I am certainly no prophet of doom yet, I wonder if Professor PZ Myers may want to slow his roll, as it were, considering just how influential he is particularly with regards to his admirers.
Scienceblogger Chad Orzel described the commentators on PZ Myers’ Scienceblogs.com site Pharyngula, and other Scienceblogs.com commentators, as “screechy monkeys.”
PZ Myers is not only abusing his position, and blog, by pushing atheism in the guise of science but he is also engaging in anti-science behavior. Granted that online polls are not hard science but it is somewhere in the realm of statistics. This is what PZ Myers wrote in his post Crash this poll:
“You know how we all love to screw up online polls…here’s another one. Scroll down to just below ‘What others are saying’, on the left, where the poll question is:Do you think the theory of Intelligent Design should be taught in our education system?
‘Yes’ is currently leading by about 3:1. If everyone goes over there and votes ‘no’, it will raise Mark Mathis’s blood pressure a few points.” [ellipses in original]
One, of many, very telling responses that a screechy monkey managed to type out whist randomly pressing keyboard keys reads, “Done, m’lord. Now the No is leading.”
Well, voting in the way that your lord told you is one thing but what about Prof. PZ Myers’ constant bombastic and vociferous vitriol? God forbid that Pavlov’s monkeys ever take him as seriously as he takes himself and take actions based on his inflammatory terminology. Following are two examples:
PZ Myers wrote the following at his blog Pharyngula:
“I am a biologist. Like it or not, the Republican party is being led by religious zealots who are anti-biology, who publicly and vigorously oppose reason and knowledge and evidence in my field of study…
the despicable gang of anti-intellectuals who run this country…
Let them find comfort and forgiveness for stupid mistakes in their religion, because I sure as hell am not going to give it to them…the preachers are stridently condemning all us evilutionists [sic] to hell, is a damned ineffective tactic that has gotten us to this point. I say, screw the polite words and careful rhetoric. It’s time for scientists to break out the steel-toed boots and brass knuckles, and get out there and hammer on the lunatics and idiots. If you don’t care enough for the truth to fight for it, then get out of the way.”
PZ Myers further wrote:
“Yeah, I’m afraid the ‘civilized academic debate’ was settled about a century ago. Scientists have been engaging in that ideal, non-militaristic fashion for quite some time, and still are – those discussions go on in the pages of the journals. Unfortunately, while we have been doing everything in the proper civilized way, the forces of ignorance have not; they have lied their way into considerable power.
Here I am, a biologist living in the 21st century in one of the richest countries in the world, and one of the two biology teachers in my kids’ high school is a creationist. Last year, the education commissioner in my state tried to subvert the recommendations for the state science standards by packing a hand-picked ‘minority report’ committee to push for required instruction in intelligent design creationism in our schools. All across the country, we have these lunatics trying to stuff pseudoscientific religious garbage into our schools and museums and zoos.
This is insane.
Please don’t try to tell me that you object to the tone of our complaints. Our only problem is that we aren’t martial enough, or vigorous enough, or loud enough, or angry enough. The only appropriate responses should involve some form of righteous fury, much butt-kicking, and the public firing and humiliation of some teachers, many schoolboard members, and vast numbers of sleazy far-right politicians.” [italics in original]
Hopefully, PZ Myers will manage to keep his monkeys considerably sedated.
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