PZ Myers
Paul Zachary " PZ " Myers ( born March 9, 1957 in Kent, Washington) is an American biologist. He is a professor at the University of Minnesota in Morris.
Myers works in the field of evolutionary developmental biology with a particular focus on the study of zebrafish. He is a well-known critic of the concept developed by Christian fundamentalists pseudo-science Intelligent Design (ID) and creationism and participates actively in the debate, which takes place in the U.S. to the creation stories of the Bible in schools. He describes himself as a "godless liberals" and as an atheist, he is a strong skeptic regarding all forms of religion, superstition, spirituality and pseudoscience.
Life
Myers was born on March 9, 1957 as the eldest of six children. He reported that he had already been fascinated since childhood by science and have worked with his father developed a special interest in zoology and marine biology while fishing.
Myers was a Christian upbringing, but he changed his mind before his confirmation: "I started thinking and realized that I did not believe a word of it ." According to his own statements he has no bad memories of his upbringing.
1975, Myers enrolled at DePauw University in Indiana ( USA) and was awarded a full scholarship. However, he abandoned his studies when his father suffered a heart attack. He then enrolled at the University of Washington in 1979 and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Oceanography. Then he began to take an interest in evolutionary developmental biology and received the doctoral degree in biology from the University of Oregon.
After his PhD, he worked at the University of Oregon, the University of Utah and Temple University and is currently a professor at the University of Minnesota in Morris ( Minnesota).
Myers has been married for over 30 years.
Commitment against Creationism and Intelligent Design
Myers was already early in the Internet operates, became involved in user groups, websites and Usenet groups such as talk.origins and developed a special interest in the debate about the growing creationist movement in the United States. He was a founding member of The Panda 's Thumb and turned in June 2002 under Pharyngula.org his website, named after a technical term from biology ( an embryonic stage of development ), with a separate blog on.
His blog has been a great success, it was the 2005 Koufax Award for Best Blog of an expert and the journal Nature called " Pharyngula " as the most popular science blog, as measured by the number of readers recorded by Technorati.
In his blog, Myers criticized frequently the Discovery Institute, Answers in Genesis, and other creationist websites as well as the Intelligent Design movement; He explained many times why their claims are pseudoscientific.
Host desecration
In July 2008, Myers sparked a controversy when he pierced a wafer with a rusty nail, she threw The God Delusion in the trash along with coffee grounds, banana peels, and pages from the Koran and Dawkins, and this is documented on his blog.
Awards (selection)
- 2005 Koufax Award for Best Blog of a scientist
- In 2009 he was honored by the American Humanist Association as " Humanist of the Year".