Pharyngula is Myers's personal
weblog, promoted as "Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal." The topics Myers covers are eclectic, delving into the non-scientific as well as scientific. While Pharyngula includes many articles discussing breaking science news and research, the blog has become particularly well known for ridicule of
intelligent design and of attempts to insert it into science education. In 2006, the science journal
Nature listed Pharyngula as the top-ranked blog written by a scientist. Myers started Pharyngula.org on June 19, 2002 as an experiment in writing instruction for a class. Students were required to submit mini-essays to be published online. After the project was finished, Myers still had the web-publishing software, and started to use it himself. The blog is named after his favorite stage in
embryonic development, the
pharyngula stage. Pharyngula moved to hosting at
ScienceBlogs, a project of
Seed Magazine, in 2005. It was hosted on
ScienceBlogs (2005–2011, in full, and 2011–present, in part) and on FreeThoughtBlogs (2011–present). In 2006, the science journal
Nature listed it as the top-ranked blog written by a scientist based on popularity. In 2009,
Hemant Mehta ranked
Pharyngula the most popular atheist blog, based on subscriber levels and other factors.
History According to
Alexa Internet, Pharyngula.org was started on June 19, 2002 as an experiment in writing instruction for a class. Students were required to submit miniessays to be published online. After the project was finished, Myers still had the webpublishing software, and started to use it personally. The blog is named after his favorite stage in
embryonic development, the
pharyngula stage. Pharyngula moved to hosting at ScienceBlogs in 2005. In 2007, Myers reviewed
Stuart Pivar's book
Lifecode, which argues that self-organization at the
embryonic and
fetal stages determines the development and final structure of organisms. Myers reviewed the book negatively, stating that the diagrams and ideas in the book arose from Pivar's imagination and had no basis in actual evidence. After some discussion in the comments threads of
Pharyngula, Pivar sued Myers for libel. In August 2011, Myers and others founded a new blog network, FreethoughtBlogs, to host
Pharyngula and other blogs in the atheist/secular field. According to Myers, the move was made as an "acceptable compromise" between him and National Geographic, who at that time would be "taking a more active role in hosting the ScienceBlogs stable" and therefore "bringing their standards & practices, which are different from the more freewheeling policies of Seed Media [and would cause] a culture clash". Myers stated that "NatGeo and I have worked out an acceptable compromise. This site on Freethoughtblogs [...is not] in any way associated with National Geographic" and that he would only cross-post to his original site on ScienceBlogs "whatever I write that I feel is compatible with the more conservative ethos of National Geographic." As such, since August 2011, the complete Pharyngula has appeared on FreethoughtBlogs, and a limited selection of those posts – the more science-focused ones – are cross-posted to the ScienceBlogs-hosted version. In September 2012, Myers announced that blogger and environmentalist Chris Clarke would become
Pharyngula's co-author. Clarke left the blog in August 2013, partly because of the perceived unpleasantness of
Pharyngula commenters
Content Myers often criticizes intelligent design, creationism and
pseudoscientific movements, and posts on subjects such as science, religion, politics, superstition, and education. His experience in evolutionary developmental biology and as a teacher provides depth to the subjects of science and education. One theme that arises regularly is that of
cephalopods, creatures that Myers finds quite fascinating. In particular Myers frequently offers specific criticisms of creationism, including intelligent design as well as the
Discovery Institute,
Answers in Genesis, and other groups that promote
pseudoscientific ideas. For example, in February and March 2007, he focused many of his posts on creationist
neurosurgeon Michael Egnor, who had recently joined the Discovery Institute. In addition to Myers's criticisms of Egnor's arguments on
evolution and Intelligent Design, Myers criticized the Discovery Institute's reliance on someone whose expertise wasn't relevant to evolution. In early April 2007, Myers participated in an
April Fool's Day joke arranged by ''
The Panda's Thumb'' which manufactured a website spoofing the Discovery Institute's page on which "Egnor" admitted that his association with the Discovery Institute was itself an April Fool's joke. This elaborate prank succeeded in fooling many of his readers, while others succeeded in spotting jokes in the design of the false Discovery Institute page and concluded that this admission was itself the prank. He made a point the following day that he perceived it as getting exceedingly difficult to believe some creationists were for real (cf.
Poe's Law) and highlighted a quote by
Stephen Meyer.
Memes Myers has voiced the position that many of the responses to
Richard Dawkins's
The God Delusion are what he calls "
Courtier's Replies". Replying to critics who felt that Dawkins ignored sophisticated versions of modern theology, Myers compared them to courtiers fawning on the legendary
emperor who had no clothes: {{quote|I have considered the impudent accusations of Mr Dawkins with exasperation at his lack of serious scholarship. He has apparently not read the detailed discourses of Count Roderigo of Seville on the exquisite and exotic leathers of the Emperor's boots, nor does he give a moment's consideration to Bellini's masterwork, ''On the Luminescence of the Emperor's Feathered Hat.'' We have entire schools dedicated to writing learned treatises on the beauty of the Emperor's raiment, and every major newspaper runs a section dedicated to imperial fashion; Dawkins cavalierly dismisses them all. (...) Dawkins arrogantly ignores all these deep philosophical ponderings to crudely accuse the Emperor of nudity. He also referenced the Courtier's Reply in the preface to
The God Delusion's 2007 paperback edition. Another recurring
trope has been Myers's reaction to the label "fundamentalist atheist", bestowed by some upon him, Dawkins and others who espouse similar views. Myers summarizes his stance by invoking "Blake's Law", named for
Pharyngula commentator Blake Stacey. As formulated by Stacey in 2007, based in concept on
Godwin's Law: "In any discussion of atheism (skepticism, etc.), the probability that someone will compare a vocal atheist to religious fundamentalists increases to one." He writes,The "
new atheism" (I don't like that phrase, either) is about taking a core set of principles that have proven themselves powerful and useful in the scientific world — you've probably noticed that many of these uppity atheists are coming out of a scientific background — and insisting that they also apply to everything else people do. These principles are a reliance on natural causes and demanding explanations in terms of the real world, with a documentary chain of evidence, that anyone can examine. The virtues are critical thinking, flexibility, openness, verification, and evidence. The sins are dogma, faith, tradition, revelation, superstition, and the supernatural. There is no holy writ, and a central idea is that everything must be open to rational, evidence-based criticism — it's the opposite of fundamentalism.Myers has made frequent use of the phrase "deep rifts" to satirize perceptions that atheism could experience a
religious schism over disagreements on marketing atheism or the role of science and religion. Myers does not deny there are some differences of opinion between prominent atheists, but contends this is a good thing and is attributed to the
freethinking nature of atheism.
Eucharist incident A controversy arose in July 2008 over a Pharyngula blog entry written by Myers expressing amazement at news reports of
death threats issued to
University of Central Florida Student Senator Webster Cook. On June 29, 2008, Cook attended a
Catholic Mass being held in the student union at UCF by a Catholic student group that receives funding from the student government. Cook received the
Catholic Eucharist host but did not consume it immediately. He said later that he wanted to take it back to his seat to show a friend, but when stopped he pretended to put it in his mouth until back at his seat, then a church leader made forcible attempts to take the wafer from him. Cook stored the host at his home, then returned it one week later after receiving e-mail threats and pleas.
Bill Donohue, President of the
Catholic League, described the student's actions as "beyond hate speech" and said that "All options should be on the table, including expulsion." In his July 8 blog entry, he asked readers to acquire for him consecrated Eucharistic hosts, which he might "show you sacrilege, gladly, and with much fanfare" and could treat "with profound disrespect and heinous cracker abuse, all photographed and presented here on the web". Bill Donohue's
Catholic League responded with a letter demanding the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Legislature take action against Myers. Proponents of this action noted that Myers's blog could be reached from his university web page. Myers has received several
death threats and much
hate mail over the
controversy. Myers criticized the reaction to Cook's act. Myers described the level of harassment including multiple death threats leveled against the student, and accusations against the student which included
hate crime,
kidnapping, and intent to
desecrate the Eucharist which Catholics consider a
mortal sin. Myers expressed outrage that
Fox News Channel appeared to be inciting readers to cause further problems for the student, and ridiculed reports that armed guards would attend the next mass. Myers suggested that if any of his readers could acquire some consecrated Eucharistic hosts for him, he would treat the wafers "with profound disrespect and heinous cracker abuse, all photographed and presented here on the web". Myers was criticized from both religious and non-religious quarters. The Catholic League accused Myers of
anti-Catholic bigotry, described his proposal as a threat to desecrate what
Catholics hold to be the Body of Christ, and sent a letter asking the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Legislature to take action against Myers. The Catholic League argued that, as the Pharyngula website was accessible via a link from the University of Minnesota's website, it should be bound by the university's code of conduct, which requires faculty to be "respectful, fair and civil" when dealing with others. Foley concluded, "if open-minded believers are willing to join us in polite dialogue, we need to be ready to welcome them with more than ridicule and pranks". On July 24, 2008, Myers, in his post, "The Great Desecration," wrote that he had pierced through the "goddamned cracker" with a rusty nail, which he also used to pierce a few ripped-out pages of the
Qur'an (in English translation, not the original Arabic) and
The God Delusion, and had simply thrown them all in the trash along with old coffee grounds and a banana peel. He provided a photograph of these items in the garbage, and wrote that nothing must be held sacred, encouraging people to question everything. In addition, he described the history of allegations of
host desecration, emphasizing the frequent use of such allegations in medieval Europe to justify
anti-Semitism. The following day, University of Minnesota, Morris (UMM) Chancellor stated: "I believe that behaviors that discriminate against or harass individuals or groups on the basis of their religious beliefs are reprehensible" and that the school "affirms the freedom of a faculty member to speak or write as a public citizen without institutional discipline or restraint". ==Science activism==