PZ visits the nation's wang!
I had a terrific experience last night! No, not that kind of experience. Get your minds out of the gutter ;-) I went to hear PZ Myers speak at Rollins College last night. His talk was on the intersection of science and religion in the classroom. The main thrust of it was that it is imperative that the classroom remain secular; religion has absolutely no place there, especially in the science classroom. He also covered some of his personal experiences of being a militant atheist. Hearing about his being "expelled" from the movie Expelled first hand was great. PZ also offered advice for we atheists in our continuing struggle to retain equal rights as godless citizens of the United States. It was actually quite inspirational. I can't tell you how uplifting it was to be physically gathered with other freethinkers and engage in intelligent discussions.
Unfortunately we didn't have any protesters like they did the night before at UCF. But the Dean of the Chapel did raise a stink about PZ's visit. Apparently he has a problem with blasphemers. He was probably referring to the cracker incident. For the life of me, I can't figure out why that would bother someone, but some people have weird fetishes. To each their own.
Afterward, we adjourned to Fiddler's Green and continued the conversation. I was fortunate enough to have been seated directly across from PZ, and so I used the opportunity to totally babble like a complete fanboi discuss deep philisophical topics in a rational manner. I totally impressed him with my erudite manner and thoughtful insights on a number of topics (yeah, right). In reality, it was quite pleasant just to engage in conversation with a "famous" person, chatting about such random topics as the weather in Minnesota, the state of the educational system in the USA and parenthood. I did begin to feel a little old, however, with all the college kids around. I didn't even get carded :(
All in all, it was a fantastic evening of deep thought, lite conversation and drinking cider on draught (damn near impossible to find in regular bars).
Many thanks, PZ, for the inspirational talk and the great conversation.
posted by CyberLizard
@ 6:42 PM
6 Comments
6 Comments:
I am soooo jealous! What a great experience.
Well, Rev Powers went to a Catholic seminary and even (I think) was a Catholic priest for several years. Now he serves in a non-denominational capacity. That said, he must not have raised that big of a stink about it, as his own congregation didn't know anything about it. (That would be us.) Seriously- we heard nothing about it from him. How did you know he "made a big stink" about it? (Which, BTW, doesn't sound anything like him, to be quite frank.)
a-ha...well, I see that the speaker is the source of the supposed irateness....perhaps it was a ploy to stir up some controversy and fill those seats????
Just a thought. Cause seriously, the Dean of the Chapel is a highly tolerant person. It was almost disturbing to see some of the comments made on that guy's blog about a person they don't know. I mean, come on, they are just responding to something someone else said about another person. And hey- doesn't the Dean have the right to voice his opinion too????
At the very least the Dean sent emails trying to prevent PZ from speaking. I don't know all of the details, but the Rev. apparently objects to PZ on the grounds that he is blasphemous and committing religious terror.
"big stink" is relative. Compared to the complete absence of response to his numerous other appearances around the country (except for the night before at UCF, when protesters actually showed up), a Dean of the college trying to prevent a noted atheist lecturer from speaking is a big stink. And I don't think that mentioning that it happened would exactly be considered a ploy to stir up controversy. If so, the Dean was the one stirring.
The Dean is absolutely entitled to voice his opinion. What he's not entitled to do is to try to prevent anyone else from voicing theirs.
PZ said that he was contacting the faculty member to get permission to post the emails. We'll see how that goes.
As far as the Pharyngulites comments, I didn't see them say anything too terribly bad about the Rev. Most of the comments were jokes about octopus tatoos and PZs physical appearance. Oh, there was a comment about a link on the Rev's page referring to "The Great Organ". And that was just funny.
it deleted my very lengthy comment.
I ain't typing all that again.
Bullet point:
someone called the dean a waste of money who should be fired. Uncalled for.
Organ joke? just immature.
I've heard of problems with the comment system here on Blogger, but I've never experienced. I've been contemplating replacing it with a third-party comment system.
Anyway, if you're not familiar with that particular blog, that remark may seem harsh, but they have been dealing with all kinds of religious stupidity for so long, their tolerance of intolerance in the name of god is a little low.
huh huh huh [Butthead snicker] You said "organ"
Um, I mean, very immature. I would never laugh at a penis joke.
*snicker* I said "penis"
;-)
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