1. PLEASE WRITE IN SUPPORT OF PZ MYERS

Comment #208747 by Skeptyk on July 11, 2008 at 7:55 am

Here is the email I just sent. I will send some snail mail today as well.

Dear President Bruininks,

I am writing in support of Dr. Myers. I have been reading Pharyngula for years, for the science and cultural content, and for the, often excellent, discussions that make up the "comments" threads. PZ Myers has helped to strengthen the core work of democracy both in his university work and on-line. Critical thinking, reasoned analysis, rigorous science and robust argument are vital. Dr. Myers practices and promotes these, with wit and talent. The University of Minnesota is fortunate, as are all of us who can access Pharyngula.

I am dismayed at the reaction some cultists are mounting against Myers's writings about the UCF student's wafer liberation episode. Please take actions to support, and to protect, PZ. Give the demands that he be censured or fired the consideration they deserve.

Sincerely,

JeanneE Hand-Boniakowski
45 Lamb Hill Rd
Wells, VT 05774

2. I Don't Believe in Atheists

Comment #44784 by Skeptyk on May 25, 2007 at 9:31 am

I do like Chris Hedges. He has written some terrific, reality-based articles over the years, and his book, "War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning" is a fine look at the culture of war and how it can destroy civil society.

Too bad, this essay here. It seems that Hedges' "belief in belief" gets the better of his good intellect. To see him tie himself in knots, and also re-re-redefine a word that is very important to him, is painful. Be it "god", "faith" or "religion", Hedges, in this one essay, cannot stick to even a broad definition of any of them, but, instead contradicts and weasels around the "concepts" so much they become meaningless.

Interestingly, Hedges arguments (elsewhere) against the emotional contagion of war-based patriotism are exactly pertinent to the super-piety which is fanned and manipulated in our culture wars, our cold wars and our shooting wars. I still think Chris Hedges has a lot to offer in helping develop rational, world-based policies, and I urge many to read "War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning" and the article, "Gaza Diary" (Harper's, Oct.2001), which is torn out from the magazine and folded inside my copy of the book.

Hedges has more in common with most posters here than do the majority of religious writers, but I think it is great that we pick at his arguments and ask for the clarity he is rightly known for.

His very personal book, "Losing Moses on the Freeway" uses the 10 Commandments as a device for presenting stories and ideas which are strong on social justice and human solidarity. If more religious folks were like Chris and like the many Catholic Worker and AFSC and other liberal religious peace and medical workers I have been honored to work with over the years, the world would be a finer place. Of those folks, a few have lost their religion, but none have lost their commitment to the work of caring for others.

As Steven Weinberg said:
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

3. Dental healer finds share of faithful believers

Comment #44210 by Skeptyk on May 23, 2007 at 4:56 pm

I wrote about this a few years ago:
http://www.metaphoria.org/ac4t0207.html
same article here: http://quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/cam.html
The dental healing part is in paragraph 7 to 9.

Thanks eoinc and steveroot, you hit the nails right on the head: incandescent flashlight makes amalgam fillings look gold, etc. As for cross-shaped fillings, well, that is a pretty common pattern on molars considering the morphology of the chewing surface and how those fissures frequently decay.

Some folks say they got a new gold crown from God. Why did God not make the tooth brand new? And what cement does God use, a polycarboxylate, a GI resin, frankincense?

Cheesh.

4. More on the Atheism Front

Comment #39587 by Skeptyk on May 11, 2007 at 8:15 am

That was great, Tom. Now I will be chuckling all day at this image I now have of Hitchens as a boy: shorter, younger, but with the cigarette, the hairline, the voice of today, offering a knuckle sandwich.

This bit rings true, too, but it makes me sad: the Wilson boy about Dad, "He gave me this scar!"

I am so glad my kids did not have to grow up with the same psychological crap, the mind-scars, that my Catholic youth inflicted. No child should be infested with the spies in my head: saints, dead relatives, the Holy Ghost, my guardian angel, God - all three of Him, Santa...

Never a moment alone, even in one's thoughts. The lifelong atheists may never grok how awful that belief was.

5. Author of the Year Ad

Comment #37478 by Skeptyk on May 4, 2007 at 3:10 pm

"The Selfish Gene" 1976

"The Selfish Gene" 30th Anniversary Edition 2006 (which has some updated bits)

Congratulations to Richard, and good fortune to the rest of us that such marvelous knowledge and ideas are presented in so clear and beautiful a voice as that of Dawkins' pen.

This ad will entice more folks to read and reread the books, which can only be good news for those of us who find, in knowledge and wonder, renewed hope for humanity.

6. Boxmind E-Lectures

Comment #35955 by Skeptyk on April 29, 2007 at 2:07 pm

I had high hopes for Boxmind, and found it just before it fell through a hole in the wwweb. I am sure the material is retrievable, but it would take more than a handful of folks doing the tech work of modifying it all; it would also mean updating and reconfirming all the permissions.

Maybe whoever is holding the Boxmind bytes can release some of your work, Richard, and others that fit with the RDF site. We would have to find elves to do the tech bits, and perhaps it will encourage a more broad retrieval of Boxmind materials.

Hungry minds have made skepticism and science just explode in the blog-o-pod-o-sphere, so there is an audience.

7. Growing Up in the Universe: 2-Disc DVD Set

Comment #29339 by Skeptyk on April 2, 2007 at 3:32 pm

No CC?

Damn. That leaves out my son, who is Hard of Hearing. Keep in mind for future projects, and future press runs, that CC is nice for lots of folks; kids who are still learning readers, multilingual folks, people who like to watch with the sound low, as well as Deaf and HOH folks. Oh, yeah, also a lot of us boomers who listened to much and loud music.

Is a transcript available that could be packaged with, or electronically sent? Transcript is nice, but it is very much NOT a substitute for Closed Captioning.

I will be ordering one, perhaps, for me, but I cannot donate one to the school without CC, alas.

8. Happy 50th Birthday to PZ Myers!

Comment #24909 by Skeptyk on March 9, 2007 at 6:59 am

Happy Birthday, Pee Zed!
I wrote you a poem, posted over at your home blog (#132).
Skal!

9. Stephen Colbert Interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #2093 by Skeptyk on October 18, 2006 at 6:07 pm

And Richard was ever so charming and appealing with his head cocked a bit to one side, and his lovely smile.

That was not "BOO", it was "Ooh" and "Whoa!" and even a "Yeah!" Listen again. There were some sounds that may have been disapproving, but the long, drawn out "ooo" sounds were more of a "Whoooa! Dude!" a tone of awe at the knackers RD has to actually say what he does.

Try some of those Dawkinsian talking points yourself and you will see a similar reaction from a relieved, if minority, part of your audience. Freethinkers, especially those who have not found the cyberskeptic world community, are terrifically excited and relieved when a Dawkins says something so blazingly obvious but never ever ever heard on major US media.

10. Stephen Colbert Interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #2092 by Skeptyk on October 18, 2006 at 6:07 pm

And Richard was ever so charming and appealing with his head cocked a bit to one side, and his lovely smile.

That was not "BOO", it was "Ooh" and "Whoa!" and even a "Yeah!" Listen again. There were some sounds that may have been disapproving, but the long, drawn out "ooo" sounds were more of a "Whoooa! Dude!" a tone of awe at the knackers RD has to actually say what he does.

Try some of those Dawkinsian talking points yourself and you will see a similar reaction from a relieved, if minority, part of your audience. Freethinkers, especially those who have not found the cyberskeptic world community, are terrifically excited and relieved when a Dawkins says something so blazingly obvious but never ever ever heard on major US media.