High hilarity.
Ardent “fans” and “admirers” of Atheism and its prominent faces, such as Prof. PZ Myers, James “The Amazing” Randi, Dr. Michael Shermer amongst others, have been recently pouring out of the woodwork.
So long these “admirers” – all manners of kooks and crazies – would infest the blogs and websites of these leading proponents of sense and sanity (disclaimer: I am a long-time Pharyngula follower); pointing and laughing at their expressed kookery and craziness often provides hours of pure fun. Worthy of particular mention is the Pharyngula segment ‘I get email’, where PZ puts up and meticulously eviscerates some of the more egregious examples of addle-headed and vaguely threatening (which almost always contain the threat to pray for him) emails he receives.
It now appears that the “enthusiasm” of these crazies spilleth over to other websites, as well. This is a relatively new phenomenon methinks.
Earlier this week, we have noted such an occurrence at our own GrrlScientist’s other blog (‘This Scientific Life’) at Scientopia. She received an email addressed to PZ (in glorious all caps, as PZ MYERS, ESQ), replete with Biblical references and YouTube videos. (Someday I should write a post on contribution of YouTube to kookery…)
GrrlScientist astutely observed:
Not only is this correspondent unable to formulate a coherent thought and commit it to the page, but this correspondent is obviously lacking in the ability to write at all. To add further insult to injury, this missive is filled with misspellings, typographical errors, grammatical and punctuation errors that should make his English teacher seriously contemplate suicide.
I couldn’t have put it better. But this mindless tripe (as GrrlScientist aptly refers to it) is the hallmark of a classic non compos mentis kook of the kind that mentioned above.
Now, this morning, on opening my professional email inbox (which receives Nature Network forum digest emails), I found one pointing to a forum topic, apparently created in the Nature India forum (of all places!!) – especially to claim the “End of Atheism”, and rant about PZ, James Randi and Dr. Shermer. The moderators have since removed the topic at the site. But this was too delicious not to share with the rest of you.
So… Here. For your viewing pleasure (click to enlarge).
Sadly, the digest doesn’t contain the whole message, but here are some gems:
- OMENS OF DEATH
- the end of atheism – only the blind and deaf can deny it… an example and warning of the fate of those who try to divide people…
- At least we’re on the same page… Serves Em Right, eh, Randi…
- Just for you, little traitors… WHAT IS WRONG WITH HENRY?
- we’re this far from nuking all of you…. the X-MAS vacuum cleaner for the atheists…. shermer, randi, myers,
As I said, not very coherent, and crazy as **** [insert appropriate impolite word].
Someday probably let Dennis Markuze (a.k.a. David Mabus) out of the asylum. Or is it a sockpuppet for someone else? Hmm…
when i read something like PZ’s misdirected email, i don’t think the author is "crazy" in the sense of "mentally ill" but instead, i think the person is "crazy" as in "a kook who lacks the mental capacity of a mealworm" or "crazy" as in "a wackjob who is suffering brain damage, as revealed by the lack of his ability to formulate and argue a coherent reality-based thought".
unfortunately, there are far too many people like that in society. people you work with. people you go to school with. people you pursue your hobbies with. people who do volunteer work alongside you. people who are seemingly normal until you sit down with them over a cup of coffee and have a real chat with for the first time. people who are disquieting in their comfortably deliberate selective blindness of the world. people whose altered view of reality is so alien that you feel a thrill of fear for days afterwards. people who you hope do not wish to befriend you.
lol..it’s kind of funny how they may look normal, act normal, talk normal. Until yea you have a candid talk with them over coffee and they begin to quack like a duck and cluck like chicken. Clearly you were never on the same page. some are so strong in their beliefs it takes a minute for me to gather my wits and not go mad. I find science blogs can attract many kooks..not just the religious sorts. sometimes it’s nice to leave a comment here and there on the research posts..but i’ll probably never touch the more hyper-politically sensitive posts. I’m afraid I’d get vitriol splashed in my face no matter how careful i try to be (actually I think it did kind of happen once).