pharyngula

It's another of those cases where people unfit to be parents abuse their children. Samuel McGehee is accused of murdering his youngest son, suffocating him to death because he wouldn't take a nap. That's horrible, but the next question I have to ask is why this guy was allowed in the same room with…

He takes on our country's curious attitude towards patent inanity. We are edging into an Election Season where strange beliefs will get an unusual airing. Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee are up front in their disdain for Darwinism and their embrace of one degree or another of Creationism. Obama and most…

Yes, this one diagram pretty much covers all the bases.

One of the weirdest elements of the Biblical chronology of Genesis is that God waits until Day 4 to create the sun, moon, and stars. I know, it makes no sense at all, but as it turns out, God had a reason for that. Just ask a creationist! Why did God wait till Day 4 before He made the sun, moon and…

An Irish doctor has had to go public with his recommendation: he's telling Catholic fanatics that they shouldn't stared directly at the sun to generate optical artifacts. We clearly need a set of PSAs targeted specifically at religious audiences. Don't jump off of tall building because you can't…

My house is in chaos! The cats are yowling in panic! My fingers are fragile little icicles at the ends of my arms! It may be quiet here for a while. This morning, the contractors showed up to install new doors on my house — wonderful energy-efficient insulating doors to replace the old thin sheets…

Michael Moore wrote a friendly letter to Obama before his announcement to expand the war in Afghanistan. It's worth reading. Your potential decision to expand the war (while saying that you're doing it so you can "end the war") will do more to set your legacy in stone than any of the great things…

In what may be the only good use of Ray Comfort's version of the Origin, a copy is up for sale on ebay, with some added signatures. It's a fundraiser for Skepticon III, so if you're a collector of weird memorabilia, here's your chance.

I had my reservations before the election, but I voted for Obama as the better choice (and I have not changed my opinion on that at all). I had hopes that he'd get in office and stand up for some principles…but no such luck. There are several reasons for my dissatisfaction. He has failed to…

I'm interviewed on the latest edition of The Big Podcast by two people on two different continents at the same time, via the magic of technology. Check it out!

And all I take away from it is that Comfort is as sleazy as I thought. You may have heard that he has retracted his banana argument; not true, as you'll discover, he's kind of waffled around objections to it, but he still thinks the banana is an argument against evolution. He also denies that he…

One of the most common strategems for reconciling evolution and the Bible that I've run into is the Day-Age hypothesis, the claim that each of the seven 'days' of the book of Genesis represents one of God's days, which doesn't have to be 24 hours long, but could be millions or billions of years…

So true and so hilarious: a study has found that god speaks with a remarkably egocentric voice. In tests that asked people what god's opinion of various matters was, the unsurprising discovery was that it was the same as the individual's opinion — and of course every person's opinion was different…

Clemmons was the Jesus-loving lunatic who murdered four police officers in Tacoma, and was shot and killed by the police. He was also the recipient of a pardon from Mike Huckabee, governor of Arkansas, egotistical god-walloping incompetent. Now don't get me wrong: I'm all for mercy, I reject the…

The Richard Dawkins Foundation is having a big fundraiser…and what better way to treat this traditionally religious season than to use it as an excuse to direct all your charitable giving to a bunch of atheists promoting science and reason?

But I can't find any videos of squid looking cute when startled, so we have to settle for kitty cats. I think if you tried the same thing with a squid, it would spread its arms wide all right…and then it would rip your face off. Not quite as adorable.

Several people have notified me of this amusing editorial by the editor of the Colorado Springs Gazette, which compares me to a diseased pig and insists on addressing me as "Little Paul" throughout. It's poorly written and mostly pointless (well, other than its demand that we censor youtube), and I…

The Royal Society of London is releasing free pdfs of some of its best-known papers — and we're talking real classics. Check out their timeline which lets you scan for papers in chronological order; the oldest are a pair for 1666-1667 by Robert Boyle and Robert Hook(e), which will horrify modern…

Hang on here—the same wingnuts who are up in arms about the University of Minnesota proposing to screen out bigots from teaching are proposing an ideological litmus test for their own party? Ten members of the Republican National Committee are proposing a resolution demanding candidates embrace at…

I'm going to be opening my mouth again on Thursday in Minneapolis — I'll be giving a talk in MCB 3-120 on the Minneapolis campus at 7:30 on Thursday, 3 December. This will be open to the public, and it will also be an all-science talk, geared for a general audience. I'd say they were going to check…

I am deeply, horribly ashamed. On the principle that one's reputation is known by the quality of one's enemies…I have the pathetic Bryan Appleyard acting as if he is my nemesis. You know a post is worthless when it begins with "Please note that at the end of this post P.Z.Myers will still be a jerk…

Those kooky climate change denialists are at it again — we've been beaten to the poll-skewing punch on this one, a site that is collecting votes to use in demanding a strong response by the government to the challenges of global warming. We're behind by many thousands already, so it may take some…

Got a few hours to spare? Here's another recent debate, this time between Dennett, Harris, and Hitchens vs. Boteach, D'Souza, and Taleb in Mexico, with Robert Wright stuck in the middle. The sound quality is OK, but very low…so crank it up to hear it. Don't want to listen? Here's a quick summary…

Uganda's solution is rather shocking: throw any gay people into prison for life, and execute any who are HIV-positive. Don't blame it on those 'primitive' Africans, though: I can think of a few loud Americans who would find that a reasonable way to address the problem. I am deeply ashamed to…

A live debate is coming up at 6:45 GMT…I think that means in about half an hour. The topic is one that irritates me greatly: "Atheism is the New Fundamentalism". Arguing for the motion is Richard Harries, former Bishop of Oxford, and Charles Moore. former editor of the Daily Telegraph and The…

There's no getting around it. I often hear creationists protest "Oh, we love science!", but then the weird process they describe after that looks nothing like science, and resembles something more like church with lab coats. At least Michael Egnor of the Discovery Institute doesn't hide his…

Powerful stuff, that porn. The Indonesian Minister of Communication and Information (who must be very smart to have a title like that) has determined that recent natural disasters in his country are a consequence of the ubiquity of pornographic DVDs. His logic is something like this: 1) it is a…

Woo hoo! Amazon has addressed one of my biggest complaints about the Kindle (other than the evil DRM on the thing): they have added built-in pdf support. Finally, I can just transfer papers directly to the Kindle and get reasonable rendering. Got a Kindle yourself? Follow the instructions to update…