Morning coffee!: A fun snippet from Salvo

A magazine I recommend to the kind readers of The Post-Darwinist is Salvo.

Yes, I write for it, and here are some of my recent contributions that are available on line.

Livin' on a Prayer

The "nothing but" approach to describing humans

The Truth Hurts:Following the Evidence to Career Oblivion

But many skilled writers serve Salvo, and it is worth your subscription dollar. It is one of the only theist-based magazines around with a serious commitment to science writing. In other words, you can get science writing free of materialist bias.

It'll sound a bit different, but you'll get used to that, and you will learn stuff that could be really valuable to you.

And, heck, you sure do learn some interesting things. Here's a brief excerpt from Terrell Celmons's Crosshairs department, about an individual, known to many readers here, PZ Meyers, a biology prof at the University of Minnesota, Morris, and - as Clemons tells it - "a virulent shock-blogger who despises religious believers."

Most Recent Offense:

Lasts summer, PZ asked his readers to get him a consecrated [Roman Catholic] communion wafer, saying, "I''ll show you sacrilege, gladly, and with much fanfare." When he got one (Who knows if it was actually consecrated or not?), he pierced it with a rusty nail and threw it in the trash with a banana peel and coffee grounds, and then took and posed a photo of it as proof of the deed. He dubbed the photo The Great Desecration and pronounced, "It is finished."

But Myer's most pernicious influence is his crusade to make science education atheist education. PZ says he doesn't aim to expunge faith from the country, but he clearly aims to expunge it from the hearts and minds of science students, saying he wants believers to "look at the book of Genesis and ask lots of questions about it." Meanwhile, he opposes - zealously - any suggestion that they look at Darwin's works and ask any questions. Apparently, in his world, this is free inquiry.

Yes, absolutely. In the world of one-way skepticism, this is free inquiry. As much free inquiry as you will ever be allowed.

Welcome to the future your taxes fund. Now, get lost (except for the purposes of your national tax collection agency, in which case, proceed directly to ... ).

(Note: Apparently, Myers's attention was attracted to this dustup or a similar one at a Florida Catholic church. As Myers lives nowhere near Florida and decidedly does not claim to be a Catholic, I think he was simply looking for a cause.)

Also: History of science: Copernicus to get new tomb