It is done

[Az]

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/07/the_great_desecration.php

Let the real circus begin.

[cosmik debris]

1. I like the photo

[Az]

3. Its interesting that he included The God Delusion

Just to emphasize that there is no sacred text.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. But is that a fair trade banana?

And was it fair trade coffee? That might speak more to the morals of the situation than anything else. Heh - a quick search finds that question already in the comments.

[charlie]

2. Yeeps

He nailed Our Lord and Savior to the Koran.

Nailed the Koran to The God Delusion.

PZ-hating just might become an international phenomenon out of this.

He certainly opened the money spigots for Bill Donohue today though, didn't he?

Wow.

[beam me up scottie]

4. oy.

They're threatening his kid now.

[cosmik debris]

5. What did you expect from the moral leaders of the universe?

They have been threatening children for 2 thousand years, that's how they roll.

[beam me up scottie]

6. Yep, 'cuz that's what Jesus would want them to do.

I gotta admit this is a great example of modern day religious insanity that will be nice to have in our bag of tricks.
The apologetics always try to pooh pooh the Holocaust and lump it in with the Inquisition because they don't want to count anything that happened more than a decade ago.

[Az]

7. I am not sure anything of value is coming from this exercise yet

In the minds of believers PZ is the one crossing the line. They can readily dismiss the hyperbole coming from the religious fanatics as internet bluster. All they see is PZ desecrating an object held to be sacred to some group. To their thinking this is no different than when the Talaban blew up the giant Buddha statues in Afghanistan. As far as I can tell there is little more value to this issue than chuckling about it with other nonbelievers. Even PZ seems to be trying to minimalize its importance. I don't see any argument successfully convincing a devout believer that PZ's actions are not an attack against the believers.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Quite possibly not

I think PZ got into a position where he either did something, or backed down - which would have been a 'victory' for Donahue (and not backing down gets Donahue donations for "look - they really do hate us!" protests).

I think he probably said the original "score me a wafer and I'll show you desecration" remark just as a casual gesture of solidarity with the student, without expecting the Spanish Inquisition (heh - good reference to that in his blog post :D ). I don't know how many Catholics take transubstantiation seriously, but it only takes a small percentage of them, and a small percentage of those who will be publicly outraged, for it still to be thousands frothing at the mouth on the internet.

[Az]

11. Agreed

I am a regular reader of his blog and I took his original comment to just be a side comment. Not meant to be a plan of attack or anything significant. Simply put it was an emotional reaction to the outrage of someone receiving death threats because they took a cracker. It snowballed from there.

[beam me up scottie]

10. It puts them in the same light as the muslims who wanted to kill over a cartoon.

Iow, they can't claim they're more civilized than the muslims they constantly deride.

[Az]

12. They already cooked up an argument around that

The cartoons do not require aquisition of any materials from the Muslims. The Cracker incident requires obtaining a cracker under false pretenses. Of course its just posturing as the things are hardly under lock and key. But it is sufficient for them to ease their conscience when blasting PZ for calling for people to "steal" crackers.

The rational doesn't have to make sense to us. It just has to be sufficient for them to accept it. So we really don't have anything to use that will cause them to cringe in regret about their behavior. We still come off as the bad guys in their view of the world.

[beam me up scottie]

13. I've already successfully argued the point with christians.

Just not on DU.

Although here there are also many catholics who will roll their eyes over the whole incident instead of frothing at the mouth and reaching for the torch and pitchfork.

[TZ]

22. Not as many as you think

I've seen alot of them saying that PZ Meyers and Dobson are similar types.
Yeah, right...:eyes:

[trotsky]

14. This paragraph is sheer brilliance:

I think if I were truly evil, I would have to demand that all of my acolytes be celibate, but would turn a blind eye to any sexual depravities they might commit. If I wanted to be an evil hypocrite, I'd drape myself in expensive jeweled robes and live in an ornate palace while telling all my followers that poverty is a virtue. If I wanted to commit world-class evil, I'd undermine efforts at family planning by the poor, especially if I could simultaneously enable the spread of deadly diseases. And if I wanted to be so evil that I would commit a devastating crime against the whole of the human race, twisting the minds of children into ignorance and hatred, I would be promoting the indoctrination of religion in children's upbringing, and fomenting hatred against anyone who dared speak out in defiance.

[beam me up scottie]

15. Apparently we're not allowed to admire PZ or favorably comment on anything he's done or said..

:eyes:

[trotsky]

16. Oh I'm already a charter member of the Fundamentalist Atheist Club

How much more damage could I do?

[Az]

17. I can pronounce Pharyngula

I am in deep doo-doo.

[semillama]

40. you think you're in trouble?

My wife wants to name our firstborn "Pharyngula". I'm pretty sure she's kidding, but...

[muriel_volestrangler]

41. Just tell any fundies it's the thing hanging down at the back of your throat

Or maybe that there was a St. Pharyngula in the 3rd century, who was martyred for asking why Neptune had let the squid catch fail for 3 years in a row, despite regular sacrifices of crackers. St. Pharyngula is now the patron saint of awkward questions.

[beam me up scottie]

18. I stand with him. (or crouch in a semi-threatening pose as all proper evil atheists do)

He's no Hitchens or Hedges and I hate the shushing that's been done by secular moderates. "Oooooooooooooo, bad PZ! Someone shut him up, quick, before they start saying bad things about atheists..."

[trotsky]

19. Crouch?

I thought we all just looked like we were crouching because we're hunched over from the weight of our evil-ness.

[beam me up scottie]

20. Crouching is dignified compared to the lurching done by the creationists.

I especially hate the sound their knuckles make when they drag behind them on the floor.

[enlightenment]

24. Damn it, BMUS - I made it this far through the thread

without backwashing my sinuses with my iced tea.:evilgrin:

*wanders off to find napkins . . .*

[beam me up scottie]

25. It's a terrible sound, too.

Not even the locusts this year can drown it out... :hi:

[skepticscott]

30. Someone should remind them

that the religiously fanatic have been saying bad things about atheists and doing worse things to them since before Jesus was in diapers. What are these cowards afraid of any more?

[beam me up scottie]

31. PZ decided a couple of years ago to throw down with the religiously insane.

They kept peeing in his pool - education - and he was sick and tired of being told not to offend them.

It was like watching a baby Phoenix rise, I swear.

[onager]

36. I'm upgrading my membership to Fanatical Atheist

Only $5 more per year, or free if I sign up for the Fanatical Atheist MasterCard.

[charlie]

21. The PZ Myers interview

from Richard Dawkins' Voices of Science DVD has been uploaded to YouTube in 10 10-minute segments:

http://www.youtube.com/user/djarm67

It's true what they say, there really is a disconnect between PZ's aggressive, forthright blogging persona and his quiet reserve in person. He's even more soft-spoken than Dawkins.

The first two videos are sort of a getting-to-know-you session, finding out what sort of biologist Myers is, what schools of thought he subscribes to. I think he's a little nervous about being on camera with Dawkins, as Dawkins does most of the talking.

PZ's warmed up by the third video where they begin discussing religion, science, and atheism, so skip to that one if you're interested in watching the New Atheist Messiahs being wicked.

The interviews took place over two days and happily the ridiculous situation where Myers was ejected from a screening of Expelled happened during the interlude. Video seven is where they return to giggle over the idiot creationists.

The last two are a discussion of recent developments in biology and evolutionary science.

[progressoid]

23. What it...

...someone collected a few thousand wafers and say 9 or 10 pints of holy wine. Couldn't we somehow combine them and reanimate Jesus?
:shrug:

[A HERETIC I AM]

26. "Zat means he would have an ENORMOUS Schvahnstucker"

"Naturally"

[cosmik debris]

27. Which brings up the question...

Which part of the Jesus corpse is the cracker becoming?

Are they transubstantiating Jesus' dong? his rectum? Do the really pious people get the good parts while the social catholics get the naughty bits? Do they make cold cuts out of the left over bits? What about head cheese?

The mind reels.

[progressoid]

32. A Holy Schvahnstucker!

[beam me up scottie]

28. I absolutely adore that movie.

Some outtakes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6Ec43f1xdU&feature=related (the best, imo, begins at 5:22 )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gssf-r3AFAU&feature=related

At the end of OT-2 it reads: Never Forget Anne, Madeline, Marty and Gilda for their extraordinary work in their craft.

R.I.P.

I'm adding Peter Boyle to the list.

Bravo.

[charlie]

29. Aw, no

I didn't know Anne Bancroft was dead. I saw "never forget Anne..." and had to check if it was her. Cripes. She was a lovely lady, a brilliant (and underused) actress, and a trooper for managing to stay happily married to looney Mel. Bravo, indeed.

[beam me up scottie]

34. What a class act she was, eh?

A very beautiful woman, inside an out.

[progressoid]

33. It has to be in my top ten favorite comedies.

I've seen that footage somewhere before. Maybe on the DVD "extras"?

Love the bit with Marty, Madeline, Gene, and Terry Garr. :rofl:

[beam me up scottie]

35. I know, I laughed myself to tears watching Marty rip into that fur.

It took 8 or 9 takes according to Gene. It sounds like they had just as much fun making it as we did watching it.

Magic.

[Evoman]

37. I went to a catholic forum to see what they had to say among themselves.

I have so much trouble wrapping my mind around people caring so much. They are AGONIZING over it...some of them are so mad, they have to calm down before they can "pray for his soul". Others seem to almost WISH that he would have done it in the time of the inquisition. Some of them seem almost happy he included a copy of the Qu'ran, because the muslims get to kill him while they "pray for his soul". Lol..sounds like they are jealous....

Lol...for the life of me, I don't think I'm ever going to get it.

[and-justice-for-all]

38. I find it to be completely absurd..

that people will 'agonize" over something that is made, every day. If they have an ounce of belief at all in that they say they do, they should know that something that is supposed to control everything and know everything is A) not going to give a shit what someone does with that cracker and B) saw it coming and did nothing to stop PZ from harming that poor cracker.

A friend of mine, who just happens to be a former Jesuit Priest and now a dismisses all of it, found this story quite humorous.

Of all the things to be in the world to be concerned about, this is not one of them. I think PZ's actions demonstrates just how insecure religious people are about their beliefs system.

[dropkickpa]

39. As a child

My ultra-catholic grandma took me to church with her once (I must have been about 10) and I somehow scored a communion wafer (this may have been her sly way of doing something woo-woo to me, but I'm not sure if this was before or after she found out mom and dad didn't baptise us). It tasted exactly like these, minus the little candy goodness inside.