What if you’re a bulimic and you end up vomiting the Eucharist? Is that okay?
How did anyone find out about this “story,” anyway? Did he brag about it or was he caught stuffing it into a baggie?
If I call your mother a whore, it’s not hurting anybody, but you’re still being a dick. Just because something is stupid doesn’t mean that mocking it is the right thing to do.
That being said, it’s a fucking cracker, Jesus Christ!
He is asking people to aid and abet him in hate-acts though (not “hate crimes”, I will agree.)
Where did I state he stole something?
I was indirectly replying to Diogene’s posts (in defense of PZ) saying he did nothing criminal, and that there was no harm.
I agree. No criminal act. Just rudeness.
That’s not correct, as I understand it. Muslims are forbidden from eating pork, but they don’t consider it to be sacred, or that the eating of it is thus a desecration - it’s just something Muslims are forbidden to eat. The Eucharist is considered sacred.
Now who is making bad analogies? It’s a difference on two levels. One, maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think you can desecrate pork, as it’s not in itself a holy thing. Two, it’s a difference between public and private. The pork and wafer situations would be similar if somebody made a web-blog declaring how they are going to eat pork everyday and every bite they will be thinking of Muslims and how silly they are.
“Mmmm… pork is so delicious. Your belief system and corresponding dietary laws are retarded. Everyone join me in my pork crusade!” That would be a roughly similar level of disrespect IMO.
I was rude to a cracker once. Went right over his head.
You think he consorts with demons?
You shouldn’t take a church wafer under false pretenses; that’s being a jerk, and might be considered theft by deception.
But committing sacrilege? That’s a God-given right.
Yes, that is what Catholics believe 
Wait, what?
I opened this thread because I find it a ridiculous situation all around. Dumbass kid steals the Eucharist, people overreact with death threats (!?). PZ Myers wades in, trys to be funny. People then issue death threats against him and call for his job. What the hell is going on here? I agree with the previous poster who suggested this could have been an Onion article.
I intended in no way to malign Catholics. I did, however, intend to malign idiots who issue death threats because some dick kid pulls a stupid prank. And I will continue to malign the idiots who are calling for PZ Myer’s head on a stick.
No, pork isn’t sacred to Muslims, you dumb motherfucker. They’re forbidden to eat it because pigs are considered to be unclean animals, not because they’re holy.
As a matter of fact, they aren’t, but even that analogy is stretched since the theft of the Host does not involve any harrassment or disruption of the Mass.
Just to be clear, by the way, when I said my wife laughed at this kind of thing, her laughter is directed at the thjieves and the descrators, not at the Church. She finds their behaviour hilariously childish and impotent, which is how I see it too.
That involves our presense as ostensible guests in someone else’s country. It’s not analogous.
If God wants it back badly enough, He can dispatch his Waferwraiths to retrieve it. Meantime I’ll assume He’s also shaking His mighty head in disbelief over the level of wailing melodrama one “pilfered” cracker is generating. (And working toward completing those long-procrastinated Biblical errata…)
This is correct, but the analogy can still be saved by switching it to Hindus and cows. Hindus do think that cows are sacred.
Not at all, but Myers is announcing his intention to perform acts of Wafer desecration traditionally associated with medieval Satanism. Anton LaVey probably didn’t consort with demons either (they had better things to do) nor did he believe in a literal Satan, but he was still a Satanist.
True, so we better confine the Quran desecration to U.S. military bases inside the U.S.
It’s only Catholicism this time, because they’re the ones acting insane. Next time, it’ll be someone else.
IANACatholic but I understand there are rules for people who sick up bits of the Eucharist. Crumbs from the crackers are also treated with respect and handled in some special way too.
The problem with this whole thing is that catholics had a chance to look sane and make some of the arguments in this thread (i.e. it’s just basic politeness). But no, they went batshit insane and threatened to kill him. Sure, PZ is being a dick, and I really dislike the whole militant atheist shit but let’s keep some perspective.
In the end, for non-Catholics it’s just a cracker and pissing on it is just fine. For Catholics it’s literally the body of Jesus and the pissing would be sacrilege. I think most moderate people can understand both sides and realise there’s a whole lot of unacceptable going on here.
For the record I think it’s just a cracker but I can see why burning it is a bit of a dick move. Same way I think the American flag is just a flag, but I know the burning it live on youtube would make me a bit of a dick.
SD
Connecting the dots that Myers (an outspoken atheist who no more believes in Satan than in Zeus) is a Satanist because he descrates a host is silly. A real Satanist would do it because they belived it was really the Body of Christ and they literally wanted to show contempt for a Christ they believe exists. Myers is doing it as an expression of ridicule for the belief itself (i.e. he doesn’t believe he’s insulting Jesus, he believes he’s ridiculing people who think that a communion wafer literally IS Jesus). It’s a significant difference.
That would be fine by me.
Once again a few bad apples make the whole tree look bad. /sigh. I wish there weren’t nutcase Catholics like this. I wish people didn’t judge a group by its crazies. I wish atheists knew what it’s like to be ridiculed every time a member of their group does something bad. A Catholic priest molests little boys and all of a sudden all Catholics are treated under suspicion as being sex perverts, sexually repressed at best. An atheist who molests little boys is just a pedophile.
Yes I know, atheism isn’t a ‘group’ in that sense, and atheists already are prejudiced against by many Americans.
Maybe I’m over-reacting. In any case shit like this makes me a sad panda.