Monday, November 3, 2008

PZed Myers comes to TO

TO is also known as Toronto, Ontario (Canada), and not to be confused with t.o aka usenet newsgroup talk.origins, (where I had my first encounter with PZed, known to some as PZ, some mumblety many years ago).

PZed's Toronto talk was sponsored by the Centre for Inquiry, Ontario. Co-opting the gourd carving meme from the local religious observance, the CFI displayed a cephalopumpkin*:



and also this:



- possibly a flower, or a ghost with a belly-button, but I interpret it as a curcurbit representation of electron orbits around the atomic nucleus.

On to the talk - an overview of various aspects of the conflict between religion and science education
.

Though some have commented that PZed was preaching to the choir, so to speak, everyone was very surprised to see Ken Ham in attendance! Here's a picture of Ken at the pub asking Jesus (who was just hanging around at the bar) to sign a copy of the book He wrote.




The symposium (original Greek usage) following the meeting continued for some time after Eamon and I wimped out.




* not to be confused with a punkin-head

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Theo,

Nice to see you and Eamon last Friday. It was quite the night, wasn't it?

Thanks for the gentle prod to join the CFI after the get-together with Prof. Myers and Prof. Moran. As I told you then, I had hemmed and hawed about doing so, and had decided not to for a frankly ridiculous reason. I'm glad you caused me to reconsider and do the right thing. At the CFI reception, I got the same feeling I get at RASC meetings - being among like-minded people for a change. I have to put my money where my mouth is and support such groups.

βPer

hyfen said...

Ah, Ken Ham!

Glad to see someone got a shot of him. I doubt I'll ever see anyone dress up like him ever again.

Anonymous said...

Here's my image of Ken Ham and Jesus Christ.

βPer

Monado said...

I've not posted my images from the lecture & pub yet. What if people don't want to be have their picture posted?

Theo Bromine said...

Re publishing pictures: If I obviously (ie not surreptitiously) take a picture (in a social setting), I am going to assume that people will let me know at the time if they would object to the picture being posted. For public speakers, performers or officials, I assume posting pictures is fair game even if they are not aware that they were photographed. (Though if my photo depicts something very embarrassing, or is of a child, I would be inclined to ask permission first.)

On the other hand, I am rather more circumspect about posting real names (including mine :)