…and this is a 
So this is what a witchunt looks like…as a target
Category: Academics • Kooks
Posted on: August 4, 2008 9:56 AM, by PZ Myers
It actually feels kind of good, considering that my job is secure, and that these critics are looking increasingly rabidly insane. I just sit back and watch their hysteria grow. Case in point: Rod Dreher, who seems to be crawling the walls and screaming right now. In his 'review' of the desecration issue, nowhere does he mention the cause: the violent over-reaction of Catholics to a student in Florida walking away from Mass with a communion wafer, and the subsequent uproar calling for expulsion and punishment from Bill Donohue.
His parting shot to believers: "Nothing must be held sacred."
He doesn't believe that, of course. The hateful Dr. Myers and his spittle-flecked supporters insist that their right to profane symbols that Catholics and Muslims hold most sacred is absolute and sacrosanct. To be sure, there's little doubt that what he did - obtaining a consecrated Host and a copy of the Quran and defiling them - violates no criminal statute.
No, actually, I do believe that. Nothing is sacred; nothing receives its value from an imaginary connection to a deity or supernatural force. Objects and people gain importance to us from their human connections. But yes, I insist that no one can be forced to bow down to the symbols and dogma of a religion, especially a religion to which they do not belong. Jews cannot tell Catholics that they can't eat ham, Catholics can't tell Muslims to worship their cracker, Muslims can't tell me to pray 5 times a day. When a religion oversteps its bounds and starts ordering people to respect their foolish rituals, it's time for people to step up and demonstrate that no, they can't do that. You can believe your god is a cracker in your church, Mr Dreher, but you can't tell me that I must honor your crackers in my home.
Dreher thinks this is the first step in the destruction of society.
But his audacious act of sacrilege crossed an important moral, social and psychological line, one that calls up metaphorical demons that, once summoned, are difficult to control. It is one thing to say that belief in God is foolish and wicked and that Catholicism and Islam deserve scorn. It is quite another to physically desecrate the artifacts believers hold sacred.
Talk about hyperbole…this is a classic religious defense. Why, if we don't keep cutting the hearts out of sacrificial victims, the sun won't rise tomorrow. You want the sun to rise, don't you? Throw a cracker in the trash (an act I did not consider audacious at all, but entirely trivial), and the entire social fabric will crumble! We must stop him!
It's also supremely hypocritical. Only a few weeks ago, what was Dreher saying?
If P.Z. Myers had any guts, he would put out a call for someone to send him a Koran so he could blow his nose and wrap fish in it. After all, it's nothing but frackin' ink on paper, right? So what's stopping you, Big Man? It's easy to shit on what Catholics regard as sacred. But just try doing the same thing to what Muslims regard as sacred. Let's see what you're made of.
What? Mr Dreher! I thought that physically desecrating the artifacts believers hold sacred would cross "an important moral, social and psychological line, one that calls up metaphorical demons that, once summoned, are difficult to control". Apparently, this is only true of the artifacts Dreher reveres.
Dreher is not alone. I've got way over 10,000 emails from devout Catholics shrieking the same old message — that Eucharist is literally the body of my god! You hurt me when you hurt that cracker! Here's a Koran — destroy it instead! I want you to lose your job! I want you to die! You're going to burn in hell! The monster from the id is out and exposed, and it isn't the atheists who have crossed the line.
Here's another example of an obsessed Catholic kook who has spotted a witch. He actually went through all of my posts from Spring term and noted the date and time.
When considering only the days UMM was in session for the spring semester of 2008 and cross-referencing these with standard university hours (8a.m. to 4 p.m.), during this time Myers posted 334 times to his blog. That is Three-Hundred Thirty-Four Posts! He averaged close to five posts a day to his blog during university hours. Note to the chancellor: This information was there for the taking. I did not even have easy access to his Internet records as the university does.
Now, this gets a little more interesting when looking at Myers' class assignments. Many times Myers posts just before class as well as in-between classes. Frequently there are posts during a three-hour biology lab that Myers was in charge of. Sort of, "I'll keep the students busy and post on my blog." His professional duties obvious were secondary to supporting his hobby and hate-mongering.
Oh, my. What a remarkable exercise in futility. As I'm sure all of you other university faculty know, there is no such thing as 8-4, 5-days-a-week schedule for us. I've spent many weekends and late nights with my head buried in papers; even more time in prep work for lectures, which, when you've got 8am classes, gets done at all hours of the day; and as a developmental biologist, I am at the beck and call of embryos that develop on their own schedule that isn't always in sync with mine. The university is not going to want to open the can of worms that would involve defining exactly when their salaried employees are on the clock and when they're not — if professors could bill for overtime, universities would go bankrupt.
And, I'm sorry to say, I'm apparently much, much smarter than a certain devout Roman Catholic and social conservative. I know the stats on traffic to blogs: they peak in the early afternoon, my time. I know that to maintain interest it's a good idea to have new posts up when people are looking in. And I also know how to use the post scheduling feature in MovableType to have articles magically appear without my immediate intervention at times when I am not online, such as when I'm in a lecture or lab.
I'm sorry to disillusion everyone who noticed the occasional nod to Oceania with posts appearing at 1 or 2 or 5am my time, and thought I was the Sleepless Brain, but those are scheduled, too.
Oh, well. They can keep on exposing their ignorance with their rants. I'm having a grand time, while they stare at the kerning in my articles.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub also has an opinion.
Education & Careers
Comments
Posted by: Rodibidably | August 4, 2008 10:05 AM
Just wanted ytou to know there are some positive "reviews" of your involvment in this whole f'd up situation.
http://potomac9499.wordpress.com/2008/07/30/cracker-gate-just-another-opinion-piece/
Posted by: Allytude | August 4, 2008 10:10 AM
And you are "spittle flecked" no less... this godless spittle-flecking is totally inappropriate
Posted by: valor | August 4, 2008 10:11 AM
I like how he fails to mention the atheist work you also "desecrated" (although technically you can't desecrate an atheist work.....).
Posted by: Randy | August 4, 2008 10:11 AM
Oh, Ron... you had me at "spittle-flecked".
Posted by: PZ Myers | August 4, 2008 10:12 AM
Oh, no -- I'm not spittle-flecked. It's you people.
Posted by: True Bob | August 4, 2008 10:12 AM
Oceania? OCEANIA?! We have always been at WAR with Oceania!
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | August 4, 2008 10:17 AM
Check to see if Mister Dreher has "Bell & Howell" tattooed on his ass, because damn if he isn't a world-class projector.
Posted by: Ron | August 4, 2008 10:19 AM
But you didn't address Dreher's suggestion; you just made fun of it. Why would you not subject the Koran to the same kind of treatment you did to the cracker? Although it doesn't affect my question, I'm a atheist and generally don't care much about religion one way or the other, as long as it doesn't get in my face. His point is easy: that you are not afraid of insulting Catholics but you are terrified of Muslims Of course that doesn't affect your basic argument, that to you, it's just a cracker; but then, too, to you, the Koran is just a book.
Posted by: True Bob | August 4, 2008 10:19 AM
LOL. Thanks, Randy. dirka dirka mohammed jihad
Posted by: Einherjar | August 4, 2008 10:19 AM
Bob, it doesn't matter who we're at war with. just as long as we're at war.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 4, 2008 10:20 AM
DAMN YOU sacrilegious intellectual types and your magical time measuring devices!!
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | August 4, 2008 10:20 AM
Oceania? OCEANIA?! We have always been at WAR with Oceania!
Nah, we're actually the ruling chunk of Oceania, with the former UK being Airstrip One. It's Eastasia we've always been at war with.
Gotta go, the clocks are striking thirteen...
Posted by: Zeno | August 4, 2008 10:21 AM
The poster at Vive Christus Rex is undoubtedly proud of his painstaking research into your posting schedule. Although his own blog is on Blogger, which makes it extremely easy to make posts appear at specified times (by merely setting the post's time stamp), he thinks he's caught PZ working on posts during university lab hours. In a way, this reminds me of theologians: They work ever so hard to build a logical, structured argument without seriously considering the biases and weaknesses in their initial assumptions.
All fall down.
Posted by: True Bob | August 4, 2008 10:22 AM
Ron, didn't you see what happened to the Koran some christer sent him? Please try to keep up with the group - the guide is the one with the tentacular umbrella.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 4, 2008 10:23 AM
Ron are you not paying attention?
Posted by: Hedgefundguy | August 4, 2008 10:24 AM
The only bad publicity is no publicity! Soak it up, PZ. Soon there will be a piece on Fox News!
Posted by: Geolub | August 4, 2008 10:25 AM
A dressing down of Dreher at Millard Fillmore's Bathtub:
Partisan says get a grip, stop religious violence; Rod Dreher disagrees (?!)
Posted by: True Bob | August 4, 2008 10:25 AM
Rev BDC, what's KoT? K-nigets of Theonomas?
Posted by: jmartin | August 4, 2008 10:26 AM
So much for my altar offerings to the Brain-in-the-Jar.
I had so loved the thought of a sessile deity, after a Catholic childhood of parsing the DSMish Trinity. My parents had raised in radio's heyday, which added to the muddle. Did the Holy Ghost employ a Shadow? And how did the Shadow Know?
Posted by: PZ Myers | August 4, 2008 10:26 AM
Ron, what kind of idiot are you? Obtuse, clueless, or dishonest?
I gave pages of the Koran and The God Delusion exactly the same treatment I gave the cracker.
Posted by: Dennis | August 4, 2008 10:28 AM
Wow, computers can be programmed to do things at different times. Who knew.
Ron@ #8 if you read the post about the treatment of the host you would have seen that he indeed treated the koran the same way. Along with an atheist book some hold sacred.
Posted by: marc buhler | August 4, 2008 10:29 AM
Post #3...
I like how he fails to mention the atheist work you also "desecrated" (although technically you can't desecrate an atheist work.....).
Posted by: valor | August 4, 2008 10:11 AM
That gave me a laugh! (As do crediots.)
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 4, 2008 10:29 AM
King of Typos. It's necessary. I suck at the whole preview / proofread thing and I type at 1000 words minute without any accuracy.
Posted by: Janine ID | August 4, 2008 10:30 AM
PZ! Do not let facts get in the way of an incoherent dressing down.
Ron, this is Rod Dreher. Ron Dreher, this is Ron. I think you two might have a few things in common.
Posted by: Wayne Walker | August 4, 2008 10:30 AM
"The militant atheist photographed his sacrilege..."
If you're a "militant" atheist for merely poking a cracker, what is the term for Christians who send threats of violence and/or death in e-mails...?
I propose: "nuclear Christians"
Posted by: True Bob | August 4, 2008 10:33 AM
THX Rev. Next time someone says they are king of typos, I'll be able to reply with "I've read the King of Typos. You sir, are no King of Typos".
Posted by: Chris | August 4, 2008 10:33 AM
With respect to "posting time" -- maybe someone might want to explain to Dreher the concept of "delayed posting" -- that is, write a post, then configure it to appear later, at a specified time...
Posted by: scooter | August 4, 2008 10:34 AM
As far as atheist hygiene, if everybody would stop spitting on us, we wouldn't be so flecky.
No such thing as bad publicity dept: You Tube Eucharist Challenge, mentioned in Dreher's psychotic shambling zombieRant picked up 500 hits yesterday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq_XZuF6Vsk
Posted by: Glen Davidson | August 4, 2008 10:36 AM
What goes well with spittle-flecks? I'd like to know, in case I am someday spittle-flecked. A beard, maybe?
Other than that, let me say that this is a very, very tired issues.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Posted by: zer0 | August 4, 2008 10:36 AM
Ba-duh-dum-chhhhh
Classic!
Posted by: Reginald Selkirk | August 4, 2008 10:36 AM
It's not magic, it's technology.Posted by: E.V. | August 4, 2008 10:38 AM
You think Ron is a...(gasp)...TROLL?
Posted by: SC | August 4, 2008 10:39 AM
I actually wrote this comment several hours ago. It's appearing right on schedule.
Posted by: True Bob | August 4, 2008 10:39 AM
Fixed that for you.
Posted by: Benjamin Geiger | August 4, 2008 10:43 AM
Reginald #31: This is a case where Clarke's Third Law applies. (Then again, considering people like Mr. Dreher, I begin to wonder if a *book* is "sufficiently advanced technology"...)
Posted by: Ricardo Silvestre | August 4, 2008 10:43 AM
Another sappy and uninspired critic of a sappy and uninspired columnist. And notice that Dreher "conveniently" left out of his description of the picture Richards book page. Typical.
Posted by: Richard Eis | August 4, 2008 10:43 AM
-But his audacious act of sacrilege crossed an important moral, social and psychological line, one that calls up metaphorical demons that, once summoned, are difficult to control. -
He means of course christian control. Absolute control of what people think and do. As far as i'm concerned a line has been crossed that should have been scuffed into oblivion long long ago.
Posted by: Tim | August 4, 2008 10:44 AM
What's a bit worrying is the willingness of believers to embrace intolerance. Historically, intolerance doesn't just stay with one set of victims, folks who get in the habit of despising one group may find adding another is easy, and so many believers have a long list of people they're sure are going to hell. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
Posted by: True Bob | August 4, 2008 10:46 AM
First they came for the atheists...
Posted by: E.V. | August 4, 2008 10:46 AM
Dreher is a columnist in Texas, of course. Sometimes it's humiliating to live here. We are well in the top 5 Wingnut laden states in the US.
Posted by: Capital Dan | August 4, 2008 10:47 AM
How about "spittle-flecked, nuclear Christians?"
I'm just tossing that out there.
Posted by: Bill Dauphin | August 4, 2008 10:48 AM
Harrumph! I'm almost never "spittle flecked"!
Posted by: Cardinal Shrew | August 4, 2008 10:48 AM
All that spittle flecking is why I have started wearing a rain coat when I come in here.
Posted by: Bill Dauphin | August 4, 2008 10:50 AM
Grrr. The lesson learned from my last (@42) is that one should never underestimate the blinding speed with which comments accumulate here....
Posted by: S.Scott | August 4, 2008 10:50 AM
@ 23 - Rev. BigDumbChimp,
I can't let this one go. It's K-night! Not K-nigets. :-)
Posted by: Rick R | August 4, 2008 10:51 AM
"The hateful Dr. Myers and his spittle-flecked supporters insist that their right to profane symbols that Catholics and Muslims hold most sacred is absolute and sacrosanct."
Shows you what these flag pin-wearin', god soaked 'Murricans REALLY think of the Constitution...
Posted by: BlueIndependent | August 4, 2008 10:51 AM
Hey, at least they're recognizing your desecration of the Qu'ran now. That's at least a little progress...
Posted by: SteveM | August 4, 2008 10:53 AM
Seeing how often christians comment here that it is only because of Christianity that they aren't out raping and murdering, do you really think it would be a good idea to free them from religion? Those "demons" may not be so metaphorical after all.You want atheism? They can't handle atheism.
Posted by: karen | August 4, 2008 10:54 AM
How do you control metaphorical demons?
With your cyberpistol, naturally.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 4, 2008 10:54 AM
Every time I see someone use the 'Muricans thing I can't help but think of merkins. And then start laughing all over again.
Posted by: szqc | August 4, 2008 10:56 AM
@True Bob #6
No! We have always been at war with Eastasia. Room 101 for you.
Gotta go - got spittle on me.
Posted by: True Bob | August 4, 2008 10:58 AM
Surrounded by patriotic Merkins, Bush is invisible.
Posted by: Cardinal Shrew | August 4, 2008 10:59 AM
Anyone know how to get spittle out of cashmere?
Posted by: Ron | August 4, 2008 11:00 AM
I am obtuse, clueless, and dishonest; and perhaps at times even spittle-flecked. I did not realize you gave the same treatment to the Koran as to the holy cracker. Apologies. Just as long as you respect the Holy Name of SpaghettiOs®, I am happy.
Posted by: phantomreader42 | August 4, 2008 11:01 AM
Ron hte utter moron @ #8:
Epic fail on your Koran envy, asshat. He DID subject the Koran to the exact same treatment as the cracker. It's in the fucking picture! So are you blind, stupid, or a liar? Or maybe all three?
Posted by: speedwell | August 4, 2008 11:01 AM
I'm a bit confused here. I had got the impression from somewhere that "spittle-flecked" referred to the hapless audience being spit ON. No?
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 4, 2008 11:02 AM
Oh great. Thanks Bob. Now the ladies across the hall came to check what that loud snorting and coughing noise was.
Posted by: Jack Rawlinson | August 4, 2008 11:02 AM
Isn't it revealing that this hysterical asshat neglected to mention the pages of "The God Delusion" you included in your "desecration", PZ?
Aside from that, I love the way his rage makes him stupid and inattentive enough to not notice blatant hypocrisy such as the following:
"What we are bound to do, especially in a pluralist democracy, is show basic respect for the human beings who hold beliefs we don't respect..."
Followed, a short sentence later by:
"There's something about these new atheists, for whom P.Z. Myers is a folk hero, that's profoundly inhuman."
And they wonder why we often impugn their intelligence?
Posted by: SteveM | August 4, 2008 11:02 AM
I can't let this one go. It's K-night! Not K-nigets. :-)
S.Scott, I am being especially dense this morning and not cathing the joke. "K-niggets" was the way the silly french knights pronounced it before debating the lifting capacity of african and european swallows.
And I thought it was M. Night not K. Night, or is it K-Pax, or Pax Romana, ahh Ramana .... where was I? where am I? oh, never mind...
Posted by: Hans | August 4, 2008 11:02 AM
Wait... there's significance to the kerning in your articles? Dammit, I knew I was squinting at the wrong things!
Posted by: Ron | August 4, 2008 11:04 AM
And one thing needs to be made very clear: I am not now and never have been Rod Dreher, at least as far as I know.
Posted by: qbsmd | August 4, 2008 11:04 AM
I propose "jihadists". It seems more accurate and more likely to annoy them. It also goes well with the fatwa envy the others demonstrate.
Posted by: scooter | August 4, 2008 11:04 AM
# 53
Yeah, put nuclear weapons on both sides of it, then simmer
Posted by: Janine ID | August 4, 2008 11:05 AM
Ramana...Ramona...Lalla Ward...Richard Dawkins...The God Delusion...Koran and cracker. It all comes around.
Posted by: gdlchmst | August 4, 2008 11:06 AM
...And God bless you.
Posted by: Capital Dan | August 4, 2008 11:07 AM
Dammit. How do I get ladies across the hall?
I'm in a tomb. They don't let us see the light of day. We're like salt miners without the joy.
Posted by: S.Scott | August 4, 2008 11:07 AM
@ 59 Steve,
I k-now. LoL :-) You silly English K-night! Now go away before I taunt you a second time! (jk);-)
(some people just don't get the joke)
Posted by: SteveM | August 4, 2008 11:07 AM
No! We have always been at war with Eastasia. Room 101 for you.
but War is Peace, therefore we've always been at Peace with Eastasia. Right?
Posted by: Janine ID | August 4, 2008 11:07 AM
Ron, I never said you were Rod Dreher. Just that you you should meet. But you apologized so I take back that suggestion.
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | August 4, 2008 11:08 AM
By the way, check out this nifty quote of Abraham Lincoln's on the scientific method, taken from a lecture he gave on same:
Posted by: Aaron | August 4, 2008 11:08 AM
OK. So this guy left out important details. His article lacks any depth of investigation into the issue. Instead, it is an op-ed article that is looking for something to get offended about in order to advance a culture war agenda.
Posted by: Dutch Vigilante | August 4, 2008 11:10 AM
He can make blog posts appear when he's not behind a computer! He's a witch!
Posted by: scooter | August 4, 2008 11:10 AM
#62
with a slight southern twist:
Yeee-hadists
Posted by: True Bob | August 4, 2008 11:10 AM
RAmen, Janine ID.
Posted by: jfatz | August 4, 2008 11:10 AM
>> Oh, no -- I'm not spittle-flecked. It's you people.
Of course you are, PZ. The vitriol in your Inbox is proof enough of that.
Posted by: S.Scott | August 4, 2008 11:11 AM
@ 73 - LMFAO!!
Posted by: Ron | August 4, 2008 11:13 AM
I'm not sure why I would want to meet a spittle-flecked lunatic like Dreher. It's because of people like him that I thank God I'm an atheist.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 4, 2008 11:17 AM
I'm doomed today.
Posted by: Sam | August 4, 2008 11:18 AM
So what I take from this is that, contra PZ, there are indeed some things to be taken as sacred--in particular, the right to free speech, seen here as the right of tenured professors to act with all of the emotional maturity of a 12-year old without having to face any consequences, despite his bosses being put into the embarrassing situation of having to find a way to defend this childish behavior. Now that is something to hold sacred!
So is what we can expect for intellectual discourse from the professoriate in the great state of Wisconsin?
Posted by: Sam | August 4, 2008 11:22 AM
or in Minnesota, as the case may be...
Posted by: IasonOuabache | August 4, 2008 11:22 AM
LOL! Fail troll is fail!
Posted by: Bob L | August 4, 2008 11:23 AM
#25 @ I propose: "nuclear Christians"
Talibornagain is also used to describes them
Posted by: MissPrism | August 4, 2008 11:23 AM
Sam #79 - you know, I'm sure I've seen "consequences" used in the sense of "theocratic punishment I would like to inflict" somewhere before.
Posted by: Mold | August 4, 2008 11:23 AM
For those not as old as I, even in the Dark Ages known as the 1970s one could defer transmission of data to off-peak times. Wonder what the standards are for this KKkristians edumacation? Were they home skooled?
As a student at many universities, ranging from small private colleges to huge land-grant sports schools, I have yet to see any professor avoid their lab duties. Don't whine to me about furrin' TAs. You should RTFM.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 4, 2008 11:25 AM
I'd love to hear what your understanding of the whole incident is.
Care to give us a short rehash of what happened?
Posted by: 2-D Man | August 4, 2008 11:26 AM
But didn't you see his point, PZ? He made it perfectly clear that it is impossible to post in MovableType at 10:43AM. What a gaffe! How were you not aware of this?
Posted by: Sam | August 4, 2008 11:26 AM
Miss Prism #83--I'm not sure that I follow you (clearly not being as bright as most of the folks posting here)--care to elaborate?
Posted by: Pete Rooke | August 4, 2008 11:27 AM
Ah, so blinded is Rev. Myers and his faithful army of acolytes that they remain unable to grasp the enormity of his actions. This despite the fact that even his own kind has started to turn him after these events -
( scienceblogs.com/mixingmemory ).
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
The numbers of heretics are growing each day as was forecast but I would urge all of you not to take refuge in the false comfort of consensus that is so apparent on this site.
Here are the analogies I developed over the course of the previous threads which will perhaps illuminate those who are not being intentionally obstinate:
1) Suppose you were a milkman with rotting teeth and cankerous lips. Before delivering each milk bottle you would take a swig and place it on the doorstep. You continued to abuse you privileged access to other people's milk for years. Then one day you decide to retire. Before you leave however, you let all of your customers know what you've been engaged in by letter while also leaving a picture of your cankerous mouth under each bottle. You have gleefully proclaimed your actions to all who will listen. No one was physically harmed and yet every customer (read: Catholic) affected feels deeply violated and abused. PZ Myers is effectively that milkman.
2) Suppose your are an embalmer. You are busy embalming a person for an open coffin ceremony and you decide to pilfer there lush locks of blonde hair for the construction of high class wigs (a business you have going on the side).
This person happens to be a Sikh. In order to hide the fact you have stolen their hair you then purchase a cheap synthetic wig and replace it. In the small print of the contract (which the distraught family don't read carefully enough) you make mention of this.
After the event you then decide to publicize this gleefully on a blog. No physical harm has been done to either person and yet I would argue that this is equivalent to PZ Myer's theft and subsequent desecration of the Eucharist publicized on his blog (of which extra web traffic generates money).
3) Young ladies like to wear an item of clothing called a mini-skirt these days. The material is often sheer and by its definition does not even come close to covering the knee roll.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniskirt)
Now if someone chooses to wear such an item it does not in the least bit make rape and sexual abuse permissible despite the fact that the odds increase exponentially. In both the eyes of the secular law and of my religion the assailants are still just as culpable.
So merely because Catholicism may seem like a remarkably soft target for PZ Myers (he has since been roped into desecrating the Koran) he is still as culpable as someone who chooses to attack say the more benign and watered down religions of Quakerism/Unitarian-Universalism.
4) Suppose you had a very sacred book outlining your philosophy on life. This book also happened to be stitched together and bound in the skin and flesh of a loved one who had recently passed away.
Now desecrating the Eucharist would have the same effect as desecrating that book and posting the evidence in glee.
A new and more watertight 5th analogy as requested:
5) I am a KKK leader. I burn gigantic crosses into the wilderness surrounding various suburbs. These crosses happen to appear behind a larger predominately black community. A history of the town is compiled and various aerial shots are taken at great expense. These are then placed in a time capsule. After burial I gleefully proclaim what I have done. No physical harm or damage has been caused and the documents in the time capsule are correctly historical. Nevertheless, the people of the community have been violated and abused. It is a hate crime. This is perfectly comparable to what PZ Myers has engaged in.
Posted by: Blaidd Drwg | August 4, 2008 11:28 AM
Who was it who said, "Lord let my enemies be ridiculous"?
One prayer that actually comes true...
Posted by: craig | August 4, 2008 11:30 AM
"I propose: "nuclear Christians""
CMD? Christians of Mass Destruction? Well, okay maybe that might be misinterpreted.
Posted by: Jason | August 4, 2008 11:30 AM
Is it too much to hope that by reading all of your old posts someone, at least one, might take a step back and say, "Shit, I was wrong"...
Some of us atheists pray too. ;)
Posted by: JD | August 4, 2008 11:32 AM
PZ wrote,
He said he was a theist, thus it's a given that all those descriptions of him apply.
Posted by: Allytude | August 4, 2008 11:32 AM
This spittle flecking is inappropriate- the fleckers and the flecker-inspirers. PZ you are also guilty of causing spittle fleckification.
Posted by: Blaidd Drwg | August 4, 2008 11:32 AM
I call Poe on Pete Rooke.