pharyngula

God's money is no good. Kevin Russell found out it's not easy trying to cash a check from God. The 21-year-old man was arrested Monday after he tried to cash a check for $50,000 at the Chase Bank in Hobart that was signed "King Savior, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Servant," Hobart police Detective…

David Hone reminds me that I've been remiss in mentioning this new and very useful website, Ask a Biologist. The idea is so simple, you'll wonder why there aren't many more like it—it's a kind of central clearinghouse where young people can ask questions about biology and get answers from real…

Hey, you mean America isn't the sole refuge of pious war-mongers? I was sent this remarkable quote from Cardinal Meisner of Köln: Einem Gott lobenden Soldaten kann man guten Gewissens Verantwortung über Leben und Tod anderer übertragen, weil sie bei ihm gleichsam von der Heiligkeit Gottes…

Whoa, people…I expected I'd be adding 10 or 20 new blogs to the blogroll with my open enrollment day, not 125. I've added them all (and I've also made it easier to find the complete listing with a link on the sidebar), but right now I feel a bit bloated, like a tick who was aiming for a tasty…

A new movie about Darwin is in the works— Jeremy Thomas is set to produce Annie's Box about Charles Darwin, and hiring John Collee to write and directed by Jon Amiel. The film will be based on a biography of Darwin by Randall Keynes, the great-great grandson of the Victorian scientist. Variety…

Well, not really—but the UK government will tolerate and support research into human-animal hybrids. No one is interested in raising a half-pig/half-man creature to adulthood, but instead this work is all about understanding basic mechanisms of development and human disease. Scientists want to…

Many people have noticed the ad for the ghastly Jesus documentary at the top of the pages here. I'm not thrilled, as you might guess—I think this is almost certainly a load of pseudoscientific fluff. Since it is so prominently promenaded across the pages, I'm now feeling obligated to watch the…

Because cell phones are godless, evil tools of Satan and the secular world. It makes me want to run out and buy 3 or 4. (via Improbable Research)

Since the blogroll amnesty day earlier this month was such a flop, I thought I'd reframe it. Today is Blogroll Open Enrollment day! What that means is that this is your opportunity to get onto the Pharyngula blogroll, after you jump through some hoops. There are a few absolute requirements. For…

You are going to have to make a choice about tonight's educational experience. You could come out to the Common Cup Coffeehouse in Morris, Minnesota at 6:00 to attend our Cafe Scientifique, in which Arne Kildegaard will make the electricity industry and current renewable energy policy fascinating,…

State senatory Raymond Finney of Tennessee (a retired physician—hey, we've been making Orac squirm uncomfortably a lot lately) has just filed a resolution that asks a few questions. Actually, he's demanding that the Tennessee Department of Education answer these questions within a year or … well, I…

Here I've been thinking of getting a nice tattoo (something discreet and subtle, like an octopus someplace you'll never see it), and then I learn that for the sake of my health, I better not. After all, some good Christian doctor might refuse to help me when I'm sick. Dr Gary Merrill, who proudly…

At least, that's how Andy Schlafly characterizes Conservapedia in a New Scientist article. I called it "shallow and useless or downright wrong," if you're interested in an alternative position on it. Josh Rosenau wasn't any more charitable. They are re-defining their own truth and seem to think…

This fellow Mike up around Toronto asked me for assistance a while back—he was planning to attend the Bible Skeptics Conference, an event put on by the Institute for Creation Research. I couldn't say much, but I did suggest he get in touch with Larry Moran at the U Toronto. Well, he attended and…

DarkSyde is plugging the Yearly Kos Convention, which will be held in August in Chicago. I recommend it highly—we attended last year, and it was a blast meeting all those people. I suspect this year's event will be even bigger.

This message came by a roundabout route—a reader sent me a link to an Italian blog (translated) that was discussing a protest petition of a 'blasphemous' play that is being put on at…the University of Minnesota! The petition is titled "Blasphemy is not education": I understand the University of…

The pets got a little out of hand. (Actually, it's from a page of photoshopped giant squid pictures. The squid haven't invaded the Netherlands…yet.)

I've rarely seen it so starkly said: "We are witnessing a social phenomenon that is about fundamentalism," says Colin Slee, the Dean of Southwark. "Atheists like the Richard Dawkins of this world are just as fundamentalist as the people setting off bombs on the tube, the hardline settlers on the…

Let this be a lesson to you: being a moderate will not spare you from the reactionary criticisms of the lunatic right. Chris Mooney is an unbeliever, but he's also one of those softies who thinks atheists ought to be less vigorous in their assault on the public sphere (I recall arguing with him a…

It looks like Lindsay Beyerstein dodged a bullet—she was offered the position with the Edwards campaign that Amanda Marcotte accepted, and she turned it down. It's a smart article—there are some good lessons to be learned about blogs and politics from it. The Edwards campaign wants decentralized…

What's happening in the Antarctic? Researchers are looking at seabed changes that result from global warming. The researchers catalogued about 1,000 species in an area of the Antarctic seabed where warming temperatures are believed to have caused the collapse of overlying ice shelves, affecting the…

In response to this crazy attempt to smear Mitt Romney with the sins of his fathers literally, a few people are disqualifying themselves from future runs for the presidency with similar confessions. I have to admit there's a skeleton in my family tree, too: apparently, one of my ancestors was…

Tired of the sanctimonious appropriation of all that is good in American history by the Christian right? Roger Ailes delivers a magnificent denunciation of the WSJ's attempt to claim the abolitionist movement as a blessedly Christian endeavor by quoting Frederick Douglass. Revivals in religion, and…

The Smithsonian has been sending mixed signals for a while now. They allowed the Discovery Institute to use their halls to promote an ID movie (at least they later disavowed any association), but refused to have anything to do with Flock of Dodos, and they aren't going to endorse any Darwin events…

So these media people are making a movie about some tombs discovered in Jerusalem—bearing the names Jesua, son of Joseph, Mary, Mary, Mathew, Jofa and Judah, son of Jesua—and getting all this hype about discovering the final resting place of the family of the spiritual founder of Christianity. I'm…

He's baaaack. That creationist surgeon, Michael Egnor, keeps flaunting his ignorance — and his verbosity — in the comments. Your assertion that you answered my challenge 'perfectly' is, well, not perfect. I asked for a measurement of new information, not anecdotes about new functions. You and Nick…

It seems to be a theme here lately: people with serious credentials in science and medicine who then profess their belief in gods and magic and make public asses of themselves. Next up: Brad Harrub. Dr Harrub has a Ph.D. in neurobiology and anatomy from the College of Medicine at the University of…

It's all the cat's fault.

Look in your own backyard for the religious crazies. Here's a letter that was published in the St Cloud Times which I found simply unbelievable—it's a plea to people to obey the bloodthirsty skygod of the Bible, and it makes an awful argument. ... Down through the ages, God has continued to…