Student Kidnaps the Eucharist... PZ Myers to the Rescue!

(Has this been pitted yet? If so, I couldn’t find it…)

Context here:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/07/its_a_goddamned_cracker.php#more

A UCF student has launched somewhat of a controversy by “stealing/kidnapping” the Body of Christ at a Mass at UCF (http://www.wftv.com/news/16798008/detail.html).

PZ Myers, Atheist Extraordinaire, chimes in and hilarity ensues.

But wait, there’s more! PZ is now receiving death threats and calls are flooding into his University for his dismissal. The mind boggles at the utter stupidity of it all.

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

Some things really just pit themselves.

What a jerk. They did this why? Someday perhaps they will grow up.

He isn’t being rude to a cracker, he is being rude to all Catholics.

So?

What kind of a prick goes to mass to steal the Eucharist? Just because someone is an atheist or a non-believer doesn’t excuse them from treating other people with respect. You want to poke fun at the idea of the Eucharist? Fine. You don’t do it by entering a church and stealing it.

Marc

So you think this is acceptable?

Why not? Who does it hurt?

So it’s OK if I go into a mosque and shit on the Koran then? I mean really it’s just a silly book. Who does it hurt?

Or, if you prefer sans-hyperbole, I could leave the monetary value of the Koran, take it home, and doodle on it.

Ask your wife & kids.

Jesus Christ you are thick. That hurts the people who have to smell and clean up the shit.

That’s called theft. It wasn’t for sale.

Just being the devils advocate here but did he really steal it? It was my understanding that the eucharist is given freely.

The children, I suspect, would understand why this is wrong. A gentleman (of whatever gender) never causes hurt needlessly.

Why, because he did something that is against your religion?

By this argument, every time you eat pork you are being rude to all Muslims.

So it’s OK for me to go into your momma’s house, down into the basement, and take your binky? And it’s OK for me then to burn it and broadcast the burning?

I mean, hey, it’s just a little pink blanket, right? There are plenty of little pink baby blankets out there- you can always get another one, right?

:rolleyes:
It’s not that the Eucharist is a “cracker.” When they’re shipped from the manufacturer and stored in the back, they’re just crackers. You want a cracker? You can have all the crackers you want. You want to hold up a Ritz cracker and say, “Here’s what I think of the Catholic Church and its stupid Eucharist!” and shove that cracker up your ass? Go right on ahead.
It’s that this asshole is going out of his way to wait until after a ceremony that is of paramount importance to many people, and THEN to STEAL them, in a move that is designed specifically to offend people who have done nothing to this guy except hold a belief that he finds silly.
And the Eucharist is given to be taken on the spot, not to be stuck in your pocket and transported elsewhere. People aren’t standing in line for a free bit of cracker- they’re standing in line because this ceremony is important to them.

Apparently, it is stealing/kidnapping if you remove it from the Church grounds without eating it (?)… I’m not a Catholic, so I’m not up on the protocol.

I think it’s harmless. You think threatening to kill somebody for it is acceptable?

Incidentally, my oldest daughter just took her First Communion a few months ago. We went to some kind of preparatory class for parents at her school beforehand and one of the teachers there informed us very seriously and worriedly about Satanists who steal hosts to desecrate them later. She talked about people stomping on or otherwise desecrating these wafers like itwas people killing babies.

Later, at home, my lifelong Catholic wife laughed about it thought it was ridiculous. According to her way of thinking, the whole transubstantiation thing is an internal and personal experience, and those people really are just getting their jollies from spitting on a cracker. She also points out that it can’t do any damage to God, so why should she care? At worst, some people may be hurting their own souls, “karma,” whatever (especially if they’re Catholic and really believe the Host to be the Corpus Christi, but they’re not harming Catholics and they’re not harming God.

It’s not stealing if the give it to you, and it did not harm or disrupt anyone else’s experience or practice in any way.

Then she’s not much of a Catholic, and is not morally allowed to receive the Eucharist herself.

Oh no you refuted my arguments. Have a cookie. Next time I’ll try to make bullet-proof analogies so I can shield myself from your razor-sharp wit.

The point is the guy who took a Eucharist/cracker/death cookie for the purpose of making a point was being a disrespectful dick. It’s sad that some people are so hateful towards all religion that they are blinded to this simple fact.

Theft by deception is still a crime.

It was a dick thing to do, but it affects me not even the least little bit. If Catholics are right and there is a God, this person will have to account for his actions, and that’s good enough for me.