24 hours of silence

Posted by Greg Laden on July 24, 2008
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This blog will now engage in twenty four hours of silence as a show of respect for the all those who have suffered at the hands religious zealots around the world and throughout history.

I say this out of inspiration from a post written on Pharyngula by biologist PZ Myers. PZ makes the link between medieval anti-Semitic church law and the original idea that the Eucharist is holy. You must read his post, the best written and most meaningful thing on the internet this day. Here.

Here is a photograph of the staged ‘desecration’ worked out by PZ, in which we see the Eucharist, pages form the Qur’an, and pages from The God Delusion and some coffee grounds all mixed up in the trash. The Eucharist has been pierced with a rusty nail.

i-bd3561d76fd7b798224daa42117794c6-PZ_Myers_desecrated_banana.jpg

But wait, what’s that I see there…..

…. on the Banana Peel …..

Let’s see if we can blow that up …

click click click clickity click (did you every wonder why TV computers never have a mouse) click click clickity click. .. OK, how’s this?

i-6fb57f95af1160521d938987bed999c7-PZ_Myers_desecrated_banana_blow_up.jpg

Jesus’ Tits, Margaret! If that ain’t a picture of Jesus himself them I’m a monkey’s nephew. And I AM a monkey’s nephew!!!!

It is almost like the rusty nail is pointing right at the Image Of Christ! I can see the thorns in his forehead and everything. Won’t Richard Dawkins be surprised!!!!

Well, clearly, the 24 hours of silence is off…

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Comments

  1. #1 Bystander
    July 24, 2008

    I would believe this is a picture of God before I would believe in 24 hours of silence on this blog.

  2. #2 Jk
    July 24, 2008

    Why would you throw out a perfectly good nail?

  3. #3 PZ Myers
    July 24, 2008

    Oh, no…you know, there are a lot of loons who will believe that Jesus is in that picture.

    Are you sure it isn’t Frank Zappa?

  4. #4 Jk
    July 24, 2008

    Why would you throw out a perfectly good nail?

  5. #5 Michael Svihura
    July 24, 2008

    Actually, that bearded visage on the banana peel looks like PZ Meyers. *Ding*, looks like we have a new savior.

  6. #6 Stephanie Z
    July 24, 2008

    I’m rather appalled that he could put the nail through the thing without shattering it. That just isn’t right. It’s not even a self-respecting cracker.

  7. #7 Virgil Samms
    July 24, 2008

    That image miraculously appeared some time between the posting of the original image at Pharyngula and your own post. What more proof could one ask of divine intervention?

  8. #8 Cthulhu
    July 24, 2008

    “Are you sure it isn’t Frank Zappa?”

    OMFSM – it is Frank!

  9. #9 Analiese
    July 24, 2008

    *giggles*
    see how he gazes upon the cracker and frowns…
    *continues to giggle*

  10. #10 Mike Haubrich, FCD
    July 24, 2008

    I say it’s Dustin Hoffman as Frank Serpico.

  11. #11 llewelly
    July 24, 2008

    I’m with PZ. That’s gotta be Zappa. Zoom in on the image and put your ear up to your monitor and you’ll hear music. It sounds like Motherly Love. Or maybe Weasels Ripped My Flesh . But it’s definitely Zappa.

  12. #12 Cthulhu
    July 24, 2008

    Oh man – The idiots are spamming the crap out of Pharyngula with 40K+ comments full of pope speak. I can smell the servers burning from here…

  13. #13 Donna
    July 24, 2008

    Nah, it looks like George Carlin in the movie ‘Dogma’.

  14. #14 Todd
    July 24, 2008

    I knew it, I knew it, I knew it.

    Frank Zappa is GOD!!!!

    I guess that means we need to move to Montana.

  15. #15 Todd
    July 24, 2008

    Um, there wouldn’t happen to be any dental floss in that garbage can? Would there?

  16. #16 Greg Laden
    July 24, 2008

    My zircon encrusted tweezers are glowing with the sacrilege. Do you not know that the price of meat has just gone up and your old lady has just …. ?

    Oh never mind.

  17. #17 Yatzee
    July 24, 2008

    What’s that blue thing next to Jesus. Is that a merit badge?

  18. #18 HP
    July 24, 2008

    You know, the desecrated host doesn’t bother me, nor the Koran or Dawkins’s book. I’m cool with the coffee grounds. But the banana? That’s my worst nightmare!

  19. #19 Andrew
    July 24, 2008

    Dogma is one of my favorite movies. A must see. But I’m going with Hoffman in Serpico.

  20. #20 x-ray
    July 24, 2008

    see how he gazes upon the cracker and frowns…

    No, no, I’m sure he’s looking at me. The banana’s eyes follow me as I walk around the room.

  21. #21 Horace
    July 24, 2008

    Serpico was played by Al Pacino

  22. #22 A loon
    July 24, 2008

    PZ: I resent your implication. We may be heavy of bone and we may spend a lot of time in the water, but we know a Photo Shop job from a divine intervention.

    Give me a fish.

  23. #23 Andrew
    July 24, 2008

    Looks even more like Pacino, now that you mention it.

  24. #24 Stephanie Z
    July 24, 2008

    But Loon, do you know the difference between a Photoshop job and a Gimp job? If you do, you might be able to persuade Greg to do a little fishing for you.

  25. #25 Joel_m
    July 24, 2008

    Jesus’ Tits, Margaret

    click click clickity click…

    right, those are visible on the other part of the banana.

  26. #26 AnnieT
    July 24, 2008

    I had to look up Gimp Job.

  27. #27 PZ Myers
    July 24, 2008

    You know, there is a high-res version linked to in the original post, and you can see that Frank Zappa disappears when you’ve got more pixels. I think Greg cheated!

    Of course, I’ve also got some goof in the comments claiming that my photo is photoshopped — and he’s babbling about shadows on the edge of the cracker and the lack of spreading coffee stains and that real crackers break when you impale them. I’ve never had one of these bizarre conspiracy theorists accuse me of Conspiring to Hide the Truth before.

  28. #28 Will K.
    July 24, 2008

    “… and that real crackers break when you impale them.”

    But it’s not a real cracker, it’s Jesus. And if there’s anyone who can take an impaling without breaking …

  29. #29 Andy
    July 24, 2008

    He did it. PZ finally jumped the shark.

  30. #30 Greg Laden
    July 24, 2008

    It is a miracle that the cracker didn’t break on impalement. They usually do.

  31. #31 JanieBelle
    July 24, 2008

    It really was a wonderfully well done statement, and the post at Dr. PZ’s to go along with it was perfect.

    Beautious.

  32. #32 Blake Stacey
    July 24, 2008

    At a guess, if the cracker were somewhat moist, it might be less likely to break.

  33. #33 Joel_m
    July 24, 2008

    But how did it get moist? I don’t think PZ is telling us everything.

  34. #34 Todd
    July 24, 2008

    He did it. PZ finally jumped the mudshark.

    Fixed

  35. #35 Spiderman
    July 24, 2008

    If you tilt your head to the left about 95 degrees Jesus transforms into a child’s drawing of a house.

  36. #36 flo
    July 24, 2008

    Frank Zappa disappears when you’ve got more pixels

    That was always something Frank was good at.

  37. #37 DB
    July 24, 2008

    Your attitude towards the Host and Myers is shown by your hateful bragging. I dont care that YOU don’t hold it sacred. If you don’t believe, you don’t believe and that’s your business. That will be between you and God (and if you don’t believe in Him, also your business).

    The fact is, the Host IS sacred to billions of people. Your actions reveal a deep seated hatred for all those people and their beliefs. Must be nice being god on You Planet.

  38. #38 Randy
    July 24, 2008

    He did it. PZ finally jumped the mudshark.

    Yes, the sacred banana will replace the mudshark and the adventure of Nanook in our ancient mythology.

  39. #39 AnnieT
    July 24, 2008

    I had to look up mud shark. Are you sure you are talking about mud sharks?

  40. #40 Randy
    July 24, 2008

    Different mud sharks. This is an older meaning.

  41. #41 divalent
    July 24, 2008

    Looks like Satan to me.

  42. #42 Onkel Bob
    July 24, 2008

    That’s not Jesus, this is Jesus!
    No wait, this is Jesus.
    Bullshit! Everyone knows this is the true rendition of Jesus.
    Are you sure? I thought Jesus looked like this guy.
    BTW – These images are of mosaics that are within 200 years of each other and in various churches and other structures in Ravenna, Italy.

  43. #43 JanieBelle
    July 24, 2008

    DB,

    Waaahhhh he killded my crakerzzzz wit da dizrespekt!!!

    Dude, you left the exact same comment at Pharyngula. Give it a rest, nobody cares. Or at least knock off the mindless copy/paste whine and do an original whine for each blog.

    Plus, it’s a frackin’ cracker. Get a life.

  44. #44 Greg Laden
    July 24, 2008

    The mudshark does come from the mudshark song and it refers to actual fishing of not so actual sharks somewhere in California.

    In Nanook, the story of Nanook is said to “replace the mudshark in our mythology” …..

    I think if you look up mudshark in a current urban dictionary you get a totally different, rather offensive and stupid thing.

  45. #45 Martin
    July 24, 2008

    OMG, there’s an image of MY GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH on that banana!

  46. #46 wazza
    July 25, 2008

    JK: don’t worry, it’s a rusty nail. Not perfectly good, and in fact using one of these can result in FOX stains down your wall.

  48. #48 PZ Myers
    July 25, 2008

    I don’t get all the comments about how the cracker should have broken. I don’t have that much experience with them, but all of the ones I’ve got are like thin pieces of styrofoam, and are a bit rubbery. You have to bend them a fair bit before they break, and they were rather easily perforated.

  49. #49 PZ Myers
    July 25, 2008

    Wait…I thought the mudshark was a reference to my Seattle roots.

  50. #50 Greg Laden
    July 25, 2008

    The thing about the cracker: No catholic, unless a priest, has ever touched one with any body parts but the tongue and inside of the mouth. Those are not the ideal organs for ascertaining texture.

    As for the mud shark: Well, same comment, really.

  51. #51 Analiese
    July 25, 2008

    The other thing about the cracker: While it is great fun to refer to the body of christ as a ‘cracker’ for obvious reasons (am I right here people?), doing so implies a crispiness that (non-Catholic, perhaps) viewers of pz’s final photo find lacking. For those of us who stayed in the pews while extended family and every other body in the building got up at weddings and funerals and any of those other times at grandma’s when we were too young to refuse joining her for service with any kind of non-damnable reason…while we sat and kicked our feet and avoided eye-contact as the “saved” around us got in line and stood each in turn with their mouths open for WHAT????…For those of us who have come so far in life without ever having even approached the bite-sized body, the whole ‘cracker’ thing is confusing. TRUE crackers break when impaled by rusty nails; everybody knows that.

  52. #52 laurisa
    July 25, 2008

    so there i was, right? deep in the equatorial jungle, minding my own business, when the chants and craze overtook me. Suddenly a Hausa mob appeared and chucked a spear at a cococut high in a tree. When retrieved, it was taken to the group, passed around saying, ‘take and eat this body of white fruit.”

    a total date with divinity.

  53. #53 Mike Haubrich, FCD
    July 26, 2008

    I just want to clarify the perceived error I made on identifying Serpico as being played by Hoffman instead of Pacino. Y’all were referring to the movie version. I, of course, was referring to the original off-off-off-off-Broadway musical. Hoffman played Serpico in a one-night run.

  54. #54 Sili
    July 26, 2008

    Euurrgghhh – I hate bernarners. Very appropriate, then.

    The blue thing next to Frank is the label. Chiquita or wev.

  55. #55 Greg Laden
    July 26, 2008

    I saw Pacino play the lead in American Buffalo in Boston some years back. Un-be-fuckin-lievable.

  56. #56 Brian X
    December 28, 2008

    Hm. Go figure; I assumed a mudshark was just something like a dogfish or a miniature wobbegong. I did NOT need to know the UD definition.

  57. #57 Pyre
    January 7, 2009

    Cracker, nail, pages, and banana peel, well, okay.

    But the callous discarding of coffee grounds distresses me.

    What did Javacrucians ever do to PZ Myers, that he should offend them so?

    And if PZ truly felt that nothing is sacred, why didn’t he toss any cephalopds (perhaps some leftover calamari) in the trash as well?

  59. #59 Greg Laden
    January 13, 2010

    If you go to my review of Unscientific America, and click the link to go to amazon, you will find another banana.

  60. #60 Alex
    January 14, 2010

    Belated contrafibularities!