RIP Cracker
The cracker is no more. It's gone to heaven, or it's still alive, or whatever. The post is only a few hours old, and there are already over 1000 comments.
I've seen plenty of comments over P.Z.'s cracker controversy, with lots of generally sensible people adopting disapproving tones. I think Rebecca Watson gets it right (as ever):
A percentage of the omgrude crowd is upset because they do not think PZ’s words help further the skeptical movement because he won’t convince any of the hardcore group that they are crazy. I agree that he probably won’t convince many true believers, but I disagree that he doesn’t help rational people. Just about any time someone dares to point out the absurdity of irrational thinking, he does a great service to many other rational thinkers who were too scared or unsure to say so themselves.
Did Trey Parker and Matt Stone convince any true believers when they called John Edward the Biggest Douche in the Universe? Probably not many, but I bet they influenced a lot of young people who might have been on the fence. There’s no one right way to communicate skepticism, and for every Trey & Matt we need a Carl Sagan. For every PZ, we need a Julia Sweeney or a Hemant. If one isn’t to your taste, you’re free to ignore him, but it’s short-sighted to claim that person is hindering the “skeptical movement” just because he’s not your bag.
I'd only add that it was the church who initially tried to impose their fantasies on the real world. That the real world pointed and laughed is only to be expected.
Maybe, just maybe, this will put an end to the whole thing. Heck, even Jesus has had enough.
Crackers
Last week a student took a cracker from his local church, and the Internet exploded.
Some Catholics think the cracker is actually - literally - the body of Jesus, and say it's a hate crime to hold it hostage. A hate crime! The US Catholic League has gone bananas, hurling fire and brimstone (and bizarrely coming out as anti-evolutionists, despite their church's 'official' position) and suggesting the student should be expelled. Of course, if he'd taken the cracker and chewed it up, that would have been just fine. Their little world is really quite gross.
The insanity ensued after science/atheist blogger P.Z. Myers posted about it, in typically entertaining style. He asked for crackers to hold hostage on his blog, and he's had to close various posts after literally thousands of comments threatened to take down his server. The Catholic League is in shock that anybody would want to hurt the baby Jesus, and so is telling people to email the head of P.Z's university with their complaints. P.Z. has tenure, but I think he and everyone are somewhat shocked at the escalation of muppetry in just a few days.
One the one side you've got many many people taking advantage of an excellent opportunity to take the piss out of the Eucharist. I don't blame them at all. The Eucharist is so conspicuously stupid that it's almost a duty to bring it up whenever the opportunity arises.
It is a bit weird that the Eucharist is still around, if you ask me. Religions have been quite good at abstracting out all the fantastical stuff so it's vulnerable to logical fallacy. Miracles conveniently happened thousands of years ago, because humans for whatever reason think old stuff = wise. God acts in mysterious ways = the ultimate argument winner. Jesus died for our sins makes no sense, but it's mysterious, and humans for whatever reason equate mystery with virtue. All pretty obvious. But the Eucharist doesn't bother. It just says 'this here cracker literally becomes the body of Jesus Christ', and that's it. No equivocation. They've got as far as using fancy words to make it sound Big And Clever: a cracker = 'The Host', magic spells and voodoo = 'The Eucharist', doing something the Catholic Church doesn't like = 'Desecration'. But that's it. No spin, just magic spells and cannibalism. Really, at some point it's got to be phased out.
I guess I find it hard to believe that most Catholics, in their heart of hearts, really think it's literally true. I mean, most religious nonsense I can empathise with. There are plenty of reasons people believe wrong things. But the Eucharist? Come on. The cognitive dissonance must be epic. The whole concept makes no sense - why do you want to eat Jesus? what part of his body does it become? Is he alive or dead? WHY DO YOU WANT TO EAT JESUS? - and I suspect most people just take it as highly symbolic.
Which is why the other side of the argument is probably just your standard mental minority. But they're very very loud, totally paranoid, lack any kind of sense of humour, and have been sending death threats. At which point it stops being funny. Although, having said that, the average YouTube videographer gets death threats - "this video sucks, die in a fire" - so while it's serious, I suspect that's just the way things are on the Internets. You get the impression they're quite new at this lark, and watching them try to take on creationist-hardened skeptics is almost painful.
Still. The Eucharist itself = pretty funny. I only know one Catholic - I must ask what she thinks...
This post was longer than intended. I really just wanted to point towards Ophelia, who made me laugh.
Hello!
Hey, thanks for coming! I'm Andrew, and this is where my headthinks come to breed. They often meander around humanism and photography, but they're flighty and you can't trust them, so anything is possible.
Do feel free to email me - I get lonely:
Your hair looks swish, by the way - have you done something new?
Recent Comments
- vicky: going up this weekend having done all the welsh peaks except 4 snowdon, cant wait
on Climbing Snowdon. - vicky: what, how can u live in the 21 c and say that, probably a sexist thing
on Climbing Snowdon. - vicky: da iawn laura, cant believe what im hearing, all this fuss, anyway love the site, and i agree, normal people who swear and curse clomb mountains cos we live in the...
on Climbing Snowdon. - Andrew: Did a few quick test shots to check the light levels, then balanced the camera on the arm of a bench, set it for a 20s exposure and hoped for the best
on ISS. - lynsey: Wow, how did you take that photograph?
on ISS.
