The infamous PZ Myers has taken out the trash. An otherwise uninteresting story, this is sure to cause an uproar among Catholic extremists, like Bill Donohue of the Catholic League because the trash PZ has gotten rid of includes a consecrated wafer (i.e. the sacrament, the holy host), pages from the Quran, pages from The God Delusion, as well as a banana skin (aka the atheists' nightmare) and some coffee grounds. More importantly, however, Myers reveals some of the history of past desecrations resulting in mass murder by angry Catholics. There are striking parallels with past sentiments and the current fervor surrounding Myers' anticlimactic desecration. The lesson is that religious belief can lead you down some very unreasonable paths if you choose to go. And there is also the lesson that we are free to believe what we want and can't be forced to respect other religions. And we have the freedom to express ourselves.
It is unlikely that seething masses will read PZ's message or take it to heart. But maybe reason will prevail.
You are all human beings who must make your way through your life by thinking and learning, and you have the job of advancing humanities' knowledge by winnowing out the errors of past generations and finding deeper understanding of reality. You will not find wisdom in rituals and sacraments and dogma, which build only self-satisfied ignorance, but you can find truth by looking at your world with fresh eyes and a questioning mind.
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