P.Z. Myers hates Christians exclusively

Houghton writes: "Those who think of themselves as "brights" will now start behaving in increasingly nakedly aggressive ways in America and the rest of the West. There won't be a need to "spiritualize" at that point, because the snarling rage and violent attacks we'll witness will be quite open for all to see."

But it's not Myers who has promoted violence or criminal activity, it's the Catholics who have been sending him death threats and threats of violence against his children, yet where is your condemnation of that?

A "Fr. J", posting at Pharyngula, made a similar remark to the above, and tried to claim that the recent attempted attack on a Christian radio station on College Station, PA was by an atheist--when in fact the man was a mentally ill Christian off his meds. Similarly, the attack on the Unitarian Universalist church in Tennessee was a Christian who thought the UU's were "too liberal" and because they aren't anti-gay. And the FBI's primary suspect for the 2001 anthrax attacks who just killed himself was a Catholic.

Francis Beckwith: "According to PZ, Catholic outrage is unwarranted, but Muslim outrage is, though the latter hurt their cause because they resort to violence. Muslims are portrayed as victims, albeit irrational and misguided, who harm their cause by overreacting. Catholics are told by PZ to remain completely silent and speak only when spoken to as they sit in the back of the secular bus."

Where has P.Z. Myers criticized Catholics for being outraged, as opposed to criticizing them for issuing death threats, threatening the lives of his children, trying to get him fired from his job, trying to get Webster Cook and his friend expelled from the University of Central Florida, and for saying things that are idiotic, like the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy's laughably absurd statement about the meaning of the First Amendment. You should give that statement a read.

Indeed, FULL CONTEXT", Scotth.

Let's see here:

Pox-ridden houses
Category: Godlessness • Politics
Posted on: February 4, 2006 2:25 PM, by PZ Myers

I haven't commented on those Muslim cartoons so far. I'm conflicted.

Why, you might ask? It's a clear-cut case of religious insanity, exactly the sort of thing I ought to relish wagging an arrogantly atheistical finger at. And of course I will, in just a moment…but the difficult part is that there are actually at least two issues here, and religion is only one of them.

There are some things a cartoonist would be rightly excoriated for publishing: imagine that one had drawn an African-American figure as thick-lipped, low-browed, smirking clown with a watermelon in one hand and a fried chicken drumstick in the other. Feeding bigotry and flaunting racist stereotypes would be something that would drive me to protest any newspaper that endorsed it—of course, my protests would involve writing letters and canceling subscriptions, not rioting and burning down buildings. There is a genuine social concern here, I think. Muslims represent a poor and oppressed underclass, and those cartoons represent a ruling establishment intentionally taunting them and basically flipping them off. They have cause to be furious!

I've seen the cartoons, and they are crude and uninteresting—they are more about perpetuating stereotypes of Muslims as bomb-throwing terrorists than seriously illuminating a problem. They lack artistic or social or even comedic merit, and are only presented as an insult to inflame a poor minority. I don't have any sympathy for a newspaper carrying out an exercise in pointless provocation.

So on the one hand I see a social problem being mocked, but on the other—and here comes the smug godless finger-wagging—I see a foolish superstition used as a prod to mock people, and a people so muddled by the phony blandishments of religion that they scream "Blasphemy!" and falsely pin the problem on a ridiculous insult to a non-existent god, rather than on the affront to their dignity as human beings and citizens. Religion in this case has accomplished two things, neither one productive: it's distracted people away from the real problems, which have nothing at all to do with the camera-shy nature of their imaginary deity, and it's also amplified the hatred.

It also doesn't help that their riots are confirming the caricatures rather than opposing them. Once again, religiosity turns people into mindless frenzied zombies, and once again it interferes with progress.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Somehow, people are assuming from this that I'm "sympathetic to Islam". How, I don't know; I thought I'd always been quite clear in my contempt for all religion, and I thought the last two paragraphs above were plain enough. I am sympathetic to the problem of being a minority immigrant; that's one issue that is being ignored too much. As I said, the real problem is being exacerbated by bad religion that amplifies the hate.

I really don't think a Muslim would find me to be a friend to their religion.

Perhaps not a friend, but certainly given to PC mush and slush of the variety where this is what we call a "distinction without a difference."

So let's see here. Per PZ, he has disdain for ALL religion, and makes much mockery of Christianity when ever he gets to tap out yet more on an almost daily basis. On one occasion accusing Christian religion in the military for fostering a level of violence to the point where he'd have to do a double take on the whole Separation of Church and State issue, since obviously hateful Christians make the Pentagon's machinery of death work so well...

And YET, we are NOT to mock Islam, or make it's many adherents uncomfortable, or risk dissing them. These mostly mild representations of the Prophet are responsible for murder and mayhem and burn downs, and yet PZ takes the line that we need to toe the line here and watch out, lest we become insensitive to the needs of minority immigrants. How nice. Pay homage to Muslim psychoses all the while saying nothing about one more NEA sponsored Piss Christ art exhibit paid for by the public dime.

Thanks for saying nothing, Scotth.

I'll take Lippard on his word, and in turn PZ Myers', that some Catholics have threatened him. But Myers' actions in taunting are actually worse than what he critiques as bad journalism in regards to the Danish cartoons. Certainly they are no better than those editors. I call hypocrisy. While PZ's not advocating any violence that I can tell, I must first point out his hatred of Christianity is palpable and noteworthy, whereas his PC sidestep of saying we dare not goad some other religion smacks of grotesque hypocrisy.

Is this charge of hypocrisy avoided if one is an immigrant supposedly langusing in a new society and not getting along to well with the local folks? Does the occasional suspicion of the religion of Mohammed sometimes earn its billing in the disdain department?

Just maybe?

Muslims represent a poor and oppressed underclass, and those cartoons represent a ruling establishment intentionally taunting them and basically flipping them off. They have cause to be furious!

What an asinine statement....Dr. Myers...