The (in)famous PZ Myers, well-known ID critic and staunch Darwinist and philosophical naturalist, is at it again. He has written a “review” of The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul by Mario Beauregard and Denyse O’Leary. PZ starts off in a huff:
I tried. I really, honestly, sincerely tried. I’ve been struggling with this book, The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul, by Mario Beauregard and Denyse O’Leary, for the past week and a half, and I’ve finally decided it’s not worth the effort. It’s just about completely unreadable.
Poor fellow. It must have been a real effort for him to try to comprehend the book. It just wore him out. But, not finishing it doesn’t stop him from writing a review none-the-less. I’ve long suspected that many “reviews” of pro ID books or anti-Darwinism books were never actually read by the reviewers, but merely parroted the usual party lines about ID isn’t science or is creationism in “a cheap tuxedo” or whatever. At least in this instance, PZ admits up front that he hasn’t actually read the book…or at least not all of it. So, for all he knows, the problems he claims were in the book in the part he did read may have been addressed elsewhere in the book. Or, maybe he didn’t get the full context of what he’s sniffing about.
In any case, its entertaining at least. I only have one response to PZ. “I tried. I really, honestly, sincerely tried. I’ve been struggling with your “review” of Beauregard and O’Leary’s book for the past hour and a half, and I’ve finally decided its not worth the effort. Its just about completely unreadable. The writing is aggravating…it begins to wear on the reader…”
Very funny!
This reminds me of his diatribe on Lewis via Collins.