pharyngula

So far, this sounds so much like the Constance McMillen story: school has a big dance event, young lady wants to go with a date, the school tells her she can't because her date is also a young lady. This time, though, the story is set in Australia rather than Mississippi. I know there are many fine…

This is the Republican who wants to be in charge of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, John Shimkus. We don't have to worry about global warming or pollution or other such merely human problems! God promised that we never have to worry about that again, and he believes in the truth of the…

There's a debate going on in The Economist. Pamela Ronald is defending the proposition that biotechnology and sustainable agriculture are complementary, not contradictory, which is weird: agriculture is biotechnology, and just breaking ground with a sharp stick and throwing some seeds in is an…

This would be his birthday, if he hadn't died in 1996. We're just going to have to celebrate his life without him.

He's a funny guy, but I'm still completely baffled by Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity. He supposedly addressed his many critics last night; somebody tell me what it means, other than that it was an amusing self-deprecating schtick. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c MSNBC…

David Hedrick, a failed Teabagger candidate for congress, has written a children's book that has to be seen to be believed. It's called The Liberal Claus(e): Socialism on a Sleigh, and it's a fable about Santa Claus being deposed in a rigged vote by Barack Obama, who installs his evil cronies…

Look, they're on Ateistët!

You can't. Because the reptoids destroyed our network infrastructure with a massive electromagnetic pulse on the 6th of November, and they're all going to be down for at least 6 months. She starts off looking normal, but the first sign that there might be something amiss is the big cheesy Kinkade…

We passed 100,000 comments in the last segment of the zombie thread, so here's something to do with that magic number. (Current totals: 11,326 entries with 1,178,732 comments.)

The student freethought group at UMM is having another meeting this evening at 7 in the Moccasin Flower room. The subject tonight is to pin down exactly what "freethought" means!

The Pope has been touring Spain for the last few days (I wonder how much that has cost the country), trying to drum up some fervor for Catholicism in a country which was once the devout heartland of the faith, but is now reduced to being only nominally Catholic with just 15% of those calling…

I already pointed to a couple of arguments against my assertion that there can be no evidence for god, so now I'll mention that there are a few taking my side: Salty Current and Diaphanitas. Whew. It was feeling kind of lonely.

Martin Pribble has been interviewing various godless people, including Greydon Square, Lovingdoubt (she's a youtuber), and Eugenie Scott . Now he's gotten around to me. If nothing else, read Greydon Square's — there's a different perspective for you, that still arrives at similar conclusions for…

In Australia, it's Movember, when all the real Australians grow moustaches. I've never before heard "moustache" abbreviated as "mo", but I guess there are things I have yet to learn about Antipodean accents. Anyway, it's all for a manly cause, too, to support research into prostate cancer and other…

Tarpon and silversides

There are hints of the direction our country will be taking in the near future. Medicaid is one of our rare social safety net programs — it provides basic health care support for low income, disabled, and elderly people, and is supported by both federal and state level funds. Emboldened by the…

…are fish molecular biology nerds.

What was the worst moment in the George W. Bush presidency? You might be thinking it had to be the loss of life in 9/11, or the war and its devastation, or the consequences of his bad economic decisions, but no…to poor sensitive George, it was the moment a black man publicly criticized him. MATT…

I've hated those Survivor TV shows for as long as they've been on — I've never been able to sit through a single episode. Staging a phony zero-sum game and encouraging backstabbing betrayal and vicious psychopathic behavior is not my idea of fun. I have this fantasy version of the game in which…

Scienceblogs was down for the count most of the morning — we had some annoying technical glitch on the server, nothing malicious. Now you can read this. Right? If you can't, let me know by leaving a comment describing exactly how the site is no longer visible, why you can't comment, and any other…

It's a feature of the language, OK? (via Making Light)

A woman wrote an article on LiveJournal, freely available to readers and for her own interests, and then the managing editor of a small magazine picked it up and published it, without notification and without, of course, payment. When the author contacted the editor and pointedly brought up the…

Ever since I ferociously asserted that god was not only dead, but never existed and never will exist, and that no amount of hand-waving speculation will convince me otherwise, those thuggish provisionalists have been gunning for me. Jerry Coyne tried, and now Greta Christina pounds on me, trying to…

I have reviewed the audition tapes you all sent in for Survivor Pharyngula, averaged together the scores given to people who had multiple recommendations, and sorted them into a ranked list, and then arbitrarily threw out everyone who got below a score of 40. Here's the list of Enemies of the…

Of course they do, and lots of them — it's a nation with a proud secular tradition. http://suphecimelek.wordpress.com/ http://materyalistceseyler.wordpress.com/ http://nodrylight.wordpress.com/ http://garajimdakiejder.blogspot.com/ http://pozitifateizm.wordpress.com/ http://brightsturkiye.blogspot.…

Really. You need more thread because you filled up the old one? Oh, well, it's an excuse to exhibit the latest Mr Deity. (Current totals: 11,308 entries with 1,175,434 comments.)

This is the worst case of atheist buttery I've ever seen. I'm left with this terribly greasy, bloated feeling after going through it, and I think my arteries were clogging up just reading it. This fellow Malcolm Knox is an atheist who happily sends his kids off to the Catholic church, which is just…

This is billed as a special news report: do angels exist?. I remember using "special" in exactly that way in grade school, too. Do Fox News reporters also ride the short bus to work? I suppose I should be grateful that they brought in one skeptic to moderate it a bit, but otherwise…it's an excuse…

The answer is "No! You're beautiful!" It's part of a theme. (via Dave Harasti)