I'm pretty sure it's meant to be what it says at the start: it's a reminder to atheists of the feeing of a cherished belief ("fireplaces are good") being destro

I'm pretty sure it's meant to be what it says at the start: it's a reminder to atheists of the feeing of a cherished belief ("fireplaces are good") being destroyed. Some atheists have a hard problem with rejecting false beliefs even if they've gotten over the big one. I agree it's not that great of an analogy, though I'm not really offended at Harris doing what Harris does and bringing religion into everything. And if you just care about the message about fireplaces getting out, rhetoric (i.e. marketing) such as "creating controversy" is useful for that purpose...