I Heart PZ!

Last night was Halloween, which is when El Franco and I usually vacate the home and go to a pub in order to avoid what we refer to as the “Attack of the Babies” (i.e. Trick-or-Treats). This year, after meeting early in the evening on October 31 and having dinner with a couple of friends, he and I parted ways and my two friends and I headed to the auditorium on King’s Circle on the University of Toronto campus, where we were to listen to a lecture being given by the infamous PZ Myers, writer of the Pharyngula science blog.

We were quite surprised to find a complete lack of a screaming horde gathered outside the auditorium, yelling for blood, given some of the controversy that surrounds Prof. Myers. As we elbowed our way through the non-existent crowd and entered the building to pick up our tickets, we saw a number of people milling around inside the lobby, looking at the selection of paraphernalia on sale; pins, buttons, key rings, t-shirts etc. Once inside, we could see that the hall had already started to fill and we quickly made our way to our own seats, which were reserved in the first four rows after having pre-purchased the tickets for this event. As we settled into our seats, we saw that the auditorium was really beginning to fill more and more, as people came in to hear PZ speak, to the point where I’d say it was filled to capacity (approx. 500 seats).

The event was sponsored by the Centre for Inquiry Ontario and short introductory speeches were given by CFI Ontario Executive Director Justin Trottier, U of T professor Larry Moran, and guest speakers from the student body and local secular organizations.

After the preliminary introductions and credits, Prof. Myers finally took the stage and began his lecture. Now, I do have to say I’m an ardent fan of Prof. Myers’ blog; I read it every day, a few times a day. It’s a very active blog (we were told that Pharyngula receives approximately 77,000 visits per day!) and he often posts multiple entries in any given 24-hour period. It’s controversial, thought-provoking, entertaining and sometimes very poignant. His blog is a veritable treasure trove of posts, comments, photos, links, information and ideas, put together and collated into this one repository, Pharyngula. It’s a great resource and this was evident in Prof. Myers presentation and lecture. Having read Pharyngula for almost a year now, I was quite familiar with the overall theme of the content and the stance PZ takes when dealing with issues such as creationism, Intelligent Design and religion in general. Having had no prior expectations for this lecture, it was actually an eerie feeling to sit there and watch his slides and listen as he talked about science education in the classroom and the threat it’s under from religion, particularly in the United States. It was as if this blog, with which I was so familiar, was being presented in a different format than the onscreen version I read every day. It was suddenly there in front of me, in person so to speak, with Prof. Myers’ voice recounting and elaborating upon the stories on the slides.

The strange thing is, I learned nothing new from the experience. Everything I saw and heard in the lecture was something I’d already seen, or read about, on Pharyngula, including photos, posts, links, etc. The only difference was having the author of these posts actually on stage in front of me, presenting his ideas and theories along with the data to back them up. I wouldn’t say I was disappointed with the lecture, on the contrary; I get a great deal of satisfaction from attending any type of event where fact-based knowledge is shared and discussed amongst the audience.

Judging by the Q&A period, it was apparent that the crowd was fairly partisan in favour of Prof. Myers’ take on science education and religion (myself included). But I think I would’ve preferred it if there had been some members of the audience who were brought in from the imaginary screaming crowds outside, yelling for blood. The type of people who were so fixed in their faith that they would be willing to cause physical harm to another human being, based on those beliefs. It would’ve been interesting to hear some of these people get up and take the mike and ask questions, or throw insults or accusations at the professor, just to see how they would’ve received his answers; just to see if they would’ve been able to stop, even if for just one second, and actually think for themselves for once. I would’ve loved to see if reason and logic could have had an effect on someone like that. It would have been like witnessing a sort of personal Age of Enlightenment going off in someone’s head. I now regret not having stood up and taken the mike myself, to ask Professor Myers if that had ever happened to him before; that someone had been swayed by his arguments to the point of suddenly waking up and seeing the world as it is, not as it is written. As it was, it was a fairly uneventful Q&A.

Beer at O’Grady’s was a welcome way of slating our thirst after the lecture, and although I never did get a chance to talk to the famous PZ Myers in an informal setting, I did go over and shake his hand as I was leaving, and to thank him for coming to Toronto and giving the lecture. He, of course, had no idea who the bloody hell I was and looked quite squiffy after the number of pints people were buying him.

So that was my Halloween. Did I come away with anything from this lecture? I think I’d have to say “yes, I did…”

Related posts:

1. PZ Myers Presents: Science Education