Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
January 30, 2009
Buses must be militant atheists, because pretty soon they're all going to be sporting declarations of godlessness. The latest nation to jump on the bandwagon is Brazil. If you can read Portuguese, you can go direct to the source and read all about it. Otherwise, I've put a translation below the…
January 30, 2009
We've been seeing an amazing amount of press given to something as simple as atheist signs on public transport, and here's another thing that makes the apologists for religion tear their hair out: Russell's teapot. They don't get it. They read the idea with dumb incomprehension, and when they do…
January 30, 2009
The ACLU is suing Union Public School Independent District No. 9 of Oklahoma. The reason is bizarre: administrators at the school have harrassed and violated the civil rights of a young woman named Brandi Blackbear because — and I'm a bit ashamed to admit this can go on in my country — they accused…
January 30, 2009
Sepia erostrata
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
January 29, 2009
Here is Bishop Richard Williamson speaking just last week. This is the kind of gentleman of high character the Pope would see in a leadership position in the Catholic church, since he did revoke his prior excommunication.
I think he'll fit right in with the pedophiles and other reprobates who…
January 29, 2009
I just don't get it. Put a few signs with the atheist point of view on a bus, and people everywhere just freak out. Anyway, Toronto secularists are planning to slap some signs on some busses now, so this poll asks the strange question, "Should atheist groups be allowed to buy advertising space on…
January 29, 2009
You've got to be impressed with the cephalopod-butchering skills of this dolphin. Especially be sure to check out the gallery of grisly photos.
I know, I like cephalopods. But I eat them, too!
January 29, 2009
We have a new word added to the English language in honor of the teachings of people like Warren: saddlebacking. Share it and use it!
January 28, 2009
The Humanist Community of Central Ohio sent out a suggestion to various towns to declare 12 February Darwin Day, in honor of the man and his science. Nice gesture, I think; it's a small token of appreciation that doesn't cost anyone anything. The city of Whitehall went for it, but then something…
January 28, 2009
The love just drips off the page in this story about how they handle irreligious teenagers. And look, Senator Chris Buttars is the concentration camp executive director!
January 28, 2009
Richard Dawkins will be speaking in Northrup Auditorium at the University of Minnesota on 4 March, at 7pm. Get your tickets now!
There will also be a post-lecture pub event. I'll post more information on that as it comes available.
For those of you who are pining for a visit from Richard Dawkins,…
January 28, 2009
Pity Roger Highfield, editor of New Scientist, which published an issue in which the cover was the large, bold declaration that "DARWIN WAS WRONG". He has been target by a number of big name scientists who have been hammering him in a small typhoon of outraged private correspondence (I've been…
January 28, 2009
If you've been following the creationist strategy lately, you know that one of their efforts is to push a new and awful textbook, Explore Evolution, in conjunction with the various political bills to endorse a "strengths & weaknesses" theme in the public school science curriculum. Explore…
January 28, 2009
An essay by Dennis Overbye makes an important point: if you want a source for good values, look to science.
Science is not a monument of received Truth but something that people do to look for truth.
That endeavor, which has transformed the world in the last few centuries, does indeed teach…
January 27, 2009
Some of you were very disappointed that this amusing monolog by Tim Minchin was yanked off of youtube shortly after I mentioned it. Hey, it's back, in an official release by Minchin himself!
January 27, 2009
We have another M.D. spouting off against evolution using bogus creationist arguments. Jeffrey Dach may also be embarrassing lefty-liberal types, since his page is hosted on Salon. It's very confused and poorly argued.
He first says that he believes in evolution, but that Darwin's ideas are…
January 27, 2009
You can't get to Conservapædia right now — it seems to have been taken offline. It's not clear why, exactly, but there is a curiously hideous article that was posted there, as noted on Wonkette.
The Constitution provides that if a senator is unable to complete his or her term then the governor of…
January 27, 2009
The traditional U of A convocation speech used to urge all graduates to go out and serve some god. Thanks to Ian Bushfield, it's been changed, and in a compromise it now has addition language to qualify it — now only students who are believers are asked to serve an invisible man in the sky. The…
January 27, 2009
David Attenborough and I have something in common: he gets hate mail from creationists, too!
January 27, 2009
Kirk Durston is a cunning wretch. How did he open his part in the debate here in Edmonton? By claiming that atheism was an amoral philosophy that led to the corruption of society, and to prove it, he cited a political scientist named Rummel, who he claimed, had shown that cultures built around a…
January 26, 2009
A hint: Glenn Beck. James Dobson. Together. This will rot your mind.
They are complaining about a court decision that ruled that a 'moment of silence' rule in a public school was a veiled attempt to introduce sectarian religious belief into the classroom. Nobody is afraid of prayer; kids can pray…
January 26, 2009
Lucy's skeleton is on tour, and is currently on display at the Pacific Science Center — a lovely and interesting place even when the most famous australopithecine in the world isn't holding court. Here's the surprising news: Pacific northwesterners are not flocking to the museum. The science center…
January 25, 2009
The New Zealand department of conservation maintains a network of huts in the backcountry — these are little shelters with a radio for emergency calls and a mattress so hikers can wait out a spell of bad weather. It's all very sensible. Until the evangelicals discovered them. Now there's a…
January 25, 2009
Since an annoying security hole in Typekey was exposed here, I've reenabled anonymous commenting. I still want to tinker with this, so later I may try requiring OpenID registration…but I've irritated everyone enough for one weekend, so I'll try that some other day.
January 25, 2009
As I was told last night, it's one of the rare times "reason" got some representation in that section. You can read it here — I've been on Calgary radio and newspapers this week, so I'm hoping it will draw out some opposition to my talk this afternoon — it would be great to get some argument going…
January 24, 2009
9am Central time: Atheists Talk radio interviews Todd Allen Gates, and we find out how to talk to a Christian proselytizer.
January 24, 2009
I have safely arrived here in Calgary, and here are the plans for Sunday:
At 10:30, we'll be having brunch at the Best Western Village Park Inn.
At 2:00, I'll be speaking at the University of Calgary.
At 6:00, come around to the Kilkenny Irish Pub. There are possibilities of haggis.
Sound good?…
January 24, 2009
Our favorite Viking zombie, Norwegianity, has returned from the dead.
January 24, 2009
Oh, man, this gets so much wrong. Sentient life did not evolve 600 million years ago; that was roughly the time that true multicellularity arose. Unless you consider something spongelike to be sentient, it doesn't work.
Intelligent life did not first evolve 2.5 million years ago. Animal…