Sacrilege!

So PZ has had his fun with a wafer, and hopefully everyone's over it by now. Including me. Having said before that I hoped he would make people think, I was mostly disappointed by the actual stunt. Tossing it in the bin with a nail through it? So what?

Adding a page of "The God Delusion" to the pile was a nice touch, though. I imagine someone out there has made the argument that this shows he thinks of "The God Delusion" as a sacred text and Richard Dawkins as a prophet; to that person I say "I am laughing at you".

I think the much more interesting piece of the post was the discussion of the history of cracker desecration. I did not realize that this had been an actual charge levelled at Jews in the past - and that people had been exiled or even killed for it! That's a disgrace, and it shows just how far civilization has come since then. Although I must say that it doesn't lower my opinion of the Catholic Church's history at all, which speaks volumes for my current view of it.

The odd thing is that despite my low opinion of Catholicism as an institution; and despite thinking that the institution's faults are well-grounded in Christianity's history and sacred texts... I still think that a good Christian should be as horrified as I am by this, and on purely theological grounds, rather than mere common humanity.

The Christianity that I was raised on is a non-violent religion, one that turns the other cheek, and seeks to persuade by example and moral suasion rather than by force. The Christians themselves may fight to defend themselves and their country, but this is seen as a necessary evil to preserve life, not a positive virtue (as distinct from courage in the fight itself).

I have long thought that the punishment for sacrilege and blasphemy should be reserved to God himself; he is the one offended, and if He doesn't see fit to send lightning bolts or a rain of frogs, who am I to go further? Anyone attempting to impose their own punishment should be seen as faithless and a usurper.

So if PZ is struck by lightning in the next little while, you can draw your own conclusions. Or, contrariwise, if he's not.