Communion is a metaphor. Jesus was a Jew, and the likelihood he meant his comments literally is pretty much nil.

But yes, people have behaved badly on all sides. One person’s rudeness should never have cascaded into a national campaign to get a student expelled and a professor fired (or killed), though.

*mumbles*

I’m a skeptic and a Catholic who struggles with A LOT of things about ALL organized religions, including and most especially my own — especially since I’m a natural pessimist, skeptic, devil’s advocate, etc. Even more since I have some (ongoing) training in the natural sciences, “believe in” evolution (as if my belief or disbelief would make any difference to inherited genetic differences and population bottlenecks!), and am lawyer trained to search for and exploit the cracks in arguments, theories, etc. But I’m not writing to describe my own belief or disbelief in transubstantiation. And I’m not going to even attempt to defend the many crimes and shortcomings that the Catholic church is guilty of over the millenia. I freaking hate that my church hates homosexuality, oppresses womens’ reproductive rights, discourages condom use, and committed an endless list of outrages, genocides, and close-minded crimes against the dignity of humanity.

Cracker or not (incidentally, my church uses a nice chewy whole wheat bread), I’m just shocked at the disrespect that I think is motivated by real hatred shown by all sides in this debate. Death threats and inability to understand metaphor and symbolism are just as offensive, in my opinion, as an attack on deeply cherished and guarded beliefs and rituals of any group.

I just think that the great ongoing debate between skepticism and religion is one of humanity’s greatest assets — without debate, there’s no progress, right? And certainly life, nature, science, spirituality, humanity, evolution, etc. are worth debating. It’s the Great Debate that defines our species, in my opinion, and it deserves to be treated with respect and dignity by ALL sides.

I’m outraged at the one-sided, manipulated, BS attack in that piece of crap movie _Expelled_. But I don’t think that my disagreement or skepticism about intelligent design and evangelistic born-again Christians entitles me to walk into a prayer service and disrupt it with all of the reasons that I believe the ID “theory” is flawed, or that I can’t understand or accept the hypocrisy of evangelists, fundamentalists, and their beliefs. That would be just plain tasteless and rude.

I personally don’t believe in the LDS garmet (aka “Magic Underwear”), and REALLY disagree with a ton of things about the LDS church. But I don’t make fun of it around my LDS friends and colleagues. That’s just offensive and rude.

I’ve attended my friends’ weddings, funerals, bat/r mitzvahs, etc. I don’t make a scene, or disrespect their rituals or beliefs, even if I believe that they’re ridiculous, silly, or downright harmful (see LDS).

But, I still believe in human dignity and respect. Close-minded self-righteous zealots piss me off, regardless of their cause. Even if they’re trying to champion my own beliefs.

I just can’t comprehend, defend, respect, or empathize with the incredible rudeness (or is it hatred) behind the original cracker-theft. Same goes for the death threats against the thief. Same goes for the ridicule and tenor of PZ’s blog entry — there’s genuine hatred in his words.

I don’t know where venting and ranting comes into all of this. And, lord knows, PZ is entitled to vent some steam. I’m just terribly disheartened that “we” — skeptics, scientists, religious people, humanity — can’t resist wallowing in shit with the pigs, making death threats, ridiculing others’ faith, beheading infidels, oppressing women, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum (truly, I’m nauseated at this whole kerfuffle), instead of giving this debate the dignity that it deserves. And if this debate is the great triumph of humanity, then humanity’s historical and ongoing conduct must be the greatest disappointment.

See what I put up with for you people?!

What a wanker.

And you think you have a handle on this all and are a scientist?

Look Bug-girl. If you cannot DO the job and BE a scientist then you have to step aside.

Because the scientific ethos is something bigger than your career, your new Northern dumb-left friends and your Southern relatives its bigger than all of that.

If you cannot live up to that you are going to have to step aside for some youngsters who can.

Never heard of the fly ball before though.

~Kai