Michael Nugent vs. PZ Myers

[rug]

December 28, 2014
Posted by Jack Vance at 7:57 AM

Michael Nugent has been working tirelessly to document what he considers to be smears, hypocrisy, and other objectionable behavior on the part of PZ Myers. His collection of thoroughly sourced posts about Myers' behavior now includes the following:

•PZ Myers publicly hates and despises people, not merely their ideas or behaviour
•The hurtful and harmful smears of PZ Myers, “The Happy Atheist”
•“Do your belly dance.” “Get off my stage. I’ve got work to do.” What if PZ Myers judged others’ sexism as he judges himself?
•Chronology of misrepresentations and smears in the atheist movement by PZ Myers and others
Not surprisingly, Nugent's efforts have been praised in some circles and thoroughly condemned in others. With a figure both as popular and as polarizing as Myers, nobody should expect anything different.

Initially, it appeared that Nugent was simply seeking an apology from Myers for the claim that he was providing a haven for rapists on his blog. This struck me as a reasonable request but one with little chance of success. I suspect that Myers offered this characterization intentionally and that it was not something he would consider to be the sort of mistake that warranted an apology. Moreover, an apology doesn't mean much unless it is accompanied by a change in behavior. Whatever you and I might think of it, Myers' behavior has been working quite well for him for some time. As I said in a comment I left on Nugent's blog:

His regular readers are not looking for fair-minded rational behavior; they are seeking something else, and providing it has been quite lucrative for PZ.

I don't expect to see Myers change his behavior in the sort of ways Nugent and many others would like to see. And this brings me to the question I have asked repeatedly of those advocating it: what does the process of dissociating ourselves from Myers and others who behave like he does look like?

http://www.atheistrev.com/2014/12/michael-nugent-vs-pz-myers.html

[Shivering Jemmy]

1. Unimpressed.

[JDDavis]

2. The Dawkins picture in front of Christmas tree thread has more

relevance than this one.

Who is/are these two people other than ordinary persons with opinions?

What does this thread have to do with religion? More like a Hollywood gossip column, I'd say.

People have different opinions, water is wet, the sun also rises.

[rug]

3. This one is not about an eight year old event.

Would you like me to tell you the background and relevance?

Do you think the opinions of self-proclaimed atheist advocates have nothing to do with religion? If it didn't, they would not be activists against it.

Do you think atheism has nothing to do with religion? If so, the SoP can be changed.

[JDDavis]

4. I should have noticed who posted the OP

Thanks but no thanks.

I'm quite familiar with your tone and agenda.


Back to the best things Sarah Palin ever said, for more relevance to discussions about religion.

Bit of news here: atheism is to religion as baldness is to discussions of hair styles.

[rug]

5. Are you quite familiar with the facts between these two?

[cbayer]

8. Baldness is a hairstyle. We just had this discussion recently.

Do you spend time in the "bald" group just down the hall?

[cbayer]

6. Actually I agree that this is petty nonsense, but it does have more relevance than the christmas

tree thread, imo.

There is the interesting dynamic of internecine wars in any movement or organization.

What does this have to do with religion? Are you proposing that stories about atheism, atheists and those who put themselves out there as atheists have not place in the discussion of religion?

Careful, that could be a slippery slope.

[Promethean]

7. So in following the link and reading it becomes quite apparent what Nugent is doing.

There are lists of one line quotes of Myers. That of course automatically should arouse suspicion in someone of the unfortunately all to common tactic of removing the quote from context. On top of that even out of context many of the quotes provided aren't even that bad. His quote about the "apocalypse mongers" is spot on in itself. It isn't hard to dislike people who actively desire for the world to be destroyed.