P.Z. Myers: An Interesting Study in Bigotry

One thing that I have always found fascinating is the phenomenon of intellectual dishonesty.  To be more specific, I am fascinated when that phenomenon emanates from intelligent and educated individuals.  The exact words to describe it escape me, though I feel it arises from a combination of maliciousness, arrogance, and a host of personality complexes within an individual.  I am sure that many within the counseling profession have had fields days previously with such individuals on their couch.

A “case study,” so to speak, that was brought to my attention some time ago was that of Dr. PZ Myers and the uproar caused when a student at the University of Central Florida (my alma mater) took a Communion wafer from UCF’s Catholic students organization during one of their weekly services.  Now, I myself don’t believe in Catholicism or even Christianity and thus the act of Communion itself is not something I believe in or agree with; however, needless attention-begging acts that offend people’s sensibilities are not things that I would ever agree with either.  That doesnt justify much of the abuse that was hurled this way and that, with some even constituting death threats.  Obviously the death threats are even worse, but that is self evident; there aren’t any intellectuals or respected public figures calling for the murder of somebody over such an incident, which is why this post isn’t about that.  This is about public figures (or rather, one in particular) promoting the other act and acts like it without any good reason.

Myers himself received a lot of unjust threats and other words against him over the whole incident, which was essentially him praising this hooligan’s act and at one point even hinting that others should imitate it.  The difference is that the people who were going way overboard against Myers in their comments (he posted some of what I assume were the more colorful ones on his blog) were much lesser men than he; most of them were obviously simpletons and yahoos.  Myers, however, is a scientist and a respected professor within the field of biology.  He has an audience and with it, a certain measure of responsibility that I think few would deny.  If it was just another yahoo encouraging this punk at UCF and others like him to perpetrate acts solely for the purpose of offending people’s deeply held beliefs, then it could just as easily be brushed off as sell-evident idiocy.  The problem happens, though, when such idiotic behavior and comments originate from someone who is clearly not an idiot.

Myers concluded his part in the whole fiasco with a post on his blog titled “The Great Desecration” in which he tacked together a Catholic Communion wafer, pages of a translation of the Qur’aan, and pages from New Atheist Prophet Dr. Richard Dawkins’ scripture The God Delusion.  The items were held together by a rusty nail and put in a garbage can along with a banana peel and some old coffee grounds.  Myers ended his rant with the following comment:

“Nothing must be held sacred. Question everything. God is not great, Jesus is not your lord, you are not disciples of any charismatic prophet.”

I’ll play the Devil’s advocate here.  Myers believes that nothing is sacred, there is no higher power, there is no true religion and so forth.  Obviously he is writing because he wants to propogate his view and convince others that he is correct.  He thinks this is a good thing.

Here is the inherent problem, though.  He knows that currently, people do hold things to be sacred.  People do think God is great, they do think Jesus (peace be upon him) is their lord, they do believe in prophets.  If he wants to convince these people of his viewpoint, why would he begin by offending and angering him?

The simple reality comes out that he doesn’t want to convince anybody of his viewpoint.  Nobody who thinks Jesus (peace be upon him) is the son of God and their lord will accept Myers throwing what they believe is the body of Christ in the garbage.  Nobody who believes in the Qur’aan will listen to him if he rips out pages of it.  And Dr. PZ Myers is an intelligent man.  He knows all of this.  He is completely aware of it, and of this I have no doubt.  Thus, he is not saying this in order to convince religious people that religion is wrong or to convince the average Joe that the views he propagates on his blog are correct.  Any person with a brain is aware of the fact that Myers approach will do the exact opposite.  So why, then, is he spreading this amongst people and writing this in a public forum where he addresses the public?

I don’t know.

I do know that he is not trying to actually convince Christians that Jesus (peace be upon him) is not their lord, or to convince Muslims that the Qur’aan is a useless book, or to convince religious people that religion has no place in modern society.  Anybody who claims otherwise is being intellectually dishonest, Myers included.

I cannot read minds and I don’t know what the actual reason is.  Perhaps he is just preaching to the choir, in an attempt to boost his street cred with his New Atheist readership.  Maybe he is a vindictive individual who just enjoys disrespecting others and what they believe.  But whatever the reason is, the end result is an astounding example of either public intellectual dishonesty or a massive and unstable delusion by an otherwise intelligent man.