pharyngula

I was all prepared to criticize a young atheist who refused to read the bible as literature in an English class. Newton South High School officials dropped a requirement to read excerpts from the Bible for one student last month, after he refused to read the Biblical passages as a literature…

This will be handy: it's a long list of secular and atheist charities. Science, education, medicine, civil rights, fighting poverty and hunger…we have a lot of areas in which secularism is the best way to contribute.

This is so disappointing: James Randi joins the ranks of the climate change denialists, and he does so on the basis of an extremely poor argument. I know, he's a professional skeptic about everything, but skeptics must have some standard for evidence … a standard which the climatologists have…

I guess Oral Roberts didn't meet his fundraising quota this year, because god has finally pink-slipped the old fraud.

Yes! I've seen the octopuses using coconut shells, and it's very, very cool. Here's the video: (This is one of the dilemmas of having a popular blog. I just checked my inbox, and I've been getting notifications about this observation at the rate of about 20 per hour since yesterday. Thanks…

The Minot Skeptical Society has posted my lecture on Evolutionary Denialism to youtube. You have to work your way through a series of numbered segments to see the whole thing, and I do go on.

The comment registration system here is still a PITA. I know; I get so many complaints from so many people, yet at the same time, I need the dog-damned thing in order to manage the horrendous pile of spam and troll-trash spilling over into the comments. So I'm going to compromise a bit. I will…

I am often chided by morons. Consistent Dear Mr. Myers, To be wrong is always acceptable, because we are human. But, to be consistently wrong, especially when you call yourself a Professor, is going way beyond the bounds of good sense. Anyone who even gives ear to people such as Dawkins and…

Robert Lanza and Deepak Chopra (just the fact that he is associated with it should discredit it right there) have been peddling this bizarre notion of Biocentrism, the idea that the universe is the product of human awareness — it's a kind of upscale version of The Secret, gussied up with more…

Peter Watts is a biologist and a science fiction author who combines the two beautifully — watch his fictional presentation on vampires to a pharmacology group to see what I mean. He's also a Canadian who was driving from the US to his home in Toronto when he was assaulted by American border guards…

Someone is putting out feelers to see about building yet another creation museum in Peoria, IL. They're looking for information about how much support they'd get, so they've made a creationist survey, asking if people would be willing to contribute to it. I don't quite get the point of a survey for…

Yikes! I step away from the computer for a few hours, and kaboom, everyone on the planet emails me to tell me I must see this video of an octopus using a coconut shell for a home. Well, yes, I must, and so must you. Although where did everyone get this idea that I am obsessed with coconuts?

The theists are on a crusade to deny a legitimately elected city council member in Asheville, NC, his office because he is an atheist. His policies don't matter, his competence doesn't matter, the only issue being used to prevent Cecil Bothwell from taking his position is his disbelief in god, and…

A fondness for quacks. Fox News brought on a naturopath to peddle a random bit of nonsense, that coffee makes you fat. Any drug that tinkers with your metabolism can have some unexpected effects, but to claim that a cup of black coffee is "worse than five hot fudge sundaes" is irresponsible…

You're supposed to close your eyes and randomly jab at this picture to choose your deity for future worship. I tried it — just closed my eyes and spun around in my chair and reached out and touched the screen — and have discovered that I am now supposed to praise "System Preferences" on my laptop…

Keep that recent xkcd in mind when you read this one. This is from a creationist who is convinced all those biologists have it completely wrong, because Clovis points are beautiful artifacts. Im digging in Ancient mans kitchen Why is it that the deeper I Dig , the more brilliant the artifacts…

This is very cool: it's a series of scanning electron micrographs of spider book lungs. I'd like to hang a few of those on my wall.

It features a philosopher who thinks he has overturned science on the basis of a shallow examination and a bad analogy. I think it's Stephen Meyer.

When Ray Comfort published his own version of Darwin's Origin, he had to come up with some original content for the introduction. He couldn't. Instead, he stole the first three pages outright from an essay by University of Tennessee professor Stan Guffey — those are the only reasonable pages in his…

NPR asked kids and young people that question. I rather liked the young lady who said "I stopped believing in the hairy man, when I stopped believing in the Bible". Very good!

It's the sweetest song I've ever heard. I'll be her filthy gibbering lunatic, always. "Always" may not last for long, though, once she hears a song that compares one's beloved to a "quasi-ichthyan angel". It's the sentiment that counts, not the literal interpretation, OK?

The Molly for the month of October goes to Lynna by a landslide. Now you've got to cast your memory back to sometime around Thanksgiving, and leave nominations in this thread for the Molly to be awarded in the New Year. We've got our holidays all confused around here, I know.

Although, when the temperatures are down around -25°C, we people in the Northern hemisphere don't associate Christmas with drinking white wine in the sun. The sentiment is great, though, so I'll do my part and overlook the interesting seasonal reversal there.

The godless must have some fans in the comic book world. In an issue of The List: Wolverine, the heroes Fantomex (a genetically engineered supersoldier) and Captain Marvel are faced with an army of zombie-like creatures, people who have been infected with an evil virus that can only take over your…

It is the Cephalopodmas Season, when tentacles and the deep sea are on everyone's mind, and that concentrated contemplation of all matters squidly must occasionally erupt into artful self-expression. Below the fold you will find a few beautiful images that have leapt into my mailbox lately. We…

I had no idea cartoonists wielded such vast power. First it was the Danish cartoons that outraged the Muslim community, and now an Austrian named Manfred Deix has drawn the ire of the Catholics: the Viennese archdiocese has 'tattled' on him to the public prosecutor for violating the National…

This is Asher, who made a squid in his sewing class. I wish I'd had a class like that when I was his age. (via Millard Fillmore's Bathtub)

It's God's Cartoonist, a documentary about Jack Chick. That guy is a complete and utter loon, and a hateful ideologue, and a bizarre recluse…all of which would make him a fascinating subject for a documentary. I'm surprised the media haven't been trying to track him down before. It's available on…

Kooks are like stray cats: give them a little bit of attention, and they end up following you everywhere, making annoying squalling noises and clawing at your door. A perfect example is David Mabus aka Dennis Markuze aka That Insane Prat, who, now that registration is a barrier to posting his…