well, I might be screwed and the beers I've been drinking

Well, I'm more or less over my sickness. Thank the lord. I mean, who knows how much longer I could go without binge drinking? I have been enjoying a brew or two even while I'm sick though I have to admit. Here is a pic of some of the beers I've been having over the last week or so. Most of them...get this...were free. Ha. If you know anything about the second beer from the right, I think you can consider yourself a beer geek.



Anyway, the reason I might be screwed is because I posted a comment on Pharyngula about Michael Ruse. I didn't think anybody would read it, I mean, it's buried among 108 other comments and it's not like tons of philosophers read Pharyngula.

But then a link was posted on the Philosophy of Biology Blog that's administered by Ruse's students at FSU.

My comment started like this:

"Well, I have to admit that I don't really like Michael Ruse as a scholar or as a person. While he wrote a landmark book in Darwin studies in the 70s, 'Darwinian Revolution', he hasn't done a whole lot since then. And he's a very rude, center of attention sort of class bully in person. Not very enjoyable to be around I didn't think."

It then went on to DEFEND Ruse against the onslaught started by PZ Myers himself. I won't get into it here, go to Pharyngula and check it out if you want, but suffice it to say insulting one of the fathers of your academic discipline is no way to get a job down the line.

Of course I stand by what I wrote, but I should like to mention here that Ruse was also a really sweet man on several occasions during my brief interactions with him in Guelph at ISHPSSB last month. AND, while he might not have done much first rate work in HPS since 'Darwinian Revolution' (but who am I to say in my very limited experience and blissful ignorance of a mere 3rd year graduate student?) he has been a prolific writer on the ID debate and, probably more importantly, he has become an institution builder having founded one of the premiere journals in the field, 'Biology and Philosophy' and is now building a strong biology studies program at Florida State University.

Anyway, I hope I'm not screwed. But actually, more importantly, I hope I was write defending Ruse. I think Myers completely misunderstood the argument. Sure it was imprudent for Ruse to pull the Nazi card, but come on, he surely did not mean to imply that atheists are like Nazis.