More tomfoolery from PZ Myers

[melengro]

Why is it that when an atheist insinuates that torturing Roman Catholics with massive doses of electricity 'sounds fun', he's not generally considered a disgusting person?

(I don't have some sort of agenda in asking this, I really want to know.)

Also, he once again fails to have even the most basic comprehension of the psychological power of

Comments

[kateorman]

More evidence for my theory that atheists lack a part of the brain that the rest of us have, mwa ha ha.

It'd be interesting to find out what symbols, if any, held similar personal significance for the atheists, and so would reduce their perception of pain. A picture of their mum? Their country's flag? Someone they have a really serious crush on? Heck, the BVM would work for me, and I'm not even Catholic.

[melengro]

Not atheists. Antitheists. And it's the part that controls both compassion and a sense of irony (which many other people lack as well).

Mary would ideally work for most people, as would any other particularly shining example of humanity (Merton, Aung San Suu Kyi, Schweitzer, Einstein, Thich Nhat Hanh, &c.) Unfortunately we don't live in an ideal world.

I don't think they really had a control for the atheists, probably because they would have had to individualise it from person to person.

Me, I'd probably respond pretty equally well to Mary, Lao Tsu, the Laughing Buddha, Julian of Norwich, and somebody like Sayers or Borges.

[kateorman]

Nah man, I mean like when they put Dawkins in the God Spot machine, he felt nothing; when John Safran took peyote, all he saw was pretty colours. Some people have the brain structure and some don't. (Of course, I could be confusing cause and effect here.)

Someone needs to learn sarcasm

[anonymous]

Let me give you a hint - PZ doesn't really think that torturing people sounds fun. Rather, he made a sarcastic comment about a study that had already been conducted by others.

Re: Someone needs to learn sarcasm

[melengro]

I learned the hard way that sarcasm doesn't really work online. And forgive me if I was confused about the bona fides of such a hate-filled person.