Some of you may noticed that someone on scienceblogs is going out of their way to say untrue things about me … it’s a transparent ploy to get me to link to them, I think, and an attempt to ruin my reputation. It’s not going to work, I tell you. No links! I’m not going to reward them with my attention! Don’t believe a word they say!
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Your humor cracks me up, PZ!!!
I can’t be the only one who’s noticed that you’re turning this blog into a rant against religion.
Maybe you’d get attacked less if you returned to writing blogs about bunny rabbits and adorable kittens with cute captions, like in the old days.
I used to come here to read the Friday fluffy bunny-wunny feature and to learn how to make folded paper napkins. Those days it seems are gone.
Aww… PZ’s just a big, lovable, lug. Aren’t you, you big, woveable wuggy woodle-doo?
Gads! It’s tough to keep that up.
Ugh. It’s also not true. I’m a cruel, callous, vicious atheist lacking even the slightest spark of human decency. I’m much more comfortable with that more common characterization.
Well, PZ, if you weren’t such an unregenerate bastard, you’d be good enough to provide at least one measly little link to someone who is foolish enough to defend your boorish behavior. But nooooooooooooo.
Oh look, we’ve embarrassed him now!
You’re so funny. Love it.
Even without reading his actual writing you can tell PZ is more a Cthonian horror than a normal human being. The clue is in the style of appellation a person affects. I generally go bominitious too; first names are for fuzzie-wuzzies.
Meanie pants rhetoric, that was good.
Isn’t this a little like a reversed version what fundie Christians go through, trying to reconcile the savage, bloodthirsty OT god with the cosy sky-daddy preached from the pulpit?
Funny, I think I know the post that set this all off, and I read it much more as being akin to the “Yorkshiremen” sketch from Monty Python, or maybe like that cantankerous geezer father who regales his kids with tales of how he had to walk to school seven miles uphill each way, through four-foot-deep snow, thirteen months of the year, and do chores for ten hours after school…
Granted, that is rather what living around a bunch of religious freaks and deep rural rednecks feels like, but hyperbole is still hyperbole… :)
The Liberty Bell has an inscription from the bible on it:
If it’s good enough for our founding fathers, why not you?
http://www.ushistory.org/libertybell/index.html
And phlogiston was good enough for our founding fathers, too. Oh why do people keep disregarding the wisdom of the ancients!
What, to use the bible to pull a few snazzy quotes from from time to time? That is good enough for me. It’s using the bible for anything more than that that’s objectionable.
Sorry, last post should have look like this:
What, to use the bible to pull a few snazzy quotes from from time to time? That is good enough for me. It’s using the bible for anything more than that that’s objectionable.
What, the bible or Liberty?
Liberty’s good enough for me!
Pass and Stow, brother, pass and stow. Those are words to live by.
I see Knop has more of the same rehashed exchange you had with Brayton a few months ago: “I fight against creationism, while PZ is against religion…” (as if that’s an argument in itself).
…yawn…
I concur.
I’m surprised and heartened that so many people who disagree with (read: hate) you read your blog. It’s a hope to us all that you’re not just preaching to the unbelieving choir, and that some of you is getting to where it’s needed.
I still kick myself that I didn’t get a chance to share a drink when you were out in Ann Arbor. Cheers!
It’s high praise indeed when a religious zealot calls you an asshole. If someone can’t back up a claim with any viable evidence then the ad hominem attacks commence. You know your really on the right track when they call you an arrogant asshole AND a fucking jerk… You rock!
OT:
I saw a comic involving squid, and immediately thought of you
PZ said, “Pass and Stow, brother, pass and stow. Those are words to live by.”
pass and stow (small-case on purpose) aren’t ‘words to live by’, PZ. You can mock US History if you wish, but it just shows your ignorance and disrespect towards America.
That’s like saying darwin or doolittle or pz myers (small-case on purpose) are words to live by. It’s definitely improper English and a bit meaningless, wouldn’t you say?
Pass and Stow are the workmen who cast/recast the Liberty Bell. I suggest the below link:
http://www.ushistory.org/libertybell/timeline.html
I’d slap your wrists with a ruler if I could.
Awaiting the snappy comeback from PZ…
And I thought ‘Pass and Stow’ was some kind of drug reference.
*sigh*
*taps fingers*
*sighs again*
Here is what I like about PZ – he is honest, blunt, backs his opinions with actual facts (what a surprise!), prolific (with blogging anyways), and takes a principle hard nosed position on certain things. How can this not piss people off? Is the expectation that the world is blue skies and bunnies and no one will be insulted and not want to respond in kind. From what I read from grrlscientist I place her in the “naive idealist scientist” category and this post from her re-enforces that.
This is as good a place as any to tell PZ Myers that I stopped reading Pharyngula regularly months ago (some other blog linked to the recent Buddenbrockia post and I decided to take a risk and click on some of the Recent Posts) becaue his Internet Athiest (DEAL WITH IT) schtick was becoming boring. I started coming here for the science but it was being drowned out by rhetoric and religion and fluff. Checking the April archives, there is one (1) science post (not “science versus creationism” or “science deniers” or et c.) on the first two (2) pages and it was just a Friday Cephalopod.
Bloodletting by leeches to cure disease was good enough for the Founding Fathers, so it should be good enough for us, too! After all, look at what it did for George Washington. Oh, wait…
Fritz:
Exactly!
I too am sick of PZ’s recent departure from his normal writing style into basically just a bunch of random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal.
He ought to have a warning or something at the top of the page.
The sooner he goes back to posting pics of bunny wunnies and adorable kittens, the better.
I don’t understand complaining about a blog at that blog. Your fingers obviously work, click another link. If you have a factual dispute toss it out there, otherwise why bother? Certainly, people have a right to disagree, but I don’t see the gain in making those “I used to like, but now dislike you” postings. If the man wants to wax atheistic and you don’t wish to partake, then don’t.
PZ, have you seen this post? It might be worth linking to.
Bob
Kittens my ass! PZ is a full blown cuddly wuddly squidy. (plushtoys.stores.yahoo.net/gisqstan.html) Couldn’t you just hug the hell out of that? If you’re offended then piss off. No one makes you read anything. I personally give thanks for your “in your face attitude.” Passion is not something you can invent, you can only vent. So for what it’s worth thank you. Not only for sharing your life with another human being but for us as well.
Oh, and something more important – why aren’t you an acrobat?
Bob
We can always count on Bob-O to ask the tough questions.
Hats off to Bob!
no fair getting yer mom to write nice stuff about you, pz…
It is funny that the quaker guy chose a line from Leviticus 25 for the “Liberty” Bell. That chapter is mostly about god’s rules for slavery.
I guess Leviticus 25:44 wasn’t deemed to be appropriate,
“44Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.”
It gets better,
“45Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.
46And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour.”
But xians have always been good at cherry-picking. Then again, I wonder how many good god-fearing bible-thumping farmers follow this dictate of their lord-god.
“3Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
4But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.
5That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.”
For god, this is not optional. So, farmers should get a vacation every seven years.
Your tone and message (as well as the defensiveness and lack of understanding shown in many of the responses you elicit) often remind me of another supposed mean-spirited, party-pooping, bubble-bursting curmudgeon. I’m certain Randi gets tons of the same, and for quite a while longer than your recent rise to internet infamy. And I should mention humor, another trait you two appear to share in abundance. IMHO, that’s damn fine company, P.Z. You should consider incorporating an adjective in your name.
He’d blow you away in a Darwin Look-a-like Contest though. However, you could probably beat Dawkins, if that’s any consolation.
I’m vastly disappointed to learn PZ isn’t a multi-tentacled amphibious kraken who feasts on baby theists and was sent here to destroy mom’s apple pie…
My comfy illusions are shattered! Boo hoo hiss… monsters are so unreliable these days!
But only after marriage.
Slavery, duels, and the punishment of homosexuality by castration were good enough for our founding fathers. These days we have standards.
Note to the pune-or-play-on-words-impaired: Darwin, Doolittle and PZ Myers aren’t common verbs in the English language. (Although you could win some points by using Doolittle that way.)
Naughty! He’s married!
So “knowledge and respect towards America” equals “religious adulation of a distorted picture of the big-F Founding Fathers”?
To start with, most of them were Deists. Look that up.
So “knowledge and respect towards America” equals “religious adulation of a distorted picture of the big-F Founding Fathers”?
To start with, most of them were Deists. Look that up.
Given that (a) PZ is an S.J.Gould fan and (b) the way he phrased his comment, I am 99.9% certain that he was very well aware what ‘pass and stow’ are referring to.
Well, you can take it for what it’s worth, but the constant barrage of religious posts turned me off reading Pharyngula. To be honest, I really don’t care what your opinion on religion is. I usually agree with you in principle, but I have very little use for bombthrowers. Because they do it, has never been an acceptable reason for acting like an ass. Plus, the strawman body count has to be in 6 digits by now, doesn’t it?
I’d also add c) PZ Myers lived in Philadelphia for 7 years and often visited Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.
Whoa! Where did you get those snazzy morals? Without the bible as your guide you should have thrown the bum out onto the street and cooked up his parrots for dinner! Some athiest you are.
And phlogiston was good enough for our founding fathers, too.
And slavery, and the subjugation of women, and slaughtering Indians, and smallpox, and muskets, and snuff, and wigs, …
Hey, “philos”, don’t run away, please come back so we can laugh at you some more.
Reminds me of Transmetropolitan, where the TV anchor says, “It was George Washington who said that God should not be subtracted from politics. Who are we to argue with George Washington?” (and a gospel choir hymn plays in the background).
Spider Jerusalem responds, “The product of many hundreds of years’ worth of evolution since George Washington’s tree-killing ass went in the dirt, the obvious answer.”
This is as good a place as any to tell PZ Myers that I stopped reading Pharyngula regularly months ago
This is as good a place as any to tell you you’re a pathetic moron, fritz.
Well, you can take it for what it’s worth
We will, Johnny, we will.
I often suspect the primary role of religious ‘outrage’ is to try to render unsayable and unthinkable what probably most of their adherents find themselves thinking anyway, now and then,
So say on, man.
P.Z. You should consider incorporating an adjective in your name.
In the spirit of PZ’s humor and honoring those responses he elicits, he could call himself The Appalling Myers.
I continue to be amused by the fetishism of the Rigid Right.
Less well known are Bartholomew Block and Timothy Tackle, who helped raise the Liberty Bell into position. Still less do we know about Mrs. Block (Beatrice) and Mrs. Tackle (Trixi) who gave birth to Barty and Timmy.
Today, let’s celebrate the Blocks and Tackles of this world — The Unsung Heroes without whom America As We Know It would not exist.
Jesse Ventura on a cross! They were frigging bellmakers, okay? It’s not like they wrote the Constitution.
Next week, “Failure to capitalize a word deemed Sacred by the Bush Administration” will be declared an act of Terrorism.
Some of us are saying very nice things about you. See http://tinyurl.com/27pzjj
Xebecs: One of the hallmarks of the Rigid Right is the inability to comprehend abstractions. Even when practicing religion, people need graven images (if not of people, then of crosses, doves, fish, etc.); it’s why the iconoclastic movements in Christianity never lasted very long.
Of course these people will value mere physical symbols (bell, flag, etc.) over far more important abstractions (the Constitution).
I would suggest The Multi-Tentacled-Horror-of-the-Deep Meyers. While not true physically, it seems awfully true metaphorically speaking. Mmmm, symbolism…
I used to stumble upon Pharyngula from time to time, usually via an amused link from some forum board or another. I didn’t start becoming a regular reader until fairly recently, so I really can’t offer any long-term trend commentary on PZ’s blogging. As far as I was aware, he’s always been a crotchety old atheist who has an unhealthy obsession with squid hentai. I dig that!
Exactly. If they really felt secure in their beliefs, why would they be so exquisitely sensitive to what you or I or PZ think of their mythologies? The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Let me ask the commentators something. Don’t you ever get tired of sucking up to PZ? I mean, there are 55 comments telling him how great he is. From one post by Rob Knop daring to attack him (and most of the comments there were defending PZ). And how much information or enjoyment can you get out of being surrounded by people who are all violently agreeing with you anyway? I understand that it’s some sort of support group structure for people who feel repressed, but the group think is pretty freaking ridiculous here.
To our disappointed friends:
I sympathize. I really do. You enjoyed PZ’s excellent science posts, bringing cutting-edge evo-devo advancements to the wider community in an entertaining and highly accessible way. But now PZ’s aggressive stance on other issues has overshadowed his science-specific writings and has driven you away. I can honestly shed a little tear for you there. It sucks for you.
Now bring on the godlessness, please, PZ.
Hey Chimpo- did it ever occur to your tiny brain that many people happen to AGREE with PZ about religion (and in most cases, felt that way long before they had ever heard of him?) Nah, I guess that’s a level of reasoning that’s beyond you.
#55 – I think you’re right. Some of those doing the criticizing feel mighty insecure in their own beliefs. Also perhaps they are a little jealous of the success of the local online atheist community. There are a lot of intelligent, witty commenters here at Pharyngula! I know I’m always eager to read the comments.
And how much information or enjoyment can you get out of being surrounded by people who are all violently agreeing with you anyway?
That’s the point. A lot of people have flat out said that they don’t agree with PZ a lot of the time. That’s the beauty of the whole thing. Yes, we enjoy PZ, we enjoy his commentary, and we think he puts a humorous spin on an otherwise frightening subject. Does he always get it right? No, and someone will usually call him out on it. That’s the way it should be.
Some agree, some disagree. Maybe the ones who agree think I’m actually right — it’s not as if I’m rich, powerful, or beautiful and have swayed everyone by the entirely irrelevant magnetism of my sex appeal.
And right here on this thread we’ve got philos and some guy named Chimpo to criticize me. Even the ones who are saying nice things will turn on me in an instant if they disagree with something I say in another thread.
#58:
No, you’re missing my point. Hell, *I* agree with him most of the time. I view religion with at best mild amusement and worst mild contempt. But I recognize that others disagree, and have an innate dislike of anyone who prioritizes rhetoric.
And by the way, that was some awful snark. I mean, seriously. I left that behind when I grew up, but I’ve been around the internet a long time, and honestly, I’d be embarrassed to have my name attached to that. I’ve seen better on my mothers knitting boards.
Don’t forget Timmy’s sister, Tess.
“they”?
hrm, i’ve often thought of myself in the plural, but don’t tell my shrink, otherwise, i’ll get incarcerated in the rubber room again. GAH!
and i was joking (i know, bad joke) when i mention link love, but even without link love, i said what should have been said, and said a long time ago!
Re: The link posted in #52
This isn’t the first time a Hindu invocation in Congress has caused a stir. A Hindu invocation was delivered before the House of Representatives on September 14, 2001. Americans United reports:
Utterly incredible, indeed. Can we file this under “Not Even Wrong”?
The FRC speaks out on today’s Hindu invocation in the Senate: Prayer to Whom?
I have to wonder if the Franklin quote in today’s FRC piece is one of David Barton’s fabrications. A quick Google reveals that that passage is attributed to Franklin. And Washington. And John Adams. Many of the Franklin attributions cite Barton as a reference, generally via WallBuilders. (Oh, and look who else has apparently leaned heavily on WallBuilders as a reference. Heh.) However, I can’t find the passage in Rob Boston’s list of Barton’s questionable quotes.
Well, I have an innate dislike of unbelievers who cooperate with the completely unearned exemption from critical scrutiny claimed by the religiously deluded for their beliefs.
Years ago, I was at a restaurant that had a menu item called “Tender Chicken Strips and Fries.”
I remarked that this could be either deep-fried strips of chicken and deep-fried potato strips, or it could be a description of what a weak coward does at the beach?
Why do I hate America?
“Well, I have an innate dislike of unbelievers who cooperate with the completely unearned exemption from critical scrutiny claimed by the religiously deluded for their beliefs.”
Granting your (incorrect) thesis for the moment, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be able to live with myself, chief.
I had no doubts about your level of self-satisfaction even before that reassurance, ace.
Excellent! We’ve arrived at a state of mutual disdain. Which is, I suppose, the best that we could hope for…
And now… for the nth time together on one stage: the Apalling Myers and the Amazing Randi!
I like it.
I also appreciated the humour of Pass and Stow, and it made me go look them up.
This is not a comment. I need an answer and do not know where to post.
My question is:
I am told that evolution of vegetation into animal species is common at ocean floor, and has been recorded. I want to know if it is true.
Thanks.
Religious people will always attack PZ Myres , as without the aid and belief of the holy guy in the sky , or the one who has all the virgins next door waiting for the stupid to arrive in bit and pieces of body parts left after they blow them selves up , same for the penance of sore knees from praying …. Well these folk for the first time ever would have to take responsibility for the things and events they create and consequences of what they do. Imagine the mental health problems alone …… Right now they are allowed by the gods to do anything and ask for forgiveness and then they are guilt free …. No wonder reglious clubs have so many members do what you want then utter the words forgive me father for I have sinned …yes my child you are forgiven , now do your penance ……. see now guilt free ..Works every time … PZ Myres is top bloke .. so cool to see the brave calling as it should be called .. well done ……….PZ Myres go hard mate the rest of us are reading and enjoying ….your top blog .
Tasdeeq Islam: No, it isn’t. Animals and plants share a common ancestor, as one can see in the recent Paul Nelson thread. There are some sea animals which do appear superficially plant like, as was remarked long ago by Aristotle.