On seeing Storm 17 Oct 2010 I do not often envy my good friend PZ NamebeginningwithM. Sure, he has the associate professorship, the Trophy Wife™, the millions of readers and most of all the Minions. But I am above all that. I am humble, and devoid of unwarranted certainties. And money. I can even forgive him for getting the speaking gig as American Atheist Pope and being invited to London, Oslo and Seattle on other people’s dime. But this is an insult and point of envy I cannot rise above. He got to go to the premiere of Tim Minchin’s animated film “Storm”. The unmitigated bastard. Just for that, in addition to misspelling his last name, I shall now start to use the wrong initials. Or reveal to the world what PZ stands for. Or something… Humor Religion
Australian stuff Ooooohhhh, nude dinosaurs…. 14 Sep 2009 Residents of the tiny town Muttaburra, in Queensland’s central west, have bared all for a calendar shoot. The town’s Community Development Association is raising money for an ambulance defibrillator and the local school, and came up with the idea for a “slightly risque” calendar. Muttaburra is famous for the Muttaburrasaurus… Read More
Ethics and Moral Philosophy Can an atheist have a code of ethics? 5 Dec 20115 Dec 2011 I posted this on Quora, but I thought I might put it here as well, and add a couple of things: A while back I gave a talk to a group of theologians on the question of Darwinian accidents. It had no ethics content. The first question I was asked… Read More
Religion The iron rod of religion 27 Dec 2007 Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated, probably by Islamist extremists. While no saint, she clearly stood for democratisation in Pakistan, and all hell is likely to break out there now. Today, I saw The Golden Compass, after reading the book a couple of days ago. It, too, portrayed religious absolutism (and… Read More
Dammit, John – I assumed this was going to be about the revelation that you’re now going out with Halle Berry.
I know what PZ stands for. Leave 20 kazillion quatloos under a rock and I won’t tell. Trophies are overrated. So are minions; they will sell your picture to the tabloids.
Let me rub it in some more, too. Storm is fantastic. Suddenly, skepticism has a world-class hymn. You won’t have to wait too long, though. It’s not quite done, they’re going to add a little more polish and details like subtitles in languages other than English, but then it’s going to be widely available. The crazy starry-eyed producers aren’t interested in money, they’re actually a gang of visionaries who want the message of critical thinking spread far and wide, and apparently the finished short is going to be put on youtube where it will instantly soar to being the top hit for a while.
You don’t think for a second that this display of nobility of purpose and altruism is going to stop me from hating you, do you?
Tsk! Associate professorships and trophy wives are a dime a dozen. How many people have written the definitive work on species that will be read by – oh – lots of people around the world?
Seven. My kid reads… Ok, well he can’t actually read per se, but he looks at the page and dribbles. Which, after all, is what most of us do if we’re honest. Louis