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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Religious experiences are like those induced by drugs, alcohol, mental illness, and sleep deprivation: They tell no uniform or coherent story, and there is no plausible theory to account for discrepancies among them.
Michael Martin, Atheism: A Philosophical Justification, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990), p. 159.
Chance and regularity in the development of the fly eye
Anencephaly and right-wing moralizers
Modules and the promise of the evo-devo research program
« Wheee, another airplane ride | Main | Another entry in the annals of crackpottery »
Category: Godlessness
Posted on: March 27, 2008 9:00 AM, by PZ Myers
I did not even know that Julia Sweeney had a blog, and it looks like a good one, too (she also knows Ben Stein personally, and does not have a high opinion of him).
I have to plug her CD, Letting Go of God — it's hilarious and insightful. I've got a lot of driving to do today…maybe that's what I'll play as I'm zooming down I94.
(via Stranger Fruit)
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Comments
Posted by: Ted D | March 27, 2008 9:23 AM
Ooh, nice! Letting Go of God is wonderful. I've got some reading to do now...
Posted by: Sonja | March 27, 2008 9:25 AM
I listened to "Letting Go of God" on a car trip a couple years ago and it made the trip fly by.
My favorite part was when she learns the truth about Deepak Chopra...
Posted by: rmp | March 27, 2008 9:29 AM
Just checked out her blog. You're right. Very good.
Posted by: Ann | March 27, 2008 9:41 AM
The General has a suggestion you might want to check out! Thanks for the link to Julia Sweeney's blog - it does look good.
Posted by: mike | March 27, 2008 9:45 AM
Interesting blog entry on Julia's site. I find it amusing that the person who played Pat on SNL talks about how much she hates Ben Stein's voice.
Posted by: Hipple, Rev. Paul T. | March 27, 2008 9:56 AM
I've never heard of this actress.
But I think we can all agree that Mel Gibson would have been a better choice for the role that Ben Stein played in that movie. The producers sure seemed to have been duped.
Posted by: Longtime Lurker | March 27, 2008 10:02 AM
Sweeney's documentation of her path to non-belief is an inspiration. Maybe a collection of similar narratives is in order.
My mom came out as a "heathen" for Easter- seems priestly pedophilia put paid to her religious sentiments. The overly religious nonsense spouted by our politicos also played a role.
Posted by: sjburnt | March 27, 2008 10:23 AM
I think that Julia Sweeney's account of the Expelled movie is wonderful. She writes well and effectively.
PZ's blog about the whole fiasco was one of the funniest things I had read in a while.
But I would be surprised that anyone could read her review of that movie and still spend money on it.
Thanks, Prof. Myers, for a wonderful and interesting blog site. And thanks for pointing me to Ms. Sweeney's site as well.
Posted by: bernarda | March 27, 2008 10:29 AM
Julia Sweeney was at TEDtalks. Her presentation is on you tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtIyx687ytk
Posted by: Orac | March 27, 2008 10:49 AM
I'm really surprised you didn't know Julia Sweeney had a blog. I've known about it for quite a while now. I stopped checking in a while back when she didn't update it for a long time. Time to put it back on my newsreader.
Posted by: Dahan | March 27, 2008 10:54 AM
"Letting Go of God" is great. I bought a copy for myself and one for a close friend. As stated by others, good road trip stuff.
Posted by: Paul W. | March 27, 2008 10:57 AM
Letting Go of God was excerpted on This American Life, and the episode (Godless America) was their most-requested episode ever.
The excerpt is long, not a sound bite, and you can listen to it free. (I don't have the link handy, and don't remember whether it's on the NPR site or the This American Life site.)
A Letting Go of God movie is supposed to come out this summer, I think.
Posted by: Jeff D | March 27, 2008 11:08 AM
Julia also had an on-line forum from December 2006 through mid-December 2007, when the host's servers crashed. The forum was a great gathering place for always-were atheists, former evangelical Christian atheists, agnostics, people struggling with "faith" and gradually moving toward somes sort of non-belief, and the occasional usually high-caliber) Christian apologists and trolls. Julia is supposed to have a resurrected forum up and running by April 1 (no foolin').
Posted by: Lulu | March 27, 2008 11:29 AM
Julia Sweeney ROCKS. I heard her a little, then saw her on TEDTalks, and now must hear some more.
Posted by: Rieux | March 27, 2008 11:40 AM
Many months ago (actually it was last October) I appointed myself the Official Pharyngula Julia Sweeney Groupie. I then re-elected myself in January. I guess you're all welcome on the bandwagon.
Letting Go of God is, indeed, fabulous. I confess that I'm getting seriously annoyed that the movie version still hasn't come out (no opening date listed on IMDB, even). Grrr.
Posted by: Glen Davidson | March 27, 2008 12:28 PM
Stein is proof that remembering some trivia, and having a droll supercilious schtick, can get you a reputation for intelligence. He's doing his best to dismantle his unfounded reputation, however, with Expelled. I could sneer that he's finally being honest by doing so, but it's in fact possible that his psyche really is undermining his ego, using this movie to reveal that he is just a blowhard.
Berlinski's in about the same situation, but he's never had a reputation for understanding what he says (at least not where he's been loudest in the past few years), and thus is not destroying same. He's just spinning his wheels, hoping that his derivative junk will eventually be seen as the brilliance he imagines it to be.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Posted by: Katrina | March 27, 2008 1:03 PM
I loved Letting Go of God. The audiobook is also available for download at www.audible.com, by the way.
Posted by: wonderer | March 27, 2008 1:04 PM
Glad to hear it. I've missed that forum.
Posted by: MikeM | March 27, 2008 2:47 PM
Heh heh. You should hear all the OTHER stuff we're not telling you about, PZ!
Posted by: Rose / Intergalactic Hussy | March 27, 2008 3:09 PM
Well, I just naturally assumed you did your homework ;~)
Posted by: Christianjb | March 27, 2008 3:26 PM
LGOG is also available on iTunes.
Posted by: jeffox | March 27, 2008 3:37 PM
Now, now, everybody knows that I-94 was designed with CCR in mind. My recommendation is "Cosmo's Factory". Enjoy your trip!
Posted by: David Vanderschel | March 27, 2008 4:11 PM
And I thought PZ was a reader of Phil Plait's blog. The BA has commented on Julia Sweeney's book and her blog:
http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2006/11/13/letting-go-of-god/
Posted by: David Vanderschel | March 27, 2008 4:14 PM
Actually, Phil talks about her on a very regular basis, as may be inferred from the results of the following search:
http://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&c2coff=1&sitesearch=www.badastronomy.com&q=Sweeney&btnG=Search
Posted by: Steven Carr | March 27, 2008 5:21 PM
The wave of people EXPELLED continues to grow...
http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/03/bible_scholar_and_northpointe.html
Bible scholar and NorthPointe Christian instructor Kent Dobson resigns over his role of host of Discovery Channel's 'Jesus: The Missing History'
Just wait until Ben Stein hears about how somebody was EXPELLED
There is going to be one hell of a fuss made about this by Ben Stein in his relentless quest for academic freedom.
Posted by: JJR | March 27, 2008 5:22 PM
I wish Ben Stein would go back to doing Eye-drop commercials and bit parts like in Ferris Bueler's Day Off...
After Expelled, he just might have to.
Posted by: Will E. | March 27, 2008 6:19 PM
"I wish Ben Stein would go back to doing Eye-drop commercials and bit parts like in Ferris Bueler's Day Off..."
Really, has everyone else forgotten that in Ferris Bueller, the audience was supposed to laugh at Stein's boring monotone as he impersonated an intellectual, not think it was the actual voice of an intellectual?
Posted by: Kseniya | March 27, 2008 6:57 PM
Wow, Stephen (#25), that's a very interesting story.
Posted by: Bubba Sixpack | March 27, 2008 8:07 PM
Julia Sweeney:
"Ben Stein once did a Groundling show, an improv show, that I was a part of. I found him to be spectacularly ill-informed and narcissistic and weirdly devoted to his schtick and worst of all, hacky."
I heard as much from others who know him. Just a memorization savant, who really is whiny, self-absorbed, aloof, animated phlegm in real life.
Posted by: Ted | March 27, 2008 8:27 PM
Ben Stein was a Nixon speech-writer. I've always wondered if he wrote the 'I am not a crook!' speech.
Posted by: Ted | March 27, 2008 8:31 PM
My mom went to high school with Ben Stein, Carl Bernstein, and Goldie Hawn. I'm told Hawn was the cliquey party chick, Bernstein was obnoxious (no doubt Nixon would've agreed), and nobody hung out with Stein.
Posted by: Sam | March 27, 2008 9:27 PM
I love Julia Sweeney's CD, Letting Go of God! My family listened to it when we were on a long trip, and it was so very funny. The time went by so fast when we were listening to that CD.
Posted by: John C. Randolph | March 27, 2008 11:24 PM
Look up Penn Gilette's podcast on iTunes. She was on one of his radio shows. Great discussion.
-jcr
Posted by: MAJeff, OM | March 27, 2008 11:30 PM
I saw "Letting Go of God" at Harvard a year or so ago--the only reason I knew it was happening was because of a link here. Promptly bought a ticket and had a wonderful evening. Great show!