Trust me, you can say what you will, but it will neither persuade me nor any of my friends who may stumble by accident upon this thread. I would rather be more decent and thoughtful than you have ever demonstrated than be clever and wittier than you.

?????? Why them? Why anyone? Why ‘may think’? Is that fideism again? No one can prove I don’t think that, therefore let’s suggest it – but what a stupid ragbag. (John who?)

Whatever. I don’t think any of that (I have no opinion at all on the subject). I can tell you what I am though – a whole lot cleverer and wittier than John Kwok!

Yes yes, I know, so is a stale loaf of bread – that was the point.

Myers admitted to me that he’s a mediocre evolutionary biologist in private e-mail correspondence. As for my comparison of Benson with O’Leary, it is regrettably a most apt comparison.

irony much?

More importantly I am a “stickler for accuracy” with respect to science. Your other comments are irrelevant and merely an occasion for you to launch an ad hominem attack on me. But since you’ve mentioned some names, let me observe that the only you’ve mentioned whom I regard as reputable is Coyne, quite simply because of his distinguished work on speciation. In stark contrast, Myers – is by his own admission a mediocre evolutionary biologist – and Benson is the militant atheist version of Denyse O’Leary.

Regarding the who’s popular meme. W(ho)TF cares? This is simply a diversion from any of the substantive issues on the table. Although I have to say this is par for the course in internet drama. For all those hating on Coyne and Myers and Ophelia, go read what they wrote regarding the book, think about it, then make your point (remember, do not skip step 2, its an important step). Also, read what Mooney and other “fanatic accommodationists,” again think about it, then make your point. (BTW I want to introduce the phrase “fanatic accommodationist” to be used in comments to offset the “militant atheist” meme.)

For example, an accommodationist argument is that we need to be be very nice to religious people because there are moderate allies we dont want to alienate. The counter-argument has been raised that this is a lame in practice because are there really moderates who are only for good science education is they are not personally offended and if these moderates are offended they will no longer support good science education?
It seems to me that all the discourse on the argument-counterargument claims are based on how someone says something not the validity of the claims. For example, “PZ was mean to me and didn’t give me the camera I threatened him over, although I was joking, no really I was. Meany” OK, that last little bit was not appropriate to the argument or point at hand and was indeed a little dig.

Your latest comment is an utter falsehood too. Your blog “review” of Chapter Eight from their book was a rather salacious screed, and quite frankly, far more destructive than anything I have said or written about you. You may think you are as clever and as witty as Sarah Vowell or John Hodgman or even Richard Dawkins, but you are not nearly in their league as a writer, and moreover, a self-serving narcissist with ample delusions of grandeur.

It’s not really necessary to say this, of course, because everyone who reads your comments know that you are not a stickler for accuracy – but I feel like saying it anyway. There’s a principle involved.

I have to concur with your assessment (@ 63). Probably the best known science journalist I can think of is Carl Zimmer with Natalie Angier and Andrew Revkin, among others, as others whom I think are as well known as Carl (As much as I like Chris and his writing, I wouldn’t quite put him in my first rank of science writers, while the other three I most certainly would.). David Quammen is better known as an excellent writer of non-fiction, and has, relatively recently, begun to write some important popular science books pertaining to ecology and the environment. The best known active scientists who are also professional writers include the likes of Jared Diamond, Brian Greene, Lawrence Krauss, Neil de Grasse Tyson and E. O. Wilson.