Layperson’s Terms

In a recent post, PZ Myers of Pharyngula relayed a letter from Nathan Acks about the mass arrests outside the Democratic National Convention arena. After which Myers (predictably) expressed:

Where is this country going? We seem to be on the road to mindlessness and tyranny. We are descending into madness.

Mindlessness (again)! Tyranny (again)! Descents into madness (again)! Why, this is just like… like the 1968 Democratic Convention!

Actually, I dare say, things have improved since then. I mean, for a horrifying civil rights abuse, I didn’t hear one word about the National Guard being mobilized, with orders to shoot to kill—like in 1968. What’s that you say—someone got sprayed with pepper spray? And they didn’t even get clubbed viciously? What’s this country coming to!—at a convention, I expect to see people clubbed viciously. Dear God, we’re not even at the level of the 2004 Republican Convention.

You see, Myers, we are not descending into madness. We’re ascending into a slightly less-mad madness!

In a recent post by PZ Myers of Pharyngula, he opined that the outrage over the “theft” of a holy wafer from a Catholic church is uncalled for—their reaction is not “reasonable”, it’s “just a cracker!”.

From a strictly rational/materialistic point of view, yes, it is just a cracker. But that overlooks what gives things value in the first place: our feelings. Once we invest our feelings in something, it becomes valuable. It can be anything, from abstract concepts to gold ingots, from something sellable to something seemingly worthless.

But, you may argue, religion’s investments of value pose a greater danger to society than, say, a child’s investment of value in a teddy bear. That may be true, but nonetheless, in this time and place, that valuation still exists, and that cracker is therefore much more than a cracker.

On a related note, to address a certain comment I saw: so what if it you can buy Eucharist wafers in bulk over the internet? That may make them worthless, but not because they can be so easily bought. They are rendered worthless because the priest did not hand it to them and say the magic words—the difference is the emotional investment we make. And If you judge them for that, then you must also judge anyone who values receiving a gift from someone more than being handed cash by the same person and told, “Go buy it yourself”.

(To qualify my argument, I am taking issue only with Myers’ “it’s just a cracker” sentiment, as well as the above-mentioned comment. The hyperbolic reactions by a few reactionary Catholics certainly do demean real human suffering. But Myers, and doubtless others, have already adequately addressed that issue—that is not what I am here to talk about.)