I don't know who I am anymore. I was sent this summary of one of my talks in California, and apparently I'm an evil fool. Then I got this analysis of my influence, and apparently I'm honest and outspoken.
I get these wildly disparate descriptions of myself all the time. The net effect: I can't believe anything anymore. This must be why I'm an atheist!
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What happens when an end-of-times pastor meets a CNN bobble-head? One thing is for certain both science and rationality will be chucked out the window. John Hagee, head of a Texas mega-church had some truly crazy things to say on Glenn Beck's Friday evening show (October 12, 2007). You can get the…
Sometimes they sucker me. I thought James was writing a nice letter, at first.
I found your site to be entertaining. I must say after reading the comments from your site I can see where the problem really is in this country. The fools follow the leaders of silly nonsense.
See? It sort of sounds…
A newspaper editor sent me this bizarre little letter. Apparently, the writer, a Mr Nick Lally, was spamming it all over the place, and his copy was also sent to addresses at these domains (actual email addresses stripped to protect the already put-upon):
@ncnnow.com, @krcb.org, @krcb.org, @…
The infamous anti-gay legislator from Oklahoma, Sally Kern, was interviewed by the Oklahoma Daily. The story has some fine bon mots, like her definition of evolution:
Kern defined evolution to me as "the process of wanting to create something or have something be perfect. Get rid of that which is…
Anti-Christian Leader? lol, they really know how to pick 'em. Tell us what to do Exalted One, mine anti-Christian inklings are like a ship lost at sea without a lighthouse to guide me.
Send me 10% of your income right now!
On that first link:
Nice equivocation on 'followers': we who follow the blog are implied to be akin to disciples. :)
Fair enough summary.
When did zebrafish become cephalopods? ;)
Research fail.
All-in-all, as fair as you could get — from someone who characterises PZ as an "Anti-Christian Leader". and "Birdstrike" got PZ's name right!
The comments are amusing, if predictable. Kudos to "BathTub", who is in the know.
I just wonder who this 'PZ Meyers" is the avengelism blog mentions.
Before inviting students off-campus for beer, an apparent tradition of his...
You are truly the great corrupter! Taking those impressionable young people out to drink. If only Carrie Nation were around.
I'm more confused PZ, by one of the comments in that first link:
Must be a pretty old dude as well PZ, with all the travelling that must have occurred--sure you're not an evil version of Indiana Jones?
The first link seems to have been pharyngulated.
Such is the power of the Pharynguloids.
Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man's soul and faith...
Birdstrike? Bird-brain is more like it. But at least s/he got the spelling of Myers correct.
* Applause.
Sorry, my bad, maybe just loading a bit sluggishly...
Once more confusing atheist cyberpistols with christian real guns, that guy would get along well with our own Barney Zwartz, methinks.
And to anyone who complained on the "Atheist Convention" thread PZ was guilty of quote-mining, for a good example thereof see what this guy does.
Why would the author choose a pseudonym which means they get sucked into jet engines and cause damage? Freudian, perhaps?
What is this, a religion?!? You've changed, you used to be all about the blasphemy...
Freedom blasphemy isn't free!
Oh great, when PZ gets back to Morris, he will be riding a tank and holding a general's rank.
Pleased to meet you
I don't need to guess your name
Hm, maybe in the science fields, but I do rather think the humanities has something to say on that.
And while I lack figures, I suspect that philosophers are quite low on the belief scale. I'm not denying some of the worst wacko theists are into philosophy, but it does have a fair bit to say about "who we are," and especially about what we can know (not obscure magic, however popular it may be).
However, biology among the sciences really applies physics and evolution to humans, and finds them to be evolved animals whose "minds" are a matter of physiology. Good bye "free will" and other imaginations about magical "souls," etc.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Don't have an income "right now." I'm between paychecks. I'll have an income the moment the next paycheck hits my bank account, then no income until the next one hits. To be generous, I'll send PZ a tithe of everything I make in the next hour. Naturally, that's a bit fuzzy for "right now," but I'm trying to be generous here.
I've been reading the comments on those posts and I had no idea PZ was so influential
Mr Myers is exactly the same person who convinced Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Pol Pot, and others that the world should either believe like him or be destroyed.
I really ought to read all the comments before posting my brilliantly original and unique thoughts that nobody else could possibly have noticed and already posted.
I do love the tone of Auburn Journal piece, even inviting people out for a drink is implied to be a terrible thing. I don't drink but I know being asked out for a beer is a friendly thing and doesn't actually require me to drink alcohol. Assuming the post is the full and accurate description it purports to be, California seems a long way to travel for a 5 minute slide show and a beer. Quote mining is an art form, this is a whole seperate category, this is reality mining.
I totally just sent you a tithe!
Because I've made sweet FA all year. Enjoy it, in the same way you might enjoy Breathetastic™ Premium Canned Air!
A Pedant @18, nice!
+1 for self-deprecating, dry humour.
whoah... it's as if you're being called a Priest of Atheism. wait.. an Evangelist of Atheism ?
You spread the gospel that there's nothing "up" there ? that there's no man behind the curtain ?
The Choir Invisible is a figment ?
The Heavenly Host is out to lunch ?
Well, I won't be following you, un-Pastor Myers.
See, I don't go in for organized Un-Religion either !
:-)
Have you shown the Plates of Gold to three witnesses?
Oh, I don't know. "Birdstrike" brings to mind the thing birds do on my car, so it seems apropos.
Wow! In the unlikely event I am at Auburn and desire a heaping bowl full of ignorance, topped with a relish of wingnut crazy, I know who to contact!
And we're expected to respect such opposition? How fortunate they are that I'm a human secularist, bleeding heart Lib!
If I send the tithe, will you take me out for beer?
Really? I'm the first to point out that we nerds are not comfortable with being compared to religionists? At least we /know/ DnD isn't describing reality...
I didn't see any links to the source for this statement on the analysis article. Does anyone know more about it?
I am with Rutee, SHoD.
At least D&D will teach you how to use a contingency table.
Not on topic necessarily: I have been asked to sit on a panel (as an atheist) to discuss religion with Unitarians. After visiting the UU site, I still have not a clue what to expect. They could be a slippery bunch, not really tied to any particular ethos from my reading. Anyone clue me in to how UUs think about things?
The comments were just the best on the first article. Very entertaining. Especially all the old arguments that people have killed in the name of Atheism. That was a laugh.
Antiochus Epiphanes:
There are really two distinct sets of Unitarian groups.
One set is basically Christian, but very, very liberal.
The other set is like my father's group, whose Sunday meeting consists of diatribes against corporate greed, the war in Afghanistan, and cheap boxed wine. Sometimes, when they are about to quit and go get brunch, someone will say "Hey, we haven't had a prayer in a few weeks!" and they will all have a quick prayer.
I should note that my father, who was raised in a much stricter religion and who is now getting quite old, is slowly lapsing into more traditional theistic beliefs. But I don't see anyone else in the group following his lead.
I've always found the label "anti-christian" amusing. It's a little too much like physics. Do you have to speed two Christians up is a supercolider to produce an anti-Christian? Are we strange or are we charming? If I have a ratio of one Christian to one anti-christian, can I power a warp drive.
I also like how they said "Christian apologist Ray Comfort was tied to the word 'sleazy'." It makes it seem like PZ did it in around about way, and that PZ didn't come out and say directly that Comfort was sleazy. I guess Birdstrike let a Freudian slip go about a certain fantasy which includes the words 'Ray Comfort', 'tied' and 'sleazy'.
Pac-Devil
Oh. Is that strap across your shoulder attached to an assault rifle on your back?
Idiot Godwinned himself already.
Hitler was a Catholic and a creationist. His millions of followers were all good German Catholics and Lutherans.
Who convinced the Moslem suicide bombers to fly planes into the World Trade Center. They type who kill virtually every day in the ME?
Who convinced the Taliban to destroy Afghanistani society?
Who convinced the Holy Roman Empire to massacre the Cathars and launch multiple crusades?
Who convinced the Northern Irish to fight battles that lasted for decades and ended a whole 9 years ago.
Xianity has had barrels of blood on its hands for 2,000 years. In any accounting of dead bodies they are way, way ahead.
Mr Myers is exactly the same person who convinced...
Either that or PZ Myers is capable of being anywhere in time and space and convincing anyone to do anything. That would make him.....a god. Hmmmm, no one ever did figure out where in the hell that smart ass walking, talking snake in the Garden of Eden came from.....
Birdstrike should change his name to bird brain except this insults birds everywhere.
Yup, that's right. Most folks here didn't even go to kindergarden.
The commenters here are a bunch of cave dwelling troglodytes that get other people to type for them.
The stupid...
Your confusion confuses me.
I always thought you were an evil, outspoken, honest fool.
mmelliott01: Thanks.
I wonder what type of Unitarians these are. I have met one. He seems like a nice guy. I know that he is a Christian, but doesn't think that Christ was God. At least with fundies, one knows what one is getting into.
I suppose the conversation could be short if their set of beliefs is very loosely defined and my set is well defined, but restricted.
Beer first, maybe. Then, beer after.
It's all that "thrusting" in the spotlight that gets PZ in trouble. He's supposed to thrust in private.
I loved the huge font size for "Anti-Christian" -- that was a warning to the masses that PZ, the thruster and destroyer, had been let into the city. Poor Ray Comfort has been dissed in public, and words with negative connotations have been tied to Christians in general. And now a bunch of christians are walking around with all these heavy words tied to them. They sound like a walking garbage can.
Besides that, our kind of atheist is specifically against brainwashing, against the use of violent political force, against dogma, anti-authoritarian, for freethinking, for human rights equality, for public education, strongly pro-science, and freedom-loving, none of which can be said for Mao, Stalin, or Pol Pot, all of whom resemble religious zealots far more than Pharyngulites.
Alexa.com is a company that collects information on internet traffic.
I just visited their site. There didn't seem to be any such metric as "education level of users." Their data is collected anonymously. There also doesn't appear to be any such way for Alexa.com to collect such information.
You have to have an Alexa tool bar to show up in their statistics IIRC.
Not sure what is going on but most likely a xian just lied again. It's not like they don't lie all the time as a matter of routine.
I'm glad PZ is the most militant atheist in America. That is a standard up to which I may live.
It's really too bad "militant" no longer means, "affecting a military nature." I prefer words to have punch, to carry actual meaning. Instead, we have "militant atheists" who are actually peaceful. We have "loving Christians" who love only other Christians, and then only if the other Christians are not gay.
Instead, we get this watered-down rhetoric disguised as discourse, or sometimes confused with analysis.
Oh, and if all y'all don't agree with every last word in the Atheist Bible, how dare you call yourselves fundamentalist atheists?
Seriously. Most of you are apostates. Some of you say that Darwin was not 100% correct in all details. Some of you actually know and like Christians, for Dobbs' sake! Most of you are not being militant enough. And, you BAR-B-Q your babies over hickory instead of mesquite.
Apostates.
I'm not sure what the Alexa comment is about, but the site seems to be by an atheist. He's not a Christian liar.
Dr. Myers,
you can have *all* my money, after the rapture. oh, and will you take care of my dogs?
Thanks. I just looked there too and saw a little stat box under the "Audience" tab for "scienceblogs.com" which says with "high" confidence that people with no college education are "under-represented" at scienceblogs.com. I can't get it to show me the results for Pharyngula alone, though.
Oh, that figures.
Not sure if this is quite correct. No belief in gods seems to correlate more with education, accomplishment, and intelligence. It is also high in the humanities.
So xians tend to be stupid, ignorant, and losers. On average, we are talking about statistics not individuals. So what else is new?
Even so, according to the survey most people quote, 60% of all biologists and physicists have some sort of belief in gods.
Not too sure how Alexa works anymore. Their toolbar is considered spyware or malware by many people and isn't popular for that reason any more.
I used to have the toolbar. I used to pay minor attention to Alexa. Neither has been true for years.
Their statistics might be skewed by who actually takes their free spyware and voluntarily sticks it on their computer.
What a ridiculous article! It did make me laugh though and brighten my morning. I must say calling Pat Robertson an "explosion of stupid" is one of the best things I have heard in awhile! Thank you for making my day at a work a little brighter and better PZ Myers!
Antiochus ~ A couple of old UU jokes, just in case you don't know 'em.
What do you get when you cross a UU with a KKKer? Someone who burns a question mark on your lawn.
What do you get when you cross a UU with a jehovah's witness? Someone who comes to your door but has no idea why.
My local set of UUs seem to be a loose jumble of secular jews, faitheists, and newage woomeisters. So yeah, loosely defined is pretty much guaranteed.
I had a good experience with the UUs.
As a kid, something very disturbing happened.
The older brothers of my cohort were drafted and sent overseas. Some of them came back in boxes. Vietnam.
We were Americans and all but immortal. This wasn't supposed to happen to us.
The antiwar group was housed in the basement of a large Unitarian church. Their phone had a sticker on it, "This phone is tapped by the FBI, don't say anything you wouldn't say to an FBI agent."
Wasn't a good time but at least that war ended but not until 55,000 Americans had been killed to accomplish nothing. Some of whom I knew.
Having seen video of PZ Myers giving presentations, it seems to me that calling him a "militant atheist" is like calling Ruth Westheimer a "militant sex educator".
Antiochus Epiphanes:
If the UU congregation who invited you is anything like mine, there will be a number of atheists and agnostics in it. You should be received with interest and curiosity, not hostility. I have given several talks to my congregation in which I have made clear my disbelief in God and the supernatural. These beliefs have always been respected. Topics have included evolution, doubt and the spiritual beliefs of Pete Seeger. I will be speaking in 2 weeks on the spiritual dimensions of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture.
Have fun, I think you will enjoy it!
something tells me that this doesn't quite mean what it looks like. I very much doubt PZ is suddenly advocating random acts of assholery towards religious people. I bet this was about no longer showing respect for people's silly, stupid, and even harmful beliefs.
Naked Bunny - Don't forget Julia Child, the Militant ButteristTM.
Jadehawk - Squee! Let me be the first to volunteer to commit random acts of assholery towards religious people. I solemnly swear I will show no respect for their silly, stupid and harmful beliefs.
/mischief managed.
It's not so much study as worship.
The review over at alexa.com makes a point that should give an idea on their reliability:
* Another Corporate sponsored fake Science site
* by truthspeaks
* Sep 22, 2009
The main sponsors of this are American Chemistry and Merck. Fake science and half truths.
heeheeheeheehee
All skience people are just shills for big pharma...didn't you know.../snark
T. Bruce McNeely:
I'm so confused now.
What are the units of spiritual dimensions?
John, they are anything that makes you feel comfortable. Maybe sunsets or bunnies or kittens. Don't expect any two people to use the same measurement units or to produce reproducible results if they do.
For example, "That was a six kitten hug, right there. Or maybe two boxes of dark chocolate."
Ah, OK.
But I wonder, is it classical or quantum spirituality¹?
Truly, this seems a fascinating topic, probably worthy of rigorous and erudite exposition. :)
--
¹ 2.718 kittens or 1.618 boxes of chocolates?
Best I can tell, Vince at the second link really shouldn't have used Alexa's data on the expired 'pharyngula.org' site to support any argument he was making.
There's nothing there but a page of some old site code. Comparing the characteristics of the one or two people a day (I'm guessing, since they don't exactly say) with Alexa's average stats for the whole internet is totally meaningless.
Sounds a bit like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance