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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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We may have faith in something, about something, even faith in spite of evidence for something, but if there is nothing existing in the first place to have faith about then the act of faith is not only ungrounded but completely misplaced and without content. Faith of itself does not provide supporting evidence for anything. It does provide such things as pyschological reassurances and attitudes to be taken towards things. It may provide perspectives from which to relate to events and people. But faith that Creation Ex Nihilo does take place cannot be had. There is nothing there in the first place to have faith in. If the attitude of faith is a supporting ground for the validity of an idea, then by the same token one can by faith give supporting ground to any notion whatever. By an act of faith God could be said not to Create Ex Nihilo, but He is Co-Eternal with the Universe. By an act of faith it could be said that God does not exist, or that many Gods exist, or that God isn't here yet, or that God passed out of existence many years ago. Unguarded, both the appeal to mystery and the appeal to faith tend to become arguments from ignorance or arguments to ease the burden of something unknown or unacceptable.
Peter A. Angeles, The Problem of God: A Short Introduction (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1986), p. 66.
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« So here's how I should teach science | Main | Let's all pack up and move to Great Britain! »
Radio reminder
Category: Godlessness
Posted on: April 20, 2008 8:26 AM, by PZ Myers
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Comments
Posted by: 386sx | April 20, 2008 10:16 AM
Pope gets ticked off at reporter in 2002 before he was Pope: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK9b2O_Wdnc
I'm sure he's much nicer now that he's the Pope though!
Posted by: arensb | April 20, 2008 11:23 AM
And this afternoon, be sure to watch The Atheist Experience.
Posted by: arensb | April 20, 2008 11:43 AM
386sx @#1:
Was it The Daily Show that said that popes started being nice when they stopped having real armies?
Posted by: Steve Ulven | April 20, 2008 12:11 PM
Oh Hell! I just woke up and missed it. I am going to see the guest (Lee Salisbury) at the Roseville Library today in a couple hours, though.
Posted by: just john | April 20, 2008 12:59 PM
I wish somebody in the media would say this today:
Yankee Stadium isn't for MASS.
Yankee Stadium is for ANGULAR MOMENTUM!
Posted by: brokenSoldier | April 20, 2008 1:10 PM
Posted by: arensb | April 20, 2008 11:43 AM
Yeah, I believe it was on Thursday, and it took me a few minutes to stop laughing at that one. Just like when (on Real Time) Bill Maher showed a picture of the Pope walking with the President where you could see straight through his robe, and then commented "I thought this man ran an organization famous for covering things up?"
Posted by: semi | April 20, 2008 2:09 PM
Speaking of religion... :) Here are the box office results for Expelled
Expelled(receipts are estimated)
Opening weekend, 1052 theaters, weekend gross $3.15M, avg per theater $2.99K
Here are some comparisons with other documentaries' opening weekends:
Fahrenheit 9/11
Opening weekend, 868 theaters, weekend gross $23.92M, avg per theater $27.5K
Sicko
Opening weekend, 441 theaters, weekend gross $3.5M, avg per theater $3.58K
An Inconvenient Truth (results show week after it debuted in 4 theaters)
Second week, 77 theaters, 2nd week gross $1.97 M, avg per theater $17.6K
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2008&wknd=16&p=.htm
Posted by: firemancarl | April 20, 2008 2:33 PM
Gosh, and they were sure it was gonna be a box office smash!
Posted by: semi | April 20, 2008 8:03 PM
Yeah, there was an article in the LA Times a few days ago with happy talk from Walt Ruloff, the film's producer, predicting an opening weekend box office gross that would exceed the $24M opening weekend of Fahrenheit 9/11.
Fat chance! With only $3M in receipts, yet playing on more than 1050 screens, I think the opening weekend was a dismal failure, considering the amount of money and energy that went into the marketing. (The marketing budget probably exceed the production budget.)
The downside for the film's producers is that, based on this weekend's pathetic gross, they won't be able to hang on to all those screens.
$3K per showing is does not give you a long run. Their "box office legs" have been cut off at the knees.
By contrast, Sicko opened in half as many theaters, yet generated more receipts and more avg $$ per showing. And it disappeared pretty quickly.
And unlike many other films, Expelled probably won't have much of an audience in other territories or markets, as many other countries have a reality bias.:) The theme won't resonate overseas.
Expelled is destined to make its revenue being sold on DVD to church groups.
Posted by: semi | April 20, 2008 8:09 PM
One more data point:
The average cost of film release prints is around $2K per print. So figure that Expelled blew at least $2M on release prints alone, and now they will lose a bunch of screens because of their poor receipts, and you will understand the magnitude of this disaster.
Posted by: Seth | April 21, 2008 8:35 AM
I was expecting it to be much worse (meaning Expelled would do much better) after listening to the Skepticality with Dawkins and Michael Shermer.
It was surprising to hear from Shermer that he thought Expelled would accomplish its mission with great effect. After all most of the people who are actually interested in seeing it would carry an ID bias to begin with.
Worse than anything I lament any respect I once had for Ben. I used to love Win Ben Stein's money. A pity.
Posted by: mothra | April 21, 2008 3:54 PM
@9 After the lawsuits for copyright infringement from maybe Harvard, PBS, Yoko Ohno, the profit margin will be still further reduced (or extinguished) and there will be no DVD sales without substantial reworking- even more expense! +_+
I have brought up the subject of this movie to people outside of the sciences and who are not religious zealots. The comments have ALL taken the form that this is a poorly done comedy and not worth watching, i.e. the Expelled people also flunked Advertising and Media methodology 101. They targeted the wrong demographic.