That’s more like it

While it’s nice to have the Dilbonians* still whimpering and howling in frustration and fury, here’s an even better testimonial to my talents:

PZ, I’m sorry I slighted you. I now have seen the light. You lull your victims into a false sense of security by manifesting as a mild-mannered biology prof, but in reality you are an unspeakably hideous hybrid of Cthulhu and the Flying Spaghetti Monster, living in a shadow lair beyond time and space, called Minnesota. You suck your victims’ brains out through their eye sockets and gorge until sated. You are the very embodiment of evil.

I am well pleased. I shall let him live a little longer, although I may have to sup on his bandwidth a bit more.

*What I’m finding amusing right now is all the Dilbert fans who are showing up in the comments and complaining that I’m obsessed and that I need to stop picking on poor Scott Adams…5 days after I wrote the post. I wonder; do they think the post goes away when they don’t look at it, and I’m busily retyping it over and over again so it’ll be there when they look a second time? Peek-a-boo is cute when played with 2 year olds, but I expect people who know how to use the internet to have mastered the concept of object permanency.

It’s me again

I only mention this because it infuriates the wingnuts and religious ravers, but if you go to my university’s main web page you might see an article about me (I say “might” because only 4 are shown at a time, and which 4 is random). It’s awfully hard to get across to the critics, but the university supports me despite not necessarily endorsing my every opinion, and despite individuals in the administration feeling a little uncomfortable with some of my views, because there is this principle of academic freedom—it’s part of the job of an academic to make people uncomfortable. If you want vacuous pablum, that’s what the right-wing think tanks are for.

I don’t visit the main page much, so I wouldn’t have noticed this except that Larry Moran brought it to my attention. I should have made sure the photo accompanying the article had been properly credited, with something like “Photo courtesy of Larry the Camera Guy” across the bottom.

A ‘spirituality’ query

I recently got a short email interview on the subject of science and spirituality. Now I should warn you: “spirituality” is one of those words that sets my teeth on edge and triggers a reflexive reach for my kukri. It’s an empty buzzword that some people use as a placeholder for “deep feelings of connectedness to the universe”, but that I read as “mindless blithering; brains on the fritz”, so I respond to questions like that with an immediate rejection of the premise. The writer seemed like a nice person, though, and the questions are well-intentioned, so after barking out my answers I thought maybe the gang here would like to take a stab (or a slash, or a poke, or a bludgeon) at them, too. Go ahead, answer them yourselves in the comments, or on your own blog.

1.) Would you consider yourself a spiritual person?
2.) We hear time and time again of the disputes between the scientific and religious communities, what is your response to the phenomenon of scientists exploring their own spirituality?
3.) Dr. Charles T. Tart established an online journal dedicated to scientists who wish to share their own personal transcendent experiences in confidence, known as TASTE. Many feel that they would be shunned by the scientific community if they shared their experiences with their colleagues, are you surprised by this?
4.) Do you feel that a scientist can be spiritual? Why is this?
5.) What do you say to some scientists who claim that a strong sense of spirituality and morality are essential in your line of work?
6.) Do you think that this phenomenon could pose a threat to the scientific community, when one considers the current religious climate in the U.S?
7.) Finally, have you ever had an experience that you could not scientifically explain? If so, what was it?

I’ve put my answers below the fold. Warning: there is a little profanity (I told you that ‘spirituality’ irritates me.)

[Read more…]

Listen and be disillusioned

You can now download the interview by Karl Mogel of Ken Miller and me. You’ll want to listen to it first of all for 1) Ken Miller, 2) the music I suggested, and lastly and leastly, 3) me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t impressed with Miller’s explanation of his comments in Kansas against atheists—it would help if he could make a defense without relying on straw-man mischaracterizations of prominent atheists. The sound track is Roger Waters’ music for “The Body”, which has a nice biological theme, but also makes a sneaky dig at Intelligent Design creationism—it’s got fart sounds in it.

Now there is another problem that came up. As usual, whenever I slither out into the real world and actually meet people or talk to them, I get these comments: “You sound so mellow.” “You seem to be a nice guy.” “You’re like…a college professor.” “You sound wimpy.” It’s terrible. I need an image makeover. I’m looking for suggestions, and here are a few ideas:

  • Hire James Earl Jones to dub over everything I say.
  • Eyepatch. Pegleg. Hook. Parrot.
  • Get tattoos, wear black leather, arrive for appointments on a Harley.
  • Develop maniacal laugh, cackle horribly at inappropriate times, acquire reputation for unpredictability.
  • Vomit blood occasionally.
  • Get elocution lessons from Lewis Black.

Stay tuned for the Miller-Myers show

I’m going to be interviewed tonight by Karl Mogel for his Mindcast podcast. I’m not sure how this is going to work; I think it’ll just be made available at some later date. Maybe he’ll pop in and explain how you can listen to it. I do know you can find past episodes in the iTunes store.

He promised me he’d ask some hard questions, and also some hard questions of his other guest, the illustrious Ken Miller. We won’t be on the same segment, sorry…there could be some vigorous argument if we were, and poor Karl might not be able to get in a word edgewise. It is an interesting combination, though: the extremely helpful and well-regarded speaker and biologist who is also an apologist for religion, and the pirate evilutionist with a knife between his teeth who brooks no compromise in his war against religion. We’ll have to see what Karl does with the possibilities.

ConFusion 2007

Yes! We made it home! The plane was a few hours late, the weather was awful, and we didn’t pull into our driveway until 3AM (my brain is not exactly humming along right now, I tell you what…), but it was a great weekend at ConFusion.

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Skatje, me, John Scalzi, and Matt Arnold

I have to thank a few of the people who made this a most excellent event.

  • The con organizers, who made the whole experience completely painless for me. I’m very impressed with the amazing art of con organization.

  • Matt Arnold, who was my GoH Liaison, and was most pleasingly obsequious and servile. I scarcely had to lift a finger all weekend, and I ate very well. Skatje wasn’t too keen on the sushi cafe we’re at in the picture above, but but I think even she enjoyed herself.

  • The smart people with whom I shared some panels: Eric S. Raymond, Bruce Schneier, and Karl Schroeder. We argued…intelligently! It’s great fun to sit down with people who have thought through opinions on science and aren’t afraid to wield them.

  • The attendees who showed up at all those panels. They argued, too—it was like leading the best kind of discussion sections at the university, where the students have all done their homework and don’t need to be coaxed to contribute.

  • The younger set at KidFusion, who also were pretty darn vocal. Who knew that the best way to hunt giant squid was with a fighter jet?

By the way, John Scalzi also has a ConFusion wrap-up, and it’s mostly true. Mostly.

Everyone should go next year. Go ahead, surprise the organizers, and let’s have 2,000 people register. It’ll freak them out.