pharyngula

Some days, it's a little depressing to see all the ignorance running rampant in this country, so it's a bit of a relief to see people in other countries say something brain-bogglingly stupid. In this case, it's a reaction to the atheist bus advertising campaign in the United Kingdom — the signs…

Our efforts in squelching the Cincinnati Zoo/Creation "Museum" connection have yielded extra dividends. Ken Ham is weeping over the after-effects. As a result of all this flak and the ending of the joint promotion after only two days, a prominent national travel group ended its conversations with…

Burger King is running a strange promotion on Facebook: for every 10 friends you drop from your list, they'll send you a coupon for a free hamburger, because you love the Whopper more than your friends. Let's see…I've got 3,747 friends on Facebook. That would mean I could get 374 free pieces of…

There are some things I never contemplated before, but in case you need a list to be really sure, here are Eight Reasons You Should Keep Coke Away From Your Vagina. Heed them!

The fine state of Mississippi is about to be led astray by the cretins they've elected to congress. They have introduced yet another textbook disclaimer bill, which will require that all school books that mention "evolution" be slapped with this sticker: The word 'theory' has many meanings,…

Everyone's telling me about this ugly incident in Colorado, where a lunatic charged into a ski resort with a lot of guns, killed one person, then committed suicide. The relevant part of the story here is that the attack was partly religiously motivated: he shouted, "If you're not Christian, you're…

This looks interesting: a group of geologists have organized to write a book that specifically shows the fallacies of intelligent design creationism from a geological perspective. This should be good.

This could be cool: an evolutionary biologist is going to read Darwin's Origin of Species for the first time and post chapter-by-chapter discussions of the book right here on Scienceblogs between now and Darwin Day. Get your own copy and follow along with John Whitfield! Another reading suggestion…

Glastonbury is the legendary burial place of King Arthur, so as you might imagine, if you're a fey English wackaloon with a fondness for magic crystals and pagan rituals, it's a magnetic attraction. How bad can it be? Well, the wicked government of Great Britain, always trying to suppress the Old…

The letters to the editor section of our local newspapers is where you find the proud regalia of the American boob in prominent display. Here's a fine example of creationist inanity from Dothan, Alabama. Try to count the misconceptions about evolution here. Grade school textbooks teach evolution as…

This is an excerpt from HBO's Generation Kill, a series about the Iraq war. Warning: there is crude language and blasphemy in this clip!

One of my students said I had to show you this, because it's exactly like one of my lectures. div#main{overflow:visible;}

The Indianapolis Star has been running a pointless little prayer on page A2 of the newspaper for years. Not any more; the editor has decided to discontinue it. It isn't because it has suddenly become a mouthpiece for militant atheism, though: We appreciate that this has been a long tradition in The…

There are also reasons D, E, F…etc., that I'm sure any sufficiently apologetic Christian will trot out for us, but they're all of ever-increasing absurdity. Most seem to subscribe to a less comical version of A, blaming his reluctance to manifest on a Divine Snit over the Fall. Personally, I…

Short summary: unimpressed. But then what else could you expect from a running dog reactionary old guard supporter of bourgeois ideology?* *Let us not linger over the uncomfortable fact that I actually agree with him in this case.

The state of erv now has an embarrassing distinction: Oklahoma has put up the first anti-evolution bill for 2009. The year isn't even a week old and they're already pushing this nonsense. Senate Bill 320 (document), prefiled in the Oklahoma Senate and scheduled for a first reading on February 2,…

Thankfully, these are the waning days of the awful, incompetent, no-good Bush/Cheney presidency, years we will try to forget in the decades to come. What will help is that we don't have a good name for this decade — The Oughties? Bleh — and we're just going to have to refer to them as the years…

Speaking of people who can't understand basic science, here's Denyse O'Leary: A couple of years ago, after I had been following the controversy for several years, I found myself listening to a long lecture by a Darwinist, replete with bafflegab and pretty lame examples. Finally, sensing (correctly…

I am genuinely amused at this caricature of scientists from a creationist site. How many of you believed these things? Everyone is biased. Scientists just happen to be biased in favor of reality, and have a set of tools that help them overcome predispositions that might lead them into error (Non…

It looks like Obama has picked Sanjay Gupta to be surgeon general. He seems a bit of a lightweight, to me — he's mainly known as a congenial talking head on television news. He's also an apologist for US health care, which does not give me any confidence that we can expect the slightest effort…

The atheist bus campaign has been a great success, and now it's about to expand, with godless signs going up all over. This is good news for reason — so many people are appalled at the blind faith of their neighbors, but since they don't know anyone who shares their views, they are reluctant to…

Did you know the Catholic church was established by Satan? You would if you read Chick comics. We also get the communion ritual explained for us. You know what will happen if he doesn't. He will burn in hell for all eternity! I do rather like the idea of an itty-bitty Jesus taking a dive off a…

You know you're looking at a right-leaning site when the consistently awful comic strip, Day By Day, is doing well. But the Best Comic Strip category in the 2008 Weblog Awards does have two great entries: Jesus and Mo, and xkcd. If there is any justice in the universe, one of those two must win!

Those Brits keep showing us up by unashamedly trumpeting good science on television and radio. The BBC has a whole collection of media on Darwin right now, most of it good. Most. One thing I simply do not get is the infatuation with the idea that evolution has stopped for humans. I am baffled at…

The Christian Anti-Defamation Commission is angry. It is time for the Christian bashing to stop and for Christians to no longer be treated like second-class citizens. Second-class citizens who are virtually the only people who can get elected to political office, who whine piteously if anyone…

Would you believe that Nick Lally has responded — well, reacted might be the better word — to our criticism of his silly letter? This is a reply to one of the editors to whom he had sent his original mail. Dear "Yo", for lack of a name....since you have not yet given me yours while you put me out…

The state canvassing board certified the results this afternoon; Al Franken is our senator, by 225 votes. Also, the Minnesota supreme court has denied Coleman's request to reconsider some rejected ballots, but of course he's going to sue. Forget all that, though, and welcome our new senator. Not…

A while back, I posted some email from Debra Rufini that had been forwarded to me — a long list of stupid arguments for creationism. Now, almost 6 months later, she has discovered my posting, and she is hoppin' mad. Hello there Mr. Myers, I must say that I'm incredibly flattered that you've gone to…

Everyone is also asking me for a list of children's books on evolution, and it's always hard to come up with any titles. I am now saved: Charlie's Playhouse has a list of 89 kids' books on evolution! You know, Darwin Day is coming up, and we could create a new tradition of educating young'uns on 12…

Deja vu — I'm up for one of those Weblog Awards again, and once again, there's Phil Plait, and once again, there's the awful faux science blog, Climate Audit. I think we've been here before. One strange thing: in the list of nominees, all of them are listed by the blog name alone, except mine: it…