homo superior blogs

I went back and listened to a few things in those atheist roundtable videos I posted on Easter. I wanted to confirm what I’d heard.

At one point, Christopher Hitchens says he wants to make a distinction between the critique – and the ridicule – he subjects religious folks to, and the desecration of churches and religious icons. He uses Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ as an example of such desecration. I found specious, and rather quaint, his conflating of a work of art, a photograph, with smearing shit on an altar or torching a synagogue. One is offensive, and illegal, and one is provocative. “Piss Christ” is more offensive than telling people that they’ve wasted their lives on a myth and a lie? Please.

I guess it all depends on what you think about piss, and about plastic crucifixes. I would think the latter to be more disrespectful for those who invest meaning in such an icon in the first place. For me, the application of piss indicates intimacy, a recognition of the baseness of humanity, a reveling in it, if you will. What’s it mean if you put a crucifix in there? Among other things, it means you get a beautiful photograph, until maybe you read the caption. It suggests to me Jesus’ intimate sharing in humanity’s nature. This isn’t desecration, it’s regard. Hitch’s assertion is intellectually fatuous and surely he must know that.

citazioni

Anyway, Happy belated Easter!

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Tags: religion, Jesus