I get email

"People really don't like me very much."

Well I'd say that's not entirely accurate.

"Dumb people really don't like me very much."

There. That's better.

Trial by Combat!

Although, if everybody reading this would send me 10% of your gross salary and all of your nubile daughters, I might be convinced otherwise.

Uh oh, you might upset your Trophy Wife (TM).

How about he uses the amazing power of his god, i.e. prayer, and you are free to use any verifiably human created item?

Is he going to take us on one at a time, or all at once?

For the truly faithful there is no difference. The Lord God will lend his mighty arm to the forces of justice and thereby ensure the believer's victory over the hordes of doubt. It is as certain as God's omnipotence! (Where's the betting window?)

Hey PZ, I'm an "Evolutionist believer in Darwin." Can I accept the fight as your proxy and fight for your honor? Please? Please?

:)

You should tell the good Mr. Korn that, as a scientist, you not only accept the Morally Simplistic Application of the Theory of Evolution ("Survival of the Fittest"), but you also accept the Morally Simplistic Application of the Law of Magnetism ("Opposites Attract.")

Since, as I am sure Mr. Korn will agree, you and he are, in fact, "opposites," you cannot fight him, as, per the Law of Magnetism, you are ethically obliged to be attracted to each other. Thus, you might suggest getting together for a cup of coffee, or perhaps dinner and a movie, instead.

"How about he uses the amazing power of his god, i.e. prayer, and you are free to use any verifiably human created item?"

Hey, at least let the True Believer use the jawbone of a donkey.

Curiously, this classic Python clip springs to mind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMKCLyhBBwI

If memory serves, the challenged party in a duel was entitled to choose the weapons. Doctoral dissertations at 20 paces? Post-doc research at dawn?

Go, PZ! Think him to a pulp!

Alternatively, I'm confident we could find a champion among your loyal blog "cultists". I'd volunteer myself, but I think I'm out of his weight class. <grin>

When are these people going to get it through their heads that just because something appears to be true, and someone agrees that it appears to be true, doesn't mean that they APPROVE of the thing?

Do I agree that evolution is the best explanation we have for the variety of life we see around us. Yes. Do I think that evolution is our friend, or that we should emulate it? No! I should think the mountains of fossiles of extinct species should be evidence enough that evolution is not our friend. If we went extinct tomorrow, evolution would not shed a tear, metaphorically or otherwise.

Just because I agree with the theory of gravity doesn't mean I want to fall down.

Survival of the fittest means you have to leave more offspring than him. How many children does he have ?

Is it just me, or are these penpals of Prof. Myers getting nuttier and nuttier?

Let's not discard this guy out of hand. He has some good ideas. Why not form a non-profit? That way, we can donate money to PZ, PZ can use that money to buy us all beer. Of course, we could just buy our own beer, but that would violate the rule: you can't buy your own beer and drink it. I mean, have you ever seen a 747 taxi away from the junkyard, stop at the local pub, buy itself a beer and drink it? No. Clearly we're not meant to drink the beer we buy ourselves.

Sorry. I'm still stuck a few threads back.

5'6", 120lbs
?
Damn, I'm using the metric system here
But with 1,90m 80 kg, experience in military and martial arts I'm out of the game too..

Michael Korn is still not making any sense.

What's this about not having any military training? Israel (where he was for a while) has a 100% mandatory draft and everyone has military training. Israel is the new Sparta. He might be smarter than he seems. It is hard to dodge the Israeli draft. (Or maybe he got a psychiatric deferment.)

Last I heard he was on the run with a warrant out for his arrest. Either the cops aren't trying very hard or he is getting help from other Xian terrorists. Bet it is the latter.

His preoccupation with violence and drifty reasoning is a bad sign. Most people realize after the cops take an interest in them that something one is doing is not too smart.

Does 10% of my debt and a free kitten count?

Two men enter, one man leaves...

Interesting how the actual resort to Darwinian tactics almost always comes from the IDCist, or creationist (of course they project it onto the one who accepts science).

You'd almost think they weren't intent on rational discourse regarding the evidence.

Or, to be quite serious, why do you think we have trouble convincing people regarding evolution? It's because it lays bare the illusions that cover up people's desires for mass drives toward power, it exposes the tactics of religionists (no, not all are like Korn and the other fundies), the jihadists and all others who desire theocracies made for the benefit of the priests, imams, etc. Evolutionary theory is what threatens to dissolve the evolutionary tactics that the religionists use, hence it is evil.

Indeed, as evolved animals it is not really in our interests, generally, to look directly at what we are and why we are essentially apes. Evolutionary theory would be impossible except for one thing, it is what makes biological science possible as something other than disconnected cataloging of what we find. Outside of its scientific appeal, it has no appeal (fundies are as stupid about that as the rest), which is why people resort to other concepts when they have no appreciation for science.

The same is true of psychology and neuroscience, which, not incidentally, O'Leary and her type denounce along with evolution. A recent study tells us that psychiatrists are the least religious of all of the scientists (and biologists are already pretty low in that respect), and one can see why. But O'Leary has dreams of power which cannot be satisfied by the science she doesn't understand (scientists do want some power via science, undoubtedly), thus she denies all of the sciences which explain why she's such a damn bitch.

Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7

Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7

It's certainly an unusual strategy for resolving the 'controversy'.

I would encourage you to accept his challenge, so long as you (as the evolutionist) are allowed to use naturalistic defenses and he (as the creationist) can only use supernatural ones.

Only way to be sure.
.

Interesting how the actual resort to Darwinian tactics almost always comes from the IDCist, or creationist (of course they project it onto the one who accepts science).

You'd almost think they weren't intent on rational discourse regarding the evidence.

Or, to be quite serious, why do you think we have trouble convincing people regarding evolution? It's because it lays bare the illusions that cover up people's desires for mass drives toward power, it exposes the tactics of religionists (no, not all are like Korn and the other fundies), the jihadists and all others who desire theocracies made for the benefit of the priests, imams, etc. Evolutionary theory is what threatens to dissolve the evolutionary tactics that the religionists use, hence it is evil.

Indeed, as evolved animals it is not really in our interests, generally, to look directly at what we are and why we are essentially apes. Evolutionary theory would be impossible except for one thing, it is what makes biological science possible as something other than disconnected cataloging of what we find. Outside of its scientific appeal, it has no appeal (fundies are as stupid about that as the rest), which is why people resort to other concepts when they have no appreciation for science.

The same is true of psychology and neuroscience, which, not incidentally, O'Leary and her type denounce along with evolution. A recent study tells us that psychiatrists are the least religious of all of the scientists (and biologists are already pretty low in that respect), and one can see why. But O'Leary has dreams of power which cannot be satisfied by the science she doesn't understand (scientists do want some power via science, undoubtedly), thus she denies all of the sciences which explain why she's such a damn bitch.

Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7

5'6", 120lbs
?
Damn, I'm using the metric system here
But with 1,90m 80 kg, experience in military and martial arts I'm out of the game too..

tappity-tappity
5'6" = about 1.68 m. 120 lb = about 55 kg. 1.90 m = about 6'3". 80 kg = about 176 lb.

Doctoral dissertations at 20 paces? Post-doc research at dawn?

Heh. I've never had the opportunity to beat someone to a pulp with my doctoral thesis, but it might be fun...

PZ, you're being too literate. The essay in question has a Flesch Kinkaid grade level rating of 9.7 with the long quote included, 10.7 without, and a SMOG score of grade level 11.94 with the quote and 12.36 without. You do need to dumb it down more if you want the knuckle-draggers who look back nostalgically at 6th grade as "the best years" of their life to be able to appreciate your wit and use of metaphor.

Strikes me that PZ and others might like to see the study to which I referred (psychiatrists the least religious of the medical professionals--I didn't say it quite right in my previous post):

http://sci-con.org/2007/09/psychiatrists-the-least-religious/

Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/b8ykm

I'm hearing the theme song from The Good,The Bad,and The Ugly. Da-na-na-na-naaa.....na-na-naaaaa. Be sure to keep the sun to your back.

Strikes me that PZ and others might like to see the study to which I referred (psychiatrists the least religious of the medical professionals--I didn't say it quite right in my previous post):

http://sci-con.org/2007/09/psychiatrists-the-least-religious/

Glen D

I'll volunteer as a stand-in...my dissertation was pretty thick. Hardbound it could crush a throat. Bring Korn on...he can come with the biggest Bible he can carry. He wont beat me.

Korn. Korn.

Hmm, isn't that a key ingredient in shit?

Glen, while your second to last post has some nice detail, I think it could be entirely summed up by the single phrase in the first sentence:

"of course they project"

which explains 99% of creationist behavior.

also explains the difficulty in explaining things - someone who maintains such an extreme level of psychological defense mechanisms is nearly impossible to reason with.

I've come to the conclusion over the years, watching and conversing with hundreds of creationists, that the base psychological condition has to be dealt with first, rather like deprogramming a brainwashed cult member, before any rational discussion could possibly be productive.

realizing that the issue to overcome first isn't their ignorance, but their massive levels of projection, is IMO, the only thing that will end up having any kind of long term productivity as an approach to the issue.

It's not always a will to power that is the interfering issue, a lot of it is plain fear of abandoning an entire worldview. They fear "throwing the baby out with the bathwater", so to speak, even though the "baby" is long dead and the water fetid and rank.

Would he like to meet us all at the flagpole outside the building? Is he going to take us on one at a time, or all at once?

FINISH HIM!...

... which of course, also relates to why the study you link to in your last post makes perfect sense to me.

If nothing else, a psychiatrist is trained first to recognize when they themselves are employing irrational defense mechanisms.

Hmm. In times of crisis, I find it helpful to seek the wise counsel of Ellen Ripley.

"I say we dust off and nuke the (para)site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

Ah, science and faith mix to make something very strange. I can imagine the religious arguments of the future already... "Believe in God! Experiments prove that belief helps you beat people up!"

I'd take him up on the duel. But according to the code duello, as the challenged, you get choice of weapons.

Take paint balloons at 30 paces, and sell tickets. You could probably raise pretty good $$ for the atheist group with an event like that.

PZ don't know karate, but he knows CR-AZY!

The article had a junior high school reading score so, sadly an all too large portion of the US population will have a hard time reading it. At work I have to re-write customer service correspondence so that it has a 6th grade or lower score for any customer I don't know :-(.

i wonder if, since you are a proponent of darwinism and its creed of "survival of the fittest", you would accept my challenge to a fight, at a place of your choosing, using just our God-given or, in your case, randomly evolved, hands and feet (i.e., no weapons of any kind, as in a duel).

But we should be able to use the tools that were designed by humans to make up for our natural shortcomings. We don't have claws but we have evolved the intelligence to invent a tool to make up for it, like a knife for defense or chopping up prey.

So.. by using our evolution-given intelligence, we can use weapons right?!

Not that I condone violence, of course, in solving a purely scientific fight.

Hey, i'm only 6' 2" and 235 pounds. I'd gladly take your spot in the match if say, you can arrange to hold it when my Packers vist the Viqueens and get me tickets to the game.

I do have military experience, Navy, but no martial skills. I also work out, is that a disqualifier?

There is smething wrong with that first letter. I think you mut have written it as a test. The guy writes English and does not use capitals.

I'm an evangelical atheist, and I just got my black belt, so if you need some backup...

I have a small amount of kung-fu training. I've never won a fight, and I've not been in very many. I'm 6', 210 lbs, a little out-of-shape, and a little too fond of the occasional pint of beer and a cigarette.

I'll tune Korn good.

Normally I'm not given to violence, but despicable bullies such as him bring out my inner ass-kicker.

I've come to the conclusion over the years, watching and conversing with hundreds of creationists, that the base psychological condition has to be dealt with first, rather like deprogramming a brainwashed cult member, before any rational discussion could possibly be productive.

It's also why I think that harsh language and labeling them as they deserve is necessary. If they can possibly be made to feel some pain for their lies and ignorance, there's at least some chance that they (or more likely, some less angry and projective lurker) might go out and learn something, finally.

Not that actually reasonable creos and IDiots need to be treated harshly, but we both know how few those are (and I know enough outside of the blogs to recognize that it's not just an internet thing). The majority need to feel some vulnerability, so that some of the more teachable might try to become less vulnerable by gaining some knowledge (which, to the contrary, will make them even more vulnerable in their beliefs).

Anyway, that's how it seems to me.

Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7

sounds like its time to kream the korn.

It's also why I think that harsh language and labeling them as they deserve is necessary.

yup, that and ridicule can generate an emotional response that allows one to break into the behavior patterns, as well as occasionally prompting the target to do a small bit of self analysis.

I think both you and I have pointed out the effectiveness of that technique over the years, when others have critiqued the use of harsh language and ridicule.

it's all about the psychology.

Wikipedia says:

Only gentlemen were considered to have honor, and therefore qualified to duel. If a gentleman was insulted by a person of lower class, he would not duel him but would beat him with a cane, riding crop, or whip or have his servants do so. Dueling is now illegal in all but a few countries around the world.
...
Some participants in a duel, given the choice of weapons, are said to have deliberately chosen ridiculous weapons such as howitzers, sledgehammer, or forkfuls of pig dung, in order to show their disdain for the proceedings.

#17 is right - see who ends up with more great-grandchildren, and we can proclaim that person the winner.

Major Frank Burns: "Why does everbody take an instant dislike to me?"

Capt. "Trapper John" McIntyre: "Because it saves time Frank."

Your offer to meet "by the flagpole" was subtle, yet hilarious.

There's a much easier solution. As god presumably provides him with morals and a sense of honor and all that, us immoral atheists have a distinct advantage since evolution says nothing at all about the fight having to be fair (I'm trying to think like a crazy here, just go with it).

So I say, agree to it, say you'll meet somewhere before hand to discuss the rules, walk up and kick him in the crotch, then declare yourself the winner. When he complains about it not being fair, ask why god didn't warn him last time they were talking. It's not like he (god) didn't know it was coming.

@#10 If memory serves, the challenged party in a duel was entitled to choose the weapons. Doctoral dissertations at 20 paces? Post-doc research at dawn?

Go, PZ! Think him to a pulp!

It is should biologically based; dueling poisonous octopuses (one in each hand) would be the most appropriate.

I wonder if Korn realizes PZ's huge, elitists brain in expensive designer clothes is all part of that survival of the fittest thing.

MartinC:

How many children does he have ?

Evolution should of course not be seen as "survival of the fittest", but as "survival of the good enough", long enough to be able to reproduce. Hence, if he has any kids at all, I'm afraid he is just one more data point proving the theory he doesn't accept...

Am I the only one totally flummoxed by this:

I must say you are certainly a living testimony why we should have an official second language in the United States.

What's he suggesting here? English? No, I'm sure he'd want that to be first. Ed-yoo-cated? Maybe, but then he'd have to be the one to learn it.

Help.

A duel? Damn, this wingnuts really are stuck in the 19th century.
Now I'd best lie down before I'm struck with the vapors--my weak, female brain is overtaxed by all this thinking.

Just because I agree with the theory of gravity doesn't mean I want to fall down.
Posted by: Denis Loubet (#11)

My new favourite response to the idiocy of "is vs. ought" type confusions. Thanks!

So where's he writing from (or through), anyhow? Just curious as to the general area he's calling out from.

(playfully) Do I get to be in the 'kook' folder some times, and not others? If not, then is there a special category for the 'Deluded But Marginally Useful'?

(meds wearing off) Sorry not capitalizing every other word and inserting irrelevant cut-and-paste text at random "Benjamin Franklin was a member of the same secret society" intervals. I Me You know what I'm saying woulda done it during the last crop circle, but Satan magnetically told me not to bother with Kabbalah, because of the Masons. And the Dixons. And the other dinosaurs on the Ark that you are lying about.

Just because I agree with the theory of gravity doesn't mean I want to fall down.

No, of course not. Agreeing with the theory of gravity means you want to throw other people down.

Gravity: Not just a good idea -- it's the law.

Why are some babies not given God-given hands and feet and stuff? Or arms? I once met a man who had hands growing out of his shoulders like flippers, for his fingers were all fused together, and features one huge fingernail - about the size of half a graham cracker - right in the middle. If Mr. Psycho Stalker Korn can explain why God would give such hands to a man, I'll take him on myself, with ostrich feathers at twelve paces.

(Ripley kicks chitinous xeno-exobutt. The way Weaver delivers that line ("It's the only way to be sure") and the look she exchanges with Michael Biehn are just friggin perfect.)

I am glad they make pills for people like me to deal with people like Michael Korn.

#48-- You're not thinking crazy enough... try biting him on the face, and declaring that you're so hungry for the eucharist that you figured you'd start with the Christ in Korn.

PZ, first priority for any donations should be Scott's prescriptions.

That letter from Korn is nothing more than a veiled threat of violence ("I will kick your ass if you let me").

Shorter Michael Korn:

"So you think you're the smarty art professor. Let me ask you this...

Can you kick MY ass?"

(Apologies to Chris Rock)

It's not gravity pulling you down, it's God pushing you down.

Mr. Korn clearly has little faith that praying for you to be smitten directly will work, it seems.

Funny how a certain kind of person believes that survival of the fittest is equivalent to might makes right. They like to put those bumper stickers on their cars that say "My kid can beat up your honor student." If this were true, then we wouldn't have immunizations or medicines - the smart people who invented them would have been killed by the strong people, and they'd have to reproduce a heck of a lot to make up for all their offspring who died. That would probably be OK, though, because they'd need to do something for entertainment. They'd also have killed the smart people who created the TV, radio, and printing press (and photography, since the printing press without photography is nearly useless for celebrity gossip.) Maybe a strong person would eventually stumble upon how to make beer and something resembling cheetos, but until then, having sex and beating each other up would be pretty close to all there was to enhance their quality of life.

Be careful! The brainless little jerk is going to bring Chuck Norris, big brother to brainless shitholes everywhere.

@Alison,Post #64

"but until then, having sex and beating each other up would be pretty close to all there was to enhance their quality of life."

Well... you described more or less 99% of the content of the bible. Or the no less stupid Qur'an.

You see PZ the english was find up until the last paragraph, that 'conciliatory' is not only too long it is obviously not in that gentleman's routine conversation or psyche. I too would volunteer as your second but I am too big and too strong to make it fair and my PhD thesis is so thick I nearly had it bound in two volumes, just to make a point. Economic sense intervened.

GlenD,

you say :
"Indeed, as evolved animals it is not really in our interests, generally, to look directly at what we are and why we are essentially apes."

I feel, many problems with regards to the acceptance of the theory of evolution as "the truth" by masses of people are linked to the way you have worded this sentence.

It is clear that from a genetic and biological point of view we are essentially apes.
But the few mutations that in the end made us a different species from Gorillas and Chimpanzees did cause a hell of a difference in our ability to exchange symbols and our ability to understand and make use of the resources of nature.
What caused this differentiation is also very clear, not an act of god but natural selection.

It's not very Jesus like to go around challenging people to fist fights.

What happened to turn the other cheek?

I'd be honored to be your second, PZ. I'm not particularly strong nor trained in martial arts, but I compensate by biting.

Would he like to meet us all at the flagpole outside the building?

I think you should all come, just to see how he deals with that situation.

Then remind him of comment 66.

As the challengee, with weapon choosing dibs, I suggest alcohol.

You'll get to shave his eyebrows afterwards.

I think the Skepchick is 5'6" and about 120. Maybe you could draft her to fight this good man.

The first letter writer was refering to this kind of crazy shit, Right?? Afterall Korn doesnt make much sense unless you know the language he's communicating in.

Aww, JamesR beat me to it: I think Korn should get beat up by a girl

*raises hand to volunteer* ;)

PZ, I'd follow you to the ends-of-the-earth, just not Guyana.

Damn, why don't I get challenges like that? I would love to put the militant in atheist, but I suspect he's just a kid with 5'6", 120 lbs.

Korn should crawl back into his hole.

I would accept the challenge, on his terms, even offering him choice of venue.

I would then call the police, who seem to be looking for him, I'm sure they would love to know exactly where he's going to be...

"Survival of the Fittest" indeed.

Korn forgets that PZ is the MASTER and teaches us all to wax on, wax off...

Evolution should of course not be seen as "survival of the fittest", but as "survival of the good enough", long enough to be able to reproduce. Hence, if he has any kids at all, I'm afraid he is just one more data point proving the theory he doesn't accept...

So this is about the Children of the Korn?

PZ, does this mean we don't get our Kool Ade today?

oh! oh! PZ, pick me, I'll go in your stead, I am 5'11', weigh 241 lbs, have a reach of around 70 inches and regularly train heavily for cardio-vascular conditioning and occasionally train in mixed martial arts! This is a dream matchup for me, get me in the game slowly, like an entree!

Note that I will fight in the name of Satan, duPont, Monsanto and anyone else who wants me to put their name on my back for 20$ a square inch!

=P

I'm about that height, although I think I've got about 8kg on him. I also lift weights when I'm healthy enough. I could probably break him in half.

If that doesn't work, maybe I could get my tiny, short, Israeli guy friend to do it? No military training there, either. (It isn't as hard as all that to get out of the draft -- they said he was underweight, they are suspicious right off the bat of geeky types, and if you only move there after you're over the quite limited draft age, you won't serve.)

On the other hand, my friend folk dances and runs on the beach near Tel Aviv almost every day, and would probably inflict a +10 Sabra Damage Bonus on Korn... :)

i wonder if, since you are a proponent of darwinism and its creed of "survival of the fittest", you would accept my challenge to a fight, at a place of your choosing, using just our God-given or, in your case, randomly evolved, hands and feet

If I were Korn picking a fight I would look out for those random hands and feets.

I think that is probably the most misunderstood principle of natural selection that there is; evolution is about survival of the survivors (as tautological as that sounds) and, while this is related to how fit an organism is, it isn't always the case.

Also, I've got to ask, what happened to that second guy's shift key? I didn't know that proper formatting was so difficult to maintain...

good grief! If his Almighty God hasn't been able to smite you yet, what makes him think he's up to the challenge?

Why isn't Korn in jail yet?

I thought the police back in Colorado wanted to talk to him before he tucked his tail between his legs and ran crying to his fundie terrorist support network in North Carolina. Did they just stop caring that he trespassed at a university in order to threaten an entire biology department, made threats about being close-by to PZ in MN before the IPs were tracked, and is now again threatening physical violence?

This is a specific threat made by someone who has already fled across the country, so it is reasonable to assume that he has the means of carrying out the threat as well.

If I were you, PZ, I would file a complaint and get a restraining order if you haven't done so already. This lunatic needs to be locked up before he does actually hurt someone... and he seems a very good candidate for doing so.

Just remember to take your iron chariot, then if you're wrong and there is a god there's not a thing in the world he can do to you. What kind of an omnipotent god tells his followers outright that he has a slight problem with iron chariots and is still seen as an omnipotent god? In terms of omnipotence exceptions don't prove the rule.

I agree with Roger, FCD. Being fittest doesn't necessarily mean being best at physical violence. Some of us are smart enough to use trickery.

Besides, we're amoral atheists, so we can lie & cheat with impunity, right?

I thoroughly enjoy coming by your blog every day and reading your blathering drivel. I find it both entertaining and enlightening. Keep blathering that drivel!

When Uwe Boll challenged his critics to a boxing match and beat them all, he said:
"I hit them so hard they have brain damage. They love my movies now!"

Although, if everybody reading this would send me 10% of your gross salary and all of your nubile daughters, I might be convinced otherwise.

Uh oh, you might upset your Trophy Wife (TM).

Nah, the nubile daughters are for Skatje to be friends with. Right?

Ewwww.

It almost takes the fun out of ridiculing them when they ridicule themselves like that.

-jcr

I dont know what PZ answered to Korn, but instead a mano-a-mano I would have proposed an old style Viking ordeal or a Biblical test like Elisha vs. the prophets of Baal. Each of you sacrifice a red bull and whoever's fire is bigger, wins.

#8,MJ Memphis

Hey, at least let the True Believer use the jawbone of a donkey.

He isn't?

Don't stop at cult, PZ. If you get a million readers you can probably claim your own religion.

Re Martin C at #12:

I think we should think extended phenotype here--it seems we live in an environment where ideas may be more important than genes, in fact I suspect the survival of humanity now depends on us going against the dicta of our genes. In that respect, maybe the number of our biological children is not so important as our ideological children. So PZ probably has affected the evolution of humanity more by being a teacher and writer than through procreation (no slight to the Trophy Children intended :-). Interestingly enough it may also be that Mr Korn has had a similar (though likely much smaller) effect, though through repulsion from his ideas. That is of course difficult to easily achieve gene-wise--it would be like having children disappear every time you have sex... (Uh, now that was an image I really didn't want in my head.)

This is hilarious.

too bad there's no iq competition :-)

@#65
God pushing us down, eh? I'm guessing you're familiar with The Onion's coverage of the Theory of Intelligent Falling, then? ;)

I think the 'fittest' organism would be the one who's smart enough to avoid Mr. Korn's ludicrous challenge completely.

Thankfully, you do the same type of advertising for your place of employment that Ward Churchill does (or did) for his facility in Colorado.

That "facility in Colorado" is a little bit more than an easily dismissed "place of employment". Al, Al, Al, Al, Al, Al and 18 astronauts seem to think it's a worthwhile place to be.

I think the fittest behaviour would be to accept his challenge and then notify the authorities where he'll be. If he's making threats online they may be interested.

He wasn't supposed to leave CO was he?

Getting locked up isn't very fit behaviour.

... as in a duel ...

I'll be your second. And I sent you some non-hate mail; I hope it made it through. :)

Well *I* like you, PZ. Pass the Kool-Aid!

Actually, tacitus, THIS classic Python clip springs to mind. God, you have to love Python of you're an atheist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfRkcJ0BLS0

Actually, tacitus, THIS classic Python clip sprang to my mind. God, you have to love Python if you're an atheist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfRkcJ0BLS0

Resolve it like they did in old testament times. Both of you build altars and slaughter a fatted calf. Korn gets to call on his god to send down fire to the altar. Naturally this will not happen. PZ then gets to call on god to send down fire to consume the sacrifice. This won't happen either. PZ wins because he said all along there was no god and this is exactly what we would expect to happen.

Peter Ashby: I've heard that theses and dissertations are getting longer, but ... two volumes?? How many pages and in what field?

Would he like to meet us all at the flagpole outside the building?

I think you should all come, just to see how he deals with that situation.

Then remind him of comment 66.

i wonder if, since you are a proponent of darwinism and its creed of "survival of the fittest", you would accept my challenge to a fight, at a place of your choosing, using just our God-given or, in your case, randomly evolved, hands and feet

If I were Korn picking a fight I would look out for those random hands and feets.