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Bad Astronomy
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The intersection of pareidolia

The intersection of Jesus and snack foodsI hardly need to comment on this, do I?

Well, one small one: Indexed is a blog where artist Jessica Hagy takes index cards and draws funny Venn diagrams on them. It’s worth reading through; she’s very funny and her drawings pithily say a wealth of commentary that words alone can’t do nearly as well.

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July 31st, 2008 10:30 AM by Phil Plait in Humor, Pareidolia, Religion, Skepticism | 19 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

19 Responses to “The intersection of pareidolia”

  1. 1.   Donnie B. Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 10:51 am

    She forgot shower curtains, dirty windows, freeway overpasses, and water towers. :-)

  2. 2.   Viewer 3 Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 11:07 am

    lol, jesus

  3. 3.   Tim G Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 11:18 am

    I wish I discovered index cards in high school. You can use them to make flash cards.

  4. 4.   Larian LeQuella Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 11:27 am

    Darn it! All I ever see are FSM shapes…. I want to sell my piece of toast with Jebus on ebay too!

  5. 5.   IBY Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 11:46 am

    Hahaha, that is funny. :)

  6. 6.   Bruce A Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 11:48 am

    @Viewer 3 – LOLJesus? Im in ur hart savin ur sole?

  7. 7.   Charles Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 11:58 am

    Just like most things in life, people see what they want to see and believe what they want to believe. Rationality is often created on the fly, and more often than not, some people use logical “reasoning” that would make a junior high school debate coach squirm.

    I think the word ‘solipsism’ is perfect for those folks. A general definition is “extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one’s feelings, desires, etc.; egoistic self-absorption” such that if they believe it is true, then it surely must be true.

    Even Freud once said that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

  8. 8.   impulse94 Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 12:28 pm

    Great! I’ve been wondering about the Venn diagram lady ever since she was on a podcast (Penn’s, I think). Can’t wait to check that site out.

  9. 9.   Arthur Maruyama Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 12:34 pm

    In Indexed’s comments there is this link:
    http://www.knbc.com/news/17037773/detail.html
    to a “Jesus in cat’s fur.” Personally I see a very vaguely humanoid head in profile, but if anything I see it wearing an eyepatch (along with a strap holding it in place). Aye! It’s more proof of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

  10. 10.   Quiet Desperation Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 12:37 pm

    And now… cat fur!

    http://www.abc2news.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=2ccb3aef-1561-43eb-9dbc-afb4268409f8

    JEEBUS? I GOTS HIM! LOL!

  11. 11.   Pieter Kok Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 12:42 pm

    loljesus, is that lolcats for fundamentalists?

  12. 12.   Bobcloclimar Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 1:10 pm

    Phil, have you seen graphjam.com? Similar concept (making diagrams/charts to explain cultural things), though it’s limited to pop/media culture and not really a commentary on society.

  13. 13.   Viewer 3 Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 1:12 pm

    loljesus as in:

    http://panjesus.ytmnd.com

  14. 14.   Rose Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 1:12 pm

    Guess we’ll have to add yet another circle for Cheesus: http://www.seriouseats.com/required_eating/2008/07/in-videos-sweet-cheesus-jesus-cheetos-cheese-missouri-kelly-ramey.html

  15. 15.   Bruce A Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 2:16 pm

    @Quiet Desperation & Arthur Maruyama – Looks more like Rasputin to me.

  16. 16.   tenacious Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 5:20 pm

    Visuals make it funny!

  17. 17.   HidariMak Says:
    July 31st, 2008 at 6:12 pm

    I’m surprised no one else has mentioned this yet. The drawing accompanying the story fits in quite nicely with the likes of the Indexed site.

    http://rackjite.com/archives/1720-Baylor-University-President-John-M.-Lilley-Fired.html

  18. 18.   Esmitt Says:
    August 1st, 2008 at 7:54 am

    The diagram from May 2nd is my favourite.

  19. 19.   eigenvector Says:
    August 1st, 2008 at 9:13 pm

    This woman, Jessica Hagy, is so absolutely, incredibly intelligent! It looks so simple, but try to analyze it like she does so effortlessly! We need her to teach this clear, analytic thinking to high schoolers and all the way up to large corporations. My compliments to you Ms. Hagy!

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