Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
February 27, 2008
The makers of Expelled have just issued an "online media alert" in response to a critical review of their movie, as some readers have forwarded to me. It's hysterical.
We already had our first security breech [sic] and are asking YOU now for your support to stand up for EXPELLED: No Intelligence…
February 26, 2008
In a story about large snakes thriving in California, Hank Fox noticed an interesting warning.
As for other potential prey, human beings - like rodents, beavers and deer - are mammals, government scientists confirmed.
This is obviously why we pay the government scientists the big bucks: to keep…
February 26, 2008
Yesterday, I asked if anyone caught the offensive description of the results of the Pew study on religion on CBS. Crooks and Liars did. Here's Wyatt Andrews' comment on the results:
The unprecedented survey of religion answers many concerns about a secular, morally void America.
I don't even know…
February 26, 2008
I'm pretty darn sure after seeing the trailer that I want to see this movie, but there's one little fillip, one name that gets briefly dropped, that really makes me wonder what's going to happen. It isn't explained in the clip, unfortunately, it's just there, so I'll have to cough up $5 to find out.
February 26, 2008
One of the people behind Expelled is holding forth in a thread at Antievolution.org, and it looks like he's getting kicked around good. This is your chance to have a serious discussion with one of the principals behind the move, ask him questions, and comment on their tactics and content.
In other…
February 26, 2008
Usually I'm complaining about some fresh inanity from the religious side, but I have to be fair: this is an example of secular child abuse. It's the Baby Loves Disco franchise, that is driving parents to bring the little kiddies to a club, where they are forced to relive the horrors of the 70s,…
February 26, 2008
Today is my very, very long day, but it's going to be loads of fun. This morning, my intro biology students and I are going to shred creationism in lecture; this afternoon, I teach our first fly labs in genetics (warning to colleagues: there may be escapees); and this evening at 6, it's time for…
February 25, 2008
So…have you all read the latest Pew report on American religion? It's been reported in the NY Times, too, and I heard that it was the lead story on CBS News (which, unfortunately, said something about a "secular, morally empty America" — did anyone catch it, or better yet, record it?).
It's…
February 25, 2008
The Ecological Society of America has just published an article that surveys the state of science teaching in the US. Some of the results are somewhat reassuring — the majority of our college-bound high school students are at least getting exposed to evolution to some degree — but they're also…
February 25, 2008
It's no surprise that a fellow of the Discovery Institute would distort his critics, but it's still entertaining to see the quotes lined up with the manglings. If you're a real masochist, you can catch West droning out the same old lies on Book TV. I'm not; I heard him speak on this subject once…
February 25, 2008
Wilkins tagged me. It's all his fault.
This is supposed to be a historical meme…why bother me with this? I think it's because philosophers have a professional obligation to annoy people with weird questions, and Wilkins takes personal pleasure in poking me now and then, the brute. Here's what I'm…
February 25, 2008
Does anybody care about them anymore? I didn't watch it at all, and I also missed most of the nominated movies this year. We had the winner, No Country for Old Men, playing in town a few weeks ago, unfortunately coinciding with an exceptionally heavy work week for me, and I couldn't find time to…
February 25, 2008
In response to your efforts to turn Pharyngula's domination of the virtual scienceblog world into a real world conquest, John Wilkins has suggested another strategy for organizing meetups: Facebook. There is a Scienceblogs Facebook group, which could be a useful tool for finding people in your…
February 25, 2008
What organization rakes in the cash by exploiting the poor and making extravagant claims that never come true? What business is built entirely on mass marketing and dishonest advertising, and yet is never called into account for its failure? It isn't the tobacco companies or the makers of penis…
February 24, 2008
Ricky Gervais has published his deconversion story — I feel a little inferior because he made up his mind about it very quickly, while it took me years to ease my way out of the nonsense.
I like his answer, though, especially the last paragraph below.
…within an hour, I was an atheist.
Wow. No God…
February 24, 2008
Hey, Minneapolitans — Campus Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists have two big events coming up soon. This week, it's pizza and bowling on the UMTC campus. I'm probably not going to be able to make that one, but the week after, on 6 March, Austin Cline will be speaking on critical thinking and…
February 24, 2008
The author of All-Too-Common Dissent has found a bizarre creationist on the web; this fellow, Randy Stimpson, isn't at all unusual, but he does represent well some common characteristics of creationists in general: arrogance, ignorance, and projection. He writes software, so he thinks we have to…
February 24, 2008
MAJeff started it all. Here I go and set up this blog just so I can lord it over a readership, and the readers starthaving a good time talking to each other, and they seem to have noticed that they are of like minds and find each other to be interesting — perhaps more interesting than the blog…
February 23, 2008
Remember — Sunday morning at 9am, you can tune in to the Minnesota Atheists' very own Atheist Talk radio program. This week, we're planning to have a bigger slice of time for the Moment of Science, and Kristine Harley and I will be talking about the idea of bad "design" — the observation that…
February 23, 2008
Donna Callaway, a member of the Florida Board of Education, has an editorial that has to be read to be believed. This is a woman who has drunk deep of the Kool-Aid.
First, she's babbles about how surprised she was that the revision of the science standards included major elements, such as evolution…
February 23, 2008
It seems to be all over the place, with both the Discovery Institute and the various overtly (as opposed to the DI's stealthy) religious creationists. It's the one message they are all pounding out consistently.
It, of course, is the argumentum ad consequentiam, the Great Godwinization of the…
February 22, 2008
The German Family Ministry (does anyone know if inclusion of the word "family" in an organization title is as ominous auf Deutsch as it is in English?) wants to ban a children's book. The book is about two little animals on a pilgrimage to find god, and in the end they don't find him anywhere, and…
February 22, 2008
I suppose it's good that I have an opportunity to take a chop at the third big branch of the Abrahamic tree, but I really take no joy in being so thorough. Enjoy the spectacle of a delusion Jewish 'teacher' misleading his students and lying out of ignorance.
What is it with creationists and fruit…
February 22, 2008
Ken Miller makes an interesting proposal to James Randerson: he thinks we ought to reclaim the word "design," and apply it to evolution. Not in the sense that the Intelligent Designists use it, as a proxy to imply a divine being, but because he says "design" is an emergent property of evolution. It…
February 22, 2008
What do you know … I write about Ken Ham's behavior, and Darren Naish follows suit with a fascinating post with all the details. There's even a paper about it.
February 22, 2008
Loligo opalescens
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
February 21, 2008
Abel Pharmboy had an awesome idea: he liveblogged his vasectomy. Now that is a true blogger.