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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
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Some two-and-a-half-thousand years after its debut in Western culture, materialism stands in the final decade of the twentieth century as a complete and well-defined philosophy in many respects. Its core assumption that there is no reality other than the material order exhibiting itself in what exists around and within us distinguishes it from competing philosophies today just as sharply as it did for Lucretius. The notion of supernatural or immaterial states of being that are alien to nature seems just as incoherent to materialists in the 1990s as it did to d'Holbach, who first worked out materialism's atheistic implications. The conviction not just that the laws of nature are knowable but that human science is capable, at least in principle, of knowing them is no less central now than it was for Buechner. And the assumption that all thought and feeling, human and otherwise, is a material process is still as key an element in materialism as it has been for the mind-brain reductionists of the twentieth century. In these four and many related ways, the materialist vision is what it has always been: the clearest and most consistent effort to comprehend and demystify nature and humanity's place in it that human intelligence has ever made.
[Richard C. Vitzthum, Materialism: An Affirmative History and Definition (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1995), p. 176]
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Category: Personal
Posted on: November 2, 2009 10:45 AM, by PZ Myers
Since Jerry Coyne will never ever let me forget my modeling session with Ruse, I'll counter it a little with a photo of the sensible people from the University of Northern Iowa.
I'll be speaking at UNI on 10 February, too.
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Comments
Posted by: harv
|
November 2, 2009 11:05 AM
Are beards a cultural requirement for Midwestern Atheists?
Posted by: CycloneLad | November 2, 2009 11:05 AM
UNI? We'd make you much more welcome at Iowa's real state university, in Ames.
Posted by: PZ Myers
|
November 2, 2009 11:06 AM
Dr Spradling seems to be doing just fine without a beard, so no, they are not required.
Posted by: Bill McElree | November 2, 2009 11:27 AM
I just want to know where you got the tie! Stylin!
Posted by: Matt Penfold | November 2, 2009 11:34 AM
That is the famous Crocoduck time as designed by Josh Timonen. There are only two in existence, PZ has one, Richard Dawkins has the other.
Posted by: Treppenwitz
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November 2, 2009 11:48 AM
Did I hear correctly that you'll also be speaking at the University of South Carolina in February? USC's Pastafarians have really been on the ball so far this year.
Posted by: sinned34 | November 2, 2009 11:49 AM
Nice to see I'm not the only person with the tendency to lean their head in towards the center of the frame when having a picture taken!
Posted by: Lynna
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November 2, 2009 11:52 AM
The cast of Tiktaalik steals the show. Next time, make casts of the human beings as well. Someone with the requisite skill could probably photoshop that image to make all the humans into casts of fossils.
Posted by: Troy | November 2, 2009 12:18 PM
Strange how they all have beards...
Posted by: Jim Demastes | November 2, 2009 12:28 PM
It gets cold up here in the midwest - the beards are permanent ski masks!
Posted by: Scooty Puff, Jr. | November 2, 2009 12:34 PM
Hey, that's my alma mater! Sadly, when I was there, they brought Guillermo Gonzalez to bloviate about Intelligent Design creationism. The good news, though, was that the majority of the audience asked great questions that eviscerated his arguments.
Hope you had fun, and I'm so glad UNI is getting a better caliber of speaker these days.
Posted by: llewelly | November 2, 2009 12:42 PM
Tiktaalik doesn't have a beard, and niether does Dr. Spradling. Since Tiktaalik stole the show, we must conclude that an individual without a beard has a 50% chance of being the star of the show.Posted by: Kapitano
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November 2, 2009 1:27 PM
I can imagine a creationist trying to infiltrate the show...by wearing a false beard. :-)
Posted by: Sardine | November 2, 2009 1:45 PM
This reminded me that Ray Comfort has a gawd awful screed up today mentioning the U of NI trying to equate blasphemy with hate speech.
Sorry for off topic.
Posted by: Osky | November 2, 2009 1:51 PM
I didn't see your lecture? on the UNI calendar yet- you'll keep us posted on time and place, right?
Posted by: Joel Jacobson | November 2, 2009 2:10 PM
"Are beards a cultural requirement for Midwestern Atheists?"
Only for the men
Posted by: Trevor Boeckmann | November 2, 2009 2:52 PM
We haven't solidified a location for the lecture yet. It should be done this week and go up on the calendar soon. It'll be a part of our Darwin Week celebration, so if you decided to see PZ, be sure to come up early for a host of other lectures as well.
Posted by: EricB | November 2, 2009 3:37 PM
Looking forward to hearing you later this month at Missouri State.
Posted by: Nick C. | November 2, 2009 4:05 PM
My heart skipped a beat when I saw UNI on the Pharyngula front page and another when I saw that they hosted Shubin and Tiktallik. Very cool!
Posted by: John N | November 2, 2009 5:19 PM
I just finished Shubin's "Your Inner Fish". Again,
hard working scientists with more interesting and relevant
things to say than babbling fools relying on ancient,
uninteresting, and irrelevant words.
Posted by: Pablo | November 2, 2009 5:23 PM
Wow, there are a lot of UNI folk commenting here. I am also a grad - class of 90 (the 1st time they went to the NCAA tournament with Jason Reece, Steve Phyfe, Dale Turner, Troy Muehlenberg (serious loser) and good old Maurice Newby)
Posted by: Jeff L | November 2, 2009 5:54 PM
UNI Class of '02. Can't wait for PZ to come here. I'll have to round up a few of my creationist friends (I know, I know) and see if he can talk some sense into them.
Posted by: Kathy | November 2, 2009 6:31 PM
Agree with CycloneLad, but UNI could use the encouragement!
Posted by: Andrew | November 3, 2009 12:10 AM
Details on the UNI gig? I can't seem to find any information on their website.
Posted by: JBlilie | November 4, 2009 8:08 AM
Cool: All those alpha-sci males with profuse facial hair! All hail the bearded sages!