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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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What happens when the same number of people pray for something as pray against it? How does God decide whose prayer to answer? Does the total number of people praying for or against something matter? How about the righteousness of the supplicants? Are positive prayers answered more frequently than negative ones? Does God take the positive ones and Satan the negative? Does the intensity of the praying have any effect on the outcome? Does the length of time one devotes to praying have any effect on the frequency with which one's prayers are answered? Do the words and phrases used in the prayer — either positive or negative — have any bearing on the success rate? Does the nature of the thing or things prayed for have any bearing on the prayer's success rate — either positive or negative prayers? Why or why not??
Robert A. Baker, "Prayer Wars" Skeptical Briefs.
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Category: Creationism • Humor
Posted on: April 10, 2006 6:54 AM, by PZ Myers
A proscription on all transitional forms would make it far easier to load the Ark—it would have been empty!
P.S. If you're completely baffled by the title, it refers to Woodmorappe's infamous statistical error: calculating the feasibility of Noah's Ark by estimating average animal size using the median instead of the mean.
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Comments
Posted by: Blake Stacey | April 10, 2006 7:07 AM
Hilarious! Bust-a-gut, good solid wisdom. Right up there with Gary Larson's takes on the Ark --- "So much for the unicorns. From now on, all predators are confined to C deck", etc.
Posted by: Shygetz | April 10, 2006 8:16 AM
Does it really count as an error if you do it on purpose? I have heard of people using the mean when they should be using the median out of simple ignorance or habit. But who accidentally uses a median?
Posted by: Virge | April 10, 2006 8:26 AM
Off topic: I see the Brits are starting to take their creationists seriously:
Royal Society webcast set to agitate UK God Squad
Posted by: Keith Douglas | April 10, 2006 8:40 AM
Wouldn't an organism from the end of a line of species that became extinct not be a transitional form?
Posted by: charlie wagner | April 10, 2006 9:02 AM
Here's what REALLY happened:
http://www.charliewagner.com/noah.mp3
Posted by: Prior Aelred | April 10, 2006 9:05 AM
I just got here to link to this cartoon -- the penalty of being on dialup!
(Please note the wonderful comment in the corner!)
Posted by: Rocky | April 10, 2006 9:16 AM
I'm not a biologist, so forgive if I ask a silly oversimplification. In reality, wouldn't most species be a transitional form, with possibly many lost species in between, to another animal?
Posted by: Scott Simmons | April 10, 2006 10:19 AM
Yes, they would, except for the lineages that go extinct without leaving any descendants. Hence, Dr. Meyers' comment about the ark being empty ...
Posted by: ceejayoz | April 10, 2006 11:00 AM
The best bit is in the margin.
"Let's go hide in the fossil record."
Wonderful comic.
Posted by: arensb | April 10, 2006 11:26 AM
But the median is so useful! I mean, if you can't fit all of the brontosauruses and blue whales and giant squid on Ye Arke, just collect a thimblefull of bacteria, viruses, and prions, and presto! n * median_volume becomes much smaller, and you can fit them all in with room to spare!
Posted by: Peter McGrath | April 10, 2006 12:09 PM
"Two teredo? Check. Two woodworm? Check."
Posted by: Joel | April 10, 2006 12:28 PM
Careful, Noah (Nuh) is one of the prophets of Islam.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophets_of_Islam
Posted by: Sean Foley | April 10, 2006 1:04 PM
On the off-chance people haven't seen it, the National Center for Science Education did a thorough rundown on the impossibilities of the Ark story.
Posted by: Wolverine | April 10, 2006 5:28 PM
Priceless. :-)
Posted by: Steff Z | April 10, 2006 6:57 PM
O, Teredo!
They're my favorite clams.
with teeth.
(see, for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipworm )
Not a good thing to bring on your ark,
unless you're trying to bring down the median time required for animal care.
"Hey! we can just stick these guys on the *outside* of the ship! They'll take care of *themselves*!"
Posted by: Graculus | April 10, 2006 8:31 PM
What I always wondered is where did they stick all the diseases? I mean., how did Noah and Co survive Ebola, Marsburg, Dengue, Yellow Fever, Cholera, Thyphus, Plague, hyphilis, Gonorrhea, HIV, Polio, Smallpox, .....
How many hundreds of icky diseases must each human have had?
And then there are the animal diseases....