What the Book?!

Image via Wikipedia

Boy, was I wrong! But not as wrong as the Man Booker Prize judges. Here’s the shortlist they’ve just announced:

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
Snowdrops by A.D. Miller

Gorillas, Girls, and Specious Nonsense

This is my report on the launch of a creationist book The Origin of Specious Nonsense. It previously appeared on the Atheist Ireland website. In reproducing it here I have made some minor formatting changes, added a few links and corrected one typo but I have left the text unchanged (despite my awareness that it could use some polishing). I’ve kept the sub-headings that were added by an Atheist Ireland editor as I think they improve it, but the rest – including the photographs – is entirely my own work.

John J. May and friends

I arrived a little late at the book launch of The Origin of Specious Nonsense to find the author John J. May, already in full swing, railing against the “offensive” letters from skeptics that had appeared in newspapers. He defended the right of the Minister for Science Conor Lenihan to launch his book which, he claimed, was to be done in a personal capacity and was not an endorsement of the contents of this book. He did not seem to understand why so many people were so vehemently opposed to this. The problem, of course, is that a government minister has a duty to consider whether something he does – even in a personal capacity – conflicts with his position. In this case, his apparent endorsement of an anti-scientific book was an issue of considerable concern and justified anger.