If I weren't such a reductionist mechanist, I'd probably find this very very funny. And what Cleese does to things deserves its own verb.
Evolving Thoughts
One man's struggle against impermanence
Search
Profile
John Wilkins is an eternal student, who thinks philosophy of biology is at least as interesting as politics or sport and twice as important. He has a PhD from the University of Melbourne and worked at the University of Queensland, in Australia, before taking up a research fellowship at the University of Sydney. After a varied career, involving factories, gardening, civil service, publishing, graphics, public relations but not, unfortunately for the CV, driving a truck, John finally completed his thesis on species concepts in 2004, which he has worked into two books.
This blog is designed evolved to host any random thoughts that happen to be passing through my forebrain at a given moment. So there will be errors...
Recent Posts
- My new blog
- Evolving Thoughts moves
- We will resume transmission as soon as we can
- No, it's not an ancestor either (probably)
- Alpha Fail
- Philosophy and evolution
- Creative Commons and textbooks
- Punnett on Mendelism and species
- Quote
- Moral atheists
Recent Comments
- Thony C. on We will resume transmission as soon as we can
- Susan Silberstein on We will resume transmission as soon as we can
- Thony C. on We will resume transmission as soon as we can
- Bob O'H on We will resume transmission as soon as we can
- Chirs' Wills on We will resume transmission as soon as we can
- Karen James on No, it's not an ancestor either (probably)
- John S. Wilkins on Philosophy and evolution
- John Dupre on Philosophy and evolution
- cromercrox on We will resume transmission as soon as we can
- zayıflama on There is no missing link
Archives
- August 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
Blogroll
- Aetiology
- Afarensis
- Bad Astronomy
- Brooke McEldowney's blog
- Darwin Central
- De Rerum Natura
- Deanne Taylor's Blog at Nature
- Dienekes' Anthropology Blog
- Dispatches from the Culture Wars
- Ediacaran
- Galactic Interactions
- Ether Wave Propaganda
- Genomicron
- John Hawks Anthropology Weblog
- Laelaps
- Musgrave's Astroblogger
- NASA Watch
- National Center for Science Education
- Pharyngula
- Rationally Speaking
- Sandwalk
- Scott Page's All-too-common dissent
- Siris
- Small Things Considered
- Sunbeams from Cucumbers
- The End of the Pier
- The Lippard Blog
- The Loom
- The Panda's Thumb
- The Questionable Authority
- The Thinking Meat Project
- Thoughts in a Haystack
- u n d e r v e r s e
- Unscrewing The Inscrutable
- When Pigs Fly Returns
I also have an Australia-focussed blog: The Drought Resistant Philosopher
Search old and new blogs
Other Information
The previous instantiation of this blog is accessible here.
« On religion, and apologies | Main | More roundup »
Cleesing the God Gene
Posted on: September 14, 2008 9:56 PM, by John S. Wilkins
Find more posts in: 
Life Science
Humanities & Social Science
Did you like this post? If so, please click on the "Share this" link above and add it to your favourite social bookmarking service, or submit it to the Open Laboratory 2009 via the link on the left bottom of the page. Many thanks. John.
Comments
another puzzle solved!
(by we scientists)
Posted by: Sven DiMilo | September 14, 2008 10:24 PM
Oh my,
John,thanks for that,that was so hilarious,I now have 31 more Cleese podcasts to watch !
Posted by: clinteas | September 14, 2008 11:42 PM
Don't worry, John. We have now developed a pill that can help you combat reductionist mechanist syndrome.
We don't know how it works, though.
Posted by: Bob O'H | September 15, 2008 12:55 AM
to cleesify:verb: to hold forth humorously on a subject in a pompous, pseudo-intellectual and slightly silly manner
cleesification:noun: the result of cleesifying
cleesified:adjective:
cleesifly:adverb:
origin: derived from the surname of legendary English humorist, actor, author and silly person John Cleese.
Posted by: Thony C. | September 15, 2008 5:41 AM
Luckily, I have the "Even though I'm a reductionist mechanist I still find jokes making fun of reductionist mechanists funny" gene. :D
Posted by: Wes | September 15, 2008 9:38 AM
That's recessive, and slightly deleterious...
Posted by: John S. Wilkins | September 15, 2008 9:44 AM
He is the Messiah, and I should know; I've followed a few!
Posted by: jeff | September 15, 2008 9:55 AM
Having recently met Rob Buckman, I have a John Cleese number of 2. I think that's worth boasting about (I mean, it's way better than having George W. Bush number of 2, which I also have).
Posted by: Eamon Knight | September 15, 2008 9:11 PM