like they were five years old. I'd rather be insulted than patronized. But maybe that's just me.
Posted by: Sunn O))) | July 26, 2008 3:50 PM
These emails remind me of a chapter in the Marylin Manson auto-bio where he published all the false affidavits filed against him for all these horrible things he was supposedly doing on stage.
And who filed all these bogus affidavits? Decent, young christians, and the unbelievably sick and disgusting things they claimed that happened on stage (none of which actually did) truly shows who the sick minded people really are.
They claimed he mutilated live animals on stage, then had sex with them, etc etc etc. Really depraved acts, but then again, these little liars are the ones who wrote this stuff so that really says it all about who is the greater evil.
I've been watching from afar the whole cracker-gate thing, and I just can't stop laughing at the emails. In one breath, they pray for your soul, and in the next they want to kick your ass.
Good upstanding christians. Full of love and compassion.
Posted by: Jason | July 26, 2008 3:50 PM
"Just to be fair, let me mention the current tally: somewhere well above 12,000 hate mail messages from religious people, mostly Catholic; two reasonable messages from Catholics who said that while they are unshaken in their faith, they approve of my opposition to cracker idolatry; and zero comments of any kind from admitted Muslims."
I just wondered, do you have a total for supportive messages?
Do you have any idea how many emails President Bruininks received, either in total or in support?
Posted by: Andrés Diplotti | July 26, 2008 3:50 PM
I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that this people really believe that the cracker is their god, just because they were told so. And not just believe it, but assume it's an obvious and unmissable fact, to the point of thinking that only a murderous person could abuse that particular piece of confectionery. It boggles the mind.
Posted by: mr-zero | July 26, 2008 3:50 PM
Is that a legitimate telephone number? Does it really belong to who it claims it belongs too. Perhaps not wise to post it after the MKroll incidents.
Z
Posted by: OctoberMermaid | July 26, 2008 3:52 PM
Poor wittle babies got their feewings hurt.
Good thing they have sky daddy to comfort them.
Doesn't seem to be helping much...
Posted by: Baba | July 26, 2008 3:54 PM
Absolutely terrible! Is nothing sacred?
Posted by: Lysa | July 26, 2008 3:54 PM
Christians continue to amuse me to no end. How a vast population of people who claim to live by the teachings of Jesus in a brotherhood of love and tolerance can become so enraged by something so meaningless that they threaten violence is just hilarious. Yet us godless heathens are able to have tolerance and compassion in our hearts for all people, without the vital guidance of God and his bible.
Posted by: PZ Myers | July 26, 2008 3:56 PM
I'm not giving out their email addresses, sorry.
As for Larrimore's phone number, please don't call it unless you really, seriously definitely desire him to desecrate your ass. And if you are MAN ENOUGH.
Posted by: anthropic | July 26, 2008 3:56 PM
Wow. What scares me is these types of wackos are all around us. We were sold the "war on terror" line a few years ago. But the biggest dangers lurk among us in the the form of unfathomable stupidity.
Unfortunately, these idiots will never change. Ever. As a whole, they are too ignorant and fearful to consider rational thinking (unless it serves their own greed or need for self-preservation).
I have zero respect or tolerance for people who refuse to rise above their stupidity. I no longer associate with anyone who openly pushes their beliefs on me. There's no point in debating them. It leads nowhere. Calling them on it feels more gratifying.
Thus, I have no trouble calling religious wackos or conspiracy theorists "morons", "cretins","wackjobs", or worse. It's like squeezing a painful zit :-)
Posted by: Baba | July 26, 2008 3:58 PM
Thank God for that!! Amen.
Posted by: Arnaud | July 26, 2008 3:58 PM
"He said it again!!"
Posted by: OrneryPest | July 26, 2008 3:59 PM
But professor, you gotta realize these Catholics have got big money tied up in their Fracken-crackers! They cost $8.99 for a box of 1000. A major part of the gadzillion megabuck church budget, you know!
Posted by: True Bob | July 26, 2008 3:59 PM
Do you mean PZ is still "desecrating" frackers? Damn, I thought we were in the denouement.
Posted by: Todd | July 26, 2008 4:01 PM
Baba @ # 21:
Absolutely terrible! Is nothing sacred?
Nope.
Posted by: OctoberMermaid | July 26, 2008 4:01 PM
You know, really, though, I'm amazed they keep sending you emails.
Makes me sleepy.
Counting sheep tends to do that.
Posted by: Ferrous Patella | July 26, 2008 4:01 PM
"...your kids Alaric, Connlann, and Skatje..."
Yeah they make threats at your kids, but can any of these loons pronunciate your kids' names?
Posted by: Catholics, stop being so hysterical! | July 26, 2008 4:06 PM
"In 2001, this part of the Tenure Code was invoked against a professor at UMN because he had images of child porn on his computer. It should now be invoked against Myers, and that is why we will appeal to UMN's Board of Regents to do just that. It strains credulity to maintain that Christian students can expect fair treatment by a faculty member who has publicly shown nothing but contempt for their religion."
Myers hasn't been fired for showing contempt for creationism (which is the same as showing contempt for certain versions of Christianity), so one wonders what makes Donohue think Myers is going to be fired for this.
Posted by: Baba | July 26, 2008 4:07 PM
That's why re-education camps are so handy. Bring back the Gulag.
Posted by: wjv | July 26, 2008 4:07 PM
"Unabated"? Now for some reason, that made me laugh.
Posted by: Crudely Wrott | July 26, 2008 4:09 PM
The inestimable Rick DeLano is kind enough to warn, "Please be advised that there is a limit beyond which gratuitous, evil and demonic hatred expressed toward Catholics will either be dealt with by the appropriate authorities, as it should have been long ago in this instant case . . ."
I'm just guessing here, but wouldn't the "appropriate authorities" be the being he calls by a name that is forbidden to be spoken as well as this being's minions, who seem to be legion? And are not these agents the very ones that Rick and his congregation not only pray to faithfully and earnestly, but in whom the average Catholic will claim complete trust? So why invoke something as lame as vague threats issued at long distance by mere humans?
Just thinking out loud here . . .
Posted by: katie | July 26, 2008 4:09 PM
At my small liberal arts alma mater, a tenured prof was recently fired for having a consenual affair with someone he met over the internet...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080721.LPERSONAL21/TPStory/?query=acadia
I get the impression tenure isn't as tenured as I thought?
Posted by: Ross | July 26, 2008 4:09 PM
"how much do you love your son. myers? or are you looking at him just as a big blob - a collection of amoeba-like entities"
But surely Catholics are meant to love all gods creatures? It saddens me to think there is a group of people who have it in for single cell organisms.
Posted by: brandon | July 26, 2008 4:09 PM
Jebus, there used to be a time when Catholic schools actually taught people how to write. I see that time is long gone.
Larrimore's 334-410-0611 phone number needs to be dispersed across the net.
Posted by: Sandi | July 26, 2008 4:09 PM
Myers: You shouldn't complain about proofreading when you have such a poor command of the English language yourself. To wit: "I'm offended by you, but none of us have a right to not be offended." None of us implies "not one of us." Hence, you should say, "None of us has..." (Incidentally, you also have a split infinitive.) You see, its only a smart idea to pontificate when you know what the hell you're talking about.
Posted by: Svetogorsk | July 26, 2008 4:12 PM
You see, its only a smart idea to pontificate when you know what the hell you're talking about.
If you're the same Sandi who posted reams of demented gibberish in the recent 2000-plus comments thread, how on earth are you in any position to judge?
Posted by: Jim RL | July 26, 2008 4:15 PM
Hey, Sandi shouldn't that be "...it's only a smart idea...".
You see, "its" is the possessive form of "it", and you wish to use the contraction of "it is". Well done.
Posted by: craig | July 26, 2008 4:15 PM
Personally, I think it's going to get worse, not better.
As society advances technologically, I think we're going to end up with more, crazier fundamentalists rather that fewer... because only a small percentage of the populace actually understand technology. To the rest it's essentially "magic." Ad the magic gets more and more confusing, a large segment of the population will become more and more estranged from the technologically literate ones. Tension, anxiety, misunderstanding and a general feeling of lack of control is going to manifest itself in crazier and crazier cultish behavior.
Just think of the distrust and ignorance behind the "moon landings were faked," the "government hiding aliens" and other nutty concepts, and magnify that by a thousand as people are less and less able to understand and deal with the technology around them.
I swear, 100 years from now there will be churches worshiping nanotech.
Posted by: SC | July 26, 2008 4:15 PM
Too late.
Posted by: Ken Mareld | July 26, 2008 4:16 PM
PZ,
You must be a demon of the time warping type. To handle all of what is on your plate MUST require Supernatural effort. This is TRUE PROOF that you are only a faux atheist.
OUT with you demon! OUT with you demon! Oh, the exorcism didn't work. WTF? I paid 666.00 dollars for the internet exorcism kit and you are still on my darned bookmarks.
I want my money back.
Ken
Posted by: hyperdeath | July 26, 2008 4:17 PM
If I was you, I'd reply to all the hate-mail with just three words:
"I forgive you"
Posted by: Ben Stein | July 26, 2008 4:18 PM
#'s 39 and 41
Come on you guys, don't be such grammar nazis.
Posted by: Sandi | July 26, 2008 4:18 PM
Myers: As for your rant the other day against Catholics ("The Great Desecration"), let me make the following observation: you're like Rip Van Winkle. Most of your rant involved the year 1310 and the Middle Ages. We are now in the year 2008--perhaps you didn't get the memo? Talk about holding a long grudge! Maybe you're compensating for your, ahem, shortcomings in other areas.
Posted by: LisaJ | July 26, 2008 4:20 PM
"You can't even stop again. Look at your tummy!!!"
haha, this was my favourite. OK, I really don't get the tummy part, but it's hilarious. I love how idiots seem to think that as biologists we should be basically superhuman and know how to cure JUST OURSELVES from all diseases. Priceless.
I'm kinda sad that you're trashing your messages now, because these are so entertaining. But I'm glad for you that things seem to be lightening up a bit.
Posted by: OctoberMermaid | July 26, 2008 4:20 PM
"We are now in the year 2008--perhaps you didn't get the memo?"
And yet here you still are worshiping a cracker and treating a book of fairy tales as a history textbook.
Posted by: Sandi | July 26, 2008 4:21 PM
Jim RL at #41 is quite right. I really should have proofread before posting. Oh, well, at least I had fewer errors than Myers.
Posted by: Ken Mareld | July 26, 2008 4:22 PM
Oooops,
Sorry about the exorcism. It turns out that someone is actually selling a book about internet exorcism. Who knew?
Ken
Posted by: Tulse | July 26, 2008 4:22 PM
Because using a split infinitive is just as bad as not being able to spell one of the fifty US states.
Posted by: Ben Stein | July 26, 2008 4:22 PM
I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw grammarians telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed.Posted by: Jim RL | July 26, 2008 4:23 PM
I'm generally not a grammar nazi because I tend to make numerous errors when posting comments. My point was that repeatedly misspelling the name of a US state is not the same as using the wrong verb tense in a convoluted sentence. PZ wasn't being a grammar nazi. He was just pointing out blatant and repeated spelling and grammar mistakes. Such systemic abuse of the English language does reflect poorly on the writer. Sandi's missing character and PZ's verb tenses are not systemic errors.
Posted by: James | July 26, 2008 4:23 PM
That split infinitive thing is a pet peeve of mine. The rule comes from Victorian-era grammarians who thought that Latin was a "perfect language" or whatever. Just like modern descendants of Latin like Spanish, the infinitive tense of a verb is a single word and cannot be split. They decided that that also made sense for Germanic languages. Splitting infinitives in English is not "bad grammar", and doing it can often make a sentence more clear.
Posted by: scooter | July 26, 2008 4:24 PM
HOLY CRAP!!!! It's the BLOB !!!!!
Hurry, somebody call Steve McQueen
Posted by: Ben Stein | July 26, 2008 4:24 PM
#53
Language leads to killing.
Posted by: JonathanL | July 26, 2008 4:25 PM
Sandi, I only wish you could appreciate how monumentally stupid that sounds coming from someone who practices a religion based on a 2000 year old book.
Posted by: WA | July 26, 2008 4:27 PM
I wonder how many of these whack-jobs will now turn around and join in the "Official Pray for PZ Myers Month.
And if they do, will they be praying that he converts, or will they be praying that he will finally see the beauty of ass desecration and give them a call?
Posted by: anthropic | July 26, 2008 4:28 PM
Sandi@#39,
That's the best you have? An attack on grammar? Wow, what an impressive intellect. I quiver.
Posted by: Celtic_Evolution | July 26, 2008 4:29 PM
@ Sandi...
Get over it. Seriously.
That is all.
Posted by: geru | July 26, 2008 4:29 PM
Poor Minnisota, I'm sure their tourism is going to suffer from all the boycotting.
Hang in there PZ, maybe the kook mails will begin to decrease after a few months. :)
Posted by: Jim RL | July 26, 2008 4:29 PM
Sandi, the whole point is that it is 2008. In the 21st century people shouldn't make death threats over the well-being of a small piece of unleavened bread. It is absolutely ridiculous. In a rational society, PZ's actions would be eccentric, but not offensive. Putting a nail through some bread should not be a big deal.
Posted by: Duvenoy | July 26, 2008 4:30 PM
What a bunch of mooks!
But to anyone who reads history, particularly that of religions in general and the Catholic Church in particular, it should come as small suprise. Vicious attacks on anyone who who disagrees and is less than silent about it was SOP. It was only a very few centuries ago that this idiotic cracker business would have resulted in heresy charges for everyone concerned including thee & me. Someone else's heresy was taken very seriously and, evidently, it still is with some of the more loosely-wrapped faithful. They grieve that they don't live in a place where Church law is THE law. I suggest that they immigrate to Saudi Arabia or Iran. They'd have to change their faith, but what the hell; it's all the same thing.
I think it's about over, although I'm sure that these maroons will find some new quasi-outrage to knot up their delicate knickers and provide me, at least, with more amusement. Thanks, Catholic blatherers! I enjoyed the ride!
doov
Posted by: acj | July 26, 2008 4:30 PM
English isn't my native language, and if someone told me my English sucked badly, I'd be the last one to contradict - but hey, some of the folks emailing PZ are even worse than me, and they are f'ing native speakers! That kind of restores my trust in my English teachers.
Posted by: Nick Gotts | July 26, 2008 4:31 PM
Sandi,
Catholic apologists are forever boasting about the long and glorious history of the Church. you don't get to do that, then trurn round and say "but that was a long time ago" when it comes to the nastier parts of that history - which are very, very nasty indeed.
Posted by: OctoberMermaid | July 26, 2008 4:32 PM
"I wonder how many of these whack-jobs will now turn around and join in the "Official Pray for PZ Myers Month."
I like the comments where they can't figure out PZ motives, assume it's unknowable, and decide that he's just full of hate and only wanted to do it to offend and hurt Christians.
Things are so much easier when you don't have to think.
I'm sure if they bothered getting the facts or looking at the context, they'd just be disappointed that things aren't as black and white as in their version. Who wants to find that out? Better not to even find out at all!
Posted by: WA | July 26, 2008 4:34 PM
Geru (#62), I'm sure their tourism is suffering already from the fact that no one seems to be able to find Minnisota on a map!
Posted by: jorge666 | July 26, 2008 4:34 PM
Dr. Myers,
You should not filter off of the e-mails. Instead you should gather the worst and most inane into a compendium and dedicate it the hate-monger Donahue. Call it "The Whackaloon Tales or Adventures of a Cracker Fracker" or something like that. In this country these missives plus some of your adroit commentary should contribute to a blockbuster best seller. You know how the American public eats up tales of mystery, persecution, violence, etc. Just look at the sales from the "Da Vinci Code". I would suggest the profits be used to create a scholarship for the two CFU students being viciously persecuted by the catholics and to fund research into religious whackaloonery. Perhaps as a #1 on the NY Times Book List, there may be enough money generated to establish several foundations and support several research projects.
Now THAT would really frost their fracken crackers, eh?
Posted by: Ben Stein | July 26, 2008 4:34 PM
Grammar, as taught by English teachers, has nothing - nothing - to say about how life originated. Has nothing to say about how the governing principles in the universe - gravity, thermodynamics, motion, fluid motion - how any of those originated. It's...it's got some gigantic missing pieces.Posted by: Doug S. | July 26, 2008 4:36 PM
Mr. Meyers, have you read the criticism posted on Alonzo Fyfe's Atheist Ethicist blog?
He's sent you several emails, but they might have gotten lost in with the spam and the death threats.
Posted by: Techskeptic | July 26, 2008 4:37 PM
Craig #42,
"I swear, 100 years from now there will be churches worshiping nanotech."
no there won't its immoral.
Posted by: J Myers | July 26, 2008 4:40 PM
It strains credulity...
*blink*
When did Catholics become concerned about that?
Posted by: Anton Mates | July 26, 2008 4:41 PM
Nope. If pluralizing "none" is good enough for the King James, it's good enough for PZ. He's respectful like that. Jeez, now you're disagreeing with Star Trek. Is nothing sacred?The SAT writers do not define the English language. Read more books!
"People have been splitting infinitives since the 14th century, and some of the most noteworthy splitters include John Donne, Samuel Pepys, Daniel Defoe, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Johnson, William Wordsworth, Abraham Lincoln, George Eliot, Henry James, and Willa Cather."
Posted by: Baba | July 26, 2008 4:41 PM
Kind of like atheists denying the atheist atrocities of the 20th century as "not true atheism". Admit it - Stalin was just as capable rational thought as you.
Posted by: Kryth | July 26, 2008 4:42 PM
Ah, Catholic love. Can you feel the love? Brought to you by the ministry of peace.
They keep using that word. I do not think it means what they think it means.
Posted by: Alcari | July 26, 2008 4:44 PM
Hmm something's wrong here.
Google says this:
Jason Larrimore (334)636-1328 1097 W 3rd St S, Thomasville, AL 36784
And he says his phone number is (334)410-0611, which is actually located in Selma, AL. 55 miles away.
I'm willing to bet giving mr. Larrimore a call at the first, not mentioned, number is a lot more effective. He might have been dumb enough to post his information only, but whatever you do, don't supply him with a few free korans and shipping boxes.
nudge nudge, wink wink.
Posted by: scooter | July 26, 2008 4:45 PM
It's handy to have around for those special moments around three AM, when I'm too drunk to type, but I still feel like having a dialog.
Posted by: Andrés Diplotti | July 26, 2008 4:45 PM
As it is readily apparent in the outfit and general demeanor of this people. It's a remarkable thing how things have changed, right?
Posted by: BobC | July 26, 2008 4:46 PM
I bet nice little old ladies who are Catholics, who wouldn't dream of saying an unkind word to anyone, believe atheists go to hell and deserve to go there.
Posted by: Andrew | July 26, 2008 4:47 PM
My roommates and I prank called poor Jason. He's a dumb instinctive dude, but one of us did a chat with him and he's a bit remorseful and feels kinda stupid for what he did.
I'm pissed at my roommate for letting him know his phone number had been posted - I was gonna call as a collections agent.
Posted by: Neural T | July 26, 2008 4:47 PM
Jim RL #4
Wow, that's one of the most rational responses from a Catholic that I've heard since this ordeal started.
Posted by: thickslab | July 26, 2008 4:47 PM
Cn smn pls pnch Snd n th cnt?
[misogyny makes me angry. No more, please.]
Posted by: Dawn | July 26, 2008 4:47 PM
I have found all this very amusing. Back in my religious days, I worked from 8am-4pm every Saturday and Sunday. This meant that I could not attend my Lutheran church with my family. In a discussion, we decided I would attend the local Catholic church with my Catholic aunt for Saturday night mass. I was not Catholic; I was never baptized into the Catholic church, but for well over a year I attended mass and took communion, without EVER going to confession or anything. The priest, who knew my aunt well, also knew I was not Catholic. Never stopped him from giving me communion. He never said anything about it.
In fact, at the wedding of my aunt and uncle, held in the local Catholic church, the mass/service was co-performed by the priest and a Lutheran minister; both gave communion to whomever came up to the alter rail, Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, whomever. No one asked what religion you were (if ANY...)
To me, that was TRUE Christianity. All were welcome to the alter, and all were treated the same. As an atheist now, I wouldn't go up for communion. But then, I recognized true love for all people (and no one got into trouble for taking a host back to their seat and eating it there, either...)
Wonder what these rampant writers would have done at the wedding?
Posted by: Justin T. | July 26, 2008 4:49 PM
would like to desacrate your fat ass.
You desecrated the eucharist by putting a nail through it. So does that mean that he wants to... Oh my.