Paul Zachary Myers (born March 9, 1957) is an American biologist and activist who founded and writes the Pharyngula science and atheism blog. He is associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota Morris (UMM) where he works in the field of developmental biology. He is a critic of intelligent design, the creationist movement, and pseudoscience. In 2006 the journal Nature listed Myers's Pharyngula as the top-ranked blog by a scientist based on popularity. Myers received the American Humanist Association's 2009 Humanist of the Year award and the International Humanist Award in 2011. The asteroid 153298 Paulmyers is named in his honor.
Early life and education Paul Zachary Myers was born March 9, 1957, in Kent, Washington. He claims to have been a "science geek" from an early age, gaining an interest in zoology and marine biology from studying the insides of fish while on fishing trips with his father. Growing up, Myers attended an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) church. Prior to his confirmation, Myers says, "I started thinking, you know, I don't believe a word of this." Now an atheist, Myers comments on his blog about science, education, atheism and religion. Myers graduated from Kent-Meridian High School in 1975 and subsequently attended DePauw University in Indiana on a full scholarship. However, he returned home the next year after his father suffered a heart attack. He then graduated from the University of Washington in 1979 with Bachelor of Science in zoology. Myers drifted away from this field toward evolutionary developmental biology and obtained a PhD in biology from the University of Oregon.
Career
Myers has taught and researched at the University of Oregon, the University of Utah, and Temple University. He is currently an associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota's Morris campus, where he teaches developmental biology. He is a member of Minnesota Citizens for Science Education, and cultivates an interest in cephalopods. Myers has been active on the internet. He was involved in scientific debates on USENET surrounding the growing creationist movement. He was a founding member of The Panda's Thumb blog. In June 2002, he started his website Pharyngula.org, which morphed into a blog now hosted by ScienceBlogs and Freethought Blogs. In 2006 the journal Nature listed Myers's Pharyngula as the top-ranked blog by a scientist based on popularity. In 2008, an asteroid was named after him, 153298 Paulmyers, in honor of this work. A self-styled "godless liberal" and outspoken atheist, he is a vocal critic of all forms of religion, superstition, supernaturalism, spirituality and pseudoscience. He is quoted as having "nothing but contempt" for intelligent design, arguing that it is "fundamentally dishonest". In 2009 Myers was named the American Humanist Association's "Humanist of the Year". Myers's book, The Happy Atheist, was published by Random House in August 2013. It is largely a compilation of previous blog posts. Voice for its audiobook version was provided by noted atheist and science communicator Aron Ra. Fellow blogger Greg Laden celebrates "the level of refinement of his writing" and writes that "these essays actually have a different feel to them". In April 2015, Atheist Ireland issued an official announcement, apologizing that they had given Myers public platforms to speak and that now it is "publicly dissociating itself from the hurtful and dehumanising, hateful and violent, unjust and defamatory rhetoric of the atheist blogger PZ Myers... We believe his behaviour is unjust to individuals, increases prejudice against atheists, and is harmful to the promotion of an ethical society based on empathy, fairness, justice and integrity.". In 2017, Myers, who formerly considered himself one of the "New Atheists", disassociated himself from the New Atheist label. Describing the label as being applied "against our protests, because we were all aware that there was nothing new about it. Maybe we were more aggressive, or maybe suddenly people were listening to us, but really, it was the same old atheism with a fancy artisan label". Myers prefers to be simply referred to as an atheist.
Pharyngula Pharyngula is Myers's personal weblog, promoted as "Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal." The topics Myers covers are eclectic, delving into the non-scientific as well as scientific. While Pharyngula includes many articles discussing breaking science news and research, the blog has become particularly well known for ridicule of intelligent design and of attempts to insert it into science education. In 2006, the science journal Nature listed Pharyngula as the top-ranked blog written by a scientist. Myers started Pharyngula.org on June 19, 2002 as an experiment in writing instruction for a class. Students were required to submit mini-essays to be published online. After the project was finished, Myers still had the web-publishing software, and started to use it himself. The blog is named after his favorite stage in embryonic development, the pharyngula stage. Pharyngula moved to hosting at ScienceBlogs, a project of Seed Magazine, in 2005. It was hosted on ScienceBlogs (2005–2011, in full, and 2011–present, in part) and on FreeThoughtBlogs (2011–present). In 2006, the science journal Nature listed it as the top-ranked blog written by a scientist based on popularity. In 2009, Hemant Mehta ranked Pharyngula the most popular atheist blog, based on subscriber levels and other factors.
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