Ah, this is going to be painfully dreary. Why do I let myself get dragged into these podium battles with kooks? I’m committed, anyway. Come on out to the UMTC next month for a game of kick-the-puppy. I’m going to be coming down off a real high that weekend, the IGERT symposium on evo-devo, where I’m actually going to learn something, and the next day I have to stand up with these clowns. Do me a favor and show up to ask some leading questions about science in the Q&A so I can talk about some interesting stuff.

This is the ad copy from the Twin Cities Creation Science Association. They’re very happy. Their young-earth crackpot is going to share the stage with me.

Monday, November 16, 2009, 7:30 – 9:00 pm

Debate: Dr. P.Z. Myers vs. Dr. Jerry Bergman

“Should Intelligent Design Be Taught In The Schools?”

University of Minnesota, St Paul Campus
North Star Ballroom, St. Paul Student Center
(Buford Ave. near Cleveland Ave. St Paul Campus)
For a More information and a map, Go To www.tccsa.tc

Two Heavyweights Battle on Huge Topic

P.Z. Meyers has stated that teachers who accept intelligent design are pseudo-scientists who should be fired and publicly humiliated. Jerry Bergman was denied tenure and subjected to a hostile work environment at Bowling Green University for his beliefs, despite being the most productive member of his department and most popular teacher.

Dr. Myers website, www.scienceblogs.com/pharyngula, is a focal point for those who oppose intelligent design theory. Dr. Bergman has written Slaughter of the Dissidents: The Shocking Truth About Killing The Careers Of Darwin Doubters, detailing the way Dr. Myers’ vision is actually
being carried out.

Is it logical to do so? Is it science? Is it education? Is it right? Come and hear. Then decide for yourselves.

Dr. Myers is an evolutionist and teaches at University of Minnesota Morris

Dr. Bergman is an intelligent design advocate who teaches at Northwest State College in Ohio.

The event is co-sponsored by Campus Atheists, Skeptics and Humanists (CASH) http://cashumn.org
and Christian Student Fellowship (CSF) www.csf.net
at the University of Minnesota.

If we’re heavyweights, how come they still can’t spell my name consistently correctly?

I will be amused to learn how my agents have been carrying out my vision of slaughter and killing. They’ve been a little thin on details in their reports, so maybe Bergman will have some photos or something. Blood spatter? Broken machetes?

I also will be interested in meeting this academic paragon — did you know he has nine degrees? I’d feel outclassed numerically, except that his reliance on how many degree programs he shuffled through, the strangely unrelated fields they are in, the rather shady status of the institution that granted him a Ph.D., as well as the peculiar fact that he always leaves one little word out of his affiliation at Northwest State Community College (come on, there’s absolutely no shame in that — smart people go to and work at community colleges all over the country. Be proud. The Trophy Wife has an AA degree from a fine community college herself, and it’s eminently respectable) makes me think he’s really trying to compensate for something.

Wow, a whole month to go and I’ve already got my game face on and am sharpening up the knives. It might be fun, after all, as long as I go into it with the right attitude.