pharyngula

The Discovery Institute has been gearing up to pollute classrooms across the country with a new 'textbook' called Explore Evolution, which is to replace their old propaganda of choice, Of Pandas and People (which had its sorry creationist origins exposed in a little trial in Dover, Pennsylvania).…

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Unbelievable—John McCain runs away and begs for the imminent presidential debate to be delayed, citing the need to address the financial crisis, as if he actually matters and has a plan other than to do whatever the Bush administration orders. I smell fear. I was sent a great suggestion: if McCain…

We can still squash it. An article about the Texas science standards has this question on the side: What do you think the appropriate lesson should be in public schools? Evolution only (50%) Evolution, pointing out weaknesses in theory (5%) Evolution and creationism (32%) Creationism only (13%)…

Good ol' UK-based Nature has a special section dedicated to the US election. I'm not surprised — the whole world has a stake in this one, and I sure hope we don't disappoint them, for our sake and theirs. Both presidential candidates were asked their opinion on various issues of science policy, and…

I'm so used to seeing nothing but bad news, it's surprising to see a community actually making a substantial investment in its educational infrastructure. We're adding a $40+ million planetarium to the downtown library. That's terrific! It also adds a useful perspective. Remember how appalled we…

Think of me as bringing back the simple joys of yesteryear.

I know I have a few readers from Asia who might be interested in this: a new freethought site established specifically for all the brilliant skeptics in India, Nirmukta. The rest of the world might enjoy it, too.

Here's an interesting strategy for raising money for research: Marc van Roosmalen is asking for internet donations to fund his work on Amazon primates. He's not trying to raise much — his goal is $31,000 — and it's a good cause. There's also a prize! He'll name a newly discovered monkey after the…

I linked to that interview with Adnan Oktar in Spiegel Online the other day, but I linked to the original German text — I should have known that Spiegel has its own English edition with a complete translation.

You can learn to love creationism! It's just like green eggs and ham, except for the brain rot!

Roger Ebert has revealed the purpose behind the peculiar creationist Q&A he posted the other day. I had suggested it was either poorly done satire or his site had been hacked. Ebert has now confessed that it was poorly done satire. He didn't say it was poorly done, of course. He says he was…

Last week, I mentioned that this crazy creationist, Bill Lucas, was going to be speaking at Virginia Tech. Now we have a report on the talk. Guess what? He was crazy!

It sounds like Christopher Hitchens got to demolish another religious figure yesterday. I guess it's a good thing we've got a bumper crop of these guys, or I'd worry that there wasn't going to be any left for the rest of us.

We have a new euphemism and a potential new regulation from the Bush administration: "provider conscience rights". What this is about is providing religious doctors with loopholes so that they can avoid responsibility for treating patients with the best possible care — so they can use religious…

You can tell a lot about people from signs. For instance, the atheists at the University of Alberta went to extra effort and expense to make a nice canvas banner that they could reuse at their events — so some helpful Christians decided to decorate it. They're going to have to make a new sign, but…

There's goofy stuff coming out of the lunatics following Ian Paisley—the chair of the Education Committee is a creationist, apparently, that wacky party is trying to get creationism taught in the schools, claiming "it can stand scientific scrutiny", and what's this about trying to label the Giant's…

This weekend, I'm going to be speaking at the Atheist Alliance International Convention, along with a team of secular luminaries. I'll be spending most of my time on a big boat, the Queen Mary, in Long Beach, but I will be creeping out to foment revolution at Libros Revolución on Friday, 26…

Sixty years ago, the UN composed a document setting out a Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It lists a set of basic principles, such as that everyone should be treated equally, torture and slavery are forbidden, and everyone has the right to life, liberty and security. It's a lovely set of…

Martin Wagner has been harassed for some time by a particularly looney theist, a fellow who wrote an astonishingly stupid anti-atheist essay, got ripped on a blog for it, and has ever since whined pathetically at the injustice of being criticized and insulted, and has basically made it his task to…

Mr Picknell, at jackaroni1229@yahoo.com, had a little question for me. From: jackaroni1229@yahoo.com Subject: Eye for Eye Date: September 22, 2008 5:27:42 PM CDT To: pzmyers@gmail.com Delivered-To: pzmyers@gmail.com Received: by 10.140.171.8 with SMTP id t8cs330611rve; Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:27:46 -…

There is a very peculiar article at Roger Ebert's movie review site. It may not last long, so I've put a copy below the fold. It's a straight-faced recitation of creationist claims, all nonsensical, all typical, presented as if they were Ebert's opinion. It could be an exercise in Poe's Law, I…

Adnan Oktar/Harun Yahya has been interviewed in Spiegel Online (that's in German; you might want to read this short paraphrase in English). He says a number of, umm, interesting things. He dislikes Intelligent Design intensely, and sees it as a dishonest form of creationism. The Islamic…

Greg Laden is trying to start a PZ Myers vs. Chuck Norris joke meme, and I'm sorry, all the entries so far are feeble and pathetic. I think this is a case where the black-and-white simplifications of a creationist mind do a far better job of generating catch-phrases than we etiolated intellectual…

For the last week, I've been getting multiple, daily requests to crash this poll: Do you think Sarah Palin is qualified to serve as Vice President of the United States? We already did it. Other groups have also been crashing it, and it's also been hacked, last I heard it had votes in the millions,…

It's not on my list of required reading, but if you tried to get a copy of the latest issue of Gospel Today at your local Southern Baptist bookstore, you might have a little difficulty: it's been yanked from circulation. The reason: it features a cover story on female pastors. "They basically…

How is this for an intro? The "magnificent P-Zed Myers," as he's known by Richard Dawkins, is a fearless heathen. The tagline of his blog Pharyngula reads: "Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal." He's publicly desecrated the Eucharist and been chastised…

Many of you already know that Slacktivist has been doing a detailed deconstruction of the first book of the Left Behind series. He has posted a long, painful, entertaining analysis of a few pages in order every Friday for over four years: it's been like gawking at a major train wreck, since the…

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The right wing media usually makes the most egregiously false claims about science, but I have to confess…on many science subjects, the lefty media is about as bad. I cringe when I see anything about the autism scares in print from either side, and Robert Kennedy Jr's credibility went poof for me…