pharyngula

I like it. This is a perfect analogy to creationist argument. The theory of childhood, also known as child origin, is a damnable, loathsome and indefensible lie. How can any thinking person suppose all humans used to be babies once? There is no development path from babies to adults, no…

One of the weirder religiot freakaloons recently was the fellow whose electoral strategy was to pray for a McCain/Palin victory, and then pray for McCain's "speedy death". Well, that kook has since gone back and revised his post to be a little less blatant: "Pray for John McCain's salvation and…

I'm impressed: Appalachian State University is celebrating the Darwin year with a lecture series of stellar quality. Between September and April, they are presenting talks by Eugenie Scott, Jay Hosler, Ken Miller, Janet Browne, Edward Larson, Sean Carroll, Elisabeth Lloyd, Paul Ewald, Jim Costa,…

At last, it's a Palin we can all support.

(Click for larger image)

When we last saw our intrepid (and inebriated) pair of godless ladies in Seattle, they had just buzzed the Discovery Institute's door and been admitted by the ever-eager Casey Luskin. Now read about how Luskin protects them from the Terrible Annika, and then, after getting loaded down with free…

This was another day when I had to go off to Minneapolis to run an important errand, and as long as I was there, I went on Air America for an hour. There I am, with Mike Haubrich and Lynn Fellman, talking about the Galápagos. The recording will be up a little later today.

Raving creationist nutbags get shredded pretty thoroughly when they make comments here, I know. Still, that doesn't excuse the efforts of the craven lackwit to hide from criticism by scuttling over to my daughter's blog and whining that I'm a wicked parent who has condemned his own daughter to hell…

Lots of you have been mailing me this comic today, 9 Chickweed Lane, because it contains a bizarre proof of god. I know, it's supposed to be funny, but let's take it seriously just for a moment. To summarize the argument: Darwin's theory predicts a progressive increase in human intelligence,…

I'm jealous. RichardDawkins.net is banned in Turkey. Turkish viewers who attempt to read it get a blank screen with the words "Access to this site has been denied by court order" across the middle. The Turkish courts outlawed the site for this shocking post. What do I have to do to get equal ire…

At 9am Sunday on Atheists Talk radio, it's me! I'll be telling you all about My Summer Vacation, my trip to the Galápagos. Tune in and call in! Afterwards, at 11, we'll be meeting for brunch at Q. Cumbers — stop by if you're in the area and say hello.

If any of you are going to be in the neighborhood of CalTech around the 4th of October, you might want to sign up for the big Origins conference — it definitely has some great speakers. Sean Carroll, Leonard Susskind, Paul Davies, (wait…what's with all the physicists?), Donald Prothero and Christof…

When we were in Ecuador, much of the local political discussion was around their efforts to write a new constitution for the country. I'd heard that there were some significantly progressive elements to the work, but this is the first I've seen some of the articles being considered: as is perhaps…

It's true, I cannot overcome this poll on WorldNutDaily. They are 'reporting' on the Large Hadron Collider and the weird fact that people are fretting over whether the Swiss will annihilate the word, so they ask their readers about why they're worried. The first way they stumped me was by not…

I just noticed that it is September — we need to pick a new Molly award for August. Leave a comment and let us all know who you thought was a noteworthy, commendable, interesting commenter here on Pharyngula over the last month. I'll enshrine the most popular name at the end of the month weekend.

We have a time and a place for the big millionth comment party in Minneapolis in less than two weeks. Attendees: get the full scoop from Greg Laden's Blog. I'll be bringing my big pink furry octopus and Skatje. You don't want to miss it.

You asked for them, here's the flyer:

There's a new movie being developed on the life of Charles Darwin that actually has the potential to be good. It's based on Randal Keyne's book, Annie's Box(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), which is an excellent source that humanizes the man well. It also has a good cast so far, although, seriously,…

I don't know…should I reward her with a link when I'm seething with envy as GrrlScientist is in London?

Argonauta hians, hitchhiking Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.

I'm going to be on Atheists Talk radio on Sunday morning to talk about the Galápagos, and as long as I'm in the big city, I was also going to join the godless gang at Q. Cumbers at 11:00am Sunday for a little brunch. If you want to join us, come on down!

Watch him demolish the Republicans with their own hypocritical words.

This is a danged ugly poll, accompanying an interview with the slimy Ken Ham. It asks, Regarding creation and evolution, I believe: The universe was created in six days as described in Genesis. Evolution is true, but God began and/or directs it. Evolution is true, and religion has nothing to do…

Cindy McCain is not running for high office, fortunately…but this still seems to be the predominant attitude among the Republican leadership. Couric: How do you feel about creationism? Do you think it should be taught in schools? McCain: I think both sides should be taught in schools. I think…

As part of an exercise in shredding Steve Fuller, AC Grayling makes several felicitous comments. Fuller makes the "tired argument that modern science is the kindly gift of 16th-century religion," and claims that "atheism has done precious little for science". He's got a few good answers to that one…

Some guy up in Moorehead wrote a letter to the local paper explaining why we don't have to worry about global warming. You can just picture the gears jerking haltingly around in his head as he tries to explain how a planet works while he doesn't even understand why Australians don't fall off the…

Palin scares me, but what worries me more is that we will screw up again and hand the executive office over to another gang of losers, and we can't afford that anymore. Now look at the open thread I set up last night, and you'll see why I'm concerned. What did people do? They got distracted by…