Everyone Loves an Atheist and Paleoanthropology Discussion

September 28, 2009 - Monday

Okay, a lot to write about today. First, the answer to Friday's blog post. I asked you guys what you thought a certain chart represented. A few of you basically had it, although I suspect some saw it from other websites. The chart is from a site discussing online dating advice (which I found via one of my favorite blogs, Cosmic Variance). They analyzed over 500,000 contacts on the dating site OkCupid and compiled the probability that someone will respond to you depending on the words you use in your message. The average response rate was 33%, so in fact you could increase your chance of getting a date if you used any specific religious description, with the exception of the word "god" itself. But if you really want to make the opposite sex swoon, the word "atheist" came out on top. Other advice was that you should never use netspeak (ur, u, wat, wont, and so on), and that it's better to be a vegetarian zombie rather than go to grad school for literature. I'm not exactly sure what this all means, so I'll let you decide on your own interpretation.

I also wanted to discuss Friday's comic, Crackpot Conundrum. I found it ironic that I did a comic with the purpose of discussing whether engaging in debates on crackpot ideas really just legitimizes such ideas, and instead, in the comments section and via email, many people seemed more interested in discussing the crackpot ideas themselves. It appears impossible to avoid stirring up at least a little controversy when you mention the words creationism or evolution. But for those of you that would like to actually witness legitimate discussions on the topic of evolution and mankind's origins, check out the recent video podcast from Bloggingheads.tv titled Paleoanthropology to the People. Among other things, they discuss when early hominids left Africa and whether the so-called Hobbit man actually represents a separate species of early human.

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