PZ Myers

Paul Zachary "PZ" Myers is an associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota Morris.Google Scholar
Myers is better-known as a popular atheist blogger. His primary blog is Pharyngula ("Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal"), where he criticizes creationism, advocates for the popularization of science, and gushes about cephalopods. He occasionally blogs for the Panda's Thumb, a group blog devoted to dissecting creationist claims. After Pharyngula's host site was acquired by National Geographic, Myers and Ed Brayton founded Freethought Blogs.
Myers also republished a collection of his blog posts as a book titled The Happy Atheist.ISBN 978-0307379344
==Atheism==
Myers claims that being religious needs effort but that atheism avoids absurd creeds, futile rituals and obedience to supernatural demands. Myers asserts that atheists act morally through natural altruism and do not need the promise of Heaven or the threat that a malicious god will send them to Hell as motivation. Atheists do not pray or need to explain lack of response to prayer. Atheists have the simplest answer: there is no god listening.
Myers further maintains that atheists avoid futile guilt over breaking obsolete religious rules. Atheists also ideally avoid excessive respect for rulers, religious leaders, their own tribe, the male sex and can see all human beings as equal. Atheists only need to feel guilty when they have caused actual harm and that helps them to be moral.
===New Atheism and Atheism+===
Over the years, Myers became increasingly frustrated with the atheist movement. His main criticism was against an empty “just disbelief” form of atheism, which he termed "dictionary atheism". Myers at one point considered himself a New Atheist,Comes a Horseman, Myers' acceptance speech for the Humanist of the Year award for 2009. but appeared to naturally gravitate towards Atheism+ as time went on, which he saw as a natural extension of New Atheism (New Atheism highlighted the importance of science to atheism, while Atheism+ highlighted the importance of social justice).Nice Article on Atheism+ in the New Statesman Myers, PZ. Pharyngula, 23 Aug. 2012. This may have been hastened by several ongoing and public disagreements between Myers and both Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins.The Trumpification of atheism Myers feels the atheist movement pays too much attention to abstract metaphysics, and that the movement is too concerned about better-off white men and does not address issues connected with racial oppression, poverty, and women's issues. Myers feels the atheist movement is shooting itself in the foot with regressive social attitudes and scandals.
The Atheist Disillusionment 
Myers believes atheists should be decent human beings who want to build meaningful communities. He maintains that if atheists embrace progressive stances on issues relating to diversity, legal and social equality, and common responsibility for humanity, then atheism will become both more meaningful and more attractive. Myers rejects the view that atheism "only means you don't believe in gods", and sees this interpretation as a "flat abstraction" that forgets that atheists can, indeed, be decent human beings (who knew?).Sunday Sacrilege: The Responsible Atheist Myers feels it is unacceptable for skeptical movements (like atheism) to avoid issues like racism, sexism, war, and climate change denialism, and pins this problem on predominantly white, male and privileged skeptics who won't hesitate to shout down anyone who makes them uncomfortable.Skepticism will not fix its problems by denying their existenceThese problems apply less outside the American atheist movement. Myers values Humanism highly for the emphasis ethics and social justice receive within the movement. In fact, he was accused of masterminding a series of initiatives by the American Humanist Association to work towards social justice for African American, feminist and LGBTQ people (his blog post referenced below claims that the initiatives are intended to work toward justice for humanist members of these minorities, but the AHA page makes no such distinction; this is probably a mistake on Myers' part, as such discrimination would contradict humanism's supposed aims). Myers fears that people may be driven away from atheism and towards humanism as a result of all this, though secularism is not uncommon among humanists and often goes hand in hand with the rejection of supernatural beliefs.HumanismPlus? How about just plain humanism
===Michael Shermer===
Alison Smith (a former employee of the James Randi Educational Foundation) approached Myers accusing Michael Shermer of rape. Smith requested that Myers publish her claims anonymously as a warning to other women to not allow Shermer to get them drunk and isolate them from groups. PZ felt morally obliged to publish Smith's accusation because he had heard other similar complaints about Shermer and the issue of sexual harassment in the atheist movement had been gathering momentum. Subsequently, journalist Mark Oppenheimer wrote an article that named, with permission, not only Smith, but several other alleged female victims of Shermer’s behavior.Will Misogyny Bring Down The Atheist Movement? Buzzfeed Oppenheimer's piece included corroborating accounts from named and unnamed sources. Myers believes that Shermer changed his story so much that he now has no credibility left.The crooked, twisted story of the wanton kid
==Christianity==
As Christianity is the dominant religion in the USA, Myers puts much effort into dealing with it.
===Courtier's Reply===
Myers coined the term "Courtier's Reply" to describe the argument that only clergy and theologians are qualified to comment on questions of faith.PZ Myers, "The Courtier's Reply", Pharyngula, 24 December 2006. Many people are quick to suggest that someone like Richard Dawkins, who was trained as a biologist, does not have the authority to criticize religion.http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2007/01/11/a-mission-to-convert/ Myers suggests this is like telling the child in Andersen's fable to study haute couture before judging if the emperor is naked.
===Expelled===
In a bizarre mixup, Myers was prevented from attending a screening of the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed while Richard Dawkins, standing next to him, was allowed to attend. After a quick blog post to mention how funny it was that Dawkins wasn't blacklisted from seeing the film (despite being the better-known critic of creationism and religion), the two discussed the movie in an informal manner online.PZ Myers: Expelled from Expelled! - Richard Dawkins
===Crackergate===
On July 24, 2008, Myers desecrated a consecrated host, along with pages from the Qur'an, Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion, coffee grounds, and a banana peel. This followed an assault on Webster Cook, a student who kept a host in his mouth to show to a friend later, rather than eating it during a eucharist at the University of Central Florida, and (according to some) Myers attempted to draw fire. It succeeded in that, sparking a feud between Dr. Myers and William Donohue. (See also Iconoclasm.) The degree of “hysterical” reaction surprised Myers who had hoped intelligent Catholics would see Jesus was in no way harmed. Myers feels those who hold supposed sacred objects dear can endanger the liberty of others,Setting the Koran on fire, vs. setting personal liberties on fire which the whole incident is a good illustration of (since both Myers and Cook received death threats, and Cook himself was assaulted).
===NOMA===
Myers, like many members of the most recent generation of outspoken atheists, rejects NOMA or "non overlapping magisteria". NOMA was Stephen J. Gould's position claiming matters of science and faith were separated into two groups that never overlapped. This for a time appeared to answer the "conflict thesis" of science and religion. Myers and other modern atheists dismiss NOMA — some suggesting Gould himself wasn't totally convinced. Myers argues that faith and superstition, while unfounded, have real impact on the world through the actions of believers and therefore merit critical analysis by any and all means, including science.
==Islam==
Myers argues that stereotyping Muslims is unreasonableIf you see something, say something and strongly opposes those who treat Muslims, or former Muslims, as boogeymen.
However, following the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, Myers stated that "radical Islam" is a great evil which he hopes can be defeated. Myers has criticised theocratic Muslim nations many times for their dangerous disregard of human rights.Dangerous nerdsGulf states develop amazing new biomedical technologyFree Raif Badawi Myers used the title "Vile Islam" in a blog post regarding a Bangladeshi husband who cut the fingers off his wife's right hand when she went to college without his consent."Vile Islam" On the other hand, showing once again that he takes issue with religion run amok moreso than religion in and of itself, Myers maintains that typical American Muslims are far less bigoted than their conservative Christian counterparts, citing poll evidence that 42% of US Muslims support gay marriage — roughly the same proportion as Christians. Myers maintains that deporting Muslims would solve nothing, as the dominant Christianity and some atheists promote a homophobic culture.Is the core of the problem Islam?
==Pharyngula==
Pharyngula, named for the stage of embryonic development, got roughly 2.5 million hits each month but the popularity of the Freethought Blogs has declined significantly according to Alexa.How popular is freethoughtblogs.com? This may or may not be reliable. The Pharyngula blog focuses on many topics: biology, evolution, Young Earth creationism,Cruel and unusual punishment Old Earth creationism,Let’s pick on an Old Earth Creationist atheism, liberal politics, why and violenceAcademic failures in elementary humanity towards women should not be tolerated,Canada sets another example for us all exposing Donald Trump,By golly, Trump is negging us!; A day in the life of a buffoon exposing quack medicine,An abuse of stem cells Stanislaw Burzynski must be stopped; Disgraceful quackery from Bioharmonic Technologies, and shame on the Autism Society; Another cancer quack; But of course @DeepakChopra is incorporating epigenetics into his quackery abuse of guns, lack of accountability and other problems with American police,Disarm the police; Don’t blame the victims; Depends on whose ox is getting gored; Mr Rogers says, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” affairs in Minnesota,Syllabusery; Minnesotans! You have an election on Tuesday! Vote! squid porn,Tentacle Sex non-squid cephalopod porn, spiders,Mourning a spider the shortcomings of Intelligent Design, conservative wackos, squid porn, etc. Occasionally, the blog incidentally mentioned Rebecca Watson, Ophelia Benson, Jey McCreight, or Atheism Plus, while substantively discussing other topics, but none of these was ever a primary focus of the blog. 
Pharyngula was initially an independent blog. It moved to ScienceBlogs, Seed Magazine's blogging collective, where it was one of the major generators of traffic for the site. Around 2011, ScienceBlogs started to decline and was acquired by National Geographic, which Myers thought had a more uptight nature that would interfere with Pharyngula's tone and content. As a result, Myers and Ed Brayton founded their own blogging collective, Freethought Blogs, and cloned both their blogs there. Myers also maintains the blog's old presence at ScienceBlogs, reposting his more science-oriented articles.Pharyngula on ScienceBlogs The FtB version of Pharyngula remains Myers' main blog.Welcome to the new digs!, Myers' welcome message on the new incarnation of PharyngulaUnknown people calling themselves Pharyngulite started their own little wiki on Wikia. See It’s a lens to concentrate the weirdness. It mostly covers possibly immature ideas and memes repeated on the blog and comments. But it also covers much of the same science and pseudoscience remit as RationalWiki, with articles on New Atheists and peer review, plus such delicacies as Myers' distaste for libertarians and love of evo-devo. It's fairly inactive.
A controversy in mid 2015 over then-FTB-colleague Ophelia Benson's views on trans people caused drama in the FtB comments.And some of the boxes are wired to explode! PZ MyersA horrible effective silencer Ophelia Benson As a consequence, PZ Myers decided to end his traditional social threads "the Lounge" (moderated) and "The Mended Drum", formerly " Why can’t we move beyond Thunderdome" (unmoderated) — which mainly served his regulars — citing "far too much cliquishness" as a reason that made moderating an "unrewarding chore".Between me and my mind
==Trolls==
From early 2009 till 2013 the professional troll John Kwok stalked Myers, also posting many annoying and/or threatening comments. See John Kwok and PZ Myers for more. Dennis Markuze was another internet troll stalking and repeatedly threatening Myers as well as other prominent atheists. An online petition that Myers organised probably helped get Markuze arrested.Case Study: How a notorious spammer was brought down via TwitterVICTORY! Montreal Police Begin Formal Investigation of “David Mabus”Montreal police investigating alleged threats made against atheists
More recently, Slymepit users spread a malicious rumor that asserted Myers had an STD.Pitposting
==Politics==
Myers is an outspoken liberal.
Myers fears Donald Trump does not understand science;Are we a nation of two-year-olds? he thinks many Trump supporters are racists, and feels very bad about Trump's having been elected.Nazis. Nazis, nazis, nazis.
Pharyngula has frequent posts about things Trump does that Myers feels are bad and about how ordinary citizens are opposing Trump.
Myers fears the media encourage war and bombings because war boosts their ratings.Our ‘liberal’ media at work Myers has no confidence in the ability of the Trump team to deal with North Korea and he calls the Trump team "a mob of crazypants wackjobs".“strategic patience”
Myers argues global warming denialism is clownish and comparable to evolution denialism.Prime snide kookrant He argues against a global warming conspiracy, stating that scientists get neither fame nor money fighting powerful vested interests in the fossil fuel industries.I don’t understand what’s going on in denialist’s heads He fears the Trump team is planning to redefine science as what the Republican party believes or wants people to believe, rather than real science. He cites Lamar Smith trying to redefine science,We're not done yet and considers Trump completely amoral.The President must be a zombie
Myers is concerned that the Trump administration is cutting grants to science. He fears money that used to go to science is being used instead to build a useless wall between the USA and Mexico.I guess science is going to pay for that wall
Myers favors gun control.I don’t give a damn about your gun specs He notes cases where guns have tragically killed.What was horribly tragic?Why can’t we prosecute people for gun incompetence? Myers has discussed whether his local elected representatives accepted money (Myers considers it bribes) from the NRA.It’s a start
Myers is a feminist and promotes the role of women in the skepticism movement. He points out that some atheists are guilty of covering up the sexual exploitation of women.Painfully close to the truth He advocated for a woman who complained about sexual abuse and gender discrimination at the James Randi Educational Foundation.I’m ready to be divisiveCarrie Poppy tells all
Myers claims that anyone who uses the term "identity politics" is a closet racist.
Myers believes lack of planning and regulation exacerbated the disaster in Houston, Texas. Lack of planning allowed chemical plants with dangerous chemicals to be near residential areas and the flooding allowed dangerous chemicals to escape.Regulations require you to plan ahead
== See also ==
*Ham Hightail
*Essay:PZ Myers panel discussion, March 3, 2011
== External links ==
*Pharyngula on Freethought Blogs, the latest incarnation
*Pharyngula, the older ScienceBlogs incarnation, now running in parallel as a "lite" version. After the transfer to National Geographic the comments on many older posts seem to be missing.
*About PZ (The Mad Scientist. Biologist and blogger PZ Myers speaks out on the war on science, intelligent design, and the sexual habits of giant squid)
*Pharyngula Wiki.
==References==
Category:Biologists
Category:Bloggers
Category:Living people
Category:Skeptics