I’m going to be speaking at the Midwest Freethought Conference in early August, and right wing Christian radio in Nebraska has caught word of this. They are upset that the meeting is being held on the University of Nebraska campus, and that some evil dork is going to be there.
It seems a group called the “United Coalition of Reason” is funding the billboard, and I am waiting for university officials to get back to me with answers on how this event will be funded — right down to costs of air conditioning, lights, security, parking attendants, clean-up, etc.
Even if no taxpayer funds are being used for this, is this really the type of event that UNO wants to align itself with? On the other hand, since the campus allows Christian Student Fellowship to meet weekly in the student center, they have to allow this travesty, don’t they?
After all, PZ Myers is going to be there! He’s the god of atheism!
And then they include a photo of me, looking like unto a god: fat, homely, sloppily dressed, with a goofy expression on my face while holding a toy panda bear.
This radio goon’s points are absurd. Atheists are citizens of Nebraska, and they have a right to use state facilities with fair recompense, just as do Christians. You do not get to demand special scrutiny for an atheist group that you do not impose on any other group. And yes, representing a significant chunk of their students and faculty and staff seems like an eminently reasonable goal for UNO to want to align itself.
And, you know, I do not take myself that seriously; I have no illusions that I’m a particularly special individual, let alone a god, and even the people who use my site as a gathering place and my words as a focus for discussion do not hold me in exaltation. I’m expecting to die in a few years, a most ungodlike behavior, and the atheists who congregate here will simply move on to some other genius loci than Pharyngula. That’s the nature of things: ephemeral and varied.
Jeez. We don’t even have a cult of personality in the atheist community. Gods? If one tried to arise here, we’d spit on it until it drowned.
I have no illusions that I’m a particularly special individual
Nonsense. You’re a very unique and special individual, just like everyone else. Plus you’re way more intelligent and articulate than average. Your blog and research are of high quality. But if you start thinking that you’re a god or even a charismatic dictator, the horde will neg you to death. And don’t think we can’t do it.
Amen to that!
Ooohh! Ooooh! There’s a poll too! PZ, how did you miss it? Still, it appears Pharyngulation is in progress, with “I am one (atheist)” well in the lead.
Yeah, try telling that to all the fucking Hitchens-worshippers out there.
I prefer to refer to you as the scraggly beard of atheism.
Yes. Reason has always been popular at universities. Religions hate it. Martin Luther called Reason a whore. He didn’t like reason or women.
Not really. There are many saints of atheism but no gods. Try Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, or Bertrand Russell.
Aww, you should have just a little cult. A circlet of fake laurel leaves for special occasions, and perhaps a bench beside wherever your ashes are tossed for the use of tipplers.
Um.
Maybe let’s not.
We got some spitting to do – but don’t worry we’ll get there.
(I’d like to personally be in charge of the spitting duties for Blackford, ’cause I’m lazy and 3-4 people seem to be a manageable group).
You expect to die in “a few years”? Did i miss something?
What are saints but minor gods of a “monotheistic” religion? Definitely a let’s not.
No saints, and no gods, but atheists do have at least one martyr. Poor Hypatia.
Aren’t you supposed to be the Pope of Atheism? Confusing…
You should at least should your own snazzy title, like Grand Exalted of Infinite Unbelieving, something like that.
What’s the fun of being the uncriticized and blindly followed figure that you so obviously are otherwise!
“After all, PZ Myers is going to be there! He’s the god of atheism!”
The best part of this is, even if gods were a thing and this were true, no one would believe in you!
’m expecting to die in a few years, a most ungodlike behavior
If you do it in the right way and right place, there’s a certain chance that you could be raised from the dead, a behavior usually limited to gods and those with witnessed V fib arrests.
Well, they spelt your name correctly, and they actually linked your (non-atheist) blog.
Wait – so when I eat squid it isn’t transubstantiated into PZ?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA… yes. Yes, it does. Thereby making your entire rant and fact-finding mission entirely useless.
If what Zinc Avenger says is true then PZ is actually self-cannibalizing. Since we are all just PZ’s sock-puppets.
P-zed:
Oh noes! Does that mean I have to phone up the jeweller and cancel my order for that custom made, three times lifesize statue of you? And gee, it’s s’posed to be rendered in platinum, and with twinkly lights too!
And the stonemasons are gonna be pissed when I cancel my order for the pedestal, a 100′ black obsidian monolith. The cancellation fees will be a killer. <grumble>
@ OP
I have heard this attributed to Mao Zedong. That can’t be right, can it?
@ dianne
{theophontes (BDFL) quietly leaves via the back door to the thread}
ugh
Yes, but you’ll be coming back, right?
You need Mr. Deity to send the radio station an apology stating that unbeknownst to him his associate Lucy has picked up all the financing.
No gods, no masters, not even me
So let it be written, so let it be done!
theophontes 21
“Benevolent”?‽!??
In The Beginning
For shame!
I followed the link to …right wing christian radio in Nebraska… and found the following poll at the end of the article:
Which Comment Most Closely Resembles Your Thoughts on Atheists?
…So I voted appropriately and the results showed the following:
I am one. 64.72 %
I pray for them. 9.06 %
I don’t waste time with them, as too many of them are radicals who think being atheists somehow makes them superior. 19.09 %
I don’t believe in them. 7.12 %
Makes my day :)
‘There are many saints of atheism but no gods. Try Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, or Bertrand Russell.’
Seriously? I just gagged a little.
@ theophontes (坏蛋):
You’re right, it’s not true. For one thing, it’s older than him: at first, this was a slogan coined by anarchists in the 19th century. French revolutionary socialist and independent journalist Louis-Auguste Blanqui also used it as title of his newspaper in 1880: Ni Dieu Ni Maître.
Maybe Chairman Mao was actually quoting Blanqui, one of the historical figures of socialism in Europe.
Someone has a picture of you holding a non-cephalopod action figure?
This could get ugly…
@ raven:
Er… Let’s not confuse heroes with saints, shall we?
:-/
But Abbie Smith is a hero!
Let’s not confused talented rhetoricians with heroes
I wish Christians would stop praying for me, it burns!
…and I wish comments would stop resembling my thoughts too.
Suck it up, Dearie.
Is he implying that his God actually appears at all those Christian functions held at the university? Huh.
(Yes, yes, I know, God is everywhere. Even in the toilet.)
Ing:
True. I should have said “celebrities”! ;-)
(On a vaguely related point: the Ancient Greeks and Romans, as pagans, used to worship not only true deities, like Zeus, Aphrodite and the like, but also heroes, which could mean “a mortal human being who died young and was famous for something”, like exceptional beauty or bravery or feats of athleticism. It was a kind of posthumous honor. Same for the posthumous deification of kings and emperors.)
I for one welcome our new bearded and sloppy overlords.
No need to ugh. If you look at the community of catholic saints, it is chock-full of terrible people. I’m not comparing CH RD or BR to them directly, just saying that being named a saint is apparently not exactly a badge of honor according to modern standards.
If they knew anything about Pharyngula they would know better than to mention PZ Myers and post a poll on atheism in the same article.
25 minutes later
Which Comment Most Closely Resembles Your Thoughts on Atheists? I am one.
70.28 %
I pray for them.
8.99 %
I don’t waste time with them, as too many of them are radicals who think being atheists somehow makes them superior.
15.44 %
I don’t believe in them.
5.30 %
Being or not being a terrible person has nothing to do with it.
The use of the word saint doesn’t strike you as, um, a bit confused and counter productive in this aspect?
Not to mention inaccurate.
On Saturday at CONvergence I ran afoul of the state law prohibiting sales of alcohol at grocery stores. At your next panel discussion I was going to ask you to right this wrong. But once I was back in your presence I realized how ungod-like you were and that your influence over the Minnesota state legislature was very minimal. Luckily I secured a couple of drinks during lunch at a nearby restaurant.
frankb, I like your style
Oh, yes, there was that…
@Rev. BigDumbChimp
It read to me like simpering deference, I didn’t like it.
Nothing personal here, PZ, but it would seem that this guy has a really low bar set for describing something (like you) as a “god”. I mean really, how many universes have you created lately? Have you brought anyone back from the dead? etc?
I am always amazed that they are so willing to say that atheists think they are their own gods. Is it that easy to be a god in their world? How can their god be great if it takes so little to be one?
Perhaps we should go with “Well-liked, popular thinkers and writers like….”
Saints are loosely defined as people with an unusual amount of holiness. I think that by definition a saint is an impossibility because holiness is associated with divinity and when there’s no god there can’t be divinity.
@Andusay
I’m imagining the first episode of Black Books now, with PZ walking around town using his godlike power to calm yapping dogs and turn off car alarms
Well, let’s hope PZ is a forgiving God.
Yes. Yes it is.
Guess what? Not everybody thinks that it’s just obvious that God exists, or that we ought to believe it exists, or that said belief confers some special aura of distinction, virtue, and humility on the believer. It’s an empirical question — not a moral imperative. And dealing with valid, reasonable, live philosophical and scientific questions is exactly what universities are supposed to do — and supposed to encourage.
The world is not your in-group, sir. We do not all worship your sense of smug certainty.
He’s alright, but he’s no bowl of Special K
It’s clearly uninformed nonsense, anyway. Everyone knows PZ is no mere god but the Grand High Poopyhead and Ebil Squidly Overlord, complete with underwater volcano lair. We likes our underwater volcano lairs, yes we does.
.
Instead of moving on we could have a conclave (of Mollies?) and keep the site going. Maybe even evolve to more kittens and less squid.
I love how religionists begin criticizing atheists by comparing us to themselves; telling us we have faith, gods and that atheism is a religion.
Is this a form of self-loathing?
@ kevinalexander:
Ooh, sure, a conclave! We could elect a new pope of atheism, and decide to grant her a tiara adorned with golden kittens!
You know, I’ve never understood why people who want to depict PZ as a scary, dangerous man seem drawn to using that picnic photo with the teddy bear. While it’s not particularly flattering, I think it makes him look like a rather kind and funny uncle — and the panda on the lap is just sweet. It’s very humanizing and unlikely to induce abject fear in anyone.
Now if I were a fundamentalist minister or spokesperson intent on generating alarm among the flock, I’d seek out that drawing of PZ Myers with tentacles lolling in the throne inside his evil squid lair.
THAT looks like someone you might want to avoid. Assuming you’re a Christian fundamentalist, that is. Otherwise, he just looks awesome. Not worship-worthy, of course, but you don’t want to piss him off.
@ chigau (2ICBDFL) aka chigau (間違っていない)
Benign Dictator For Life ™ …
I stand corrected.Of course I knew that. It was a red herring to draw out the fifth columnists.@ irenedelse #29
Thanks for your comment. I first heard the expression from a colleague of mine (in China) who is an avid member of the communist party. He claimed it was a Mao original (I suspect I know about Mao than he does though.) I have since heard it attributed to different people (eg: Margaret Sanger). (Mao was a misogynist, so he would more likely be refering (if indeed he did) to the earlier use of the phrase.)
A communist dictator stealing credit!? NO!!!!! NEVER!
As somebody who helped run a campus freethought group in the Midwest once upon a time, let me tell you. It is obscene the amount of taxpayer money Christian groups (all fucking 40 of them) get to operate, and to do things like go on fun trips. On the flip side, groups like ours have to endure constant attacks and derision, and struggle to get money to bring in one interesting speaker a year.
No it’s evening the playing field (everyone just has faith so now the question is who has the RIGHT faith) and a retreat to solipsism.
Ing
Love the imagery! But can PZ do accounts?
I was on Bill Bailey’s site looking for tour dates earlier, sadly nothing in the UK coming up
Can I be a minor demon?
So our esteemed host is the god of the godless.
And radio KFAB therefore must be the voice of Zen in Nebraska, with the K standing for Koan. (Not sure about the other letters: teasing out acronyms with an F in them always short-circuits my mind with thoughts of, uh, France, y’know.)
If I ever do my idea of rewriting the bible as a fantasy epic from Cain’s POV one of the titles of the series will be “God of the Godless”
@ kevinalexander
And thereby undermine all the Squidly Oberlawd’s hard and tireless work on teh anti-caturday posts? Now that would be a very goddist thing to do.
@ Ing
:D
fify: A communist acolyte crediting his godlike leader (deceased) with another person’s slogan!? NO!!!!! NEVER!
Nah, it’s just good ol’ projection.
@ Sastra:
Good point. Maybe what’s really going on is that for most fundamentalists, the important thing is not to make the adversary appear fearsome, but to demean them, as they conceive such things. Hence the predilection for a photo that makes PZ look half-awake and/or goofing around, even though someone who likes PZ will find it endearing.
Maybe it’s believing in an absolute and superhuman authority (God, tradition…) that twists their way of thinking to make them see humanizing traits as signs of weakness, and weakness as something to pounce upon?
Did PZ have a Robert Plant moment and shout out; “I am a squidly God!”?
Nae King! Nae Quin! Nae Laird! Nae Master! We willnae be fooled again!
@irenedelse
Or just a regular popehat. Those suckers are the size of a billboard. Get the techies to make an electronic version and you could have pop up ads.
Who died and made him pope? It wasn’t me.
Hmm, maybe he’s the Anti-Pope.
Anyway, all this talk about how atheists have to have gods and faith is a bit like a soccer player telling a non-player that you’ve got to have referees and an offsides rule.
They should photoshop in a white cat in its place. Or perhaps a squid, devouring the panda alive.
If all the religious would turn into gods, then we would be rid of the scourge as all gods are imaginary.
PZ’s more of a demiurge.
(And I’ve had a few Demi-urges in my time…)
The GLBT community gets that “don’t spend our tax dollars” bullshit all the time.
From a recent Eugene Delgaudio* email about Pentagon pride:
The fact that even one penny of your tax dollars is being used to celebrate the homosexual lifestyle in the U.S. Military is just plain in-your-face offensive.
*-I got on his mailing list when PZ put out a posting on him. He’s so over the top homophobic that his rantings are sometimes amusing.
Hey, at least it’s not going toward killing people.
Does being homosexual mean you don’t pay taxes?
I’m a firm believer that our troops (and yours) should be fulfilling their proper jobs. They should be back at barracks playing table tennis, occasionally playing hide and seek in camouflage, and going out on manoeuvres with big, big tanks and exciting guns.
I’d have joined the army but I look terrible in green and have a very severe allergy to fast moving bits of lead.
Louis
P.S. Oh and PZ as god? Please. Nobody’s taking my place. How do I know I’m god? Well 1) I don’t believe in myself and 2) every time I say to my wife “let’s have sex” she replies “oh god”. (Week here all, waitress tip your forget don’t, veal try the)
voted:
I am one.
80.27 %
I pray for them.
5.85 %
I don’t waste time with them, as too many of them are radicals who think being atheists somehow makes them superior.
10.96 %
I don’t believe in them.
2.92 %
Don’t even get me started on how many years faculty here had to fight to stop the administration from having Christian ministers to open every single event/meeting/commencement with a prayer, and how hard we had to fight to keep Bible Study courses taught by volunteer ministers at a campus building through some weird affiliation with the university I never sussed out from counting for university credit, and the Athletes for Christ groups, and…..argh, I better stop.
So hard to think outside the god box.
Suuuure, PZ. And you had nothing to do with the throne at CONvergence, right? :)
I live in this community and am thrilled this event is happening! BTW, just answered the poll question myself and got this response:
Which Comment Most Closely Resembles Your Thoughts on Atheists?
I am one. 81.50 %
I pray for them. 5.45 %
I don’t waste time with them, as too many of them are radicals who think being atheists somehow makes them superior. 10.33 %
I don’t believe in them. 2.72 %
Love it!!
I think that it is interesting that the Godly can’t bear the thought of atheists getting together and talking about reason, biology or why religion is nonsense. Atheists don’t get into an indignant lather when we hear that the religious are getting together and talking, even if they are slagging us off or dissing Darwin or whatever. What do we suppose is the cause of this difference in attitude? It’s almost as if they know that their beliefs are cack and that they will lose members if people go around pointing it out.
Wait, you mean all that money I spent building a sacrificial altar to PZ and all those goats I slaughtered on it were for nothing? Dammit!
He thinks we shouldn’t teach “reason” at university?!?
I think we should pursue this. I look forward to seeing the cost comparison between his “weekly” Christian Student Fellowship over the entire year vs a one off conference. Or perhaps they sit in the dark with the air conditioning off.
I recall an incident in which Bertrand Russell was supposedly dying in China and heard the local people planning to build a shrine and worship him as a god post mortem.He was quite flattered and says “this would have been rather chic for an atheist”.
Here is the show this yahoo did today.
He said something along the lines that atheist girls are easy. Classy guy this one, seems to really care about crackers too.
http://www.kfab.com/player/?station=KFAB-AM&program_name=podcast&program_id=ScottVoorhees.xml&mid=22248020
opposablethumbs, #54
Is our Squidy Overlord’s volcano a beer volcano?
He misspelt “Catholic”.
As a citizen of Nebraska, I’m thrilled whenever there’s something besides the usual “family-friendly” fare (which, of course, means more than no sex, no alcohol – it also means lots and lots of Christianity). I’ll be there – just like I was there in May when Sam Singleton did his thing at UNO. I have to drive 3 hours to get there, but it’s worth the motel room.
However, now that someone has started picking this up to protest, I have my doubts. After all, it was the University of Nebraska that cancelled a scheduled talk by Bill Ayres once someone complained. I’ll wait and see. As far as I know, no one complained about Brother Sam (although there are ice cream vendors in Omaha); so I don’t know how well they’ll hold out against protests against the godless.
This was funny though:
Says the guy representing an institution pulling off the biggest tax-dodge ever devised.
Also interesting how he does not have an apoplexy over how the wars are funded.
Only a true god would deny His Divinity! All hail PZ!!!
“you’re all individuals!
(vast chorus) “YES! WE’RE ALL INDIVIDUALS!”
(one little voice) “I’m not”
Hey PZ. I’m shocked that you chose the quote above from the kfab radio broadcast, instead of the more hostile ethnocentric comment he made soon after that.
The reason christian students are willing to participate in debates and activities with the University’s secular group is because “atheist chics are easy”.
Could you imagine the uproar if Mr. Voorhees had made the same statement about black girls, catholic girls, the female members of virtually any group other than the secular.
I contacted the University and spoke with members of the University’s Administration, making them aware of this quote, and commenting on the University’s media/financial ties to this station.
Some effort should be made to contact the University’s secular group and help them put pressure on the University to respond publicly to this situation and/or to cut ties with this station and this program.
I’d be glad to pitch in and help, I have substantial experience dealing with discrimination and prejudice with the University through work I have done at the University of Montana.
This should not be allowed to disappear quietly.
TV Tropes: A God Am I
Neoplatonism isn’t atheism.
There are martyrs, though. Some Australian was shot dead by his pious neighbour a few years ago for this exact stated reason.
FIFY.
Overlords are like Highlanders:There can be only one.Yeah. There are some particularly bloody crusaders among them, for instance.
In Catholicism, the saints are all those who are in heaven. The officially recognized (canonized) saints are those , diagnosed by criteria such as the miracles that happen when people pray to them.
No heaven, no saints…
I insist we burn kittens to generate the black smoke.
The Enemy is both scarily dangerous and comically harmless at the same time.
The Enemy is always both scarily dangerous and comically harmless at the same time.
Fully devil and fully man at the same time…
Which wouldn’t, incidentally, surprise me. It’s very easy to become a god in China. Matteo Ricci became Li Madou, the god of clocks, and Mao Zedong of course is now occasionally worshipped in temples; oranges are sacrificed to him (…after the Great Leap Forward Off The Cliff and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, that’s really bloody enough for a while).
Oh yes.