Disagreeing with Wilkins » « 300

I am insane

Hrrm … I seem to have stretched myself a little too thin this weekend. Early this morning I drove off to Minneapolis and Minicon to pick up Skatje and catch a few panels at the con, and then I drove back — I just got back a half hour ago — and despite the fact that there are a great many interesting things to talk about, this day has been a bit too much. Minneapolis really must pick itself up and move about 150 miles further west — I’ll appreciate it, and St Paul will be eternally grateful.

I will address Wilkins/Rosenhouse, Grayling, Klinghoffer (grrr), Mooney, Laden, etc., but right now my brain demands a total shutdown for a little bit.

If you really need a good Easter anti-religion rant to tide you over, read Skatje’s. She got to sleep in the car while I was dodging semis on I94 for most of the day.

Disagreeing with Wilkins » « 300

Comments

  5. Azkyroth says

    Should I feel bad that my first thought on reading that was “WAIT, the creator of B.C. died from a condition caused by loss of blood to the BRAIN? Something’s not right here…” x.x

  6. uncle bob says

    I50 miles west with mid-atlantic seafloor spreading should
    take place within a reasonably geologic span of time, at
    5-7 cm/year?

  7. Azkyroth says

    PS: PZ: you DO realize that cretinists and IDiots are going to quote-mine the title of this post, right?

  8. pough says

    Klinghoffer’s article is far to ridiculous to rate a “grr”, IMHO. I was wondering at it’s silliness and then when I got to the “where I work” line the tension was released in out-loud laughter.

    Brilliant, I say! Highly recommended. Proof positive that our fantastic BC weed makes it as far south as Mercer Island.

  10. says

    I think Klinghoffer’s pretty well taken care of. I just posted about his article, and I just saw that John Pieret did also…so you can cross that idiocy off your list. That is, unless you feel the need to expose his tripe for the BS it is to the wider audience you have. Then by all means! I’d like to read the PZ-caliber beat down on him anyway.

  11. Colugo says

    Klinghoffer, E.J. Dionne, all kinds of people are opining about hardline atheists, including the dead.

    Albert Einstein, from a letter quoted in the latest Time Magazine:
    http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1607298-3,00.html

    “The fanatical atheists are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after hard struggle. They are creatures who–in their grudge against traditional religion as the ‘opium of the masses’– cannot hear the music of the spheres.”

    A Deist would say that. I think that’s a little unfair. Even the most militant atheist has moments of … well, something. Some like to call it spirituality. I don’t, but I’m not rankled by those who do.

    Personally, I’m fairly indifferent about what Einstein believed except as intellectual history. Does anyone look up to Newton as some kind of role model or wise man?

  12. says


    “I’ll appreciate it, and St Paul will be eternally grateful.”

    You mean you two are not the same?

  13. says

    Kai:

    Uh, just in case you’re not up on Minnesota geography, St. Paul is the state capital and one half of the Twin Cities. Minneapolis, of course, is the other half.

  14. amph says

    Heather Kuhn:

    Uh, presumably Kai was making a joke. You know: Saint. Paul.

    Now that I think about it, perhaps PZ actually spoke of himself in the third person singular. The heading of the post should have warned us.

  15. Michael Kremer says

    The following can, I think, be enjoyed by both atheist and Christian alike (even if he does get a little close to faith at the end). The first time I heard David Sedaris do this routine, I was laughing so hard, with tears streaming down my face, that I almost had a wreck on the Indiana Toll Road.

    http://quandmeme.net/blog/000019.html

    Just my peace offering to you on Easter Monday, after taking up too much space in the comments section on one post over the weekend.

  16. dzd says

    Klinghoffer’s article in a nutshell: “People will always be frightened and dumb, which will lead them to the supernatural. Let’s just accept this–no, celebrate it.” Only with more feel-good froth about “faiths”.

    In other news, tobacco executive insists on importance of smoking.

  17. Bob O'H says

    “I’ll appreciate it, and St Paul will be eternally grateful.”

    You mean you two are not the same?

    Perhaps you’re on to something. I guess in the days before blogging, all one could do was write letters.

    Bob

  18. says

    One important bit of local knowledge that might help outsiders understand my comment: there is a fair amount of rivalry going on between Minneapolis and St Paul that sometimes verges on mutual detestation.

  20. Yonmei says

    Thought this might amuse Pharyngula readers: evolution by biscuits:

    Turn away now if you are one of those deranged people that can’t accept the theory of evolution, and thinks the Grand Canyon was knocked up geologically speaking a blink of an eye ago after a brief downpour. Right are we free to continue? Good because this week we we will be looking at what happens when you take a trusty stalwart of British tea time, the McVities Digestive and introduce it into a completely new biscuit eco-system, Japan. Given the unprecedented amount biscuits we’ve crammed into to our little accompanying graphic you can see its a evolutionary explosion of shape, size, taste and even colour.