Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
March 5, 2009
He was probably able to get home before midnight last night. You can now read his description of the social events around Dawkins' visit, and a much more thorough account of the talk itself.
One other point that I should emphasize. This talk presented an overview of how we should look at the…
March 5, 2009
I may be getting too old for this.
Yesterday, I finished up teaching at 1 in the afternoon, then had to leap into the Pharyngulamobile and drive, drive, drive to Minneapolis. I got together with Lynn Fellman and Greg Laden for a hasty dinner before I had to go move my car and park prior to Richard…
March 4, 2009
"WE WILL BURY YOU!" seems to be his message in his latest complaint. He is very upset that The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology is boycotting Louisiana, and he informs us all in a long argumentum ad populum that the ignorant outnumber us, addressed to the president and members of…
March 4, 2009
He just got here, and already Richard Dawkins is stirring things up in Minnesota. He was interviewed on MPR this morning — unfortunately, I had to miss it as I was scrambling to get ready for class — and it sounds like the interviewer was offended. The station live-blogged the interview, and it…
March 4, 2009
Phillip Skell has a long and sleazy history of lying to support creationism. His usual tactic (actually, his only tactic) is to claim that evolution is irrelevant to science, denying the importance of the theory to understanding discoveries about the natural world, and refusing to believe that it…
March 4, 2009
Mark it on your calendar: 30 September is going to be Blasphemy Day. Join the Facebook group, if that is your kind of thing.
Blasphemy Day International is an international campaign seeking to establish September 30th as a national day to promote free speech and stand up in a show of solidarity for…
March 3, 2009
Scienceborg has assimilated a new geology blog, All of My Faults Are Stress Related. With a title like that, you must go over there and rock her world.
March 3, 2009
Richard Dawkins lectured in Michigan yesterday, and apparently, some silly Christian group was handing out a flyer beforehand, "Five Topics to Consider During Tonight's Lecture". It contained a small set of yawningly familiar arguments. I haven't heard of these brave Christians actually attended…
March 3, 2009
What a horrible world that would be, although the deal with the puppies is tempting.
March 3, 2009
I am no fan of Stanley Fish — I thought he was a blinkered lackwit before, but now, with his latest appalling column in they NY Times, I see that he is a gospel-thumping charlatan on a par with Pat Robertson. He looks at our faltering economy like we all do, with great concern, and then, unlike the…
March 3, 2009
That's the message I get from this horrible little video. The conceit is that someone writes a letter to god, asking why he let violence occur in the schools, and he replies…and gee, god sure sounds like a snide pissant. The omnipotent, omniscient lord of the cosmos couldn't do a thing because…
March 3, 2009
They even titled the announcement "And now for something completely different…". I'm going to be doing a new monthly science column for the Guardian, so once again, I have blithely stacked another deadline on top of the groaning pile already on my desk. This should be fun, though, and one must…
March 2, 2009
The Orlando Sentinel asks the same old stupid question: Should Florida schools be required to teach intelligent design along with the scientific theory of evolution?
Yes. Intelligent Design provides an alternative explanation to evolution, which is just a theory. It's healthy to give students a…
March 2, 2009
Our local school boards tend to be institutions of endless tedium punctuated by madness. One bold innovator seeks to change this situation by increasing the insanity.
"Our schools are orderly, sanitary places where students dwell in blissful ignorance of the chaos that awaits," West said. "Should…
March 2, 2009
Democratic Senator Tom Harkin is the pol who pushed a major "alternative medicine" proposal through congress that led to the formation of the NCCAM, a hotbed of government-sponsored quackery. He now regrets the effort, but for all the wrong reasons. It's hard to imagine a more damning statement…
March 2, 2009
The American Atheists web site includes a very silly poll. Is Blasphemy a crime?
Yes: 3268
96%
No: 94
2%
Sure, it's going in a strongly sensible direction, but wouldn't a short paragraph explaining why blasphemy is not an actionable crime be more informative? Just asking atheists to state that…
March 2, 2009
It's hard, you try it: it's the Religion 101 final exam. I sure hope they post the answer key sometime.
Although…if it's evaluated in the same way religion is, maybe any answer will do, and I've actually aced it.
Oh, wait — I answered it the atheist way, which is to leave it blank. That's probably…
March 2, 2009
There are some things you'd rather not have associated with your country in the medical nomenclature, and deadly diseases are one of them. Notice how this New Zealand newspaper refers to a recent outbreak as the "English measles" — isn't it nice how the anti-vaccination folks have made a…
March 1, 2009
This is the phallus of a beetle.
It actually is that spiky, like a medieval torture instrument, and the females don't look as if they enjoy getting penetrated with it — it physically tears up their reproductive tract.
I cringe just looking at it.
March 1, 2009
The last time I was interviewed on location here in Morris was the fateful day that I was taped for a little movie that became Expelled…and we know how that turned out. It's happening again, only this time it's not some secretive intelligent design proponent coming in on false pretenses: it's Josh…
February 28, 2009
Long timers here may recall that I mentioned this cool video by Nina Paley called Sita Sings the Blues several years ago. At that time, all that was available were some short but very pretty clips.
Good news! Sita Sings the Blues is done, and available on the web. It's Saturday evening — go ahead…
February 28, 2009
Sunday morning at 9am, tune in to Atheist Talk radio to listen to Massimo Pigliucci. This should be very good — Massimo is an evolutionary biologist and an atheist, and is also full of interesting ideas.
February 28, 2009
Who knew that all you had to do is change the definition of "atheist"? Put on your sunglasses and visit this site—the color scheme is classic fluorescent kook—and you will discover that atheists are people who deny the divinity of Jesus Christ. Period. Which means…
James van Praagh, loopy psychic…
February 28, 2009
Tap, tap. Can you hear me?
You sure? I heard that International Authorities were going to disappear me.
If you hadn't heard that, you missed one of the most hilarious comment threads ever. After we made light of a pointless poll about the afterlife, various fans of that site were so horrified that…
February 28, 2009
The blogs have talked about Bobby Jindal's credentials as an exorcist for some time, and now, finally, after Jindal's comical performance on national TV the other night, the mainstream media is taking notice. His dalliance with exorcism gets a write-up in the NY Times, where one of the more…
February 27, 2009
I got a package in the mail today! It was from the Catholic League! It included a personal, signed note from Bill Donohue! It also said "SWAK" and all the 'i's were dotted with hearts! (Oh, OK, I made up that last bit. A boy can dream, you know.)
It was their 2008 Report on Anti-Catholicism, a 74-…
February 27, 2009
An analysis of the consumption of internet pornography found that there are only small differences between states, but that there are some patterns. The patterns will not surprise anyone.
The biggest consumer, Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users; Montana…
February 27, 2009
Speaking of incessant, grating whines…here's another Minnesota pest, Michele Bachmann. She spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (by invitation…how deranged have the Republicans become, anyway?) and offered this jewel of logic:
I just wondered that if our founders thought taxation…
February 27, 2009
All you Minnesotans should know by now that Richard Dawkins will be speaking at UMTC, in Northrup Auditorium, at 7pm on Wednesday, 4 March…next week! If you haven't got your tickets yet, you can join Minnesota Atheists and get one for free — so act fast.
As an additional inducement, guess who is…