You can now read McCain’s position, as well as Obama’s, on science policy at SEFORA and at Science Debate 2008. I tried to read them comparatively — the big differences that jumped out at me are that McCain wants to build lots and lots of nuclear power plants, and that McCain runs away from the issues of genetics and stem cells as fast as he can — but I just can’t care very much about McCain’s answers at all. I don’t believe anything positive he might say.
I just want to ask, if he is so pro-science, does that mean we can ask his running mate about the dinosaurs now?
I have just read the Conservapædia article on me. It is a marvel. Let me single out one jewel of misdirection among many.
In January 2008, Myers participated in a debate with Discovery Institute fellow Geoffrey Simmons on KMMS. He was unable to counter criticisms of the fossil record, in particular the absence of transitional forms in the whale fossil record. Geoffrey was invited back for an hour long talk the next week. PZ Myers now refuses to debate creation scientists.
The first sentence is harmlessly wrong: the station call letters are KKMS. It’s a nice indicator of their quality control, however.
The second sentence is completely wrong. This was the radio debate in which Geoffrey Simmons made claims about the absence of transitionals in the fossil record, was utterly bewildered when I rattled off a long list of well-known species names, and then admitted that he got all his information from an apparently cursory reading of a Scientific American article. Mr Simmons was the one lacking any counters of substance, not me.
I love the next two sentences. Simmons was invited back, Myers wasn’t…ah, the delicious implication that I had flopped, when the truth is that I had embarrassed the Christian radio station’s position by crushing Simmons so thoroughly. And then to state that I no longer debate creationists, as if I’d run from a humiliating defeat! That was a debate in which even the creationist onlookers were averting their eyes and whining that Simmons had been pwnz0red.
Sorry, Conservapædians, if that’s an example of the way you guys slant your articles, I have to laugh.
The Pope has berated selfish secularists:
Pope Benedict XVI condemned unbridled “pagan” passion for power, possessions and money as a modern-day plague Saturday as he led more than a quarter of a million Catholics in an outdoor Mass in Paris.
But…this is from the Mr Fancy Pants in silk clothes with gold stitching who lives here:
The pope has already hit the max in flashy clothes and overly elaborate residences, so the only way to increase the glitz is to pose against a backdrop of dreary people in dun clothes living in shacks, I guess. More poverty, please! We need to make the papacy look more posh!
So, the Church of England is considering a public apology for their denial of evolution — it’s progress, I suppose, although CoE has never had the reputation of being particularly vicious towards evolution, and I’d be more impressed if the Baptists were asking forgiveness. Anyway, here’s a poll: Should the Church apologise to Charles Darwin?
Unfortunately, the only choices are “yes” and “no”. I was hoping for something like “Yes, the church ought to get on its knees and crawl in abasement to Science, kiss the hem of its robes, beg forgiveness, and donate all of its holdings and wealth to scientific funding agencies” or “No, the church is irrelevant, a pointless relic that ought to go crawl into a quiet corner and finish its business of dying.” Those are choices with some meat to them.
Deconversion stories are almost always entertaining, so you might enjoy Andy Welfie’s. When you read about his Catholic home-school education, you’ll be amazed he still has a functioning brain. How would you like to learn history from a book called Christ the King-Lord of History: A Catholic World History from Ancient to Modern Times?
Should creationism be taught in the classroom? It depends on what you mean by “taught”.
The next edition of the Tangled Bank will be at Science Made Cool on Wednesday — it’s time to send in those links!
I’ve never been to Burning Man despite being a bit of a dirty hippie myself, so I wonder if I should make the space cowboy pilgrimage next year: the theme is Evolution.
Very cool, but it could also be very weird.
The resemblance is uncanny and hilarious. She’ll be in great demand if a certain unqualified ignoramus stumbles into the White House.
After you’re done laughing, though, sober up to the horror.