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Laelaps
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. - Terry Pratchett
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Laelaps is the blog of Brian Switek, a freelance science writer based in New Jersey. This blog frequently features his musings on paleontology, evolution, and the history of science. Switek also blogs for Smithsonian magazine's Dinosaur Tracking.
Switek's first book, Written in Stone, will be published next year by Bellevue Literary Press.
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« Hype, hype, hype | Main | Photo of the Day #121: Toco Toucans »
I keep fossils in my pocket for just this reason
Category: Paleontology
Posted on: February 5, 2008 9:42 PM, by Brian Switek
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Comments
"Is that a fossil in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" - you must hear that often, don't you?
Posted by: Coturnix | February 5, 2008 9:57 PM
What the . . ? I downloaded about 15 seconds of it, then got the message 'We're sorry, this video is no longer available'.
Posted by: Richard Simons | February 5, 2008 10:38 PM
Lewis Black has this incisive way of just ripping apart the arguments of the fundamentalists.
I love how he doesn't just insult Christianity, he absolutely positively tears it to shreds.
I always look at the New Testament in this way. You mean to tell me that this is supposedly a divinely inspired book? I think Black got it wrong, the Devil isn't Wiley Coyote, oh no, God is.
Posted by: Tony P | February 5, 2008 11:29 PM
That was brilliant! I don't recall ever hearing of this gentleman before.
Showing nutters a fossil, or even throwing one over their heads, at least sounds like a bit of fun.
The idea the Guy in A Red Suit with Horns and Forked Tail wrote/inspired parts of the various mythical tomes is one I sometimes suggest when I get exasperated with nutters, mentioning as evidence whatever idiotic passage I can recall at the time (e.g., get rid of a woman you don't like by calling her a witch, in which case you must kill her, no trial required). It doesn't actually work very well; the nutter often doesn't the passage I'm referring to, or warbles on about me misinterpreting it, or numerous other excuses. Shutting the door in their face seems to work better and is less exasperating. And quicker.
Posted by: blf | February 6, 2008 2:33 AM
Well, actually... There was a sizeable sub-sect of early Christianity (the Gnostics) who regarded Jehovah as the bad guy.
Posted by: Dunc | February 6, 2008 6:12 AM
hee hee hee! I want to see the fossil factory! That'd be awesome.
I've also heard the argument that god put fossils in the ground to test our faith. So these people think god is omnipotent and the creator of the entire universe, but obviously he has nothing better to do, or nothing bigger to worry about, than faking fossils to confuse use and therefore test our faith? Riiiiight.
Posted by: Melanie | February 6, 2008 8:52 AM
In the fullness of geologic time the fundies will sink back into the mire from whence they came to become satanic fossils themselves.
Posted by: cfrost | February 6, 2008 9:52 AM