Here’s an amusing blog post about PZ’s talk in Hebden Bridge yesterday.
A few days ago I saw that Paul Zachary “PZ” Myers associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota Morris, Pharyngula blogger, and sworn enemy of creationist nut-jobbery in all its forms was coming to speak in Hebden.
But he was snowed under and forgot, until he saw a tweet of PZ’s mentioning it was starting in 30 minutes.
Hebden Bridge is about 30 minutes away by car from my house. I found my keys, leapt into the car, forgetting my phone, and hit the road. Taking the empty back roads over the moors I somehow managed to get to the Trades Club with two minutes to spare. But there was nowhere to park at the venue and I had to park about half a mile away and run like Mo Farah (well, like Mo Farah would run if he were giving Eric Pickles a piggy back) back to the venue.
I pelted up the stairs (squeezing past a lady who was saying to her friend “eee we’ve got a professor in ‘ere tonight”), bought one of the few remaining tickets, and joined PZ’s talk – which had, I was assured, “only been going on for a couple of minutes”.
Later I asked a fellow local how on earth we’d managed to get the world famous PZ Myers (hot foot from the dreaming spires of Oxford) to come and speak at Hebden Bridge. “Well he’s on his way up to Edinburgh. I suppose it was on the way” he suggested.
Now don’t get me wrong, Hebden Bridge is a lovely place (it is, after all, in Yorkshire) and I urge you all to visit if you are ever up this way. But it is not normally on the beaten track of internationally renowned academics.
It’s because Maureen is there, of course.
Anyway, PZ’s talk (on American creationists) was, of course, splendid and highly entertaining and much appreciated by the audience – who were clearly clued up on much of what PZ had come to speak about.
Though it quickly became clear – as PZ himself acknowledged – that he was “preaching to the choir” there was plenty of interesting material that I (and I expect many others there) were not particularly aware of. One thing PZ pointed out was what a recent phenomenon creationism (based on a literal interpretation of biblical texts) is. Another thing, which I certainly hadn’t really appreciated, was the origins of this ideology in the teachings of quite small numbers of people who, even by the standards of American god botherers, were a pretty wacky bunch. Disturbingly, the nonsense spread by such crazies (far more extreme even than the sort of arguments scientists were having to rebut in the days of the famous Scopes Monkey Trial) have now become part of mainstream thinking and are now embraced by about half the population of the USA.
Do you ever get the feeling that the harm-doers are better organized than we are?
So a really excellent talk met by a really warm reception – a bit too warm …. especially after I had run all the way from the car park. We may have fewer religious zealots than the Yanks, but they do – it has to be said – have better air conditioning than we do.
I shook hands with PZ and thanked him before leaving and should like to take this opportunity to say how flattered we all were that he took time out to come and share an evening with us here in God’s own County.
Yorkshire. Who wouldn’t want to spend an evening in Yorkshire?
Latsot only made it with a few minutes to spare too, although the station is luckily just a few minutes walk from the trades club. Seems there was more than one lucky co-incidence, for me it was two days work in Wigan that just happened to include that particular night over up north. Otherwise unlikely I’d drive that far, even for a PZ talk and latsot, Avi and Hera meet up.
I was about 30 minutes away as well. By the time I saw PZ was giving a talk in Hebden Bridge it was too late. Otherwise I probably would have gone.
Later, I read PZ’s post about Robbie Williams, and I was glad I didn’t go. The post was badly misjudged and left a nasty taste. PZ had an vital Chomskyesque point about media misdirection to make, but wrote it so badly it read like the lowest Ann Coulter. Ugly writing. Much more of that and PZ won’t be invited back to Yorkshire, or many other places. Ugh.
Yeah good call, arthur. PZ writes a post you don’t like and therefore he won’t be invited back to Yorkshire or many other places. Makes all the sense in the world.
Well, I can’t dispute that PZ’s post was badly misjudged.
(I could, however, dispute by whom it was so)
It depends on which part of Yorkshire. I’ve been in Hull and have no desire to repeat the experience. Beverley and the Howardian Hills I wouldn’t mind visiting again.
You can see my photos from PZ’s Yorkshire visit (including a couple of the mighty Maureen) here.
@arthur #2:
You mean this Robbie Williams?
Didn’t know about that, but I guess the news of his death got drowned out by the reports on the situation in Ferguson.
</sarcasm>
And did those feet, in ancient times, Walk upon England’s mountains green: And was the holy Lamb of God, On England’s pleasant pastures seen!
(short answer: no.)
Love.that.song. The song especially, more than the poem.
As the author of the post reported above, I hope you won’t mind my butting in here…….
I don’t seek glory or wealth for my blogging efforts but I’m always feel flattered when someone says something nice about something I’ve written.
For any US readers, I should perhaps explain that most people in the UK don’t even know which county they live in, but every single Yorkshire person does. I suppose you could draw certain parallels between Texas and Yorkshire on this score (though not on any other scores I can think of). Everyone who comes from Yorkshire is very proud of that fact and will impart this fact to anyone who cares to listen. On the other hand, we really really don’t take ourselves too seriously.
I’ve have spoken to several American Anglophiles who were absolutely appalled by “Notes From A Small Island” by American author Bill Bryson (which came out a few years ago) because this book mercilessly (though, actually, very affectionately) pokes fun at the British. Yet this was one of the most popular books ever published in the UK.
This one fact tells you everything you need to know about Britain ….. and, indeed, about differing sensibilities.
Which brings me nicely to the point I actually wanted to make.
In the second comment, “arthur says” says
Now I’ve yet to meet anyone with whom I agree no matter what they say; and I’ve yet to read anyone whose writings always, and in every case, chime entirely with my sensibilities. I, like many people, was shocked and saddened when I heard of Robin Williams’s suicide. I’ve not enjoyed everything I’ve seen this actor in, but I have been highly amused and deeply touched by many of the things I’ve seen him in.
I read PZ’s piece on this subject. It was, it seemed to me, mainly about hypocrisy and failures of perspective by the mass media. It was not, given the brief period of time which had elapsed since Mr Williams’s death, the most tactful possible way of making some (in my opinion) highly important points; but I don’t think this observation in any way justifies the bile and scorn (Arthur’s remarks being a very mild example in this context) I have seen thrown in PZ’s general direction since he made his comments.
And as for William Blake’s writings ……
Taken literally, “Jerusalem” is a pile of bollocks. Taken metaphorically, it is one of the most beautiful poems in the English language.
Yorkshire has some of the most pleasant pastures in the world; and all too many dark satanic mills; but I can’t hear, or read, the last two lines of these verses without busting into tears.
…oh, and we’d have PZ back tomorrow in Yorkshire if we could
@9 Yes. I like it too. I especially like the third verse:
Bring me my Bow of burning gold;
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!
Which seems more like something out of Homer than something Biblical, It’s also the verse that clicks with the melody the best, IMHO.
Yup. It’s just a great song to sing.
Mike, of course I don’t mind!
As I’ve just been tweeting at you, I loved Notes From a Small Island, so much so that I’ve read it twice. I never for a second thought that UKanians would be insulted by it.