P.Z. Myers in the news (the catholic church communion wafer incident)

To what extent do you want organizations which are intolerant by their nature to be tolerated? Myers was reacting to death threats on a kid. You took sides quickly, criticizing him, and now you claim the high ground of tolerance.

Of course most Catholics are benign, as are most people in all religions. He knows very well who Donohue is, and what he represents. Most of Myer's conflict with religion is with the protestant creationists, but Donohue is the Catholic equivalent, and refers to the "King Kong theory of origins". I agree. Membership of organizations like the Catholic Church is voluntary, I'm sure you'll agree. We all have our differing views on what is and isn't bad behaviour. I agree that we're emotional creatures, as you implied in the post before, and I think that Myers was certainly showing emotion.I have to say that I've lived in the U.S., and I can understand how its religiosity can get to people like Myers.I think a bit more verbal "intolerance" of religion would be a good thing all round, and especially in the U.S., and perhaps this is where we differ. But I don't mean intolerance between the religions, or the victimization of the smaller ones.I think that a bit of controversy that might lead some to examine what they really are believing about crackers tends to do more good than harm, and that these small spats help a society to evolve culturally and politically. Lots of little changes make evolution, so that, hopefully, revolutions are never necessary.Edited by bluegenes, : No reason given.

Well, I'd certainly never read him in 2006, and I knew little of his personal philosophy, but it looks as though I've been doing an almost word perfect job of defending his position in several posts above, Granny!

Convergent language use (see above) and now convergent posting. And creationists don't believe the coincidences when we explain convergent evolution. http://EvC Forum: P.Z. Myers in the news (the catholic church communion wafer incident) -->EvC Forum: P.Z. Myers in the news (the catholic church communion wafer incident){ABE}There are three cartoons on the subject. The most recent one might interest Straggler, as it involves complex transubstantiation theology.Jesus and MoEdited by bluegenes, : addition

The contents of P. Z. Myers blog are nothing compared to this stylish piece of ridicule.

Actually, in the only bit where aggressive superstitious people are mentioned (people like Donahue) Nickell says he does change his tack, and confront them head on.More importantly, his claim that the approach he has been using for forty years has been effective is bizarre. It's the year 2008 (not 1808) yet half the population of his country believe that the earth is less than ten thousand years old due to superstition, and most of the other 50% have superstitious delusions of some sort also, like the magic cracker one.IMO, the more ridicule these kind of beliefs face, the more the world is provoked into thinking, and the better a place it's likely to be.It's no good bringing up a strawman about people's irrational emotional attachments, as you did further up the thread. We all have non-rational emotional attachments, but we do not have to have silly ones that are harmful to others, so we do not require religions with a history of threatening those who disagree with them with death, especially when elements in those religions are still using the death threats in modern times (which is what Myers was reacting to).I agree with Nickell's way of approaching the frightened family that believes it has a ghost, but the Donahues of this world are something different.