pharyngula

I met Thomas Martin the other day in NY — he's the fellow who wrote the winning essay in the Seed science writing contest. I had no idea he was a flaming creationist! At least, you'd get the impression that his essay was ID-friendly from the assessment of Uncommon Descent. Of course, what the…

That movie Expelled is acquiring an international reputation: Spiegel reports on Unfreiwillige Kreationisten-PR: Forscher fühlen sich von Filmemachern missbraucht (if you'd rather, here's the google translation). By the time the film opens, what it will be best known for is that they had to lie to…

And it's in an article by Cornelia Dean, one of their best science people. I have to single out this short summary of the argument as a good example of the right way to handle the "controversy". The growing furor over the movie, visible in blogs, on Web sites and in conversations among scientists,…

Denyse O'Leary finds another review of Lifecode … and reveals again her own lack of discrimination. It's by Jerry Bergman, a deranged young earth creationist who works for the Institute of Creation Research. Why??? This is a man with disreputable credentials afflicted with a ridiculous position on…

I know there are a few fans of Peter Irons out there — and maybe some of you agree that he ought to have a blog. Since he doesn't, though, I'm posting a little email exchange he had with Denyse O'Leary and William Dembski, by his request and with the permission of the participants. There's a…

I'm flying away today, on my way to New York to attend a little event honoring the winners of the second annual Seed science writing contest. This is really good stuff: the contestants tried to explain what it means to be scientifically literate in the 21st century, and make suggestions for…

We have a new Molly winner: congratulations to David MarjanoviÄ! I've also updated the blogroll with a few new names.

The Atheist Alliance convention is coming up this weekend in Washington DC, and one of the things that they're planning to discuss is a generic atheist symbol. Among others, they want to consider the Affinity symbol that was proposed in this thread, oh so long ago (by the way: Godfrey Temple,…

Can we stomach another label? How about "passionate atheists"? An Arkansas minister objects to the very idea. Not long ago the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published an interesting article entitled "Passionate Atheists." This caught my attention immediately. My first thought was, "How do you get…

You would think Yale would attract a smarter class of stude…oh, wait. I forgot what famous Yalies have risen to power in this country. OK, maybe it's not surprising that a Yale freshman would raise the tired canard of the "amoral atheist". Recent years have seen an influx of anti-religious…

It's bad enough everyone is using this "New Atheists" label: various critics keep inventing new ones. Some letter writer to the Independent has decided to call us "Naive Atheists" because we are unaware of the implications of atheism. However, let's forget about the unfortunate history of atheism…

Wesley Elsberry covers the contemptible David Vitter's stealth funding for creationism efforts. Vitter's a devious little sneak, and it's good to see him exposed.

And I think I like him better that way. Some Belgian bishops don't.

A few carnival notices, and an opportunity to speak your mind. Go for it! Friday Ark #157 I and the Bird #58 Humanist Symposium #8 A new Tangled Bank will be coming up next Wednesday at Aardvarchaeology — send those links in to me or host@tangledbank.net.

One concept that is sometimes used in developmental biology is the idea of the "master control gene" or "master switch" — a single gene whose expression is both necessary and sufficient to trigger activation of many other genes in a coordinated fashion, leading to the development of a specific…

I had not known that the UK actually had a legal requirement "in all state schools for pupils to take part in a daily act of worship of a broadly Christian nature." How … quaint. That must create a fair number of atheists, since I think I would probably have reacted with some resentment if my…

Scott has discovered an odd little book: The Faith Equation: One Mathematician's Journey in Christianity. Yeah, another guy finds Jesus and uses math and science after the fact to claim Christianity is the one true answer. What, you may ask, is this wonderful faith equation that leads directly to…

Hmmm. Estimates of the cost of the war in Iraq range from $4.4 to 7.1 billion per month. If I assume about $5 billion, it looks like we're throwing away about $7 million per hour in that effort; so it looks like a little bit more than a half-hours worth of bloody war costs us $4 million. So let's…

The Burke Museum did good with their opening day festivities for their new squid exhibit. Geoff Arnold visited the public squid dissection in Seattle, and returned with photos. We should all do more of this: not just talk about science, but get out there and get our hands dirty with our fellow…

Poor William Dembski has many thorns in his side. There's that spunky grad student and that guy who knows more math than he does, and there's also been a certain professor of constitutional law who has been quietly plaguing him behind the scenes. I'm on Peter Irons' cc list for these emails, and…

Aha! Another non-scientific online poll that we can mob. This one asks: Are Dawkins and Hitchens good for humanism? Let's make the wheels on their poll-o-meter spin for a little while. Wheee!

As many of the readers here know, one of the most common criticisms of us uppity atheists is the idea that the religion we critize doesn't exist: that the true power of faith is thoughtful, intelligent, and deep, and plucking out random weird beliefs isn't really representative. When I hear that (…

Take a look at the winners of The 49th International Conference on Electron, Ion and Photon Beam Technology and Nanofabrication Bizarre/Beautiful Micrograph Contest. It's itty-bitty art and weirdness!

You really must listen to Bill Maher.

I mentioned before that Mark Mathis is prowling Baylor, looking for new footage for his paean to creationist paranoia, Expelled. I have a suggestion for Mark. Go north. Just get on I35 and head north to Iowa, and pop into Southwestern Community College. Have a little conversation with Dr. Linda…

Tantalizing news: somewhere out there in the wide, wide world is a video of a pilot whale eating a large squid. "We looked hard and saw a tentacle of a squid hanging from its mouth and there were other pieces of squid stuck to the whale's body. It made a number of brusque movements on its side in…

Oh, no. Another one. Yet another kook is inspired by Ken Ham's example and plans to open a "museum" … in the Wisconsin Dells. The Dells, if you don't know it, is a family resort area, rather cheesy (ha! In Wisconsin! I made a funny), and crammed with waterparks and waterskiing shows and carnival…

How do the Irish keep track of them all? They have more than two political parties, and yet they only have two middle fingers to raise up and wave at them. All I can say, though, is that if I were living in Northern Ireland, I wouldn't be voting for the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which…

I don't just get ranting hate mail. I also get conversion stories and invitations to believe. These are saddest and most pathetic emails of them all—you just want to weep for the credulity of the poor victim. True Good News. God is real. Jesus is Lord. I know God is real because he spoke and acted…

This game looks like it is way too much fun. IF ID WAS MEDICINE I could tell you you were sick, because you *look* sick. We'd have some fantastic metric for sickness that no-one has ever used and our "sick or healthy" filter would just be a concept.... that didn't work. I could maybe tell you you…