<p>I agree with Mollie on PZ Meyers. I have heard him speak when he was in Toronto speaking at a CFI event. He is just not very nice to obviously STUPID things. Unlike many “nice” people, he is sick of being nice. Of course he was probably very welcome here because there are way more atheists here than in most parts of the USA, I’d imagine. </p>
<p>“PZ Myers is equally disdainful of those who believe in God, even though the belief in the existence of a supreme being probably requires much less faith than it does to deny one.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH. OH MAN. I am NOT going to get started on this. YES… it takes MUCH more faith to DENY the existance of a flying teapot around the sun than it does to believe in one.</p>
<p>PZ has just had it with people like that and rehashing the same stuff over and over. He might as well amuse those who think-alike. There’s a difference between academic freedom and a serious debate, like a scientific debate, and a debate that’s “scientific”, except that one argument is just based on faith with no data to prove it. There are tons of controversies in science that will get resolved when we find out more evidence, this isn’t one of them. </p>
<p>Also, I don’t get why people are surprised by this guy graduating from Harvard. It is not like you need to believe in anything to defend your thesis. Francis Collins, while he believes in evolution, sometimes doesn’t seem far off either… and he is what, head of NIH or some wing of NIH now? PZ talked about this in the lecture… you can’t screen people for belief in x or y. The most you can do is teach and make them write tests and HOPE that after the process they learn something vs. just memorize and regurgitate.</p>