pharyngula

Ted Haggard is in the news again — it seems he has been involved in long term homosexual relationships, and has been abusing his power for sexual favors. Raise your hands if you would never have expected it! Hey, how come none of you lifted your fingers from your keyboard? Here's his latest excuse…

This is a long traveling weekend for me — I'm on my way to Calgary/Edmonton for a lecture and a debate. That means my internet access may be a little spotty, and I'm a little concerned about some of the trends in the comments, so I'm laying down a few rules. There are too many trolls. I'm…

Awww, I've been challenged by Ray Comfort. It's hard to take the little man too seriously, though: last time we were supposed to debate on the radio, it ended up with a change of plans, and he instead weebled absurdly without me. At this point, though, his only challenge to me seems to be to…

Understandably awful, since it's on Bill O'Reilly's site. He asks, What do you think of Ann Coulter?. The choices are: I love Ann Coulter I like her, but often she's too harsh I can't stand her You can guess which one is winning. I doubt that we can make much headway against the mindless hordes of…

Somebody is going to have to declare Jerry Coyne an official member of the "New Atheist" club and send him the fancy hat and instructions for the secret handshake. He has a substantial piece in The New Republic that is both a review of two recent books by theistic scientists, Karl Giberson (who…

…to our new colleague, Science Punk. I was a bit disappointed at the dearth of piercings and snarling and tattoos over there, but he's new, give him time to shred the shiny new joint.

Obama is about to lift the gag order that prohibited federal funds going to international groups that performed abortions. He has ordered a review of all of Bush's last-minute policy acts, stopping them cold. And look at this: President Obama is expected to loosen the restrictions [on stem cell…

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

Some cheesy medical show on the television recently had a segment on an interesting old technique: cupping. This is a procedure related to bleeding, in which suction is used to draw blood to the surface. It's absolutely useless, an artifact of old, discarded theories about humors, and it's not…

Except, perhaps, when the pet is an 18-foot long, 300 pound snake which thinks a 3 year old looks tender and tasty. The kid is alright, although he was bitten and almost crushed, but sadly the snake succumbed to 17 stab wounds inflicted by the mother. I do have to wonder, though, about parents who…

The latest news: in a vote on whether to keep the silly "strengths and weaknesses" phrasing in the Texas state science standards, the forces of light on the board of education have defeated the goblins of the darkness by a one vote margin. There are more votes to come, though, so the battle isn't…

The cover story of New Scientist asks, "Was Darwin wrong?", as if this were surprising news (he was wrong about many things) or as if the discovery of new details would somehow demolish the whole structure of evolutionary theory. I'll let Larry Moran take care of this one. It's a symptom of…

Usually, Begley is reasonably good on science, but her latest piece is one big collection of misconceptions. It reflects a poor understanding of the science and of history, in that it confuses long-standing recognition of the importance of environmental factors in gene expression with a sudden…

We had a little drama in St Paul this morning: an anti-choice kook decided that an effective way to silence a family planning clinic was to smash the entrance to Planned Parenthood with his SUV. Several employees were in the building at the time, said Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Kathi Di Nicola…

Or, as we used to call 'em when I was a young'un, a comic book. Check it out — it'll be an illustrated Darwin biography for all the people who don't want to wade through the magnificent, but long, two volume Janet Browne bio. I know I'll be buying a copy. There are other evolution books in graphic…

I have my reservations about Obama, but I am seeing clear differences between him and the previous tenant of the White House already — good changes. US President Barack Obama is expected to announce that he is ordering the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp within a year. He is also…

Here's another gagworthy media experience for you all: an interview on Skeptiko with Denyse O'Leary, author of one of the worst books I've ever read, The Spiritual Brain. O'Leary is awful, as usual, but the interviewer is horribly credulous as well — I had to turn it off when he started nattering…

This is a promo for a wingnut movie that portrays the autonomy of women as a great evil … with an all-female cast. Even this short clip is nauseating. The lies fly thick and fast. I'm particularly disgusted with the one interviewee who claims that, as a former representative of family planning…

Ray Comfort has a new site, Pull the plug on atheism. It's a series of short pages which consist mainly of plugs for some bad books he is peddling, with a few paragraphs in which he announces a few of his misconceptions about atheism, with the air of one who has trounced every objection. It really…

Many of you were anxious to find out more about my trip to Columbus, Ohio in a few weeks, and here's the information you need. This is to be a Darwin Day banquet, open to the public, but there is a charge. It's on 14 February, so you could always bring a date and say it's their Valentine's Day gift…

Wow. This is a painful video. The camera man visits a group of abortion protesters, and asks a simple question: should abortion be legal or illegal? They are all very quick to answer "illegal!" But then he asks an obvious consequent: If abortion was illegal, what should be done with the women who…

I wrote about the Kara Neumann case last year — it was the tragic story of an 11 year old girl in Wisconsin who died of treatable juvenile diabetes because her parents were faith-healing morons. Morons who still claim they did no wrong by neglecting their daughter when she lapsed into…

First, a warning: this is a link to a good science article, but it's hosted on the Suicide Girls site, which contains many pictures of young ladies with attitude and tattoos in a state of deshabille. You may discover you are blocked at work. But do persevere! It will be worth it even if you have no…

I skipped over Warren's ghastly babbling until now, when I was sent this recording of the spectacle. It's pretty much exactly how I imagined it.

The Obama inauguration brought out a number of protesters, seemingly all of the Christian variety. I don't see what they're complaining about, though: Obama is a professing Christian who will not do a thing to diminish their privileges. We atheists have more excuses to picket his god-soaked…

It's very short. It only has to cover 6000 years to describe all of creation.

The American Humanist Association is running an ad, congratulating Obama on his presidency…with a nice twist. Let's all hope he lives up to those values.

The pompous know-nothing we all love to despise gets a nice keelhauling over his economic predictions. Not only was he wrong, he was arrogant about it — I guess he's about as good an economist as he is an actor and polemicist.

Late last year, the New Humanist podcast was taking nominations for their Bad Faith award, given to the most "deluded fantasist" of the year. It was my honor as one of the Americans on the roster to nominate our very own Sarah Palin. Either I was extremely persuasive or my nominee was so patently…