Bloggasm

PZ Myers is the writer for what is arguably the most popular science blog on the internet: Pharyngula. He writes about a variety of science-related issues for a general audience, not afraid to delve deep into controversial politics whenever they seem to be attacking science.

Myers is currently an associate professor of biology at University of Minnesota, Morris, within the Division of Science and Mathematics. Within the last year, he officially joined the Science Blog team for Seed Magazine along with forty-seven other bloggers.

Simon Owens: Chris Mooney, in his book The Republican War on Science, talks about how the Republicans started to successfully use the phrase “sound science” to obscure their true political goals which were based on anything but sound science. Do you think this is the result of scientists not being proactive enough in getting their views out to the public?

PZ Myers: Partly. “Scientist” is a diverse category, politically, and it would be difficult to come up with a term under which we could all be consolidated, though, so I wouldn’t entirely blame us. It’s much easier to come up with convenient slogans against science when you’ve got a group whose major raison d’etre is to oppose scientific conclusions.

However, it is true that many scientists have been myopic. We find it hard to believe that there could be coherent opposition to rationality and evidence-based decision making…but it’s happening. I think more of us are starting to wake up.

Simon Owens: With all the recent attacks on science, ranging from global warming, to Intelligent Design, to misinformation about fuel economy, to abstinence-only education, what would you consider to be the most atrocious attack on science in the past decade?

PZ Myers: I wouldn’t name a specific event. It’s a growing attitude, best represented by that creationist slogan, “Teach the controversy.” It’s this strange attitude that any opinion deserves equal recognition by the media and politicians and educators, and that an expectation that we should have supporting evidence is superfluous. That idea that mere expression of a claim is sufficient has allowed religious thinking to flourish, poisoning the debates with stupid ideas and the demand that we respect them no matter what.

Simon Owens: What made you decide to blog for Seed Magazine? How did that come about?

PZ Myers: Growing traffic, first of all. The site was being run from a server in my lab, and whenever traffic rose to about 20,000 visitors a day, it would strain and start to break down. I needed professional help!

Seed provides that reliable support, which was my first consideration. The other factor, though, was that talking to the people there convinced me that they “got it”–they were going to value the diversity of opinion that is the hallmark of blogs, and even though I think they might cringe now and then at some of the positions we take, they’re committed to letting us state them. They understand that we aren’t the propaganda arm of the Seed Media Empire, we’re part of a science conversation on the web, and they’re confident enough in the quality of their work that they know we’ll make them a positive part of that discussion.

Simon Owens: I’ve interviewed several bloggers before who were also professors. I’m always curious to find out whether a professor’s students and faculty pay attention to the blogger’s online work.

PZ Myers: Yes, they do. I don’t know to what degree, but I do get comments from students, and colleagues, and just people on the street in town. It’s a little weird. I sort of mentally dissociate myself from that, though; I don’t want to be self-conscious, and I don’t want to be reluctant to discuss something because I’m afraid of pissing off the box boy at the grocery store.

Simon Owens: Do you have a hard time sometimes writing for a more general audience? How do you balance scientific jargon with articulating your views to non-scientists?

PZ Myers: No, it’s not hard at all. I’m used to trying to explain things to 18 year olds. I don’t mean that in a condescending way, either: I make a living talking to smart people who don’t know much about a subject YET, but are sincerely trying to learn. That’s the attitude I take, anyway — I assume my readers are intelligent people with an honest interest in a subject they haven’t heard much about, and the rest just follows.

Simon Owens: There’s been a number of books recently about religion that have brought on a lot of hype, including The God Delusion and Tempting Faith. I remember seeing Dawkins on the BBC, and when asked about scientists who manage to be Christians, he said he didn’t really understand them. Do you think that scientists who view the bible as a metaphor in the attempt to claim it doesn’t disagree with science are being intellectually dishonest with themselves?

PZ Myers: No, they’re being honest to their selves. People are complicated, messy, organic creatures, and part of our nature is the ability to accommodate many mutually contradictory ideas. I disagree strongly with those scientists who make these unlikely, sloppy, silly attempts to rationalize their religious belief — both Francis Collins’ recent book and Ken Miller’s book, which fall into abysmal stupidity whenever they start babbling about religion — but I think they are completely sincere. Sincerity and honesty don’t make them right, though.

Personally, I’m like Dawkins, and I don’t understand them myself. Science erodes faith–it sets up values that directly oppose the expectations of religion. I can’t imagine being so committed to a superstition that I’d voluntarily shut down my critical faculties rather than analyze the evidence with a skeptical scientific eye.

Simon Owens: What are the five blogs you’d recommend to supplement the reading of your own?

PZ Myers: I think I’ll pass on that question. I’ve got a couple of hundred blog feeds in my newsreader, and I’d rather not discriminate against 98% of them by naming just a few. Here’s a complete list — otherwise, everyone should just find the ones they enjoy!

(Related posts: Are race jokes ever ok?, Interview with Guy LeCharles Gonzalez from Comic Book Commentary, More scientists debunk 9/11 conspiracy theories)