Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
It's nothing personal, but we're getting a little worried about the economic competition you've been delivering lately, so we need to even the playing field a little. A couple of Christian evangelical real estate billionaires have created a Noah's Ark tourist attraction in Hong Kong. Pretty soon…
You've all heard of the Drake Equation, a little exercise in rough estimation which attempts to approximate the number of intelligent, technological species in our galaxy. Here it is, if you haven't:
N=R* x fp x ne x fl x fi x fc x L
R* is the average rate of star formation per year in our galaxy…
A majority (60%) of Australians think same-sex marriage is just fine. The story has an associated poll, though, and the results are tipped just a little bit the other way. What's wrong here? Fix it!
Are you in favour of same-sex marriage in Australia?
Yes
44%
No
55%
We might have some opposition…
Ah, poor Wisconsin…our neighboring state to the east, where the people are frail and frightened, and unable to cope with the rigors of reality. (That ought to get a few of them fired up, don't you think?)
There is a little dustup going on in the town of West Bend, Wisconsin. The local bluenoses…
A short while ago, the blogosphere was irate over the outing of the identity of a pseudonymous blogger, Publius. The outing followed the usual pattern: pseudonymous blogger annoys right-winger who can't cope, right-winger lashes out by revealing the name behind the pseudonym (as if that somehow…
I think she's dropping a hint about paternal roles.
Read an online debate between Troy Newman, stooge from Operation Rescue, and Cristina Page, a legitimate advocate for reproductive rights, and then vote on who made the best case. Newman made the same hypocritical arguments the anti-abortionists always make, so I know where my vote went. But of…
I thought I knew of all the institutions of higher learning in my neighborhood, but I seem to have missed one: The University Of Metaphysical Sciences, located in the small town of Kandiyohi, Minnesota. I even know exactly where that is — it's just outside of Willmar, where my wife works every day…
The endless thread continues. Our creationist cretins in the old thread are still jabbering away, making progressively less sense as time goes by, and various sub-themes continue to branch from it, but I can't keep track of it all. Talk about whatever you want here.
One subject I might suggest is…
When I was growing up, I had no introduction to evolutionary theory. Sure, I assumed it was true, and I went through the usual long phase of dinosaur fandom, but I was never taught anything at all about evolution throughout my grade school education, and what little I did know was largely stamp-…
This is going too far. As you probably know, Apple has run a long series of ads where they personify computers: the Mac is the young, cool, hip dude, while the PC is the stodgy old loser. It has been a very successful campaign, and various other companies have tried to copy it or defuse it. But…
How will we ever recover from this discovery of a profound inconsistency in evolutionary theory?
I blame whoever gave Will Farrell his Ph.D. in Science.
I'm warning you. It's a disaster waiting to build: when the newspapers start reporting creationist versions of stories without questioning them, without providing explanations of the fallacies, and without even bringing in authoritative scientific voices to knock their claims down, all you do is…
In an awesome development, I have been chatting with Mr. Deity (which, by the way, makes me officially a prophet. I'm working on letting my beard grow long now), and he has offered to answer almost any questions you might have. What would you ask an omniscient, omnipotent being? Leave your…
Ray has always been good for hours of hilarity — he writes amazingly stupid stuff. But now Ray has competition: Eric Hovind has a blog! It's not quite as insane as Ray's, but it does have more evil and stupidity.
For example, Eric likes a poem that he quotes — it's a crude racist ditty that, I'm…
Sunday morning at 9am Central time, Atheists Talk radio will feature Massimo Pigliucci, talking about atheism, philosophy, and politics. Those are three subjects that ought to get some arguments going!
Regular readers here may be familiar with WhoIsYourCreator, a creationist who blows through here and The Panda's Thumb now and then to dump a load of creationist cut-and-paste in the comments. WhoIsYourCreator is actually Julie Haberle, a deranged creationist whose chief accomplishment to date has…
This one is already going our way — and when you see the question, you'll understand why — but if you would like to give it a little boost, please do.
Who makes for funnier comedians, atheists or believers?
Atheists -- To fully appreciate the absurdity of life you have to accept the absurdity of a…
August Berkshire, prominent Minnesota atheist, recently awarded Minnesota Humanist of the Year by the Humanists of Minnesota, and long-time leader and organizer of the state's atheist community, is on tour right now through the southwest and midwest. I'm belatedly making his schedule available — he…
Some of you may have noticed that we got hit hard by a Turkish spammer last night: several hundred comments, mostly saying the same thing, all linking back to a farm of Turkish spam sites. It's extremely annoying, and I'm in the process of cleaning it all up. Normally that wouldn't take long at all…
Maybe. I see a bit more ahistorical melodrama in the trailer for Creation than I like…but it is a movie, after, even if it is about Charles Darwin.
I like that it puts the idea that Darwin killed god front and center, but we'll have to see if it waffles to make an accommodating ending.
The…
I got a very annoying announcement on our university listserv today. Among the usual community and campus events, it says:
Please mark your calendars: Don Bierle, PhD in Biology, polar explorer, and former skeptic, shares FaithSearch Discovery at Morris Area High School Sunday, September 27, 6:30…
It wasn't that long ago that it was illegal in many states for black people to marry white people — this was the same kind of sentiment promoted by people who are defending marriage from gays nowadays, and I hope it will someday soon look as unbelievable as those old laws. Old laws? They were only…
A doctor in Nebraska, Dr. Leroy Carhart, has stepped forward and said he will train his staff to take over the important role lost when George Tiller was murdered. That's courage, and I applaud what he is doing. I hope more doctors take on this essential task.
That's the good news. The bad news?…
You can tell when the anti-intellectuals are in charge: they start throwing away investments in knowledge that took generations to build, all in the name of short-term economy. The latest instance: the state of Wyoming wants to shut down the University of Wyoming Geological Museum. It's already…
Of course, as everyone knows, all flies are geneticists and evolutionists, which kind of deflates the joke.
Sepia pharaonis
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
Look here: Britain's National Health Service threw away £12 million on homeopathic treatments. It's a complete waste; millions were spent on teeny-tiny bottles of 'special' water that could have been had for pennies from the local water tap.
But hah! America is #1! We spent $2.5 billion on remedies…