Betrayed! : Pharyngula

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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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Credulity is not a crime for the individual — but it is clearly a crime as regards the race. Just look at the actual consequences of credulity. For years men believed in the foul superstition of witchcraft and many poor people suffered for this foolish belief. There was a general belief in angels and demons, flying familiarly, yet skittishly through the air, and that belief caused untold distress and pain and tragedy. The most holy Catholic church (and, after it, the various Protestant sects) enforced the dogma that heresy was terribly sinful and punishable by death. Imagine — but all you need do is to recount — the suffering entailed by that belief. When one surveys the causes and consequences of credulity, it is apparent that this easy believer in the impossible, this readiness toward false and fanatical notions, has been indeed a most serious and major crime against humanity. The social life in any age, it may be said, is about what its extent of credulity guarantees. In an extremely credulous age, social life will be cruel and dark and treacherous. in a skeptical age, social life will be more humane. We assert that the philosophy of humanity — that the best interests of the human race — demand a strong statement and a repeated, enlightening statement of atheism.

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« Crap. Now the extremist Grecians are going to be mad at me | Main | Reading material »

Betrayed!

Category: Creationism
Posted on: September 3, 2007 10:58 AM, by PZ Myers

Oh, no! Now Tiny Frog is giving ammunition to the producers of Expelled by revealing The Stifling Dominance of Secular Academia! At least biologists aren't being picked on in this case — it's those biased secular theories of physics that are being blamed.

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Comments

Posted by: leo | September 3, 2007 11:20 AM

Intelligent Falling (IF) proposes that the scientific explanation of gravitational force cannot explain all aspects of the phenomenon, so credence should be given to the idea that things fall because a higher intelligence is moving them. Furthermore, IF asserts that theories explaining gravity are not internally consistent nor mathematically reconcilable with quantum mechanics, making gravity a "theory in crisis". Pretended IF apologists advocate that IF should be taught in school along with the theory of gravity so that students can make "an informed decision" on the subject in accordance with demands to "teach the controversy".

Posted by: Marcus Ranum | September 3, 2007 11:41 AM

Uh, that's a parody, right?

If it's not - simply "re-frame" it as one!!

Ha, ha, ha, look at the funny blog entry! It sure sounds like a creationist dipmire! He did a great job of pretending to be a dumbstick, didn't he?

Posted by: Firemancarl | September 3, 2007 12:44 PM

Thank our lord and savior Jesus Christ who art in heaven. I am glad someone else on here understands that it is DIVINE force that holds things up and prevents them from falling. For instance, I can't tell you how many times on the fireground I have walked next to a building that should collapse but I knew that God and Jesus kept the garvity off the wall to as to allow it to stay standing and not snuff me out. Yes, I know what you're thinking "Hey, gravity works, how many times to do see things fall up"?!! The answer is simple, the things that fall up God and Jesus don't allow you to see, just like angels, you don't see them and we know they are in Heaven and how would they get there if there really was "gravity"? They couldn't and you know it. It's Gods will.

the preceeding was all sarcasm.....

Posted by: Dan | September 3, 2007 1:31 PM

So, it is now okay for me to say, "I'm not fat. God's just pressing extra hard on me."

Posted by: uncle frogy | September 3, 2007 1:48 PM

I followed the link to tiny frog then followed this link to another fundie sight on why I am a geocentrist http://foru.ms/t2551753-why-i-am-a-geocentrist.html
EEEE Gads!
i am afraid to look for a flat earth sight!!

Posted by: J Myers | September 3, 2007 2:20 PM

Yes, that's a parody. I know that because, in addition to being obvious, it says it's a parody a few paragraphs in. Was that a rhetorical question?

Posted by: tourettist | September 3, 2007 3:59 PM

Slightly OT, but in case anybody's interested, the IMDb page for Expelled is now up. Who wants to be the first to ask a question for the FAQ? General users used to be able to edit information but I think they put an end to that. Pity. It would be fun to vandalize. Check out the filming locations - they don't mention Morris, MN.

Posted by: Murkanen | September 3, 2007 6:32 PM

Intelligent Falling is a reference to an Onion article from some years back I believe. It's sad that we are in such a time and place that something originating in satire risks becoming reality.

Posted by: Graculus | September 3, 2007 10:53 PM

It's sad that we are in such a time and place that something originating in satire risks becoming reality.

You mean like:

-"Bush: Our Long Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity is Finally Over" (Onion, June 2001)
-"Why Do All These Homosexuals Keep Sucking My Cock" (Onion, July 2005)

The Onion staff have orders of magnitude more positive hits than Sylvia Brown.

#10

Posted by: Julian | September 5, 2007 12:19 AM

Admittedly, Im not an expert on the subject, but if energy and matter can neither really be created, nor really be destroyed, then how can entropy be general? What I mean is, loss of energy is really only the transfer of energy from one place to another, otherwise the law of conservation of energy and mass is violated; the universe doesn't have a leak. So, if the universe is closed, then entropy cannot continue to dissipate to zero for the simple fact that the amount of space for energy to dissipate through is not infinite, and even if it were open, the energy will still be there, just spread incredibly thin. All life runs through the gathering of energy; in other words, life forms feed off of the entropy of some other object. Much of our technology is dedicated to the same goal; recycling another object's chaos into order for us. If we ever find a way to manipulate the fundamental forces of the universe, isn't it reasonable to assume we'd figure out how to gather up that dissipated energy? But then I guess you'd just be left with a 100% efficient energy scoop that spends all its time gathering up the energy its using, and thats not a very interesting universe at all.

#11

Posted by: Julian | September 5, 2007 12:21 AM

oops. I meant this for the reading material comments above this. And thus I am introduced to the dangers inherent in firefox's mutlitab function.