I was born at 7:07 am on 9 March 1957, so today I’m supposed to celebrate the fact that the earth has circled about the sun an integral number of times. I think I’ll, oh, go to work all day. It should be fun!
If you fit that description, please report to Greg Laden. The NCSE has a little job for you.
So Ray Comfort is now complaining on the revered pages of the respected publication, World Net Daily about me. The article is full of dishonest misquotes, but let’s zip right to Ray’s scientific misunderstandings. They are deep and painful. He has this bizarre idée fixe that the necessity of every species having males and females somehow greatly reduces the probability that new species could arise. It’s total nonsense, and I dismissed it briefly when I commented on it before.
“I know Ray is rather stupid, but who knew he could be that stupid. This has been explained to him multiple times: evolution does explain this stuff trivially. Populations evolve, not individuals, and male and female elephants evolved from populations of pre-elephants that contained males and females. Species do not arise from single new mutant males that then have to find a corresponding mutant female – they arise by the diffusion of variation through a whole population, male and female.”
Ray has read that, and failed to grasp the central concept. Take a look at the workings of Ray Comfort’s mind as he attempts to wrestle with a simple idea: the hamster wheel is wobbling, but the poor beast lies dead with legs up in its cage, and nothing is turning over.
I was wondering why I was getting the sudden upsurge in hate mail, and one kind messenger was generous enough to tell me his source. In an ironic way, with naughty words. You might not want to look below the fold if you’re 3 years old or younger.
Do you want 50 reasons you shouldn’t believe in evolution? I think the list pretty well covers all the real reasons people are creationists.
I’ve counted the nominations for the Molly Award, and the winner for January 2009 is…Wowbagger! I don’t know why, he just wanders around insulting everybody, and of course there was no hurry, since he is immortal. I think you all just fell for the ploy of favoring the guy riding Douglas Adam’s coattails.*
Now you can leave comments here congratulating the Infinitely Prolonged, and you can also nominate other fabulous posters for the Molly for February. Now don’t you be handing them out to Princess Hooli and Max Quordlepleen just because you like their names!
*OK, so there probably were some other good reasons, too.
NEEERRRRRRRDDDS! They’re turning over the radio show to seriously geeky humanists: Scott Lohman, Minnesota’s King Trek Fan, will be interviewed on Atheists Talk radio on Sunday, at 9am Central time (keep in mind that tonight is the night we jigger our clocks forward an hour, just to make everything a little more confusing).
We made the 45 mile drive to distant Alexandria to see Watchmen this afternoon. On the way there, I learned that neither Skatje nor Collin had ever even tried to read the graphic novel, so I almost slammed on the brakes and turned around to make them sit down and read it before I’d take them — but my own fanboi nature prevented me from putting off the movie any longer, so I took them anyway. The kids have been sternly instructed now that we’re home that they’re required to read it. Good thing I kept going, too — it was excellent. Where Ironman was last summer’s exhilarating carnival ride of a superhero movie, this one is the grim and intellectual anti-superhero movie of this year. Ten tentacles up!
It is true that the movie did remove the giant space squid from the ending, but — and this is rather heretical for me to say — this ending was better, and made the story even stronger. I was imp…
Wait, what’s that noise?
There’s mad-eyed bearded man pounding on my window! It’s…it’s…Alan Moore! How did he know what I was writing? I haven’t even posted it yet!
He’s broken in! He’s com…NOOOOOOOOOOO! <SQEEEEEEE> -fzzztzzzt- <crackle> *click*
It’s true…it’s a webcomic that jests at the expense of Pharyngula and you readers. We must be offended! Are there any legislatures we can fire up to condemn webcomics?
With humor, of course. Here’s the opening of his talk at the University of Oklahoma last night.
He also responded by donating funds from the RDF to Oklahomans for Excellence in Science Education…which brings up an important point. There are lots of smart Oklahomans who are really angry at the stupidity of these ignorant legislators. Listen to the audience in the video clip, too: they are laughing at the creationist clowns.
Keep laughing. And vote the fools out of office. Oklahoma can be a state standing up for reason.
