Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
• a longer profile of yours truly
• my calendar
• Nature Network
• RichardDawkins Network
• facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• Atheist Nexus
• the Pharyngula chat room
(#pharyngula on irc.synirc.net)
A crime against god is a demonstrated impossibility.
[Robert G. Ingersoll]
No genes were lost in the making of this whale
Chance and regularity in the development of the fly eye
PZ Myers' Own Original, Cosmic, and Eccentric Analogy for How the Genome Works -OR- High Geekology
The Cambrian as an evolutionary exemplar
Stay abreast of your favorite bloggers' latest and greatest via e-mail, via a daily digest.
« John G. West is just so concerned about the discourse | Main | The voice of David Paszkiewicz »
Category: Weirdness
Posted on: November 15, 2006 3:11 PM, by PZ Myers
Well, if they can have Mother Teresa in a bun, or Jesus in a tortilla, we can have an image of Charles Darwin in a tree.
I fear it might be a case of mistaken identity, though—it looks more like Karl Marx to me.
(TrackBack URL for this entry: )
YES! Send me a free issue of Seed.
If I like what I see, I'll receive 5 more issues (6 in all) for just $19.95. If I'm not completely satisfied, I'll simply write "cancel" on the invoice and owe nothing. The free issue is mine to keep.
(Non-U.S. subscribers, click here.)
Comments
Marx, Darwin, what's the difference? One heathen is about the same as the next one.
Posted by: MJ Memphis | November 15, 2006 3:24 PM
I'm not seeing a face at all on this one. It looks like an out-of-focus picture of a tree to me.
Posted by: Blake Stacey | November 15, 2006 3:30 PM
I don't see it either. This, I definitely see; the message is loud and clear.
Posted by: brandon | November 15, 2006 3:41 PM
It's proof of Evolution... oh. That doesn't make any sense, now, does it?
Posted by: Dan | November 15, 2006 3:42 PM
The grudge match begins...
In one corner, the Darwin stump, the other glass window Jesus. In just seconds Darwin stump smashes through glass window Jesus. The horror! But what's this Virgin Mary toast and Mother Teresa bagel have flown into the ring. No worries, Darwin stump steam rolls them with ease.
Final Count:
Figment of the imagination based on reality - 3
Figment of the imagination based on figments of the imagination - 0
(The MT I keep hearing abot is more myth than anything.)
Posted by: Odd Jack | November 15, 2006 3:42 PM
It's definitely Darwin. Praise the lord!
Posted by: mijnheer | November 15, 2006 3:43 PM
I'm with Blake.
But then, I've not paid much attention to this kind of thing since a friend of mine told me he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe in a Hustler photo spread.
Posted by: Paul G. Brown | November 15, 2006 3:45 PM
I see a strange turkey-crustacean hybrid, not ol' Chuck.
Posted by: Dave Carlson | November 15, 2006 3:53 PM
Looks more like Dennett to me, although I can also discern a small bear's head, a deer's head in profile, the first two strokes of Zorro's mark, and a series of Martian canals.
Posted by: "Q" the Enchanter | November 15, 2006 3:55 PM
I see a urochordate (siphons are at upper left) with the not-yet-resorbed tail (darker patch of wood) at bottom.
Posted by: ctenotrish, FCD, PhD | November 15, 2006 3:55 PM
Huh. I'd've figured she'd be a little old for a Hustler centerfold.
I guess some men will fantasize about any old virgin...
Posted by: Warren | November 15, 2006 3:56 PM
I see a skull...it looks a bit like an Australopithecene...
Posted by: GP | November 15, 2006 3:57 PM
D'oh, now I see it. It's not Darwin ... it's Huxley!
Posted by: Warren | November 15, 2006 3:58 PM
Charles Darwin? Nah. It looks more like Hermann Rorschach to me.
Posted by: Kseniya | November 15, 2006 4:02 PM
Chopra takes on Dawkins!
The God Delusion? Part 1
Deepak Chopra says:
Dawkins has written extensively on evolution, holds a chair at Oxford University, and speaks out loudly against any possibility that God is real. He makes many points to support his claim that religion is nonsense and that there isn't the slightest shred of rational proof for God, miracles, the soul, etc. Since this is such an important issue, I want to argue against him point by point in some detail.
1. Science is the only valid way to gain knowledge. Nothing about God is needed to explain the world. Eventually science will uncover all mysteries. Those that it can't explain don't exist.
@#@#$@#%@#%@#%$@#$%#%@%@#$!Blah blah blah ba.....
This is only the outline of an argument against science as the only valid route to knowledge. Before going on to Dawkins' other points, let's see what responders have to say.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/the-god-delusion-part-1_b_34200.html
http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2006/11/the_god_delusio.html
Posted by: Jeff | November 15, 2006 4:13 PM
I thought it looked like the profile of an Imperial Stormtrooper Helmet upon first glance. I have absolutely no idea why, though.
Posted by: Matt T. | November 15, 2006 4:13 PM
I'd say Kaiser Wilhelm Actually.
Posted by: archgoon | November 15, 2006 4:14 PM
It's Trap-Jaw from He-Man!
http://www.he-man.org/cartoon/cmotu-pop/universe/trap-jaw-b.jpg
Posted by: plunge | November 15, 2006 4:22 PM
I'm seeing the cartoon character Death from "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy."
Posted by: Hank Fox | November 15, 2006 4:23 PM
hmm looks like a trunk in the wood to me; clearly cut with a chainsaw. I could do some fancy forestry forensics - that is if i would actually know anything about it ;)
But its interesting to see our human pattern/shape recognition at its finest. Imagine the same task being carried out by a computer program.
Posted by: lo | November 15, 2006 4:25 PM
I'm getting Walt Whitman.
Posted by: JackGoff | November 15, 2006 4:30 PM
@Matt T.: Heck yeah, i saw that as well, along with a slight fracture!!! The power of the brain amazes me each time! I mean judging by the mere informational data that is passed along there is almost nothing to go with.
This should serve as a new test for artificial intelligence :D
Posted by: lo | November 15, 2006 4:30 PM
Meh, that could be any old guy with a beard.
Posted by: dbpitt | November 15, 2006 4:47 PM
I'm seeing some trendy costumed superhero, myself, tilted at about 30 degrees counterclockwise. I just can't make myself see the stormtrooper or darwin..
Posted by: stogoe | November 15, 2006 5:01 PM
I don't why I bother PZ. I go to all the trouble of trying to make my drawings actually look like something, and people see a dog's butt or a water stain or a tree trunk like this and it seems to look like Darwin or Jesus or Mary to them? All those wasted years when I could have been just doodling or pissing in the snow for fun and profit!
Posted by: Carl Buell (OGeorge) | November 15, 2006 5:02 PM
It's Santa. And, of course, that reminds me of the Steven Wright question: "What did Jesus ever do for Santa Claus on his birthday?"
Posted by: Dan | November 15, 2006 5:04 PM
I see a seal head. I can't see a human face in there at all.
Posted by: Interrobang | November 15, 2006 5:12 PM
I see the skull of a mastodon!
Posted by: Monado | November 15, 2006 5:15 PM
It looks like some kind of weird Japanese anime character, to me. That's all I can make out.
Posted by: Steve Sutton | November 15, 2006 5:19 PM
It seems to alternate between a baboon and a wolf to me.
Posted by: tim gueguen | November 15, 2006 5:19 PM
Jebus. Typical mob of the godless—you can't agree on anything.
Posted by: PZ Myers | November 15, 2006 5:21 PM
I'm with Introbang, except I don't see a seal, I see a rhesus monkey hunched over hugging something, perhaps a delicious banana, rather tight. Sadly, the deity responsible for this manifestation is a crummy artist.
Posted by: KC | November 15, 2006 5:21 PM
Uh... I see a bald hominid with an unusually large cranium, a disturbingly skull-like visage, a very large and strangely placed ear, and an amazingly long tongue emerging from its nose. I am confident that natural selection, sexual selection, and so forth are somehow able to explain the evolution of this bizarre creature, but I do not understand how at this time.
Posted by: llewelly | November 15, 2006 5:29 PM
You shouldn't comment on miracles unless you're a fully qualified theologian.
Posted by: bpower | November 15, 2006 5:42 PM
Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, has already reported seeing Lenin on his shower curtain. The communists have already had their apparition, so this must be Darwin.
Posted by: arensb | November 15, 2006 5:55 PM
That guy on Zig-Zag rolling papers.
Posted by: Molly, NYC | November 15, 2006 6:06 PM
I see anime Darwin.
Posted by: Baratos | November 15, 2006 6:40 PM
What always amazes me is how many of these people think they know what Jesus or Mary looked like. Dennett or Darwin or Whitman - we know what they looked like. Jesus or Mary - no.
It's like this asparagus root - everyone is saying "Jesus!!!!" but it's so obviously Hemingway.
Posted by: The Ridger | November 15, 2006 6:59 PM
imperial storm trooper.
Posted by: emily | November 15, 2006 7:04 PM
A cross btwn Phineas Gage and Johnny Appleseed?
Posted by: Fernando Magyar | November 15, 2006 7:23 PM
Reminds me of Leo Tolstoy, actually.
Posted by: JJR | November 15, 2006 7:27 PM
I put up another picture if anyone wants to see.
-janice
Posted by: janice | November 15, 2006 7:34 PM
Darwin? Nah, it's got Dan Dennet written all over it!
Posted by: ATM | November 15, 2006 7:48 PM
It's O-sensei Ueshiba! Why would the tree otherwise perform an ukemi?
Posted by: windy | November 15, 2006 8:08 PM
I guess my eyes are failing with age (or perhaps I need a better monitor to view it). To me, it more closely resembles a martian volcano viewed from orbit. If viewed up-side-down, though, it looks a bit like a chimp with chocolate stains on it's mouth.
Posted by: Fred | November 15, 2006 8:16 PM
It took a couple of long looks, but there can be no doubt. It's Bosco. He was a wino in the small Wyoming town where my father lived. I saw him pissing off a bridge in the middle of town when I was seven or eight. Yep. No doubt about it. Bosco.
Posted by: Crudely Wrott | November 15, 2006 8:35 PM
I finally see it! Although to me, if it's Darwin, it's Darwin a few decades after death, because it looks a lot like a beard on a bare skull to me. Might be more meaningful that way, though...
Posted by: Carlie | November 15, 2006 8:45 PM
I don't see a face in this one. The best pareidolia I've seen is still Phil Plait's shower-curtian Lenin.
Posted by: fwiffo | November 15, 2006 8:53 PM
Groucho Marx!
Posted by: JoeB | November 15, 2006 8:55 PM
All I see is a tiny polar bear cub.
Posted by: craig | November 15, 2006 9:24 PM
I see a light bulb with a broken stem and a stick, stuck through the stem hole, wielded by the single arm of a cephalopod. The light bulb is also in the process of being shattered by a bullet.
Posted by: Kurt | November 15, 2006 10:11 PM
Paul Bunyan's ghost. The trees finally got disgusted with him chopping them down, ganged up on him, and sealed him up in one, like Merlin.
It's not nice to mess with Mother Nature.
Posted by: anomalous4 | November 15, 2006 10:22 PM
Reminds me of the time someone saw Jesus on a shrimp sushi and it turned out it was actually Che Guevera.
Posted by: raincoaster | November 15, 2006 10:37 PM
That's what I saw, but he has a gash running from his nose to over his eye. It's a sign from the tree that global warming is killing off the polar bears. Who says you can't have environmental pareidolia?
Posted by: Observer | November 15, 2006 11:31 PM
It probably is Darwin, but the real question is:
Whose is the head growing out the top/left-hand part of Darwin's head?
Is it a mugshot of our other great leader, George W. Bush?
/vomit
Posted by: Jeebus | November 15, 2006 11:46 PM
I saw Frida Kahlo in a tortlla once. nah, this one is trixie, mom's dog,
communicating from the great beyond.
Posted by: jeanine marie | November 16, 2006 1:06 AM
That is definitely Darth Vader with his helmet off at the end of Return of the Jedi.
Posted by: choopa | November 16, 2006 5:35 AM
Can't see it either. I only see the Lenin on the curtain (though something's wrong with the beard...).
Tonantzin? You know, the Aztec flower goddess?
Posted by: David Marjanović | November 16, 2006 6:26 AM
This must be taken as definitive proof that Charles Darwin shares a connection to the Holy Trinity (noodles, pirates, and midgets) on par with the Virgin (yeah, right) Mary.
So, since Mary was the mother of Jesus and wife of God (and Joseph, that slutty lil' minx), this must make Charles Darwin kind of a brother-in-law to God. Which obviously explains why beards are so popular in some of the older tribes (eg, orthodox Jews, Muslims, ugly law professors), and why Catholics do not like beagles.
(Hey, this logic is as good as any you will find in an ID handbook. Point your flame somewhere else.)
Posted by: Buckley | November 16, 2006 6:38 AM
I was taking a shower last night when I looked in the mirror and I almost fainted.My penis looked like St Peter
the resemblance was amazing.I was thinking about contacting
the media and and seeing if they wanted to do a cover story.Just think my penis on national TV or I could sell
it on E Bay
Posted by: JONBOY | November 16, 2006 7:59 AM
I can almost NEVER see pareidolia, except when someone helpfully posts a picture of what it is supposed to be right next to the shower curtain or whatever. So I don't see anything but a blob. I think there's something wrong with my brain. I also think that ultrasounds are a scam -- it's clearly just a lot of black and white blobby things that could be ANYthing. The doctors just tell you it's really your baby or your thyroid or your knee so they can make money off you. Yeah.
Posted by: Ethyl | November 16, 2006 8:09 AM
Let's not forget: about the same time last year, Darwin appeared in a frying pan.
Seems he is paying us yearly visits. What message could he be trying to send?
Posted by: Comstock | November 16, 2006 10:09 AM
Oops. Here's that frying pan link:
http://www.pandasthumb.org/archives/2005/11/breaking_news_d_1.html
Posted by: Comstock | November 16, 2006 10:10 AM
Looks like a bald guy to me... If so, it's definitely NOT old Charlie. If nothing else, those old German socialists had hair.
Posted by: Umilik | November 16, 2006 10:34 AM