Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
April 17, 2009
We were all greatly amused at the exchange between deer-in-the-headlights evangelical Todd Friel and Christopher Hitchens. Do you know what would make it even funnier? If Friel tried to twist the outcome by leaving it up to…an internet poll! He couldn't possibly be goofy enough to do that, could he…
April 17, 2009
I'm impressed. Usually, a blunt statement of religious belief can be remarkably offensive, but in this case a Harvard chaplain used weasel words to magnify the appalling nature of his remarks.
Harvard Islamic chaplain Taha Abdul-Basser '96 has recently come under fire for controversial statements…
April 17, 2009
I'm on a list of the 50 greatest atheists of all time, which is nice, but a little uncomfortable. I really don't belong on a list with Feynman and Turing and Russell, you know.
It's also a strange list that mentions a few old Greeks at the beginning and then leaps right into the late 19th century…
April 17, 2009
Stop the presses! I was sent a better, more accurate, and more informative timeline for Intelligent Design creationism. Use this one.
(Click for larger image)
You can see why this one is better. It goes into the future.
April 17, 2009
Old timers here may recall the saga of Abunga Books, an online bookstore with the sole distinction of having a feature that allowed customers to ban books from the inventory that they didn't like…which meant, of course, that evolution and atheism and anything that touched on those two was promptly…
April 17, 2009
I hand out a geological timeline in my introductory biology course, and I expect the students to learn it. It's a busy little sheet of paper. But have you ever wondered what the old earth creationist timeline would look like?
The young earth creationist timeline would be a fraction of pixel high.…
April 17, 2009
Octopus vulgaris
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
April 16, 2009
This sad chimpanzee at the Mysore Zoo has lost all of his hair. He looks rather Caucasian, I think…
April 16, 2009
Obama is going to rouse the ire of the religious right yet further: he wisely opted not to endorse Jesus while giving a speech on economics by having a Christian symbol on the lectern covered up while he spoke. Good move, I think — let's not get secular economic decision making all muddled up with…
April 16, 2009
This is an entirely sensible ad promoting safe sex from Botswana. How do you think it would be received in the US?
We already know. Remember Jocelyn Elders, fired from her position as Surgeon General because she said of masturbation that "I think that it is part of human sexuality, and perhaps it…
April 16, 2009
The governor of Texas is ranting about seceding from the United States.
Speaking to an energetic and angry tea party crowd in Austin Wednesday evening, the Lone Star State governor suggested secession may happen in the future should the federal government not change its fiscal polices.
"There's a…
April 16, 2009
As I'm sure many of you are aware, one of the more superficially off-putting elements of the Catholic church is to walk into one of their buildings and see it decorated with images of writhing, tortured men in loin cloths — it's like stepping into a S&M fantasy, and I'm really not into that (…
April 16, 2009
Pleasant as it is to be acknowledged for our poll-smashing abilities, we really are a brutish, blunt instrument. The true masters of the poll hack are the denizens of 4chan (a name I mention with hesitation; it's like invoking Hassan-i Sabbah, and you really don't want to encourage these people to…
April 16, 2009
My first column is up on the Guardian web site: it's a brief introduction to asymmetries in snails, an abbreviated version of the post that I fleshed out with a little more detail.
I have to complain a little, though: the title says the observation of shared molecules between molluscs and humans "…
April 16, 2009
Here's a fine idea to benefit the public: an exchange progrram called Fiction for Fiction in which people can trade in their tired old religious texts for novels. It seems a little unfair, though: they're offering great novels in exchange. Wouldn't it be better to trade them some tatty old cheap…
April 15, 2009
It's a question that makes it hard to suppress a giggle: how many of you are going to be teabagging today?
I think it's awesome that this last desperate gasp of the far right wing to achieve political relevance got tagged with such an appropriately ridiculous moniker. The demented duo of Glenn Beck…
April 15, 2009
We are hiring! I am the chair of the search committee! Make my life miserable by sending in applications to our temporary full-time cell- and microbiologist position (also listed at the official University of Minnesota human resources site), so I'll have stacks and heaps and piles of paperwork to…
April 15, 2009
Sign the petition! Pass the word on to Norm Coleman that it's time for him to back down.
April 15, 2009
I wonder what's behind the somewhat cyclic nature of internet phenomena? I'm getting a lot of messages from people telling me about this discovery that cephalopods have venom—I covered that a few weeks ago. I'm also being told that I'm in an amusing rap video…that one I mentioned over a year ago.…
April 15, 2009
Fort Wayne, Indiana wants to know about your religion, and they have chosen the highly scientific method of … an internet poll. And you know what those are worth!
Question: Do you identify with some form of the Christian religion?
Yes, and my faith is important to me. 62%
No. I'm religious but in a…
April 15, 2009
I've been busy — I'm teaching genetics this term, and usually the first two thirds of the course is trivial to prepare for — we're covering Mendelian genetics, and the early stuff is material the students have seen before and are at least generally familiar with the concepts, and all I have to do…
April 14, 2009
Those squishy softies on the non-science side of campus…they can do anything, apparently. Holbo is playing with the creation of an illustrated children's book for adults, called Squid & Owl. Obviously, it's got owls and squid in it, and compares them frequently, with an interesting graphic…
April 14, 2009
I'd say that's pretty groovy, but then they'd kick me out of the hep cats club, wouldn't they?
April 14, 2009
August Berkshire also went to Ken Miller's talk at St Catherine's, and has now posted his review. It's familiar: Miller gives a great science talk, and then when he starts talking about religion, everyone starts wondering where his skepticism went.
April 14, 2009
Look at this NASA photo of Pulsar B1509. Yes, it looks like a hand.
It's beautiful and fascinating.
Now look at the incredibly stupid poll the NY Daily News attached to it.
What do you think is captured on the recently released NASA photograph?
The hand of God 40%
A natural stellar formation 60%…
April 14, 2009
Mr B and Miz B sat upon their porch, watching the New Atheist parade go by.
It was quite a large parade, chaotic, disorganized, and enthusiastic, more Mardi Gras than Macy's. There were clowns and jugglers, serious men with bullhorns making serious speeches, small groups chanting anti-clerical…
April 14, 2009
Spring is in the air! Young hearts turn to thoughts of love, and romance flowers everywhere, even in the darkness of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. A young couple there, their union frowned upon by their families, eloped to marry anyway, a gesture I find wonderfully romantic and sweet. I'm a little…
April 13, 2009
Well, almost. A panel of judges has ruled Franken the winner over Coleman, finally, declaring the election fair and complete. That ought to finish it, but Coleman does have the option to appeal…and obnoxious ass that he is, you know he will, futilely dragging out the whole process to his inevitable…