In February of 2011 PZ Myers generously published our silly little treatise In Defense of Mockery as a guest post on his excellent blog, Pharyngula.  The Palace gained Many Tens of Loyal Readers™ that day, for which PZ has our undying appreciation and deepest affection.  PZ, the Patron Saint of Perry Street Palace, has today completed another orbit around the sun, and we are holding our third annual birthday party in his honor.  We have of course decorated the Shrine to PZ Myers for the occasion, and we plan to start drinking the celebration right now.  Please enjoy beer, birthday cake, and some of The Great Tentacled One’s words of wisdom.

Any place where churches outnumber bars and bookstores has too damn many churches. -PZ Myers

He [Cardinal Keith O’Brien] also claimed that homosexuality is against “natural law”. Natural law seems to be very poorly enforced in this case, then, and besides, you want to know what really defies natural law? Celibacy. -PZ Myers

If we want a signifier for the human condition, imagine the culture we would live in now if, instead of a dead corpse on an instrument of torture, our signifier was a child staring in wonder at the stars. That’s representative of the state of humanity, too; it’s a symbol that touches us all as much as that of a representation of our final end, and we don’t have to daub it with the cheap glow-in-the-dark paint of supernatural fol-de-rol for it to have deeper meaning. -PZ Myers

I love watching creationists butt heads against the evidence. They’re so cute when they’re reeling about, blood streaming down their faces, brains getting increasingly addled, as they try to deny reality. I guess it’s a kind of historical tradition in Christianity, this business of tying a blindfold on and throwing themselves to the lions. It used to be you needed a legionnaire or two poking them with a spear to get them to enter the arena, but nowadays they just do it voluntarily. -PZ Myers

Religion is the diaper of humanity’s childhood; it’s OK to grow out of it. -PZ Myers

Sure, science arose out of Catholicism…in the same sense that plumbing, sanitation systems, and public health policies arose out of sewage. -PZ Myers

What is the evidence for the existence of any god? What is the source for your information about the nature of this god, as well as all the specifics about what he wants right now? Why have the prophets and priests of your god, who apparently have a communications line to an omniscient being, done such a poor job of describing the world and how it works? If god’s will is the fundamental arbiter of moral behavior, how do we determine god’s will? Why is it that when the defenders of this god-centric view sit down to write books that should answer these kinds of questions, they always, without fail, write such vapid tripe? -PZ Myers

Where some seek balms for a troubled soul, I seek irritants. -PZ Myers.

You can be a tolerant, liberal, generous, kind-hearted Christian who rejects fundamentalism, and that does not grant your goofier beliefs protection from criticism. -PZ Myers

You don’t change the world by placidly finding your bliss — you do it by focusing your discontent in productive ways. -PZ Myers

Long may he mock.