Now on ScienceBlogs: Let the War on Christmas being. Atheist style.
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.
• a longer profile of yours truly
• my calendar
• Nature Network
• RichardDawkins Network
• facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• Atheist Nexus
• the Pharyngula chat room
(#pharyngula on irc.synirc.net)
• Quick link to the latest endless thread
But knowledge of Jesus was limited to knowledge of Christianity; that is, had Jesus' adherents not started a movement that spread to Rome, Jesus would not have made it into Roman histories at all. The consequence is that we do not have what we would very much like, a comment in Tacitus or another Gentile writer that offers independent evidence about Jesus, his life and his death.
E.P. Sanders, The Historical Figure of Jesus (New York: Penguin, 1993), p. 50.
« Good morning, Blake! | Main | Engineers aren't all bad »
Category: Politics
Posted on: August 27, 2008 11:56 AM, by PZ Myers
You may recall that some whackaloons going to pray for rain in Denver to ruin Obama's acceptance speech. It didn't work — no surprise there — but there was an incident, a small selective event. A defective sprinkler went off, flooding a skybox booth.
Omens and portents!
Share this: Facebook Twitter Stumbleupon Reddit Email + More
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://scienceblogs.com/mt/pings/79798
Sign in or register with TypePad. Sign up with Movable Type.
PZ Myers 11.19.2009
Tim Lambert 11.22.2009
PZ Myers 11.19.2009
Ed Brayton 11.19.2009
Tim Lambert 11.18.2009
Comments
Posted by: clinteas | August 27, 2008 12:03 PM
Ahhh,come on PZ,weve been there in the other DNC thread,I just dont get the whole religious pandering crap at all,Neg pointed this out,I reckon the Dems are getting this one wrong,they will end up losing votes if they keep this religious BS up.I mean,WTF,trying to be more religious than the religious,wont people be able to tell that you are fake and not the genuine article,no matter how hard you try?
Posted by: ThirtyFiveUp | August 27, 2008 12:03 PM
The link is to Crooks and Liars which invites comments. Their commenters are excellent.
Posted by: No One of Consequence | August 27, 2008 12:03 PM
That's all the evidence I need for a just and caring god.
Posted by: Glen Davidson | August 27, 2008 12:05 PM
Sometimes he just knows what's best...
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Posted by: Richard Harris | August 27, 2008 12:05 PM
Nahhhh! God didn't do it. The fecker can't do anything, as I pretty-well proved the other day.
I went into a church - at a National Trust estate - and challenged the fecker. You see, the aisle was blocked off because of falling masonry, so I dared the god thing to smite me. The fecker missed its chance - not even a tiny little stone fell upon me.
Our pet cat's got more power than that Jehovah fellah.
Posted by: Jackal | August 27, 2008 12:05 PM
Blessed be Her Holy Hooves, the IPU acts in mysterious ways.
Posted by: Brian D | August 27, 2008 12:08 PM
Sprinklers? Peh -- I think I can top that. In fact, I just posted it over on the original thread for that, not noticing that this one would be more pertinent.
It looks like their prayers royally backfired, doesn't it?
Posted by: Zeno | August 27, 2008 12:14 PM
I think the sprinklers were set off by the incense during a Fox News prayer break. Or maybe they were toasting wafers for communion. (I'd suggest they were stoking a fire for a virgin sacrifice, but I don't know that Jonah Goldberg was even there at the time.)
Posted by: Unconventional Conventionist | August 27, 2008 12:15 PM
This comment probably belongs 2 threads down, but I filmed some Rev. Phelps wannabes, spewing their hate on the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver.
The cops protected these jerks, yet hasslle the anti-war people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_JGADUPj2A
Posted by: Richard | August 27, 2008 12:15 PM
From C&L:
That's what happens when amateurs try to save a few books and fool around with the Necronomicon on their own. Next time they should hire a professional Wiccan for all their spell-casting needs.
Posted by: Reginald Selkirk | August 27, 2008 12:19 PM
Is that a prophecy? Because his acceptance speech isn't until Thursday.Posted by: Richard | August 27, 2008 12:20 PM
"try to save a few books..."
Uh, that was supposed to be "bucks". Better go put on my magic underwear, as someone has obviously cursed me with a misspelling demon.
Posted by: Blake Stacey | August 27, 2008 12:23 PM
Richard (#10):
But pagans only do rain magic in England!
Posted by: Max Verret | August 27, 2008 12:24 PM
DNC provides evidence for God?
Didn't Aquinas do that by the Argument for Necessity in the fourteenth century?
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 27, 2008 12:28 PM
What a wet noodle god must be. Where's the fire or electrical shock or hell even a plague of frogs in the skybox.
Sprinklers are so weak.
Posted by: Chris P | August 27, 2008 12:29 PM
Be careful PZ - Obama doesn't speak at Mile High until Thursday night and it often rains in the evening with lightening and thunder here in Colorado.
Posted by: Brownian, OM | August 27, 2008 12:34 PM
Racist.
Posted by: skinman | August 27, 2008 12:34 PM
I live in Castle Rock and last Sunday we got hit with rain, lightning, hail and tornados. Maybe god was listening, he was just off the mark by 5 days and about 30 miles.
Posted by: Nick Gotts | August 27, 2008 12:38 PM
DNC provides evidence for God?
Didn't Aquinas do that by the Argument for Necessity in the fourteenth century? - Max Verret@14
1) The post title says "gods" not "God".
2) Aquinas wrote several alleged proofs of the existence of God, but none of them were sound, or in fact provided any evidence whatsoever for their supposed conclusion.
Posted by: rob | August 27, 2008 12:41 PM
not only did the sprinkler soak the fox news box, when i tried to go to the link to the story, i got
"500 Server Error"
which means the server has been smited too!
Posted by: Aaron Baker | August 27, 2008 12:42 PM
Well, it's settled then: there's a deity, and he's just, too.
Posted by: Aaron Baker | August 27, 2008 12:52 PM
Apropos of nothing:
I want to state here that I've been leisurely working my way through John Mackie's THE MIRACLE OF THEISM, a book I'd read dribs and drabs of for years, without taking on the whole thing. It provides, as I'd already suspected, quite simply the best analysis and critique there is of the traditional arguments for God. One thing that comes out in Mackie's careful, step by step destruction is that some of these arguments are by no means contemptible, and require some intellectual heavy lifting to counter properly. Boring or not, as some have charged (and detailed, careful thinking usually is boring), Mackie's critique is hands down better than the breezy, sometimes inaccurate attacks in Dawkins's THE GOD DELUSION. I really wish more people would read Mackie.
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | August 27, 2008 1:06 PM
Mighty, verily, is His Noodly Appendage, and praised be His Monstrous Name. (May He have the IPU for breakfast.)
Posted by: Alverant | August 27, 2008 1:07 PM
What do you want to bet someone is going to say it was intentional?
Posted by: jfatz | August 27, 2008 1:08 PM
I think the more likely explanation is that Keith Olbermann has learned ninja skills.
Posted by: Philippe | August 27, 2008 1:13 PM
somewhat off topic and, I'm sorry for that, in French, but score one for the good guys.
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20080827/CPACTUALITES/808270631/1019/CPACTUALITES
nutshell: starting this year, public schools in the province of Quebec (a former hotbed of Catholic oppression) will stop teaching catholicism and start teaching an "ethics and religious culture" class where all religions will be looked at. Not thaught (sic?) but examined as a cultural. As a system of belief and not necessarily facts. An example: Creation will be "compared" to the Atikameks' Great JackRabbit legend...
There is light protest, nothing worrisome...
Posted by: Philippe | August 27, 2008 1:16 PM
maudit!!!
I meant "but examined as a cultural phenomenon."
Posted by: Schmeer | August 27, 2008 1:35 PM
Yes, please. Maudite is my favorite beer.Posted by: Ryan F Stello | August 27, 2008 1:59 PM
Alverant (#24) asked,
Meh, they probably only have themselves to blame, anyway:
From C&L,
...All that hot air, what could anyone expect?
Posted by: fusilier | August 27, 2008 2:07 PM
Schmeer, (#28)
have you tried Blanche de Chambly yet? It's a difficult choice, so I have to keep comparing.
fusilier
James 2:24
Posted by: Philippe | August 27, 2008 2:18 PM
Fusilier, why choose?
Maudite is good with a hockey game, Blanche in a gathering/party, La Fin du Monde is for that special moment and Don de Dieu for an intimate supper with significant other(s).
Posted by: Me again | August 27, 2008 2:27 PM
You are so pathetically inconsistent that pictures of you should be kept in emergency rooms to be used to induce vomiting.
Posted by: Sili | August 27, 2008 2:43 PM
Inconsistency is an emetic? Who knew.
Are we sure this isn't some kind of IRL-Pharyngulation? Mightn't a coupla savvy Pharyngulistas have pushed a button somewhere?
Posted by: Rik. | August 27, 2008 2:47 PM
#32: Who's inconsistent?
Posted by: ThirtyFiveUp | August 27, 2008 2:48 PM
"Posted by: Me again | August 27, 2008 2:27 PM
You are so pathetically inconsistent that pictures of you should be kept in emergency rooms to be used to induce vomiting."
What?
Posted by: Chris P | August 27, 2008 2:50 PM
Brownian Om
That is lightening as in "to make less heavy". When the lightning strikes it causes you to jump and to appear less heavy.
Chris P
Posted by: Patricia | August 27, 2008 2:55 PM
What?
Which one of us should be used to induce vomiting?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Posted by: aleph1=c | August 27, 2008 3:25 PM
Aquinas was 13th c.
Posted by: Holbach | August 27, 2008 3:57 PM
Dan did it. Kudos to you Dan; you certainly put a damper on that fiasco. Which head was responsible?
Posted by: John C. Randolph | August 27, 2008 4:12 PM
Sorry, I'm not buying the "defective sprinkler head" story. It was a case of vandalism, which probably caused upwards of a million dollars in damage. Broadcast gear isn't cheap.
-jcr
Posted by: Max Verret | August 27, 2008 4:20 PM
Aleph at 38
Yes, 13th. C. The 14th. C belonged to William of Ockam and his traeatise on Nomanalism. He's kind of a light-heavy weigh
I have been reading some of Keith Ward from Gresham College Oxford and his rational proof of God. He's kind of a middle weight.
Posted by: Ichthyic | August 27, 2008 4:25 PM
It was a case of vandalism
Who am I buying a round for then?
Posted by: JerryFLA | August 27, 2008 4:48 PM
-
-
-
"Sprinkler systems have a liberal bias."
-
-
-
-
Posted by: Darwin's Dagger | August 27, 2008 4:49 PM
Did Ann Coulter go to prison? I'm not obligated to believe in God until Ann Coulter goes to prison.
Posted by: Shygetz | August 27, 2008 5:01 PM
If God could consistently produce results like this, He might win me as a convert.
Posted by: Max Verret | August 27, 2008 5:19 PM
Dagger at 44
When you see Ann Coulter it renews your faith is God because you know that man alone could not have created something like that.
Posted by: Holbach | August 27, 2008 5:30 PM
If Ann coulter lands in prison, will she be born again? Or will she finally go insane? Same thing.
Posted by: Holbach | August 27, 2008 8:37 PM
Max Verret @ 46 And only man could create something like your imaginary god. Renews my faith in what man is capable of, especially in deriding irraional nonsense that he gave birth to in the first place.
Posted by: One Eyed Jack | August 27, 2008 9:34 PM
So, God hates Faux News?
Posted by: AmyD | August 27, 2008 10:35 PM
It was probably all the cigar smoke and hot air that set them off.
Posted by: AJ Milne | August 28, 2008 1:51 AM
So I see the nomination is official, now, and Weather Underground has 0 mm in Denver for the last 48 hours, at least...
(But y'know how it is with the god-besotted. They'll just move the goalposts. I mean, sure, Denver's dry. But there's another hurricane bearing down on New Orleans. Clearly, this is the sky daddy's punishment for the Democrats' failing to select a candidate who explicitly endorses the biblical stoning of heretics, and, indeed, participates himself in such events... Or for the Democrats' existing at all... Obey yer gawd! And his agents on this Earth, the stentorian televangelists! Or the sub-sea-level city gets it! Again!)
Posted by: tim brennan | August 28, 2008 2:14 AM
Ha more likely a prank from the DNC then god!
- T
www.MostEmailedNews.com
www.MostEmailedNews.com
Posted by: JCG | August 28, 2008 4:48 AM
Fire alarms often go off in the vacinity of conflagrant pantaloons...
Posted by: Michael X | August 28, 2008 4:58 AM
Max, your comment at 46 has basically solidified any doubt I had in your status as a troll. And if not a troll, then someone totally detached from politics as practiced in the real world.
In any case, off with you.
Posted by: Left_Wing_Fox | August 28, 2008 9:09 AM
I had taken Max's comment in the Frankenstein sense. ;)
IT'S ALIVE!!!
Posted by: Pete Moulton | August 28, 2008 9:16 AM
I may be an atheist, but this gives me a whole new appreciation for the laws of karma.
OTOH, the O-man's speech isn't until tonight, so we'll see how the fundies' prayers work then. As a native Denverite I also have a deep appreciation for the unpredictability of the Mile High City's weather.
Posted by: jeffperado | August 28, 2008 3:24 PM
Irony of ironies...
It looks like tropical storm/hurricane Gustev may just "rain" on the Republican convention.
Posted by: Chris P | August 28, 2008 6:34 PM
Well at 4.30pm from a hill overlooking Denver - there ISN'T A CLOUD in the sky - only haze from some wildfires in North East Colorado.
Chris P
Posted by: Chris P | August 28, 2008 8:22 PM
Well its 6.20 pm and still not a cumulus in sight.
Supposedly clear tonight with 10% chance of thunderstorms TOMORROW NIGHT.
Chris P
Posted by: BTJ | August 28, 2008 10:18 PM
This may be enough to make me question my atheism. :)
Posted by: Chris P | August 28, 2008 11:07 PM
How much more proof do we need that prayer doesn't work?
How many more experiments must be run before this bunch of dufii figure it out?
Chris P
Posted by: pzoot | August 31, 2008 2:03 PM
Looks like it backfired -- the republican convention is being disrupted by rain (in New Orleans) instead!