Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
October 6, 2008
And courage. And, in these precarious economic times, a little bit of the crazy.
Hank Fox has quit his job at a newspaper. Why? Because they ran an article, in spite of his protests, that was plain, simple, taken-for-granted bigotry against atheists.
If you're looking for godless heroes, there's…
October 6, 2008
If you notice little things going wrong in your everyday life right now, it's because Mercury is in retrograde. At least, that's the excuse astrologers like to give, even though it's entirely nonsensical and the apparent motion of the planets really has no effect on your life, unless you're an…
October 6, 2008
Stuart Buck persists in claiming that scientists have a bias against the supernatural, and that we dismiss it out of hand. This isn’t true; the problem is that supernatural explanations are poorly framed and typically unaddressable, so we tend to avoid them as unproductive. What one would actually…
October 6, 2008
Look, Texas is supposed to be all about the Gablers and Don McLeroy and the dwarf from Pampa and George W. Bush, and then the darned atheist Texans have to show up and ruin the image. The Texas Freethought Convention is happening on Sunday, 26 October in Austin — check out the infomercial. I wish I…
October 6, 2008
It looks like Alex's predictions for the Nobel Prise this year did not come to pass — although I was thinking McCulloch and Till were likely, so I was wrong, too. The Nobel for Physiology or Medicine has just been announced, and the winners are Harald zur Hausen, for discovering that HPV causes…
October 6, 2008
You will all be pleased to know that the Brazilian UFOnuts who named their organization after Carl Sagan have backed down and removed Carl's name from their masthead.
They've named it after Galileo instead.
Oy vey. Couldn't they name it after a more appropriate historical figure? I recommend…
October 6, 2008
The infamous anti-gay legislator from Oklahoma, Sally Kern, was interviewed by the Oklahoma Daily. The story has some fine bon mots, like her definition of evolution:
Kern defined evolution to me as "the process of wanting to create something or have something be perfect. Get rid of that which is…
October 5, 2008
Isn't technology wonderful? It allows the woo-woos to spread their nonsense so much more rapidly, and to look slick and shiny and modern while they do it. Take a look at this report and polls on a site called AOL Health — AOL Quackery is more like it — which describes a survey that says 16% of…
October 5, 2008
And I'm already a-scared! It is not recommended that you view this collection of video clips and links of Pentecostals spazzing out before bedtime, unless you really want to induce nightmares.
October 5, 2008
This new movie, Religulous, is doing reasonably well on its opening weekend, bringing in about $3.5 million. This is comparable to what Expelled brought in (about $3.7 million). There are a few differences, though.
Religulous hasn't had much of an advertising campaign. Remember all the Expelled…
October 5, 2008
My colleague at UMM, Michael Lackey, is interviewed by DJ Grothe on Point of Inquiry. He's written a book on freethought in the American black community, and the interesting point is that black atheists embraced unbelief as a refuge from the Christian rationalizations for oppression — they saw…
October 5, 2008
They just don't work. Maybe you've heard of "Minnesota nice", this strange passive-aggressive attitude around here that compels everyone to compete at being the most polite and deferential…and it completely defeats the function of the 4-way stop at an intersection. The rule is simple—whoever first…
October 5, 2008
I saw their line of educational toys at AAI — if you've got young kids, grandkids, nieces or nephews, check out the growing line of evolution games and toys at Charlie's Playhouse.
October 5, 2008
Here's the VP debate exactly as I remember it: Palin was cheerful, folksy, always evading the questions and changing the subject she was prepped for, and completely devoid of substance. I especially liked the introductory ground rules, which the media have taken to heart: "Due to the historically…
October 5, 2008
Parents in the Berkeley Unified School District are horrified to discover that one of their elementary school teachers is a creationist. Berkeley is like another weird world: this is so common everywhere else, and Berzerkeleyites are so shocked when it happens among their own. I was actually amused…
October 5, 2008
Listen to Atheists Talk radio on Sunday morning — it could be an interesting one. First up is Stephen Matheson to talk about his position, theistic evolution. I hope that Mike Haubrich applies a little pressure there…otherwise, you guys better be prepared to call in with tough questions. The second…
October 4, 2008
If you've been curious about what's been going on at Michael Shermer's Origins conference, here's someone who has been live-blogging it. It sounds like most of the morning talks were somewhat interesting, but the afternoon panel session (sponsored by the Templeton Foundation) sounds like it…
October 4, 2008
Neal Stephenson writes ambitious books. I got hooked with Snow Crash(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), an amazingly imaginative book about near-future virtual worlds; Zodiac(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll) is required reading for anyone interested in chemistry and the environment; I had mixed feelings about…
October 4, 2008
How about those modesty police?
In Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, where the rule of law sometimes takes a back seat to the rule of God, zealots are on a campaign to stamp out behavior they consider unchaste. They hurl stones at women for such "sins" as wearing a red blouse, and attack…
October 4, 2008
Looking for some images from a classic trial? The Smithsonian has recently put a set of photos from the 1925 Scopes trial on Flickr.
October 4, 2008
I wish religious nuts could get a little perspective when they talk about "miracles". The latest "miracle" is a piece of Ilan Ramon's diary that is going on display in Israel; Ramon was one of the astronauts on the space shuttle Columbia.
"It's almost a miracle that it survived -- it's incredible…
October 4, 2008
I received an email today that brings up a curious decision by Lund University: they have appointed a new head of the university who seems to have a few bats in the belfry, and there is some concern that they may be rabid. The situation isn't helped by the fact that this newly appointed head, Per…
October 3, 2008
I just got a nice letter from the Science Research Foundation of Turkey, an organization founded by Adnan Oktar and with a name so duplicitous that our American Republicans are writhing with envy. Here's their request and my answer.
Dear Dr. Paul Zachary Myers,
I am more or less aware of your…
October 3, 2008
And it's not showing anywhere near me. In fact, I will be very surprised if it opens anywhere in this rural, religious area…I'll probably have to wait for it to come out on DVD. Religulous is the new movie by Bill Maher, an agnostic who thinks religion is a "load of nonsense", which by all reports…
October 3, 2008
Popescu is running for some political office (the article doesn't say what), and he recently gave a talk at a high school where he frankly stated his views.
"A young man asked me what I think of homosexual marriages and I said I think homosexuals should be executed," he said. "My whole reason for…
October 3, 2008
And it doesn't feel good. Kroto is a Nobel-winning chemist, and I've had dinner with him — he's a good guy, a very outspoken atheist, strongly on the side of science education, and all around smart and personable. So I hate to say it, but this opinion piece on the Michael Reiss affair is just too…
October 3, 2008
Rather than asking random internet voters to decide who should be Leader of the Free World, how about this one: Should Montel have psychic Sylvia Browne on his new show?
For those who don't know who this is about, Montel Williams is an ex-talk show host best known for having gullible tripe on every…
October 3, 2008
Sepia latimanus and Homo sapiens
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.