Archive for December 7th, 2008

I had a terrific experience last night! No, not that kind of experience. Get your minds out of the gutter I went to hear PZ Myers speak at Rollins College last night. His talk was on the intersection of science and religion in the classroom. The main thrust of it was that it is imperative that the classroom remain secular; religion has absolutely no place there, especially in the science classroom. He also covered some of his personal experiences of being a militant atheist. Hearing about his being “expelled” from the movie Expelled first hand was great. PZ also offered advice for we atheists in our continuing struggle to retain equal rights as godless citizens of the United States. It was actually quite inspirational. I can’t tell you how uplifting it was to be physically gathered with other freethinkers and engage in intelligent discussions.

Unfortunately we didn’t have any protesters like they did the night before at UCF. But the Dean of the Chapel did raise a stink about PZ’s visit. Apparently he has a problem with blasphemers. He was probably referring to the cracker incident. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why that would bother someone, but some people have weird fetishes. To each their own.

Afterward, we adjourned to Fiddler’s Green and continued the conversation. I was fortunate enough to have been seated directly across from PZ, and so I used the opportunity to totally babble like a complete fanboi discuss deep philisophical topics in a rational manner. I totally impressed him with my erudite manner and thoughtful insights on a number of topics (yeah, right). In reality, it was quite pleasant just to engage in conversation with a “famous” person, chatting about such random topics as the weather in Minnesota, the state of the educational system in the USA and parenthood. I did begin to feel a little old, however, with all the college kids around. I didn’t even get carded

All in all, it was a fantastic evening of deep thought, lite conversation and drinking cider on draught (damn near impossible to find in regular bars).

Many thanks, PZ, for the inspirational talk and the great conversation.