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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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The more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events the firmer become his conviction that there is no room left by the side of this ordered regularity for causes of a different nature. For him neither the rule of human nor the rule of divine will exists as an independent cause of natural events. To be sure, the doctrine of a personal God interfering with natural events could never be refuted, in the real sense, by science, for this doctrine can always take refuge in those domains in which scientific knowledge has not yet been able to set foot. But I am convinced that such behavior on the part of representatives of religion would not only be unworthy but also fatal. For a doctrine which is to maintain itself not in clear light but only in the dark, will of necessity lose its effect on mankind, with incalculable harm to human progress. In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine of a personal God, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which in the past placed such vast power in the hands of priests. In their labors they will have to avail themselves of those forces which are capable of cultivating the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in humanity itself. This is, to be sure a more difficult but an incomparably more worthy task…
[Albert Einstein, "Science, Philosophy, and Religion, A Symposium", published by the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, Inc., New York, 1941]
August 31, 2009
Category: Politics
Kristin Maguire, chair of the South Carolina State Board of Education, has resigned from her position for all the wrong reasons. She has been a shill for the religious right, and has opposed the teaching of evolution in the public...
Posted by PZ Myers at 6:00 PM • 269 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Humor
This is definitely not safe for work, but I had to include it because you just know the Catholic League will freak out over it. And remember: 30 September is International Blasphemy Day. What will you be doing to outrage...
Posted by PZ Myers at 11:51 AM • 228 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion
Steven Novella has an excellent analogy for the Sedalia evolution t-shirt nonsense: What if the Krishnas had complained about a t-shirt that showed a rocket going to the moon? Apparently, they don't believe in space travel at all, so it...
Posted by PZ Myers at 11:40 AM • 69 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Humor
It's too accurate. That's not the punchline, either — it's just the setup. You'll have to read the whole thing. Don't miss the one right after it, either — it explains how science publishing works....
Posted by PZ Myers at 11:25 AM • 38 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Organisms
(via Flickr)...
Posted by PZ Myers at 7:49 AM • 44 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 30, 2009
Category: Pointless polls
Via ERV and Coyne, I've learned that there was a poll associated with that story about the yanked evolution shirts for the Smith-Cotton band program. You must pharyngulate this poll! Should the Sedalia school district have pulled the Smith-Cotton High...
Posted by PZ Myers at 10:20 PM • 143 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Godlessness
I'm sorry, you are all required to watch this video before doing anything else today. Don't worry, you'll enjoy it. Penn & Teller, Bullshit! The Vatican from Brewster on Vimeo. (via Atheist Media Blog)...
Posted by PZ Myers at 12:22 PM • 321 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Creationism
This is the t-shirt worn by the marching band of Smith-Cotton high school of Sedalia, Missouri. The 'ascent of man' image is a bit irritating — it is a portrayal of a fallacious idea of directionality in evolution —...
Posted by PZ Myers at 12:18 PM • 157 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Religion
The Pope has become an environmentalist, and he has figured out who is causing all our ecological difficulties: the atheists.Is it not true that inconsiderate use of creation begins where God is marginalized or also where his existence is denied?...
Posted by PZ Myers at 11:35 AM • 125 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
August 29, 2009
Category: Entertainment
Whew, dodged a mistake — the movie is on RIGHT NOW! An alert reader caught me in time and let me know I live in the Central Time Zone. I haven't even touched the hooch yet. It starts with Deborah...
Posted by PZ Myers at 9:04 PM • 152 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
PZ Myers 11.19.2009
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Ed Brayton 11.20.2009
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