My Sunday column in the Dallas Morning News took on the P.Z. Myers fiasco. Nothing there that regular readers haven't seen in some form or another here on this blog, but I did focus on the question of what an action like this means for civil society and democracy. Excerpt:
If Dr. Myers had carried out a similar extreme act of contempt against homosexuals or racial minorities, for example, does anybody doubt that he'd be shown the door? And should have been. It's absolutely defensible to advocate for unpopular doctrines, especially within a university. But to engage in such shocking and unhinged acts of spite is to strike at the core of what makes a diverse community possible.And not just a scholarly community. Cultural restraints and traditions of mutual respect and common decency that allowed us to debate civilly among ourselves, despite our diversity, are fast disappearing. On both the left and right, our culture is increasingly an adversarial one, in which individuals are encouraged to elevate themselves by debasing The Other.
Sociologist James Davison Hunter, an expert on the culture war, has pointed out that the fiercest battles in any society take place around symbols. Dr. Myers' highly public desecration of the holiest Christian and Islamic symbols has already called forth atavistic reactions - including death threats - from the aggrieved. Once this kind of thing starts, it's hard to stop.
This does not augur well for our democracy. Culture, Dr. Hunter says, is "prior to, and leads politics. And therefore, it is more important than politics in tracking the nature of the social order and its changes."
The Myers mob is carrying out a "Eucharist Challenge" on YouTube, encouraging atheists to film themselves desecrating consecrated Hosts. What does this say about the direction of our social order? What kind of politics will emerge from this?
I've been getting lots of e-mail from Myers' defenders. They all say the same thing: that Catholics had it coming because Dear P.Z. was simply defending some kid in Florida who had been harassed for taking a Host, which in any case is just a cracker, so STFU, you Christianist bigot. They also say that Dear P.Z. trashed a page from Dawkins' "The God Delusion," which just goes to prove that P.Z. is an equal opportunity offender, so what's your problem, you Christianist bigot?
What's interesting is the complete and utter lack of empathy these people have for anybody who doesn't see the world exactly as they do. Anybody who objects to what Myers did on any grounds whatsover is to be seen with sneering contempt. The tone of these e-mails, some of which come from university e-mail addresses, is quite consistent, and chilling. Intellectual autists, basically. If the P.Z. Myers Brigades were in a position of political power in this country, I would fear for my freedom.
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"Actually, TR, yotta yotta yotta."
TR: Hmm I should've went with my best instincts and not humored you.
You're the first I've found to deny the initial news reports that said the threats occurred. Go to Myers's blog, follow the links, you can see the stories.
Is this a ritual you put people through before you make a stand against violence? 'First there must be evidence I deem credible, handed to me on a silver platter . . .'
Sometimes I think if it weren't for Samaritans, there'd be no good deeds done in Christendom.
All that was a 'yotta, yotta, yotta'?
Well, probably for the best if you weren't conversing in good faith, and were only humoring in the first place.
Sorry if my real life examples were only 'yada, yada, yada'. (Had a grandfather who went through the McCarthy problems, shortly after fleeing here from Franco's Spain.)
I think it is a point that you note that most of that tolerance came AFTER the 60's (irony in that, but for another time), but none of it publicly for non-believers.
Major political figures could say they don't think a whole group of voters should be considered citizens, nobody cares. Recent (as in last year) studies show that every other group had more than 50 percent say they would still vote for them. Only one group had more people than not say they would NOT vote for an otherwise acceptable candidate if they were.. and yes, it was atheist.
The major point is that if it is only Christian churches in a Christian majority country who could count on respect, or not even that, but Christian churches whose parishioners were the majority race... Wait, we have to add in another. A particular variety (Protestant) churches whose parishioners were Caucasian.. boy, that area of 'respectfulness' from the past just keeps getting narrower and narrower, doesn't it?
The thing is, I don't think Rod's point IS hyperbole to him. He is making that common mistake of rosying up the past (and he is in the WRONG denomination to be doing that. Not that they were doing it, but that they were having it done TO them), into some time when everyone truly respected other people's beliefs, and wouldn't ever insult them based upon it, or ever do anything to another party's sacred objects or interfere with their sacred acts.
Outside of homogeneous societies where there WAS only one faith, with serious repercussions for such acts, I doubt that ever existed anywhere.
Mr. Dreher, where is your condemnation for those who have threatened to kill Myers and cause harm to his children?
Apparently you think that putting a rusty nail through a cracker is a more serious offense than those *crimes*?
You're welcome to object to Myers' actions, find him rude, etc.--but why do you not criticize those who have gone *way* over the line to the point of criminal activity, such as Chuck Kroll, who caused his wife to be fired from her job at 1-800-Flowers when he sent a death threat to Myers from her company email account?
I think the reason for PZ's abuse of a cracker, a Koran, and a copy of the book The God Delusion, is he wanted to demonstrate that nothing is sacred. He was probably disgusted by the childish overreaction of many Catholics over a tiny piece of bread. The Catholics acted like Muslims who get upset because of a cartoon. The idea that a cracker becomes sacred when a priest says some magic words is ridiculous to an atheist, as are all other invented religious beliefs. I doubt PZ cares what people believe, but when Catholics make death threats, and try to get a student expelled, for what looks to everyone else to be a trivial problem, of course he's going to notice their idiotic behavior, and of course he's going to be tempted to make fun of their idiocy.
Why shouldn't rational people ridicule religious woo-woo, especially since religious insanity is out of control in this world. There's daily suicide bombings, and in America there are Christians who are constantly attacking science education. The world would be many times better off if all religions were eradicated. The best way to do this is treat religious people the same as racists, with contempt.
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