You all remember that I'm trying to win an iPod Touch from Eric Hovind, right? You're supposed to click on this link every day!
(The way it works is that every click through to the silly creationist site gets counted as coming from me, and that click adds a vote to my tally. The top referrers get a prize!)
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This is terribly crass of me, I know, but I'd love to win a free iPod Touch or iPod Shuffle. All I have to do is get the most people to click through the link posted below, and if I'm one of the top 3 promoters, I win! I get all these readers here, so I figure I might as well use you for personal…
While I'm off at meetings, you could be voting to help me win Eric Hovind's iPod Touch. All you have to do is CLICK ON THIS LINK. Note that it has to be that link — it's got an imbedded code in it to let the tabulators know that the incoming click comes from me, PZ Myers, so that the Hovind crew…
Remember, I'm trying to win an iPod Touch from Eric Hovind. Click here to help me in my goal.
Your greedy, grasping host would really like to snatch an iPod Touch from Eric Hovind, so once again I'm reminding you to click on this link — each click counts as a vote for me. And oh, boy, is Eric Hovind's latest argument a winner: the current level of the Colorado River is several thousand feet…
Done for the day.
Say, does anyone watch those silly videos? They seem ridiculous but I don't think I should waste some of my lifetime watching these.
Since, you know, there is no eternal afterlife for any of us. Each second's precious!
Sorry, PZ. As much as I appreciate the irony, I don't want to get my browser all dirty. That kind of crap doesn't just rinse off.
Oh, the distasteful things I do for the sake of our overbearing overlord!
Isn't there a problem in boosting Hovind's traffic?
I'm just afraid that he's getting his money's worth out of this iPod.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/6mb592
Sure would be nice if we could see an ongoing tally of votes.
It's ok glen... As soon as the contest is done, he's losing all that traffic.
Right folks?!
How long does this stupid contest last? (I don't want to linger on the site long enough to find out for myself.) I've been clicking about 10x/day. Enough?
So evolution says "in the beginning there was nothing," and creationism says "in the beginning there was god."
See? There's complete agreement! Once you realize that "god" = "nothing."
Done, but the devil will erase all your clicks anyway.
looks like professional produced videos. At least compared to his father's crappy stuff.
He got some money at last. He rather should spend it into propper science education for himself.
I'm sorry, this is a little off topic but I just wanted to share. I just stumbled on the following link and I've been laughing so hard my sides hurt reading the comments about a new video game called "Faith fight."
http://digg.com/pc_games/Faith_Fighter_game_unites_religions_in_outrage
Per lots of religious mystics, Randomfactor is absolutely right. Since all things were created by god, god is "no thing," i.e. god is equivalent to no created thing. God's "being" is absolute, whereas the "being" of created things is contingent on that absolute being. (Insert your favorite made-up neoplatonic theory of emanations or whatever to get from one to the other.) So when a sensible person says "god does not exist" the mystefier can stroke his long white beard meaningfully and say, "Indeed, god does not exist in the sense that you or I exist...he's realer. So there. Nya-nya-nya."
Good way to have your cake of fancy while eating the cake of reality too.
PZ, I really am hoping that you win this iPod. Check out episode #2. Kind of wondering what you think. I am sure that this episode will bring to mind all kinds of colorful words that will make us all laugh and smile!
×3 <here> click.
As much as those folks lie, I can't think they'll come through with the 'pod for PZ, but I'll always have the picture in my mind of Hovind's face as he sees the results of his little competition. Priceless.
Is it me or does their logo look rather phallic? A bit limp, too.
My parody detector is failing. Is that the real Dino Boy @13?
Is it enough to put
into my crontab, so my computer will download the page to nowhere every morning while I'm on my tea break?
After you've clicked on that link you can wash away the impurities by signing the Pro-Test petition at:
www.raisingvoices.net
Well it worked for me!
(Gah. Need to put speech marks around that URL, on account of the "and" signs.)
@Russ Finley
I also like Operation Pedopriest :)
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/385299#
Matt Heath #17
It could well be. Just watch his new video: your parody detector will explode.
PZ has as much chance of getting an ipod from Hovind junior as he has of getting the $250,000 dollars for providing evidence of evolution that Hovind senior advertised for years but never paid out.
Clicked PZ, now click mine! :)
http://www.TheNewAtheist.com
Nothing + Time = Presto! A Perfectly Balance Universe!
Horseshit. I do this most every morning around three-thirty, four AM. Major REM period and, oh! the dreams!
My mother told me that every now and then my dreams could come true and she wouldn't lie to me. Why, there must be jillions of poor saps living in universes that I've dreamed. Universes that I made, not anyone else!
They were all real, I tell you. I could even smell them (just then the room begins to lighten . . .).
I'd love to help you out but can't resist slamming my head into my desk every time I click on that site. Worse, the pain medication isn't working like it used to. For the sake of my health, I'm going to have to resist your link.
I spend a few hours every day on Youtube, and that was the dumbest video I have ever seen. You are wasting your money Eric, seriously. Who am I kidding, it's not your money is it?
*in a somnolent monotone* Yes, oh wise one. As one of your ilk, I have done your bidding. *mindlessly bows to floor, then clicks on link*
I've done your deed, evil overlord, but I can't get over the suspicion the Hovind will cook the books.
I gotta give props to Eric Hovind. He's got a nice Mr. Wizard type thing going on. He isn't talking about the government watching you through your TV sets, he isn't talking about the devil flying spaceships, and he has nicely produced videos. I would consider him 10x the threat to science that his father was. Most people only recognize Kent Hovind as the pink jacket guy on your local Christian channel...Eric Hovind's videos could be corrupting tens or even hundreds of thousands of minds in evangelical schools around the country. If I was a first grader those videos would make sense to me.
PZ: You should end all your posts with a little note containing this reminder.
If Hovind is smart, and PZ wins, he'll spin it this way:
"A record number of atheists have been coming to this site, which proves that they are hungry to hear the truth. Because, you see, even atheists admit that evolution is a theory full of holes, and they are itching to hear what God has to say to them. This means that our ministry is succeeding... and that our message is being proclaimed to the unbelievers! It's just more proof that God is there, and that he answers prayers."
I hope he does. It'd be amusing.
You're very trusting, PZ. You assume Hovind is capable of honestly rewarding the winner if they don't like the results.
Don't forget to delete the cookie for multiple valid votes/day!
--
Martin
No. DO NOT DELETE COOKIES AND VOTE MORE THAN ONCE. That will give Hovind a great excuse to "polish" the results.
I clicked through and ended up with a blank white page, even after it completely finished loading. He may just remove your link.
" So evolution says "in the beginning there was nothing," and creationism says "in the beginning there was god."
See? There's complete agreement! Once you realize that "god" = "nothing." "
...which seems to fit the 'something cannot come from nothing' argument.
If god is something, then it is empirically falsifiable. And if it is something, it must come from somewhere and designed by something else, since 'something cannot come from nothing'.
Why is it every time I click through to that site I feel like I need a shower and a beer?
On the front page of the site it says:
Nothing + Time = Evolution
Talk about a straw man. Is there any intellectual honesty there at all? Has he done even the most basic leve of research to understand what evolution really is?
I'm torn between wondering if he's just an incredibly stupid person or an incredibly corrupt person who lies for Jesus.
Re: AJS
No, you need to add the --referer option to the curl command or PZ won't get any credit. You also need to enclose the target URL in single or double quotes, otherwise the ampersands in it will confuse the hell out of the shell executing the command.
So the way to go would be:
by your command master
If I click on the link, I do feel that I ought to watch the video, so PZ gets the IPod fair and square -- or loses it by skullduggery. If nothing else, it helps me understand their misconceptions. This video is another gem.
Aside from the fact that the Big Bang is not 'evolution' (yes, a petty little detail, I know), cosmologists do not believe -- or say -- that the universe came from "nothing." From what I understand, they either say that there was nothing that the universe "came from," invoke a mega-cycling universe, or argue that the concept of 'absolute nothing" is incoherent, and that a symmetrical, unstable, zero-energy state at the origin of our space-time would be empty of objects, but not "nothing."
And any one of these ideas makes more intuitive sense than a living, conscious, disembodied Person existing in no environment, shaped by no history, for no reasons. Sticking a Mind in at the beginning of everything is every bit as problematic as sticking a 40-piece orchestra in at the beginning of everything -- before there was time or space, of course. Well, it would have to be a very different kind of orchestra than the ones we're familiar with, wouldn't it? Just like God must be a very different kind of person than the ones we're familiar with. Disembodied, and outside of space/time, and not formed to fit environment.
But otherwise similar, and recognizable.
OT, but it just had to be shared: I didn't know that atheism was available in discount stores now. And to think I paid retail for mine!
I even went so far as to fast forward through the stupid thing. Sadly, I forgot to put on my earphones. Probably missed something that would have changed my life.
@Sastra, You got it! You are seeing it clear as day! Both views are religious aren't they. You can "Believe" that God did it, or you can "Believe" that it has always existed, or you can "Believe" that absolute nothing is incoherent, but that is the point! You have to "believe it".
Of course your right when you say that "the big bang is not part of 'evolution'" technically speaking, but now we have to define exactly what evolution is! Wait till Episode #4.
I think it's really him! We can has troll stomp?
I really, really, really, hope PZ gets his iPod. It's the only reason I can justify voluntarily clicking on the link to that awful, awful site more than once.
My stomach hurts, and I have a headache, but I'll do it for PZ!
Squids away!
Hovind--we've been there and done that so many times with the "belief" semantics--give it a rest.
The "simulation room" is SO COOL
nothing + time = everything
pure science
It would be perfectly fitting for you to win that fancy gadget, then empty it of tripe and nonsense, and fill it back up again with the:
"Pharyngula Deluxe Playlist",
... just what would such a playlist contain?
And then you could re-distribute it to one of your loyal blog-clickers maybe via a contest?
Of course, we all know they're not going to give you the stupid thing, so, poo.
Both views are religious aren't they. You can "Believe" that God did it, or you can "Believe" that it has always existed, or you can "Believe" that absolute nothing is incoherent, but that is the point! You have to "believe it".
Is your belief in god provisional? If not, then you're conflating two distinct ideas under "belief." Beliefs based on scientific evidence are held provisionally. They can change given new evidence. Not so with religious beliefs.
Are you serious?
You've just been corrected on your definition of cosmology and you still think you can correctly define evolution?
I can't say I'm surprised, though, since you just brushed aside the correction as 'technically speaking' (code for: I'm still right in my mind).
Talking proof that creationist arrogance is hereditary.
Hey kids, while we're voting on pointless things, how's abouts y'alls mosey on over to the Des Moines Register's site and set these newspaper jerks straight on gay marriage?
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090427/NEWS/90426009
Sadly, "no" is winning by a wide margin right now. I trust the Pharyngulite Hordes to fix this in short order.
Will Von Wizzlepig #50:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sEIiWKSzJA
*voted yes*
So, if that was mr Hovind himself commenting.... I'm guessing you'll not get that ipod PZ :(
Ugh, i even watched some of that rubbish. That HAS to be lying for jebus, you can't be that stupid/dellusional surely?
creationism: Take some infinite complexity from nowhere cuz we say so, make it conscious. Then, BOOM! there's existance.
Hope you get an ipod PZ, but I'm curious as to whether you bought a new car yet!
Oh, YOU get to define what evolution is? How about you start by reading a book or two about what evolution is? Since the front page of your website tells us that evolution = nothing + time we already know that you have a bit of a problem providing an honest definition of evolution.
No car yet. We're going shopping this weekend, I think -- I suspect my wife will soon get tired of shuttling me back and forth to the airport.
Ah thanks, I had forgotten.
A-clicking I will go...
Eric, you actually helped me define "asshat."
The asshat formula:
High Production Value + Vapid, Arrogant Content= Asshat.
On the other hand, suffering through this tripe isn't pleasant. And I'll bet that they'd weigh an iPod as insignificant in value against evangelizing to hundreds...
Happy car hunting. If you need some advice from an insider let me know!
Thanks, PZ (and thanks to all my fellow Pharyngulites)!
After PZ so graciously linked to my blog entry on the ICR-THECB lawsuit, we flooded the ICR with hits to their website, including their insane press release (written by the same guy who authored their laughable complaint).
Well, it looks like the ICR sat up and took notice of the Pharyngulite hordes and what we had to say -- their press release touting their lawsuit has now disappeared down the memory hole, a la Uncommon Descent.
It's a modest victory, but it shows that even the creationists know when they look like fools. And it's all thanks to you guys.
I think this Hovind's Ipod for PZ campaign is in all honesty quite pathetic. It is good for laughs and shit and nothing more. To save this from being all negative, at least I can say I find Hovind's stupidity quite amusing and easy to shoot down.
@ Lotharloo #64,
I think you are missing the point. It's stupid, silly and that's what makes it funny. It's like a great office gag. Besides, can you imagine how annoyed Hovind would be if PZ wins the ipod?
I will admit that I'm immature enough to love office pranks and gags. The more the merrier and the bigger the better. The bigger the target the more enjoyable. You should ask my boss about the annoyatron in his printer for 2 weeks.
Too bad you can't just chuckle about it like the rest of us.
Set up Firefox with a little iOpus macro that goes to the site each day, and then gets the hell out before I have to look at any of the drivel.
Hope it's working - though confidence is low that the buggers will cough up.
I think we need a bit of research done on exactly what will count, and what won't. The site suggested that only 'unique' links would be counted. Does that definitely mean that one IP * 1 day = 1 count?
PZ, do you really want an ipod full of creationist videos..?
What the hell. I'm in. I hope you win it!
Clicked again. Hope ya win! And I hope it fucking kills Hovind to have to send you something. I wouldn't be surprised if he goes back on his word, though. You are after all, a dirty evolutionist/atheist, which of course, makes you subhuman. ;)
Hmmm. If the loonies give the iPod full of videos to PZ, are they in any legal sense giving him the videos, and any rights to the videos? I mean, if he chops up the content, neatly refutes or relentlessly mocks every bit of video, and posts it all onto YouTube, can they squawk about copyright violation?
Eric Hovind is definitely his father's son. The evil is strong in them.
I had to laugh at the bit about evolutionists being "forced to believe". The Hovinds haven't a clue about reality, but they are good at manipulating those who trust them.
As I've said elsewhere on this blog, there is still mostly nothing. On an astronomical scale, the universe is practically only empty space--Eric should have noticed that while gathering up his astronomy factoids. On an microscopic scale, each atom is empty of all but a few flecks.
Which has nothing to do with evolution.
A charming video delightfully targeted to misinform the youth in a most pleasant way.
Eric Hovind #45 wrote:
No, both views are not "religious," because the scientists are not relying on their "intuitions" and holding their views as faith. There are several rigorously formed competing theories which make predictions, and which are, at least in theory, capable of being falsified. Their "belief" is provisional, and therefore not similar to religious faith. Early cosmology is also an area where our ordinary, everyday "intuitions" are not going to be reliable.
Theories on the Big Bang are not scientific because they discuss origins: they are scientific because of the way they discuss origins.
If you want to bring God into science as an explanation which stands up against other, science-based explanations, you're going to have to formulate it in a way which makes predictions -- and then do the experiments. If, on the other hand, it is all for you a matter of "belief" -- with no work involved -- then don't stand it up, head to head, against scientific theories. You will lose.
Since these are supposed to be science videos aimed at children (at least, this is what it looks like), you ought to be much more careful about these "technical" details -- like using terms properly. If you misuse the term when it is introduced, you're going to have to go out of your way to fix it, and it's unlikely to stick as well as the first one.
"Of course your right when you say that "the big bang is not part of 'evolution'" technically speaking,"
No you silly sod 'not...technically speaking' just not.
The actual theory of evolution by natural selection (and a few extra more recent bits) is very much,
Something + time = evolution.
As long as the something is replicating (but not perfectly) and shows heritability.
You seem to be going down the Ray Comfort line with you nothing idea. Just like him it makes you seem dishonest because it is a poor reflection of what is actually theorised about the origins of the universe.
So how about you break with family tradition, leave aside the strawmen and instead give us some evidence.
The video in the link hurts my brain!
Much Ado About Nothing. I just spent some time trying to calculate the average amount of space in the universe occupied by sub-atomic particles. There's less than one atom per cubic meter, over all, with hydrogen predominating, and a proton is only a bit of the volume of an atom ... . I'm giving it up for now, but I'm ball-parking it: Much less than one-million-millionth of the volume of the universe is truly occupied. The place is pretty much empty nothingness, and the Hovinds aren't adding a damn thing to it.
The Hovinds and their ilk tend to use the word "evolution" to include all modes, models and theories of Godless development, whether the origin of the universe, the origin of life or the origin of species. Their key meaning is Godless. Of course, if you back them into a corner, they shift their meaning and start whining.
From the look of that site, they can afford to shell out a few iPods. Phew! They might lack content, but they're piling on the flair.
This is the first day the video appeared for me. I'm not sure if the other clicks counted. Now that the video works, I have a worse problem. TEH STUPID! IT BURNS!!
Not satisfied with denying all of biology to pretend evolution doesn't happen, they're now going to refute all of cosmology.
PLEASE tell me we don't have to watch the video every day. If so, count me out, sorry. I'll sacrifice a lot for the cause, but I learned back when I was playing COC that there's only so many times you can watch crazy before yo go crazy.
I am waiting for "the great flood" video as I am sure it will be a monumental pile of stupidity.
Those get funnier every time I watch one!
Clicked the link again.
Actually watched the video too. Nicely done, cool CGI. Pretty convincing until you realize you have your speakers on mute, then it turns into the standard go to crap.
Five imaginary dollars says that PZ won't be getting the iPod.
I get the funny feeling that they wouldn't want to announce that the winner is someone who opposes them.
So what exactly is a "perfectly balanced universe"? Is that like a perfectly balanced equation?
Also, I feel sorry for that poor Mac. Apple is too good to be associated with this degree of horse-shit. What did the poor thing ever do to deserve it?
Somebody arm this man with a botnet and some scripts.
Eric Hovind #45
We can sometimes distinguish between ideas that are justified by evidence and ideas that aren't. We can also admit that some things are unknown. If you believe without asking for evidence, what stops you accumulating incorrect beliefs?By the way, I think you used a strawman argument in your video: you assumed that the universe "began" (presupposing a "time" outside of spacetime without any evidence) by an act of conscious creation (again without any evidence) and then ridiculed the idea of your assumed creation taking place without a creator. It didn't seem to me to be a very effective argument.
LOL, I click every day. I would love to see Hovind send you an iPod.
I don't watch the videos though. I can't stand creationist stupidity.
I actually liked the video. Good comedy.
@ Josh, #40
Thanks for that. (I spotted the speech marks thing straight away, but wouldn't have got the referrer thing.) It's in my crontab now.
@ J, #67
Who cares that it's full of creovids? They can be got rid of easily enough.
It looks as though they have blocked clicks through from Pharyngula. I have tried a few times over the last few days, from two diffent computers, and each time the time taken to open the page drops to a snail's pace before finally hanging with 1 item remaining to load.
One thing that does amaze me is how closed minded so many of these remarks are. i ALWAYS ask myself... "why do i believe what i believe." I remember a man telling me he was an Atheist.. i said cool! How many years did you study the Bible and other religeous documents before forming "YOUR" thesis? to my amazment he said he had NEVEr read anything so foolish, now would he? Imagine if that man needed a brain tumor removed but had NEVER heard that REAL DOCTORS can do that surgery with great success... the whole DR thing comes thru KNOWLEDGE. So as so many of you bias AGAINST these videos, is it because YOU have done your homework and have YOUR opinion??? or because you once new a man who made you mad and he was a religeous guy??? so now your mad at God? do ANY of you actually research before you blog??? oj just spew hatred about a topic for which you have ZERO insight from personal study?
Easily one of the dumbest comments today, and you have some serious competition.
I'm willing to bet that a large portion of the people you are referring to know the bible better than many fo the Christians you know.
I have to ask, before forming this opinion of people here did you read through all the comment threads to see where we have discussed how any why we hold our personal opinions? Or are you just making assumptions like the ones you are accusing us of?
And seriously. What is with all the random capitalization? If you had read enough of the comments here you'd surely know that is a sign of a raging wingnut.
Tell me what books on Buddhism and Islam and atheism and Native America shamanism have you read? How long have you studied every other world religion before you came to your belief?
so now your mad at God?
Well, no, not really, since there's no such thing, no point getting mad at a non-existant entity.
What a waste of 'getting mad' that would be.
I'm going to use mine on people who never bothered to learn how apostrophes work.
O1wom,
Err, what exactly would you like to know about my "mad at God"? Hopefully, it didn't cause any trouble...
@Carole (#91):
You need to wave this in front of such people.