Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
Anyone can do it.
Most people who visit UTI are probably familiar with PZ Myers and Pharyngula, but just in case you missed this post this morning, I wanted to pass on an excerpt:
This is a blog by an educator and scientist. We are not one-dimensional caricatures — I write about whatever interests me, whenever I feel like it. To claim that because I sometimes laugh and sometimes get angry and am a concerned citizen of a screwed-up country and have interests outside of journals and academia and am a father and husband and am willing to express myself on any topic that strikes my fancy means that there can't possibly be any science here implies that you are a freaking idiot with a bizarrely narrow view of who scientists are, and a peculiarly close-minded vision of how this medium actually works.
Now, that's PZ ranting in reaction to an influx of new trolls over at his place. But it is a really good summation of how I feel about blogging in general, and why some of the stuff I write here at UTI seems to come out of left field. None of us who regularly post or comment here are *just* atheists. We also have widely divergent other interests and professions, other experiences and contacts with the world. Sure, godlessness is one thing that brings us together here, but that is only what and who we are. In fact, I think that it is really quite important that we are a diverse crowd - decoupling the whole notion that being without god-belief is somehow limited to one profession or geographic area or income strata or educational level - anyone can do it!
Jim Downey
Bookmark/Search this post with:
But is Pharyngula a science blog?
I love Pharyngula and read it regularly, but I don't consider it a science blog. I don't go there to read about science but to read about atheism. PZ rarely writes about science directly but often writes about related issues like science education and religion.
I'm a scientist and an educator too, but I'd never call my blog a science blog. Like PZ, I address science issues periodically but not as my main focus.
Sometimes
He writes great stuff about biology, from time to time. But yeah, I kinda see it more as an atheism blog with occasional science. I suspect the atheism posts are both easier to write, and draw more comments, so that kind of pushes things in that direction.
The only bad part of this, IMHO, is that when he does write a science piece (which is quite often, really, just not as often as the other stuff), the comments still tend to be dominated by "...and that's why creationists are doo-doo heads!", instead of just appreciating the thing for itself. (Note, this is only the comments, not PZ's own articles.)