Face of the New Atheism (Nat. Cath. Register Interview of P.Z. Myers) (Catholic Caucus)

I'm surprised I didn't see this via FR search. Do read the entire article.

Catholic ping!

Fr. Loya has hit the mark here.

For this man to be consumed with such hatred, he must have been hurt horribly sometime, somewhere.

A plain old garden variety atheist wouldn't be so obsessed and consumed with hatred for the Church. He would just ignore it, it would mean nothing to him.

I think Myers knows what the Church is, knows who Christ is, but is raging. There is hope for him.

I wonder what happens when you try to sharpen a ceremonial Knights of Columbus sword?

You are ‘probly right. Folks who don’t think the Body and Blood are anything special wouldn’t bother with this kind of infantile garbage.

Freegards

Well, I can tell you that a ceremonial Knights Templar sword won't take an edge! It also spoils the plating.

- personal experience with just a tiny bit of the edge of grandfather's sword.

“A confession of atheism is simply an honest confession of ignorance of any realities that transcend the human ego, nothing more, nothing less. And why argue with a man who not only clings to ignorance, but is proud of the fact?

“..For reason is only a faculty of knowing something indirectly in the absence of direct vision, while God is known directly, the same way one knows one is alive, perceives reality, or is aware of free will. In order to see something, it is not necessary to logically prove the existence of sight. Many of the most important truths are known simply by their “superabundance of clarity,” by pure intellect, not by the reason which is its servant. Reason is not Intelligence in itself, only an instrument of intelligence. Few things create more mischief than reason in the hands of an unintelligent or immoral wonker. .[..]Not for nothing did Richard Weaver say that “every attack upon religion is inevitably an attack upon mind.” Naturally there are many forms of stupid religion, for there is nothing touched by humans wonkers that cannot be made stupid. But at least religion as such does not exclude the possibility and priority of Intelligence, and therefore, Truth. ...” ~ Gagdad Bob

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2059633/posts?page=84#84

Myers’ answer was true to form: “The whole silly part of this whole episode is that I’ve got so many people writing me and saying that I have seriously hurt them. But what have I done? I have thrown away a cracker.”

I'm an agnostic, so I don't subscribe to the tenets of any religion.

But going out of your way to insult a particular religion like this is simply rude and childish. I don't accept that the eucharist is anything more than a wafer, but I do not see any reason to go into a house of worship and engage in such rude behavior.

Jeff Gardner runs a great internet radio network called Catholic Radion International.

http://www.catholicradiointernational.com/

Here is the specific cite for his show Ultrasound: http://www.catholicradiointernational.com/ultrasound.php

Scroll down here and you’ll be able to LISTEN to the Heart of the Matter interview Jeff did with PZ Meyers: http://www.catholicradiointernational.com/heartofmatter.php

On his blog, Insight Scoop, Carl Olson posted the following commentary on this article.

Atheist: "Oh, it's not hatred. It's contempt."

The atheist is PZ Myers, the University of Minnesota, Morris, biology professor who recently desecrated the Eucharist and has acted like an emotionally-arrested, fifteen-year-old punk who just slashed the tires of an elderly neighbor just for kicks. Myers was interviewed by Jeff Gardner for National Catholic Register, and revealed not only his contempt for Catholicism, which is well-known, but also for history, intellectual integrity and common decency:

That Myers has the equivalent of a junior high school education in religion is glaring. He understands little about the history and function of the Catholic Church and even less about the place of the Eucharist in the lives of Catholics. When I told him that many have laid their lives on the line to protect the Blessed Sacrament, he recoiled in disbelief, saying, “Really? People really do that!?”
This premeditated ignorance toward religion doesn’t seem to bother Myers, however. He is an empiricist and counts as “true” only knowledge that arises from experience.
“Religion,” he continued, “has been selling everybody a bill of goods for so many years; it’s about time somebody spoke up and said that it’s a load of nonsense.”
I decided to call his bluff. “Has Christianity contributed anything to humanity?” I asked him.
“Well,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone, “there is this general property of religion — it’s great at building community. Religion has been a good thing for many individuals; it has brought them together and given them comfort. But over all, religion … holds back humanity.”
What, I asked, about the Church’s role in founding the first Western hospitals, universities, banks and even many breakthroughs in science? He interrupted me, irate and incredulous:
“No, people made those contributions to Western Civilization.”
That the Church was involved in the very foundations of our Western culture is, according to Myers, irrelevant.
“That’s like saying,” he continued, “that because for so many years people got smallpox, smallpox is to be credited for all the virtue men have done.”
As I talked with Myers I was struck by an irony: For a scientist whose job it is to observe cause and effect, he has a poor understanding of the cause, Catholicism, and its effects on world culture. He does not see Christianity as an elevating force in the world, but rather as a strange superstition — akin to banging a pot to scare away the moon.

Perhaps this will help do away with one of the greatest myths of our time: that scientists are objective, ideologically-free, and intellectually-balanced people who care only about the facts. Not so. Not even close. They put on their pocket protectors one pocket at a time, just like the rest of us, and some of them, like Myers, are intellectually brilliant in this or that scientific discipline, but are completely clueless about nearly anything else, including basic respect and common civility. That we are shocked that Myers talks and acts as he does indicates that the joke is on us—except, of course, it isn't a joke. It is, I think, far more common than most people realize. Perhaps it's time we stopped buying the bill of goods sold by those like Myers who claim to be intellectually superior and scientifically objective while all they really want to do is gleefully slash our tires. Kudos to Gardner for helping expose this jerk.

Honor is due, Jeff Gardner. Well played.

Olson is awesome.

Perhaps this will help do away with one of the greatest myths of
our time: that scientists are objective, ideologically-free,
and intellectually-balanced people who care only about the facts.
Not so. Not even close.

Anyone that believes that scientists are totally dispassionate
observers/experimenters hasn't worked with them.
Or listened to them for any length of time.

And I'm not knocking them. Just noting they have foibles,
like any mortal.

This thread is tagged "Catholic Caucus" in the Religion Forum.

If you are not Catholic, you are not a member of the caucus and must not post here.

Click on my profile page for more guidelines pertaining to the Religion Forum.

I thought agreeing/respectful posts by non-Caucus members were tolerated on Caucus threads as well. Otherwise, there’s a post above by an agnostic that needs to be removed as well.

The one posting a caucus can invite non-caucus members to attend, much like one would invite non-Catholic friends to Mass. The other non-caucus member poster is here with your blessing.

But when a non-caucus member crashes through the closed doors or is otherwise not welcome (pings to the mods, abuse reports, Freepmails etc.) - his posts will be removed and he will be "invited" to leave.

“But even in this inverted action, don’t you see what Christ is doing? He is, once again, going to the cross so that we may draw nearer to him,” said the priest. “Rather than coming down on us with fire, as we might deserve, he is loving us through his humiliation and suffering, turning us back to him.”

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Wow! Father Loya’s words are quite humbling here.