Comments

  1. Marcus Hill says

    At the end of the Salon article:

    PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris. He is the science blog Pharyngula.

    See, not only can you be a disembodied mind, you can be a sentient blog!

  2. says

    If the best they can put forward is the “Maria’s Shoe” argument, then their responses are really not even worth reading.

  3. Loqi says

    I assume it will be more of the same: unsubstatiated anecdotes that aren’t evidence for anything. I don’t expect that they’ll understand that the criticism is of their arguments and sloppy thinking, not just their conclusion.

  4. chakeith says

    The comments at Salon are hilarious – a little heated, even. Good stuff

  5. says

    Aren’t Near Death Experiences cultural anyway? I seem to remember reading someplace that where a Christian sees HEAVEN the buddhist might see the Wheel or some such. Though I don’t remember with much certainty and don’t remain atop the matter.

  6. says

    The important thing to remember is that this is every bit as scientific as ID, which no doubt is why Denyse O’Leary cooperated in writing his dreck.

    Teach the controversy, academic freedom, and all that. If basically Xian BS against evolution is to be taught, why not New Age BS about how the brain is just a useful interface for “the mind.”

    Above all, why should one form of BS censor any other form of BS?

    Glen Davidson

  7. gragra says

    The comments at Salon are hilarious – a little heated, even. Good stuff

    There’s a tone troll, and a request to prove a negative, and materialism-is-pseudoscience, and an Ad-hominem missfire, and a shifting of the burden of proof, and science-doesn’t-know-everything…

    I thought the character in Storm was a bit of a stereotype but it’s all there. Admittedly from different people, but we’re all the one Ground of Being after all.

  8. says

    There’s a tone troll, and a request to prove a negative, and materialism-is-pseudoscience, and an Ad-hominem missfire, and a shifting of the burden of proof, and science-doesn’t-know-everything…

    I suddenly feel the urge to go over there and encourage them. I’m sorry—I know it makes me a terrible person and all, but OMFG the lulz.

    *trrrryy…toooooo…resist…*

  9. A. R says

    We should attract the Salon idiots to TZT for the new people to snine their fangs on.

  10. A. R says

    Ms Daisy Cutter: I find that the alternative situation of head-in-pants is quite common.

  11. says

    Wow, gragra. You were not kidding. I think my favorite is science cannot explain why women’s menstruation synchronizes with the lunar cycle (?!), therefore woo. Or maybe it’s that no one can explain the deep mystery of how bees can fly, therefore woo.

    To be fair, a lot of sharper wits over there are knocking them down, and with bonus mockery.

  12. coralline says

    Yes, but one’s own pants, or someone else’s… while they’re being worn? That’s fun.

  13. A. R says

    coralline: I should imagine it would be one’s own trousers, so as to facilitate cephalic penetration of the anal aperture.

  14. A. R says

    coralline: I’ve found that to be the standard body position for most woo-ists.

  15. psanity says

    I got a kick out of the commenter, on the side of reason, who intentionally misspells PZ’s name differently every time he uses it. It’s like meta-mockery. Is Mikeyc a local denizen?

  16. kemist, Dark Lord of the Sith says

    I think my favorite is science cannot explain why women’s menstruation synchronizes with the lunar cycle (?!)

    It doesn’t.

    At best it mysteriously synchronizes with the single time in the year you happen to be taking vacation near the sea (and you have forgotten your effective prescription painkillers at home and are stuck with stupid useless tylenol) so as to make that time as miserable as possible.

  17. John Morales says

    [OT + meta]

    kemist, amusingly, on my screen your comment is just to the left of the entry The Well-Timed Period of the right-hand pane’s blogroll.

    (Yes, I’m easily amused)

  18. says

    I don’t understand how this works. Do you give them permission to print your article, or do they just take it?

  19. F says

    Zinc Avenger #7

    I suspect we’re in for a series of near-brain-death experiences.

    Or near-brain experiences. I run into people having those all the time.

  20. What a Maroon, Applied Linguist of Slight Foreboding says

    Hey, I don’t think y’all are giving them enough credit. One of them has a master’s degree…

    in Science!

  21. says

    I suspect the ever-morphing spelling of my name is the product of a denizen of talk.origins. It was a kind of game they played there, morphing my name around to a novel configuration every time they referred to me.

    I just realized…that was from 20 freakin’ years ago. How long have I been doing this? And how long have people been mangling my name?