PZ Myers gave a talk at the Atheist Alliance International meeting in Montreal last October. It was taped for TVOntario's "Big Ideas" show and it will air tomorrow (Sunday, January 30, 2011) at 5:30 pm.
Or, you can watch it right now on the TVO website at PZ Myers on Science and Atheism: Natural Allies. Even better, here's the YouTube version for your immediate viewing pleasure.
WARNING: PZ Myers is one of those Gnu Atheists and some people may find it offensive to have their cherished beliefs questioned.1
1. As Ricky Gervais said recently, "Just because you're offended doesn't mean you are right."
18 comments :
PZ "I look at dead babies and see meat" Meyers? What exactly is his big idea? He really does disservice to science by claiming that evolution cannot be falsified. What a remarkably stupid thing to say. Many, many things can falsify current evolutionary theory.
I just checked the TVO schedule, and at least here in Toronto, the show is at 5pm, not 5:30pm
science does not support atheism because you have to define god before you can do that
the
great
weakness
of
the
skeptic
bandwagon
is
the
way
they
say
god
is
nonexistant
without
understanding
that
non
existant
is
a
category
of
existance !
Likewise, just because you are offensive doesn't mean you're right, either. Nor does questioning "cherished beliefs" (except atheism, of course) make you right.
I checked my listings and the show starts at 5:00 here. So, make sure you check the time in your area so as to not be disappointed.
Just checked the time and Big Ideas starts at 5:00pm on TVO. I think PZ will be on for the whole hour since his talk is 55 minutes in length.
LM, your name's similarity to "Moron" never occured to me. Which is nicely contrasted by how I immediately spoke of the "Church of Moron" when two "Elders" tried proselytizing me.
@DK: It is not remarkably stupid. It is an informed argument of quantity (sadly not expressed as such). Ie given the body of phenomena X explained by the Theory E, any significantly smaller body Y of contradictory phenomena will not disprove E (unless there is a superior theory Y explaining X' > X).
This follows trivially from minimum description length or maximum likelihood estimation. It can also be shown by bayesian model comparison.
Regarding "I look at dead babies and see meat", that's exactly what he means when he says "truth matters". Dead babies are "meat". Humans are animals. We will all die and then decompose. Using euphemisms won't change reality.
Finally outside biology PZ is mostly known for his blogging. Envy won't get you anywhere.
The lecture is also posted to the video and audio podcast feeds of "Big Ideas" under the title "PZ Myers on Science and Atheism: Natural Allies".
@DK: He didn't say current evolutionary theory, he said evolutionary theory. He said that current evolutionary theory WOULD change, but that evolution itself wouldn't. The same way that general relativity will change, but gravity won't be disproved. What things can falsify it, exactly?
I don't think PZ is saying that evolution is unfalsifiable because it is evolution. But instead, perhaps, since evolution is such a robust science and has so many millions of data points in its favor, one counter argument or discrepancy wouldn't crack the nut. You would have to refute all of the millions of observations in favor of evolution in order to falsify it.
by
which
logic
nothing
is
non-existent
including
leprechauns
Wow.
good
theory.
I see that many people don't distinguish between a fact of falsification and an acceptance of that fact by majority of scientists.
leprechauns
are not non-existant
they exist as stories
gratuitous insults
show
inferior minds !
gracious is
open
to
being
wrong !
@DK: How could you miss that we wrote about facts and not opinions?
I don't get it. We talk quantities, mathematics and logic - and you see an argumentum ad populum? How can a person able to write coherent sentences fail so embarrassingly at basic reading?
god and gods are nonexistent
they exist in stories
superior minds
realize when
they have already
been proven wrong
they also do not
write in free verse
when it is not
necessary
sally i am sad you never read stories to your children
since these stories are non existant
this
drop
down
style
is
to
slow
those
who
would
pass
over
it
without
taking
in
it's
meaning
which
might
be
you
i
guess !
@DK
It's easy to say that there's a way to falsify it, but why you don't give an example. So just saying "well... I can't think of any!" is pretty pathetic.
No new information could erase the robust research that provides evidence for evolution, so essentially the closest we could come to a paradigm shift is a peripheral addition to evolutionary theory. Which, at best, would probably be really tiny. Though there probably won't be any such addition...
@Andrew:
You seem to be equating the idea of an entity with the entity itself. Leprechauns do not exist; the IDEA of leprechauns does exist, in the form of stories.
Were I to tell a story about pink snells who produce gold from their noses, that does not effect the existence of snells as more than an idea, and certainly does not effect the amount of gold in the world.
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