The Catholic League Is Silly

From the Catholic League. Apparently they are pissed because PZ Myers wrote this and want him fired or reprimanded or something.

Well guess what happened to him?

Yep. PZ Myers received hate mail and death threats and so on and so forth.

I'm not going to say what Myers was thinking or not because he makes that rather clear in the first place.

People went up in arms because some guy took a "cracker" that would no doubt have tasted like cardboard anyway for some reason that it seems only he knows.

Myers wrote in the first post of his ("this") that I linked to:

So, what to do. I have an idea. Can anyone out there score me some consecrated communion wafers? There's no way I can personally get them — my local churches have stakes prepared for me, I'm sure — but if any of you would be willing to do what it takes to get me some, or even one, and mail it to me, I'll show you sacrilege, gladly, and with much fanfare. I won't be tempted to hold it hostage (no, not even if I have a choice between returning the Eucharist and watching Bill Donohue kick the pope in the balls, which would apparently be a more humane act than desecrating a goddamned cracker), but will instead treat it with profound disrespect and heinous cracker abuse, all photographed and presented here on the web. I shall do so joyfully and with laughter in my heart. If you can smuggle some out from under the armed guards and grim nuns hovering over your local communion ceremony, just write to me and I'll send you my home address.

That is what annoyed the Catholics in the US the most.

I think he had a rather relevant point to begin with.

The guy in question didn't actually do anything except not relish in the taste of cardboard.

Quick digression, on paper anyway I am a Roman Catholic, I went to a RC schools, and have been to more masses then I care to count or remember. I know what the Eucharist wafers taste like and it is not Jesus or bread.

I probably would have suggested the same thing (Except as pointed out here I thought of something far more grandiose), because the whole issue is stupid.

Ok, so yes the doctrine of transubstantiation says that it does become the body of Christ, except that testing it still shows that it is round edible cardboard. I was always under the impression that it was something of a symbol and that you had to actually believe that it was the body of Christ for it to work.

I guess I musn't have paid enough attention in RE class.

It's like the Catholic League saying this:

Myers was angry at the Catholic League for criticizing the student.

Really? It doesn't read that way, unless you consider sending death threats to the student part of the "Catholic League official criticism guidelines".

It's like trying to get Myers reprimanded because you can access his blog through the university that he works at.

Guess the Catholic League didn't read the guidelines very well then.

The guidelines only apply to pages that are hosted by them. Pharyngula isn't hosted by them so they are not responsible for whatever Myers posts at all on his own blog.

That's like someone trying to sue The Adelaide Index because my blog has a link there and I've published a copyright violation.

And on top of that Myers wasn't representing his institution on his blog anyway, all the thoughts are his. The Catholic League found a few lines of the guidelines that supported what they wanted, but they also disregarded quite a bit of other guidlines, like how the page is supposed to look.

At times like this it would be a good idea to see what Jesus has to say

Another Post on Scientology

The JREF forum has a few Scientologists. Recently one of them has mentioned that he has been on the receiving end of abuse because of his religion.

That is one problem with Anonymous. It suffers in real life from the same thing that you find on internet forums. People can say far more insulting things when they don't know where you are or even who you are.

The problem is that there are times where you can't really separate the religion from the person. This is something of a different case. The idea of Project Chanology, like any criticism that has been dealt against Scientology, is usually not against the religion itself, but against the actions of the organisation that is Scientology.

My proof?

Go on a little journey and learn about the Freezoners.

They are basically the Scientology version of the initial Protestants.

They had a problem with certain practises of the Church of Scientology and basically broke away. They follow Scientology principles like a Scientologist but one of their tenets is that it will be free.

They allow criticism of what they do and don't really care about it. In Germany they are pretty much free to do as they will because they obey the law and don't act in a manner that is contrary to democracy.

Compare that to the Church of Scientology, an organisation known for breaking the law (Operation Snow White), being a vexatious litigant by suing people to destroy them financially, libel and slander against SPs, and even blackmail. They cry persecution when they don't get things their way, but willingly persecute people who disagree with what they say and do, cry abuse against the mental health organisation but abuse their own through the RPF (here is a good article to read about this) and you can't say that Lisa McPherson wasn't abused.

The actions of CoS are hypocritical and manipulate freedoms that the law gives us to their advantage but willingly deny people of their rights, by censoring speech when it doesn't suit them.

An organisation that tries to destroy their critics (Operation Freakout for example) deserves to be picketed. The problem is that the only way to do this effectively is to be anonymous, which opens the door to abuse from the people who don't really deserve it, low org members and Public Scientologists.

The real people who deserve to be on the end of this abuse are either safely away from any protesters in their million dollar mansions (I mean proper higher ups, not celebrities) or are there filming the protests, recording the phone calls, and writing the press releases (the OSA) and also the SO who control the organisation.

They are the ones who should suffer, but don't, and the ones who suffer, shouldn't.