Carrier on Flew

If you haven’t had enough of the Antony Flew story, Richard Carrier fills in the background. It looks worse than it did before — Flew is being obliging, and allowing some loony fundagelicals to put words in his mouth.

In my opinion the book’s arguments are so fallacious and cheaply composed I doubt Flew would have signed off on it in sound mind, and Oppenheimer comes to much the same conclusion. It seems Flew simply trusted Varghese and didn’t even read the book being published in his name.And even if he had, he is clearly incapable now of even remembering what it said. The book’s actual author turns out to be an evangelical preacher named Bob Hostetler (who has also written several books with Josh McDowell), with considerable assistance from this book’s co-author, evangelical promoter and businessman Roy Abraham Varghese.

It gets more scathing from there.

This is spam, from an unexpected source

I just got this fairly typical piece of election email.

A MESSAGE FROM JOHN EDWARDS ’08

Dear PZ,

John Edwards needs your help during the next Iowa statewide canvass,
Saturday, November 17 and Sunday, November 18.

It goes on, but never mind. The annoying thing is the source: it’s from Ted, at the domain for my university and my lab. It has a spoofed source address! This is the kind of obnoxious crap I get from the peddlers of gadgets and drugs for my penis … it’s not the behavior I expect from someone who wants me to vote for him.

Just a word of warning to any candidates out there: it doesn’t matter how good you are, if you start spamming I will put your name in my mail filters and I will ignore you…in the voting booth, as well.

And no, I won’t be canvassing for John Edwards.

Can’t it at least wait until after Thanksgiving?

The War on Christmas starts earlier every year. The first salvo: an advent calendar in Hanover, Germany includes a small, cartoonish portrayal of famous local son, Fritz Haarmann. He was a serial killer who lived over 80 years ago.

i-8564948d3731bcd62219d402e60a070a-killer.jpg

I think the wounds of the monster’s actions are healed over and largely forgotten now, so while not entirely in good taste, I don’t think Christianity should be too outraged at the inclusion of a wicked fellow who killed 24 people. There are other mostly forgotten characters who could be put on a Christmas calendar without causing this kind of misplaced outrage, like Athanasius or Savanarola or Arnaud-Amaury or more than a few popes, who were responsible for many more deaths. I guess it just isn’t the holiday season without something for the right wing to rage over, and it’s better that they’re howling at Fritz Haarmann than some bewildered greeter at Wal-Mart.

But while you’re scowling at the reminder of the holiday season, I’ll mention that this is a good time to order your secular season cards. I fear the “Stop the Lies” card might give Aunt Tillie a heart attack when she opens it, but the Darwin as St Nick cards are nice.

Vote on the Weblog Awards, while you still can

You can vote today, and you can vote tomorrow, and then the polls close…so get out there and vote for Bad Astronomy for best science blog. The forces of stupidity have been motivated and are pushing a denialist blog up in the rankings, and it would be good to consolidate our votes and make sure a decent blog wins. Tim Lambert agrees, and also informs us that Steve Milloy has endorsed the Climate Audit blog—any doubt that it was an undeserving mouthpiece for right-wing hackery has now ended.

Besides, I’m rooming with Phil this weekend in Washington DC, and I really don’t want to have to put up with his bitter tears the whole time, or worse, if he feels compelled to drown his sorrows in vodka. Vote BA, because grown astronomers shouldn’t have to cry, and because I want to have fun, rather than nursing a broken man.

My other suggestions are here.

School shooting in Finland

There has been another tragic shooting at a school, this time at Jokela secondary school in Tuusula, Finland. It was a single gunman on a rampage, and at least seven people have been killed.

We’re going to hear much more about this because the murderer claims to have carried out this act in the name of natural selection. Some of the murderer’s files are available online (so far; that link may not function for long), and they portray a sick man with a distorted view of evolution that he used to justify his actions.

[Read more…]

In which I am compared to Einstein

I think it was intended to be an unfavorable comparison, but the ambiguity of the phrasing does leave open the possibility that Ben Stein is accusing Einstein of having a closed mind.

What we see below are two views of Intelligent Design’s place in science. One quote is from a brilliant, open minded and humble man…the other from a man typical of those who believe that they know better, but who don’t have much to offer, other than a closed-mind.

“My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.”

Albert Einstein (Nobel prize for Physics in 1921)

"Those crazy rascals behind Expelled have some new games they want to play: they’ve put out a casting call for victims of persecution. It’s a pitiful plea, but it will probably net a nice collection of complaints – because it’s true. We do reject Intelligent Design from the academy, from science, and from science education, and there’s a very good reason for that: it’s the same reason we reject astrology, alchemy, creationism, haruspication, necromancy, ornithomancy, and witchcraft from our science courses. Because they aren’t science."

PZ Myers, Neo-Darwinist, blog author and Wisconsin professor

A post from "EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed" spokesperson Ben Stein follows; it continues in the wondrously open – science view of Einstein, and provides an important perspective regarding academic freedom, and the right of every scientist, educator and researcher to pursue the evidence wherever it may lead, free from the persecution of The State, "Big Science" or lesser men wishing to impose an anti-theistic, materialistic worldview on our students, under the guise of “science.”

OK, not really. They’re trying to say mean things about me. I did have a couple of quick impressions about Stein’s remarks, though.

  • I hate to say it, but Einstein sure could talk like an airy-fairy ditz at times.

  • It was very nice of them to include enough of my quote to get the full meaning.

  • The quote is actually from a post where I commend a college student for speaking out against creationist B.S., which makes it a bit ironic.

  • I stand by my words. Good for me!

  • WISCONSIN!?!! Damn you, Ben Stein. Damn you to hell.