It was fun last night. PZ was there, Cam and Josh were there, and about thirty other interesting people were there. We bayed for blood, we cooked little children into soup, we tore up holy books, we made plans for world domination. The usual.
It was fun last night. PZ was there, Cam and Josh were there, and about thirty other interesting people were there. We bayed for blood, we cooked little children into soup, we tore up holy books, we made plans for world domination. The usual.
Comments
28 responses to “Gnu atheists close the bar”
Sounds fun, but what exactly is involved in “baying for blood”, anyway?
I think the closest we got to baying for blood was when we were talking about Halo. It turns out that a lot of us are a bit sensitive to videogame violence. We’re marshmallows, you know that?
Marshmellows? Ghostbusters!
The very detailed and well played out “baby back rib” discussion had my mouth watering all night. Good times all around.
What struck me about the crowd last night was how much fruitful difference there was among us. There was plenty of room for more diversity, it’s true, especially racial diversity, but we were not a bunch of people who were in mental lockstep. We had a lot of scientist types there, for sure, but we had a lot of other people as well. We had people who’d preached or taught Sunday School and had been very much embedded in a church, and we had people like me for whom theism just never quite took. We had your straight-up rationalists, and we had a very Western atheist Buddhist (me), and who knows what else. There was an acupuncturist with an empiricist streak; I wish I’d had a chance to talk with her. Some people were quiet; some were loud; some were assertive, and others were the softly-softly type. There’s a lot of room to be yourself in the Gnu Atheism, it seems.
I’m delighted with the notion of relabelling us to “Gnu atheists”, but I think “Gnu” really needs to be an acronym, such as “Grumpy, Nasty, Unaccommodating”. (Ideally, like the operating system of the same name, it would be a recursive acronym, like “GNUs Never Unreason” or the like.)
GNU’s Not Unreasonable, perhaps?
Cam wore her GNU T shirt, which was helpful of her. PZ wore a squid one (which I didn’t realize until I saw the picture this morning). PZ also carried a plush squid he acquired on his trip to the Aquarium.
Or, hah, GNU’s Not United.
I was very keen to get to the bar, but I had four flat tyres; one after the other, just like that. Well, not me; the taxi.
Bugger.
But then perhaps Him Up There was trying to tell me something.
How about “GNU’s Not Uncivil”? (in the context of Mooney’s claim of incivility)
GNU’s Not Uniform? GNU’s Not Ungulate? GNU’s Not Unneighborly? GNU’s Not Ululating?
Well now I quite like grumpy. You can do what you like with the other two.
Maddy Bumting:
You have the same attorney as John Freshwater, then?
Working with the “grumpy” theme (and abandoning recursiveness), consider:
Grumpy Noisy Uncivil
Take it away, Mr Flanders, play that goanna, Mr Swan:
The Gnu Song
A year ago last thursday, I was strolling in the zoo
When I met a man who thought he knew the lot
He was laying down the law about the habbits of baboons
And the number of quills a porcupine has got
So I asked him “What’s that creature’s name?” and he answered “That’s an elk!”
And I’d have gone on thinking that was true
If the animal in question hadn’t put that chap to shame,
And remarked—”I ain’t an elk—I’m a gnu!
I’m a gnu—I’m a gnu
The g-nicest work of g-nature in the zoo
I’m a gnu—how do you do?
You really oughtta g-know w-who’s w-who
I’m a gnu—spelt G – N – U
I’m not a camel or a kangaroo
So let me introduce, I’m neither man nor moose
Oh, g-no, g-no, g-no, I’m a gnu!”
I had taken furnished lodgings down at Rustington-on-sea
Whence I travelled on to Aston-under-lyne
On the second night I stayed there I was wakened from a dream
Which I’ll tell you all about some other time
Among the hunting trophies on the wall above my bed
Stuffed and mounted was a face I thought I knew
A bison? An okapi? Could it be a hartebeest?
Then I seem to hear a voice—”I’m a gnu!
I’m a gnu—a-g-nother gnu
I wish I could g-nash my teeth at you
I’m a gnu—how do you do?
You really oughtta g-know w-who’s w-who
I’m a gnu—spelt G – N – U
Call me bison or okapi and I’ll sue
Nor am I in the least like that dreadful hartebeest
Oh, g-no, g-no, g-no, I’m a gnu!
G-no, g-no, g-no, I’m a gnu!G-no, g-no, g-no, I’m a gnu!”
Grand, naturalistic, unaccommodating.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Cathleen Mackay, Ophelia Benson. Ophelia Benson said: Gnu atheists close the bar http://dlvr.it/37Gbm […]
So, the question is, “What’s gnu?”
Got nothing unnatural.
Chris Lawson @ #14: “You have the same attorney as John Freshwater, then?”
Looks like it. Which helps explain His present diversion from my case/s, and some of the bother I get into.
I just wish some people would not spend so much time trying to be holier-than-thou. It makes life so much more difficult for those of us who are.
Sigh.
It was lovely to have met you! And I only hope that the next time an event of this magnitude happens, I’ll be more successful impressing upon my workplace the importance of letting me get there earlier so I don’t miss so much of the festivities. Alas, the free-range baby was well picked over by the time I got there, and nary a holy book left intact for me to rip. Le sigh.
Back to lurking for moi, until the next time! And I do hope there’s a next time – I didn’t get to hear half as much of you as I would have liked.
Ditto, Dana! PZ should revisit Auburn a little more often.
There’s a picture on PZ’s post.
It’s very noble and unAyn Rand-like for me to link to it, because I look disgusting – blinking stupidly and smirking and hunched up because my elbows are on the arms of the chair. But I’m like that – noble and selfless and free of vanity. You also get to see PZ’s new plush squid.
There are some other pictures in the Flickr link. In this one your eyes are open. Still in the shade, though.
In the perennial question of whether the glass is half full or half empty, it looks like atheists’ glasses are just plain empty. Or maybe that’s only in PZ’s local environment.
Now that the heart palpitations have passed and I’m able to respond calmly and with the minimum of squees… Yes, Ophelia, I do agree that PZ needs to get out here more often (and it would be nice if he’d bring the Trophy Wife along sometime). But who says we need him when we have you? ;-)
Another Cam(eron?) was there? I’m not used to meeting many of us “crooked nose” (actual definition of the name) folks around! At least you probably give the name a better image then me, the loud mouthed ginger crazy man!
No Gods, No Masters
Cameron
I remember now why I was looking down – people were taking pictures of PZ and I happened to be sitting next to him, so I didn’t want to sit up and look alert as if I thought they were taking pictures of me. You know. I was trying to look like a bystander, but instead I look like a derelict in a coma.
I dunno, theskepticalape — I was just over in another thread saying nice things about anarchists the other day, so I’m sure that I’m doing the Cameron image no good in some quarters.
Both of you Camerons drag the name through the mud. The mud, I tell you!
There, that should make you happy. :- )