pharyngula

Now they're taking advantage of YouTube's easy censorship to shut down a critique of Casey Luskin.

Jerry Coyne's criticism of accommodationism by evolutionists seems to still be shaking a few trees and is generating an endless debate. Ken Miller has posted a long rebuttal. It's mainly interesting for the way Miller flees from theism. His first and only defense seems to be a denial of most of the…

We have two cats, and one of them, Merle, is a shaggy long-haired black beast. And I mean, really shaggy, and shedding constantly. Our first defense against burglary, I think, is the thick clouds of cat fur floating through the atmosphere in our house. Well, last week, I had enough. I opened the…

I just got a bunch of email from various people warning me that my cell phone number (no, you can't have it) is going to be sold to telemarketers next month, and I need to call a certain phone number right away to get it blocked. I must have a cynical mind, because my first thought was that if I…

Over the last few days, I've been reading the articles in the latest issue of Evolution: Education and Outreach. This is a fairly new journal with the mission stated in the title, and I have to say that it is very, very good — the articles are almost always easily readable, and they address…

Sure you do. They put up a poll just for you. Do our visitors Love GOD? Yes 70% Maybe 4% I don't think so 3% No 22%

Once again, Texas leads the way in absurdities. One kook has decided he doesn't like to say hello, and has convinced the whole county to go along with him. Can you guess why? In this friendly little ranching town, "hello" is wearing out its welcome. And Leonso Canales Jr. is happy as heck. At his…

Would you believe the aliens are on the way? The words 'Nous ne sommes pas seuls' or 'We are not alone' will be somberly pronounced this week by a senior Government official of the nation that brought the world 'Liberté, égalité, fraternité'. France is set to concede that it is aware of an alien…

I want one, but I'll have to wait for the price to drop just a little bit…and I'm confident that the price will plummet in the next few years. It's really just a stock Mac, but it has something special on it: a copy of your very own genome sequence. The whole thing. Oooh. Give it a few years, and…

This is a cute analogy for electricity.

The rats really are scuttling out of the woodwork: last week, it's a right-wing anti-abortion hater gunning down a doctor, and this week, we get a white supremacist opening fire in the US Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. Fortunately, no one has died in this incident, but a security guard and the…

It looks like an admission of guilt to me. The McTimoney Association, a British chiropractic group, has sent out mail to its members urging them to immediately shut down all of their websites. Why? Because, as a result of the Simon Singh fracas, people are becoming aware that chiropractors are…

The Minnesota Planetarium Society has ambitious plans to rebuild and expand a planetarium and space discovery center in Minneapolis, and they're trying to spread the news and build more support. They are having an event to do this: Summer Solstice Celebration Monday, June 22 4:00pm - 8:00 pm…

They're doing it again. The raving mad wackaloons are oiling up the hearing rooms for the Sotomayor confirmation. This is called "anointing", where some true believer thinks it will make a god pay special attention to an event if it is greased up first…which makes me wonder if there can be any…

I don't drink caffeinated beverages anymore (I gave them up when I converted to Mormonism1) so it's easy for me to refuse to give Coca Cola any more of my business, but this news may cause more distress to others: Coca Cola is a corporate partner with the Creation "Museum". Ken Ham can brag about…

Now, for the low, low price of $12.79, you can reserve a spot in heaven for yourself. This is a real business selling tickets, certificates and ID cards that claims to give you a direct line to an afterlife in paradise, with a money-back guarantee. You might think it's just a gag…but it's the same…

This is an entirely fictional manifesto, but it could be the game plan for a lot of rather devious pro-religion people right now — I could almost imagine it as the mission statement for the Templeton Foundation, for instance. It is the objective of we, the New Creationists, to undermine not simply…

Like model a battle between a sperm whale and a giant squid:

Hmmm. I wonder how you people feel about medicine vs. non-medicine? Maybe I should piggy-back on a quack poll to find out. How do you feel about alternative medicine? 47.9% I think it's great used in conjunction with traditional Western medicine. 20.1% I'm a big believer and use alternative…

I am now a cover model for CDs. Look for me soon to be gyrating in a rock video, then comes the feature role in soft-core porn, then the drugs and parties, then the stint in rehab, and finally the special documentary on VH1. Oh, heck, I'm going all the way: I'm taking over for Ozzie once he…

You've probably noticed that as a soap bubble thins, it acquires a rainbow of iridescent colors across its surface. Or perhaps you've noticed that a film of oil on a mud puddle shows beautiful colors. These are common physical properties of thin film interference. The way it works is that light…

I finally saw the new Star Trek movie — I really do live way out in the boondocks, you know, and we only have one theater, with a single screen, and we had to wait for the Hannah Montana movie to run its course before we could bring in something interesting. Although, I'm afraid, it ultimately wasn…

The US 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that display of ten commandments monuments violates the establishment clause. Well, yeah. When the first commandment is basically "No way but JHWH!", it should be basically impossible to argue otherwise. Although it is fun to watch the crazy people…

Now you can all do it: an archbishop of the Open Episcopal Church is selling consecrated crackers by mail, payable with paypal. The guy sounds like a bit of a kook; he's doing this because he believes people will sincerely appreciate receiving a scrap of Jesus' holy meat in the mail, and will use…

Wretched Todd Friel (Remember him?) has put up another stupid poll. Show him what his survey is worth. I am: 99% said:A) An evangelical Christian. 1% said:B) A Roman Catholic. 1% said:C) An Atheist/Agnostic. Hey, do you think he'll change his radio talk show format to appeal to the new audience…

Minnesota has more than a few local conservative wingnuts; there are a few very popular blogs emanating from these parts to testify that, and in addition, the major metropolitan newspaper, the Star Tribune, has a shrill blitherer they regularly put front and center who has most of us scratching our…

Arrr, 'twas a fine weekend of pillage and carouse, and now we have returned to our lair, where we can gloat over our treasure. Here it be, a small portion of the swag we've won. I would like to thank the producers of Expelled and Bill Donohue for inspiring the American Humanists to toss me that…

Christians merely get Jesus on pita bread or Madonna's on plate glass windows — we get squid-shaped lightning, which is obviously much more impressive. Alas, no magic squid in the sky for us, though — these are entirely natural phenomena. "Sprites are a true space weather phenomenon," he adds. "…

These aren't quite pointless polls, since comments are actually being solicited instead of mindless clicks, but you can still swamp the forces of silliness in thise two blog entries. One asks, Charles Darwin: brilliant scientist or agent of Satan?. You can give any kind of answer you want, like "…