My point is not that you have to respect another person’s belief. It is that disrespecting another’s belief to their face (or in this case in the church) – in large part just to anger them – is no way to treat another who is just as much of a human as you are.

This only showed how silly communion is to the people who already believed communion is illogical. It’s effect was to anger people – that’s all.

Precisely. There is no need to respect a belief; but there is a need to respect people. It might be worth it to disrespect some people for a really good reason, but there is none here. In this context, it is pointless to desecrate a sacred object: for those for whom nothing is sacred it’s a meaningless act because it proves nothing; for those for whom it is sacred it is a despicable act, it will not change their minds, and it proves nothing.

This doesn’t fly. Even if you don’t believe the cracker is somehow sacred, the catholics in the church do. It’s very similar to the wedding dress arguement. An old wedding dress is only there because of the emotional attachment to it. It has no use or purpose anymore, but we wouldn’t go into a friend’s house and tear up their wedding dress even if we think their attachment to it is silly and irrational. A demonstration against a funeral is an apt comparison. I could quite easily go and make a mockery of someone’s funeral. After all it’s the funeral of a dead person. Their is nothing there except skin and bone, no brain function, and I doubt someone could even argue it’s a person at all. However, I would bet many of the atheists here don’t hate funerals simply for the fact they are emotional based and have no basis in any type of logic. So why hate Christian traditions? Why not show them logically why you believe otherwise? Isn’t this the purpose of a “friendly atheist”?

My point is not that you have to respect another person’s belief. It is that disrespecting another’s belief to their face (or in this case in the church) – in large part just to anger them – is no way to treat another who is just as much of a human as you are.

This only showed how silly communion is to the people who already believed communion is illogical. It’s effect was to anger people – that’s all.

I’m Christian, and this just seemed juvenille to me. It didn’t really piss me off, but I completely understand why this would anger a lot of Christians.

I think my coffee hit the far wall… thanks for that.

X->

News flash folks. If their beliefs are not entitled to any respect, then your non-belief isn’t either.

Is non-belief respected by them now? I don’t care if “they” respect my beliefs. They can do anything they want with a symbol my lack of belief and post it on the internet. I won’t care. They can rip up a picture of my wife and post the video on youtube. I won’t care. They can photoshop a horse cock on my daughter’s head and post it on a Web site. I won’t care. If I care enough to repond at all I’ll tell them how silly they are for thinking I’d bat an eyelash.

What PZ did he did on his own Web site, “they” just couldn’t keep themselves from watching and getting worked up in a lather. A part of them enjoyed watching and getting worked up in a lather. PZ didn’t steal anything from anyone. He didn’t rip the cracker out of some old ladies mouth while she was trying to eat Jesus. He didn’t do this in front of a catholic mass and he didn’t threaten anyone physically. And someone on here called it a hate crime? Really?