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Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal

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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
zf_pharyngula.jpg …and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
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A poet once said, 'The whole universe is in a glass of wine.' We will probably never know in what sense he meant it, for poets do not write to be understood. But it is true that if we look at a glass of wine closely enough we see the entire universe. There are the things of physics: the twisting liquid which evaporates depending on the wind and weather, the reflection in the glass, and our imagination adds atoms. The glass is a distillation of the earth's rocks, and in its composition we see the secrets of the universe's age, and the evolution of stars. What strange array of chemicals are in the wine? How did they come to be? There are the ferments, the enzymes, the substrates, and the products. There in wine is found the great generalization; all life is fermentation. Nobody can discover the chemistry of wine without discovering, as did Louis Pasteur, the cause of much disease. How vivid is the claret, pressing its existence into the consciousness that watches it! If our small minds, for some convenience, divide this glass of wine, this universe, into parts--physics, biology, geology, astronomy, psychology, and so on—remember that nature does not know it! So let us put it all back together, not forgetting ultimately what it is for. Let it give us one more final pleasure; drink it and forget it all!

Richard Feynman

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« This one is for the bearded mo-bio types out there | Main | Doushantuo embryos dethroned? »

Happy Morning After Cephalopodmas, everyone!

Category: Personal
Posted on: December 23, 2006 10:31 AM, by PZ Myers

Are you all as exhausted from the festivities as I am? I partook a little too heavily of the traditional Driving-Long-Distances-In-The-Snow-To-Pick-Up-Returning-Progeny-Whose-Bus-Was-Over-An-Hour-Late part of the celebration, which means my brain is turning over a little slowly this morning. I'm going to sit and sip coffee for a while, and read some Science…expect something on the phosphatized embryos later!

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Comments

#1

Off topic, but I thought you and your readers would be interested in the results of this UK survey:

Religion does more harm than good

Encouraging, no?

Posted by: MarkG | December 23, 2006 11:06 AM

#2

Nice example of the "no true Scotsman" fallacy by the Right Rev. Bishop Dunn, too.

Posted by: Jeff Chamberlain | December 23, 2006 12:37 PM

#3

What is that fallacy?

Posted by: David Marjanović | December 23, 2006 5:59 PM

#4

The "No True Scotsman" fallacy goes something like this:

Andy says: All Scotsmen eat porridge in the morning.
Ben says: My uncle is a Scotsman, and he doesn't eat porridge.
Andy replies: Then he isn't a true Scotsman.

It is frequently used by the religious to disassociate themselves from someone who would seem to disprove an assertation they would like to make, such as "No Christian would ever swear." When you point out that your mother, who is a Christian, swears, they might respond with "No true Christian would swear." or "Then she isn't really a Christian." or something similar.

Posted by: Nes | December 23, 2006 8:29 PM

#5

Wikipedia gives a better definition than I do. Now why didn't I think of looking it up there first?

Posted by: Nes | December 23, 2006 8:33 PM

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