pharyngula

Here's a personal account of how Charlie Crist deals with atheists: Last night as I was leaving a pizzeria in Downtown St. Pete, I ran into a small group of people around Florida Governor Charlie Crist who was campaigning for a US Senate run. So, I walked over waited a moment to gain his attention…

I'm glad I won't be looking for a date while I'm in Australia. Although now I'm a little concerned that if I get a little beer froth on the moustache, I might drive the ladies wild.

She's as funny as a clown's pratfall, but she's also as fascinating as a head wound. I hope she'll vanish from the public discourse, but here I am, at the same time gawking over her latest inanities. Remember how she was caught looking at really trivial notes written on her hand? She's got a new…

On Saturday in Melbourne, I'm going to be giving a talk on the incompatibility of science and religion. Now what happens? Another eruption of those accommodation arguments, and I've got this big pile of stuff I could say right now, but I'm going to hold it in, so it's at least a little bit fresh…

I could have continued the last edition of the unstoppable thread with the hot topic of the moment — race — but thought maybe promoting another controversial subject would fill up the thread far too quickly. So the other subject people were talking about is my birthday. Gee, people, I'm not that…

I got so sick of dreary beancounting communications 'experts' telling me that we need to avoid fighting creationists … because the magical drone of framing was going to make everyone happy and persuade the jebus-loving ignoramuses that evolution was good. There are signs that these parasites are…

There was this young child at a Catholic pre-school who was kicked out because his or her parents were lesbians. Now people are protesting, because that's not what Jesus would do (I won't quibble over their justifications — Jesus probably would have told the mob to stone the perverted parents to…

Jerry Coyne has unearthed a few maggoty tidbits about Rod Dreher, the Templeton director of communications. It seems the Templeton Foundation has been padding his credentials a bit, claiming that he is a 7-time nominee for a Pulitzer Prize. Dreher? A Pulitzer? Has the prize become that worthless…

I'm flying off to Australia tomorrow! Unfortunately, I'm leaving Mary behind — she's got a job, you know, and needs to continue slaving away to keep me in the style to which I am accustomed. But she's not bitter about it, no, not at all. See? She sent me this cheery little ditty about the…

It's a stunning reenactment of home life…with lolcats. I don't know that I like this invasion of my privacy.

This one crosses religious boundaries — it will get me in trouble with some atheists, even. What is one act that will turn many a respectable citizen of Western society into a gibbering denialist? Sex. We have an unfortunate cultural association between religion and sex. Sex is dirty; sex is…

Coyne was quoted in this article on homeschooling, which brought in an unexpected surge of email, including some rather nasty words from the Christians. This doesn't surprise me at all; criticizing religion, especially the more far-out beliefs that are clearly unsupportable and in contradiction to…

There are two very encouraging facts about this article on scientology in the NY Times. One is that it got published. Once upon a time, newspapers and magazines hesitated to criticize scientology at all, because they'd immediately sic an army of lawyers on the publication, and any journalists…

Freeman Dyson (with whom I have many disagreements, so don't take this as an unqualified endorsement), wrote an interesting article that predicted, in part, a coming new age of biology. I think he's entirely right in that, and that we can expect amazing information and changes in this next century…

It had to happen. The last instantiation of the immortal thread started with underwear, so of course it had to progress to what was under that underwear, and relationships, and other such intimacies. The only place to go now is anthropomorphized penises. I'm a little concerned about what Episode…

Now the godless Australians are getting into the atheist bus sign business, and I must say, this is my favorite ad of the bunch so far, since it's got the nice sciencey touches to it. And it's a fine bunch of happy atheists promoting it, too.

The NCSE has announced a new award, the Upchuckies, for the most nauseating creationist of the year. Their first slate of competitors was about as disgusting as an old cat box, more revolting than a snot bath with fecal chunks, and included Al Jazeera (bleh), Ray Comfort (gag), Casey Luskin (I…

I've been on a few job search committees, and I've been on a few job searches myself, and there's a standard piece of boilerplate we put on all of our job ads. The University of Minnesota is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to its programs, facilities, and employment…

Uh-oh. People have often sent me strange photos like this; apparently, cephalopod porn can get you arrested in the UK. The charge involving the sea creature states the image was of someone "performing an act of intercourse with a dead animal, namely an octopus/squid, which was grossly offensive,…

That recent atheists-hate-ken-miller piece had more words from Jerry Coyne than from me — and his situation was just like mine, saying mostly laudatory things about Miller, only to have our criticisms used to paint a false picture of the beleaguered Dr Miller. The story did Miller no favors, either…

It certainly isn't the Netherlands. This isn't news any more. News would be an official Catholic organization that wasn't a front for repressed perverts and apologists for child abuse.

I noticed people were getting a little anxious for the latest Molly award, but I usually try to hold off to a weekend. It's worth waiting a few days, right? Anyway, the Molly for January 2010 goes to Paul W. You're all expected to follow his example and write treatises in the comments from now on.…

A young child at a Boulder pre-school has been kicked out for an awful crime. The child was enrolled in a Catholic preschool, and also has two mommies. I'll leave you to guess which of those two is the awful crime. According to teachers at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School, a meeting was held…

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

Back when we bought our house, one of the things that we liked about it is that it's a somewhat quirky place, with an odd layout and a few old 50s touches. One thing I didn't care for is the decor of the upstairs; it's got this vivid scarlet carpeting everywhere, and one of the bedrooms was (it's…

The other day, I got a request for an interview: a reporter was writing a story about Ken Miller. I was happy to do so — this was clearly going to be a friendly piece about Miller, and I thought it was good that he get some more press. I talked on the phone with this fellow for 20 minutes or so,…

Kentuckians havesomething to live down right now, Ken Ham and his Cretin "Museum". But look back to your noble past: read some of the words of Charles Chilton Moore, a godless newspaperman from Lexington who was as bold as any today. Fifteen hundred years ago, Constantine, who murdered his own wife…

It seems the latest topic in the immortal thread is underwear, so here you go, more underwear. The ladies and the gay men may enjoy this video, the rest of us…well, smile and buck up over your temporary objectification.

Next week, we've got the Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne, Australia (with a side event, the Freethought University Alliance meeting, just for students). At the end of the month, it's the Northwest Freethought Converence in Renton, Washington. If none of those are close enough for you, here's…

Hey! I didn't hear about this until just now, but there's going to be a conference of the godless in my home state of Washington on 26-28 March. Ophelia Benson will be speaking there! If you're in the area, you should be going…I'm kinda wishing I could go, too.