Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
July 9, 2008
Never mind that, though — Hybrid Medical Animation has a lovely demo reel of cells and molecules bouncing around.
July 9, 2008
We have a new blog here: Next Generation Energy, a temporarily active blog discussing alternative energy. It's a bit of an odd duck and an experiment, with a team of bloggers focused on this one issue and exploring it for a limited term, but check it out.
One concern I can predict: it's sponsored…
July 9, 2008
If you live in Edmonton, Alberta, which is somewhere up north in Canada (and if you live there, I presume you know where), you might want to get in touch with the newly formed Society of Edmonton Atheists. They're looking to expand!
July 9, 2008
Here's a much more serious issue than a goddamned cracker: it's the steady accumulation of military power in religious hands. It's not overt policy, but we should be worried that there is an increasing association between religiosity and military service — an association between credulity and…
July 8, 2008
There are days when it is agony to read the news, because people are so goddamned stupid. Petty and stupid. Hateful and stupid. Just plain stupid. And nothing makes them stupider than religion.
Here's a story that will destroy your hopes for a reasonable humanity.
Webster Cook says he smuggled a…
July 8, 2008
Hello, Seattle! Look what just went up on Denny, near the Stewart Street intersection:
Everyone might want to donate to this cause, too: a group is trying to buy ad space on London buses, saying "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and get on with your life."
Whew. We're getting uppity.
July 8, 2008
I've been outclassed. Every scientist in the world is a modest little mouse in comparison. All of you readers: humble, demure, and retiring. Ray Comfort has just compared himself favorably to Einstein, saying that he has made a discovery more important than E=mc2. He even has a painfully…
July 8, 2008
Some days, my mailbox overflows with hilarity…like today. I got the new Roy Zimmerman CD! You should, too! It'll cheer any liberal to realize that you aren't alone, and you've got a theme song.
But I also get other mail that's almost as funny, although not intentionally so. For some perverse reason…
July 8, 2008
(Click for larger and more complete image)
Not bad, but really, the guy in the glasses ought to be redrawn with a beard.
July 8, 2008
A major institution supporting the conflation of 'spirituality' and science, the Templeton Foundation, has lost its founder. Sir John Templeton is now cooling meat, his mind stilled, his 'spirit', whatever the heck that is, missing. This is a sad event, since from all I've heard from those who met…
July 8, 2008
There's a new contest you can enter: Build a Lifeform. A real one.
Yes, it can be done now…or at least, we can insert new capabilities into existing organisms. Before you get too excited, though, most of this work involves directed tweaking of phage or E. coli, which is powerful stuff, but far…
July 8, 2008
Good work, Canada, and it's an honor long due.
Now 85, Morgentaler, a Polish Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Montreal after the war, opened his first abortion clinic in 1969 and performed thousands of procedures, which were illegal at the time.
Morgentaler, a trained family physician, argued…
July 8, 2008
Perhaps you've been wondering how creationists handle new research in biology. We've already seen how Conservapædians cope: by denial, bleating for the data, and threatening lawsuits, basically by putting on a freak show to distract from the evidence. Facing the same data from the Lenski lab,…
July 8, 2008
…scientists were treated like celebrities?
There's one photo at the link of fashion violations — man, that would be a hotly contested page with no end of possible entries, I would think. Somebody needs to start a Nerd magazine, and just cruise science and engineering conferences for endless…
July 8, 2008
Social networking sites are getting to be a dime-a-dozen — I'm getting invitations to join new ones all the time. Here's one that gets at least one thing right: Graduate Junction. They are specifically aimed at a narrow clientele, which at least adds a little focus to their group. In this case, it'…
July 7, 2008
You knew this was coming, right? How else to honor World Youth than for Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, to cover up an incident of child molestation by a Catholic priest? It's traditional!
July 7, 2008
Sometimes you just have to sit and stare dumbfounded at the appalling stupidity creationists will state with absolute conviction. Here's an example that will leave you awestruck, too: a site that declares there is a Darwin conspiracy, and cites three fatal flaws that they claim conclusively prove…
July 7, 2008
They're handing out Rubik's Cubes to octopuses. This is good training in logic and pattern recognition, and the next step will be to hand them wrenches and welding torches and put them to work assembling underwater habitats for mankind (so think the deluded hu-mans anyway — they'll actually use…
July 7, 2008
You people keep sending them to me, and as long as I'm swamped with work they're at least a quick and easy blog post. So forgive me, but when I saw the results on this poll that asks,
"Should prayer and the Ten Commandments be allowed in schools?", I couldn't resist.
92% say yes. I know that not…
July 7, 2008
This one is on CNN: Is it OK for states to issue car license plates with religious messages?
Boy, when you put it that simply, isn't it obvious? Since when should a state government be in the business of promoting religious slogans? Let people buy a nice religious license plate frame from a…
July 7, 2008
The Beltway Atheists are planning a summer get-away in mid-August called Atheist Days. You want to go. Trust me. Get a gang of hot, sexy atheists together on a beach, and you can trust them to bare their minds and start swapping ideas, right there in public, without any shame at all.
July 7, 2008
We seem to be having a light incursion of evangelical Christians. Here's some advice for them, on how to convert an atheist. It's a very silly article, I'm afraid, because while it says all these sensible things about being polite and getting to know them and leading them gently to church, it never…
July 6, 2008
Rick was handed a nice tri-fold glossy pamphlet as he was walking to a fireworks display. It's titled "What If", and what it is is a collection of — you guessed it — bible quotes to extort your obedience to a goofy religion. Rick has handled the details, so I'll just cut to the conclusion. It asks…
July 6, 2008
Read.
The Four Stone Hearth
Carnival of the Liberals #68
Friday Ark #198
Freethinker Sunday Sermonette (Irony that must be seen to be believed!)
Carnival of the Godless #95
Greg Laden will be hosting the next Tangled Bank on 9 July. Submit now!
Speak:
July 6, 2008
…take a look at this opinion of Obama's stance on faith-based charities. I agree with it, except that I will be voting for Obama in November — and I will be carping at him for the next 4-8 years, too.
July 6, 2008
All right, I think I have a decision: we will meet at 6:00pm or thereabouts on Saturday, 12 July, at Manuel's Tavern, 602 N. Highland Ave., and have a grand old time for as long as you all can handle it. Remember, those Denverites could barely make it to 10pm — I think Georgians have to show that…
July 6, 2008
If you're listening to Atheists Talk radio right now, you've been hearing a lot about the secular intent of the founding of the US government. The LA Times has an article on the Jefferson Bible — that greatly abridged version of the Bible that Jefferson made by chopping out all the miracles and…
July 6, 2008
Larry Moran has been highlighting the work of some great science writers — you really should start off your day with selections from two of my favorites, Richard Lewontin and Niles Eldredge. It's almost as good as coffee for perking up your brain.
July 6, 2008
Tune in at 9am Central time for Atheists Talk radio — today, it's a special Independence Day program, with Edward Tabash discussing the historical and legal status of the separation of church and state.