pharyngula

Now this is effective birth control. Abstinence suddenly looks much more appealing.

I noticed that, in this recent thread asking why you were all here, that many of you said it was for the community and for the smart commenters here. Nobody said it was for my irresistible physical beauty and scintillating and delicate charm…in fact, I got the distinct impression I could drop dead…

A fish is a fish, right? They're just a blur of aquatic beasties that most people distinguish by flavor, rather than morphology or descent. But fish are incredibly diverse, far more diverse than terrestrial vertebrates, and there are significant divisions within the group. Most people know of one…

I think we have the profane, bizarre answer right here. (via Kevin Zelnio)

Richard Dawkins did it again, clearly stating his opinion of the Pope's policy on birth control and AIDS prevention. One problem: he left out another possibility. The Pope could be evil. I tend to favor a combination of all of the above. I have received a communique from Richard Dawkins in which…

You just can't trust anything posted to the web today. Take, for instance, this story about Howard Ahmanson. In case you don't know who he is, he is an extremely wealthy Californian who also happens to be one of those Christian Reconstructionists — a follower of R.J. Rushdoony, who thinks we ought…

The month of March was a record traffic month: 2,296,911 visits. What did I do this time?

One of the Vatican's "solutions" for their perennial sex scandals is to start testing and screening candidates for the priesthood. Australia is even considering doing it: unfortunately, the targets are all wrong. Melbourne's Catholic Church has embraced a Vatican suggestion to test potential…

I must echo Huxley and say, "How stupid of me not to have thought of that!" in response to the discovery of a new mode of evolution. This changes everything! In an entirely relevant mode of logic, I have noticed that we are suffering with a surprising and rather nasty blizzard today, which was…

I must thank io9 for taking the spirit of the pointless poll to the next level. They have an article on the term "nerd" and are asking whether it's a useful label or not. Here are the results so far. Should we retire the term "nerd"? You're dead wrong man, keep the faith! Cool stuff is still…

The criticisms must have stung, because Matt Nisbet has put up short replies on Russell Blackford's and Jerry Coyne's blogs. Unfortunately, in response to the substantial criticisms of the idea of compatibility between faith and science, Nisbet only offers a feeble and wrong correction to a minor…

The Bible I want on my bookshelf is the Robert Crumb Version. He's got one chapter done: Crumb is about to publish his version of Genesis, which will be a "scandalous satire" which "presents a complex, even subversive, narrative that calls for a significant re-examination of both the Bible's…

It's heartwarming to see Dr Dr Russel Blackford rise to the occasion and pen a laudatory essay praising Matt Nisbet. Praise the lord! Wait…is sarcasm ethical?

…Houston Friend, a student at ASU who got a bad grade on a paper and wrote in to blame the whole culture for it. Last week, I got back a graded essay, which happened to be worth a significant portion of my grade. I got a C and was immediately upset because I had been somewhat proud of my work when…

This is insane: YouTube has become an overzealous nanny, protecting kooks from offense, now banning the eminently respectable JREF. There's only one way to respond to this, in addition to writing letters of protest: I'm going to have to stop using YouTube at all. I'll be posting no more YouTube…

Legislators in the fine state of Oklahoma continue to gnash their grim and yellowed Christian tusks in frustration that Richard Dawkins was ever allowed to speak. He not only spoke openly, but was allowed to leave the state unscathed — not a single rusty thumbscrew was employed, nor was he burned…

Administrators at Boston Latin prep school issued a notice that there were no — I repeat, no — vampires attending the school. Read the article, and apparently there was also a rumor of at least one werewolf running around. They issued no disclaimer against the existence of decrepit old mummies or…

I thought that silly Intelligent Design blog, Uncommon Descent, was going to have a new and enlightened comment policy, in which people would be allowed to criticize ID without risk of deletion. That's what they said, at least. You knew it couldn't be true: they're already sharpening the knives to…

Last night's Family Guy featured an unsurprising revelation about a character. (via Sunny Skeptic) The full episode is on Hulu.

At least, that's the message I'm getting. You-know-who is once again trying to insist that the ethics of scientists includes everything except speaking the truth, and I'm not going to get into it —let Greg Laden deal with the heat from the stupid 'framing' argument this time. I will say that I'm…

While I was in Michigan last week, CFI kept me dancing with multiple talks and a couple of interviews. You can download one of them right now: the Brayton interview (mp3).

A horrible little cult in Baltimore committed an ugly crime. …they denied a 16-month-old boy food and water because he did not say "Amen" at mealtimes. After he died, they prayed over his body for days, expecting a resurrection, then packed it into a suitcase with mothballs. They left it in a shed…

You have to watch this loon making his case for how harmless global warming is in testimony with Lord Christopher Monckton (thanks, England…really, we have enough wacky ideologues without you sending yours over here). Monckton dismisses the problem of CO2 by claiming that CO2 levels were much…

Oh, no. Richard Lynn, the fellow infamous for trying to link intelligence and race, is in the news again, this time trying to claim a causal relationship between atheism and intelligence. "Why should fewer academics believe in God than the general population? I believe it is simply a matter of the…

The city of Hakodate in Japan has been producing promotional videos for the tourism trade for their city. Instead of the usual shots of local restaurants and famous landmarks, though, Hakodate features giant robots battling invading space squid, with explosions and smashed buildings and cars being…

Don't miss this one! At 9am Sunday morning, Sean Carroll will be on Atheists Talk radio.

Your ornamental function must be your important asset — never mind those degrees and skills and various non-superficial attributes. I can imagine how Sheril must feel, but have never experienced it myself. Strangely, I've never met a distinguished stranger and had them compliment my looks or ask…

Who's going to the American Humanist meeting in June? I know I am — I'm getting an award, and I felt quite cocky about it. Then I saw all the other people being recognized, and I'm suddenly having one of those "I am not worthy" moments. Yikes. At least it guarantees that we'll have a really good…

This is not one of those fake church signs: it's the real thing, taken in Arkansas. This looks like an irreconcilable difference to me.