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PZ Myers Coming to UCD

  • 20-01-2010 3:31pm
    #1
    ChocolateSauce
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,892 ✭✭✭


    Thanks to our gods mods for allowing a seperate thread!

    At 6.30 on February 2nd in Theatre B in the Science Hub, PZ Myers will be giving a talk with the University College Dublin Secular Humanist Society (now in our first year!), and will receive an honourary lifetime membership of the society in recognition of his contribution to the evolution-creation controversy and the general secular/atheist discourse.


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Comments

  • #2
    pts
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 576 ✭✭✭pts


    sounds very interesting. Is there a title for the talk and would I be correct in assuming the talk is atheism/agnostic/humanism related?


  • #3
    ChocolateSauce
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,892 ✭✭✭ChocolateSauce


    He's gotten back to me with a talk....he said I've a choice of either his biology talk, which is evolution-creation, or of a new talk, which includes a reading from his upcoming book, Chapels of the Absurd. Although I also told him he we have the room for 3 hours and he suggesting he mightn't shut up, so heres hoping!


  • #4
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,428 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    ChocolateSauce wrote: »
    ucdhumanistsociey@gmail.com
    Missing a "T" there towards the end.


  • #5
    TheCosmicFrog
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,380 ✭✭✭TheCosmicFrog


    Sounds like another great PZ event, nice going ChocolateSauce! :)

    Aaron,
    NUIG Skeptic Soc IT Officer


  • #6
    ChocolateSauce
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,892 ✭✭✭ChocolateSauce


    myers_poster.png


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  • #7
    TheLargerBowl
    Closed Accounts Posts: 136 ✭✭TheLargerBowl


    Would absolutely *love* to go to this, but have a class in Blackrock at the same time that I can't skip. :mad:


  • #8
    Funglegunk
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,566 ✭✭✭Funglegunk


    I'll be heading to this tonight. Is there a big crowd expected?


  • #9
    marco_polo
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 10,088 Mod ✭✭✭✭marco_polo


    Was a good evening had but all?

    Unfortunately I think Minnesota would be easier for me to get to after work for 6.30 than UCD. :(


  • #10
    Funglegunk
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,566 ✭✭✭Funglegunk


    Yeah it was good fun. The lecture itself was far more 'science-y' than I was expecting, although there was some very interesting stuff in it: the evolution of 'Nylonase' and the anti-freeze protein in Icefish for example. I got lost in the jargon every now and then though tbh.

    The Q&A afterwards was good fun too, and lasted about 90 minutes. Mostly questions about atheism, human evolution, creationism etc. Some US politics too.

    He was also passing round a copy of this book, which was quite hilarious to read I have to say!


  • #11
    Dave!
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27,857 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    Was the theatre full, yeah?


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  • #12
    bnt
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,077 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    Prob. closer to 1/2 full, maybe 150 people, about 30 of whom ended up in the bar. I left the bar around 11PM, and PZ was still there with Guinness, chatting with all and sundry about all kinds of stuff. Very nice guy - but not exactly "Minnesota nice". :p

    I had to wonder what that "Big Bang" questioning was about. Did that bloke go away thinking "I defeated the big bad atheist"? Just because a biologist is not fully clued up on current cosmology? Or is it another "god of the gaps" argument? Atheists don't have all the answers to Life, the Universe and Everything to hand -> ergo, the Christian (Nicene) Creed is the answer? Weird.

    You are the type of what the age is searching for, and what it is afraid it has found. I am so glad that you have never done anything, never carved a statue, or painted a picture, or produced anything outside of yourself! Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets.

    ―Oscar Wilde predicting Social Media, in The Picture of Dorian Gray



  • #13
    Dave!
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27,857 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    Oh yeah, you get many religious types asking PZ questions? Or was it an atheist circle jerk basically? :p


  • #14
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,428 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Dave! wrote: »
    Oh yeah, you get many religious types asking PZ questions? Or was it an atheist circle jerk basically? :p
    From the q's, I'd have said there wasn't more than one or two religious people there.

    The one religious guy who did ask PZ a question, chose to ask him one about physics, rather than biology (the guy must have failed to notice that PZ is a prof of biology, and been asleep during the hour long lecture, 95% of which was about creationism + biology and the other 5% about religion).


  • #15
    ChocolateSauce
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,892 ✭✭✭ChocolateSauce


    Funglegunk wrote: »

    He was also passing round a copy of this book, which was quite hilarious to read I have to say!

    I'll be bringing it to the next beers, for anyone interested!
    The lecture itself was far more 'science-y' than I was expecting, although there was some very interesting stuff in it: the evolution of 'Nylonase' and the anti-freeze protein in Icefish for example.

    I thought it was a little too technical at points also, but the Q&A made up for it by a long shot.
    BNT wrote:
    I had to wonder what that "Big Bang" questioning was about. Did that bloke go away thinking "I defeated the big bad atheist"? Just because a biologist is not fully clued up on current cosmology? Or is it another "god of the gaps" argument? Atheists don't have all the answers to Life, the Universe and Everything to hand -> ergo, the Christian (Nicene) Creed is the answer? Weird.

    Yeah, the Christian apparently came in, asked that question, then left!

    The answer is of course that there was no "before" the big bang because time didn't exist! I felt that PZ got him back by pointing out that physicists are often asked biology questons in the same vein, implying it was a deliberate tactic to go for the weakest, rather than strongest suit.


  • #16
    Dave!
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27,857 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    Been reading Pharyngula today, ChocolateSauce? :D

    PZ posted up this up....
    Oh, and one last totally random thing in recollection of my wonderful trip to Ireland. Here's me receiving an award from the University College Dublin Secular Humanist Society…from Captain Jack Sparrow. How awesome is that?

    ucd_award.jpeg

    Actually, that's David, but if ever he wants to become a pirate, I'll join his crew.

    I lol'd :D


  • #17
    DogmaticLefty
    Closed Accounts Posts: 265 ✭✭DogmaticLefty


    Jeez! And people give out about clerical dress...


  • #18
    Dave!
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27,857 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    DogmaticLefty wrote: »
    Jeez! And people give out about clerical dress...
    Who gives out about clerical dress...? :confused:


  • #19
    Turtwig
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭Turtwig


    Reminds me of Bob Hoskins as Super Mario. Jack Sparrow? Sorry ChocolateSauce you're just not that cool.:p


  • #20
    Wacker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,057 ✭✭✭Wacker


    Malty_T wrote: »
    Reminds me of Bob Hoskins as Super Mario. Jack Sparrow? Sorry ChocolateSauce you're just not that cool.:p
    Indeed. But I would have suggested that V would have been the obvious comparison.

    v-for-vendetta_l.jpg


  • #21
    pts
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 576 ✭✭✭pts


    From the comments section:
    Posted by: HelixHelix | February 8, 2010 10:56 PM
    Swoon! If David is single, I'm on the next plane to Dublin.
    :D


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  • #22
    Dades
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,558 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dades


    Nice one ChocolateSauce!
    Wacker wrote: »
    Indeed. But I would have suggested that V would have been the obvious comparison.
    Yes - I believe that was the consensus at the A&A beers. Did you have a block of cheese with you for PZ? :D


  • #23
    ChocolateSauce
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,892 ✭✭✭ChocolateSauce


    Malty_T wrote: »
    Reminds me of Bob Hoskins as Super Mario. Jack Sparrow? Sorry ChocolateSauce you're just not that cool.:p

    I once wore a Johnny Depp costume to my chemistry lab, but people kept mistaking me for a pirate.

    Yes! I'm finally world famous! :cool:

    I forgot the cheese Dades....but I did get him to sign my copy of the Atlas Of Creation!


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