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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
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Theology still tries to interfere in medicine where moral issues are supposed to be specially involved, yet over most of the field the battle for the scientific independence of medicine has been won. No one now thinks it impious to avoid pestilences and epidemics by sanitation and hygiene; and though some still maintain that diseases are sent by God, they do not argue that it is therefore impious to try to avoid them. The consequent improvement in health and increase of longevity is one of the most remarkable and admirable characteristics of our age. Even if science had done nothing else for human happiness, it would deserve our gratitude on this account. Those who believe in the utility of theological creeds would have difficulty in pointing to any comparable advantage that they have conferred upon the human race.
Bertrand Russell, Religion and Science (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 108-09.
September 30, 2010
Category: Godlessness
Today is the official Blasphemy Day, and I hope you all had a good time. I'm afraid I didn't do anything in particular, because every day is Blasphemy Day for me, and I'm a walking talking affront to god. CFI...
Posted by PZ Myers at 9:46 PM • 133 Comments •
Category: Administrative
One of the ads on this site is serving up something nasty, apparently. I have informed the masters of the machine through a spiffy new fast alert system Scienceblogs recently installed. Now we wait to see if we've also got...
Posted by PZ Myers at 6:16 PM • 100 Comments •
Category: Kooks
The Pew Forum surveyed Americans on their knowledge of religion, and discovered that the group most generally knowledgeable about world religions was…those unshriven hellbound godless folk. This does not sit well with many believers, who have long preferred to relegate...
Posted by PZ Myers at 3:20 PM • 1187 Comments •
Category: Academics
The Coalition on the Academic Workforce is running a survey to gather data on the working conditions of what they're calling contingent faculty: people who teach at the college level but aren't tenured or tenure track. If you're one of...
Posted by PZ Myers at 1:33 PM • 16 Comments •
Category: Politics
So I've just told you to avoid underestimating college students, but I guess you shouldn't do the same with Republicans, especially Breitbart-style Republicans. Their latest embarrassment is yet another piece of work from James O'Keefe, the young mastermind who dressed...
Posted by PZ Myers at 9:57 AM • 192 Comments •
Category: Academics
As I've mentioned, I have my upper division classes write openly on the web about the subject of the course. It's good practice for being comfortable with discussing the world of ideas outside this little sheltered realm of academia, but...
Posted by PZ Myers at 9:15 AM • 171 Comments •
September 29, 2010
Category: Organisms
(via National Geographic)...
Posted by PZ Myers at 11:50 PM • 49 Comments •
Category: Entertainment
It would be a mercy. George Lucas is preparing another release of all of his Star Wars movies, after yet again tweaking them. The new versions will be in…cheesy post-processed pseudo-3-D. When the first one was released back in 1977...
Posted by PZ Myers at 11:22 PM • 159 Comments •
Category: Humor
I initially thought this was a fine graph, charting the fields of research of mad scientists over time, since it did accurately conclude that biologists rocked that niche, but then I looked closer, and they shortchanged us. For some entirely...
Posted by PZ Myers at 7:04 PM • 59 Comments •
Category: Politics
Matt Taibbi is one of my favorite political writers, and he's perfect for scrutinizing the Tea Party movement — he's a gonzo swashbuckler who specializes in exposing the inanities of American culture, so plopping him down in the midst of...
Posted by PZ Myers at 11:16 AM • 228 Comments •
Casaubon's Book 04.30.2012
Thoughts from Kansas 04.29.2012
Starts With a Bang! 04.27.2012
Pharyngula 04.27.2012
Greg Laden's Blog 04.27.2012
