Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
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At several points in his critiques, Craig makes things easy for himself by supposing that Davies, Hawking and Grünbaum must demonstrate that he—Craig—ought to give up his belief in the soundness of the argument; when, in fact, all that Davies, Hawking and Grünbaum need to show is that there is no good, non-question-begging, reason for them to be persuaded that the arguments which Craig offers are sound. What is at issue is a choice between two quite different kinds of models of the origins of the universe; if it turns out that there are no suitably independent reasons for preferring Craig's favoured theistic model, then there is sufficient justification for those who wish to pursue alternatives.
Graham Oppy, "Professor William Craig's Criticisms of Critiques of Kalam Cosmological Arguments By Paul Davies, Stephen Hawking, And Adolf Grünbaum" (1995)
Evolution of sensory signaling
Why are flounder funny-looking?
I think I despise anti-environmentalists as much as I do anti-evolutionists
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Category: Godlessness • Humor
Posted on: February 26, 2006 9:30 AM, by PZ Myers
Garry Trudeau has been on a roll lately—the BD story line has been affecting and sympathetic, and now and then, he comes out and slams unreason. There have been long stretches where it feels like he's phoning it in, but not so much recently.
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Comments
This will go down as one of my all time favorites. I've also enjoyed the "McFriendly" series lately.
Posted by: harv | February 26, 2006 9:51 AM
Christianity can be justified by faith. That's the one thing it's got going. The problem is that so many people out there think they are living on reason. Why question God when there is so much evidence out there? The trees, the sky, the beauty of life?
Give me a break. But, the resurrection, the Faith's survival and near domination of the civilized world, not to mention the Jews' colorful history as God's chosen people (just don't ask them if Jews go to hell). These are all things that pass for evidence. When you finally see the light of reason, all you're left with is faith. Do you have an unjustifiable inner belief that Christianity is correct? For a large proportion of people the answer is probably no, but if the rest are sincere then we really just have to say our job is done.
Well, that's for the nice people. If you want to be mean, you can further ridicule their extreme sacrifice for little worldly gain, and make them pay financially for the harm their proclivities cause society. But this finally puts their concerns at the same level as everyone else.
What we really hate is that religions can jump in the middle of the line or wave the trump card.
Posted by: Bleach | February 26, 2006 11:13 AM
I suspect Trudeau has made Berube a very happy man today.
Posted by: Kevin Hayden | February 26, 2006 11:27 AM
The BD series has been wonderful. But for my money, every series involving Duke (allegedly Hunter Thompson) can be shredded. Also, he did a good evolution piece awhile back involving treatment for an infection. Thanks for your excellent, did I mention excellent, blog.
Posted by: catherine | February 26, 2006 12:17 PM
I was a little disappointed that BD gave a reason why he'd worn a helmet all that time. I had always thought "It's part of my goddamn lifestyle!" was sufficient.
Posted by: Thlayli | February 26, 2006 12:51 PM
Trudeau still has it after all these years. Unlike Scott Adams - talk about phoning it in!
Years ago I read a letter to the editor in some paper - the Sunday Parade or some such - asking how Trudeau had time to be a cartoonist and Prime Minister of Canada at the same time, and where did a Canadian get off criticizing the US! Around the same time, there was a letter in the same paper saying, "Please help settle a bet. I say that since the Congo is a former Belgian colony, the language they speak there is Flemish". The ignorance of Merkins never ceases to amaze me.
Posted by: No More Mr. Nice Guy! | February 26, 2006 1:57 PM
Posted by: wamba | February 26, 2006 2:40 PM
quote
Around the same time, there was a letter in the same paper saying, "Please help settle a bet. I say that since the Congo is a former Belgian colony, the language they speak there is Flemish". The ignorance of Merkins never ceases to amaze me.
endquote
Come again? I mean, it's wrong - They don't speak much Flemish in Congo, but it isn't what I would call entirely ignorant, since (a) Congo is in fact a former Belgian colony and (b) Flemish is in fact one of the main languages of Belgium. It just wasn't the one that took hold in Congo. So that's not an entirely ignorant thing to believe - ignorant of Congo, sure, but not ignorant of Belgium or post-colonial language use more generally.
Posted by: anon | February 26, 2006 8:53 PM
Well, if they had know slightly more, they would have asked what kanguage King Leopold spoke, since Congo used to be his personal colony.
Posted by: Kristjan Wager | February 27, 2006 4:02 AM
kanguage? 'language' of course.
Remember, preview is your friend (except here at ScienceBlogs where the preview function regularly screws up your cookie, and makes it necessary to delete it).
Posted by: Kristjan Wager | February 27, 2006 4:04 AM
I believe King Leopold learned kanguage in order to win the affections of a pouched marsupial he'd fallen in love with.
Posted by: Ronald Brak | February 27, 2006 5:08 AM
Last week David Horsey had a great cartoon on the history of religion.
Posted by: Kurt | February 27, 2006 12:10 PM