Have you ever caught a glimpse of something out of your eye and thought, “oh that looked like a face!” “Look, Jesus is in my bar of soap!” “That cloud looks like a dog running!” That’s pareidolia. You see something random and your mind fills in the blanks so that you think something is there.
Pareidolia: a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant.
In psychology, the Rorschach test is a series of images used to invoke pareidolia to delve into the psyche of the patient. In religion and superstition, a vague stimulus is believed to be divinely sent. Here is a news story of Mary in bird shit. Notice how the people react to a random stimulus.
No matter how much I look at this picture, it looks like a face. The sink looks a bit shocked or frightened.
Carl Sagan hypothesized that detecting faces is a hard wired evolutionary advantage. This allows people to use only minimal details to recognize faces from a distance and in poor visibility but can also lead them to interpret random images or patterns of light and shade as being faces.
In 2009 a study was done to show that objects incidentally perceived as faces evoke an early (165 ms) activation in the ventral fusiform cortex, at a time and location similar to that evoked by faces, whereas other common objects do not evoke such activation. This activation is similar to a slightly earlier peak at 130 ms seen for images of real faces. The authors suggest that face perception evoked by face-like objects is a relatively early process, and not a late cognitive reinterpretation phenomenon.
This is the best Last Supper painting I’ve ever seen, no offense to the original. I would rather sit around with these people than the original crew any day.
I’m embarrassed to say there are a few faces there I can’t name. Anyone want to list everyone from left to right? I’d rather ask for your help than get it wrong. (click the image for full size. Sorry, I don’t know the artist!)
Here is a video of Christopher Hitchens answering a question from an audience member at a debate. Why we should fight religion. (6 minutes)
So yesterday was the Spring (Vernal) Equinox in the northern hemisphere. It was at 12:32 pm to be exact. Many different cultures have celebrated in different ways. But my friends and I at Morgantown Atheists thought we’d celebrate in our own way. We got together, ate delicious food, talked about anything and everything, had a book meeting, had a Nature Walk on our friends’ farm and generally enjoyed ourselves, nature, and spring returning.
I thought I’d share some pictures from our Nature Walk.
In our conversations we talked about how people struggle when they are questioning their faith. It’s different for everyone, but some of the big things you have to give up are:
Your consciousness living forever in heaven. Life after death.
Someone thinking for you, telling you what your morals are, and spoon-feeding you the big answers to questions about why we’re here, etc.
An interesting offer from ASPEX November 10, 2009 2:54 PM – by PZ Myers
I had my doubts about this; I got an offer from ASPEX corporation to let people get free scanning electron micrographs of just about anything. They make a desktop SEM (Scanning Electron Micrograph), and all you have to do is fill out a form and mail it in with your sample of a dead bug or a microchip or bacon, and presto, within a few weeks they’ll have it scanned in and the image available on their website.
I asked them if they knew how many readers I have, and they said no problem, they can handle it.
Huh.
Well, you heard them. Scavenge your trash cans, dig into your local sources of vermin and oddments, and send them in. I’m thinking this could be really fun for any school teachers out there — you could have the whole class looking for interesting specimens to zoom in on. You can see their current galleries for ideas.
If you do send something in to get scanned be sure to note that you found them via PZ; and be sure to come back here and share your scan with the rest of us!
I wanted to share some great lolcats with you on my favorite holiday, while warning you of some issues that may have passed below your radar for this All Hallow’s Eve.
Don’t buy candy for today! Halloween is Lucifer’s holy day and the candy in the store has been cursed and filled with demons according to Charisma Magazine. Kimberly Daniels wantonly tells us about the horrors of this most satanic day of the year.
I know, it’s probably too late for you. You already bought your Halloween candy weeks ago. My suggestion is to eat all of the candy in one sitting while praising Lucifer as you unwrap each blasphemous piece of chocolaty evilness. If you can’t light a bonfire to dance around naked in your front yard, light a candle and roast marshmallows over it. That will suffice.
Don’t give the candy to those little kids that come begging at your door! It will fill their innocent little souls with demons! You really must eat the candy for yourself and imbibe the demons to help save our future from demonic possession. Daniels says it all in her diatribe. But I give you solutions. That’s just the kind of blasphemous, godless heathen that I am. Read the rest of this entry »
You probably have to be American to get the joke in the title. Do other countries have Life cereal? I have no idea. That’s a phrase of my husband Butch’s anyway. I personally think the original Life cereal is the best, not the fancy versions that they also make, like cinnamon, chocolate oat crunch, etc.
Anyhoo, this is a roundup post in which I cover several topics that are tenuously connected at best. Here’s what I’m rambling on about:
I’m a citizen scientist now! WOOT!
Encyclopedia of Life!
My Flickr
Moving the body affects how we think – a study
Prayer and meditation may reshape the brain – a study
First, I want to talk about a ScienceDaily report: Massive Online ‘Macroscopic Observatory’ Of Earth’s Biodiversity To Be Created. “Wanted (soon): observations from environment-minded citizens that will allow science to study biodiversity at a planetary level in a massive, comprehensive virtual observatory of historic importance.”
This guy, Edward O. Wilson, created a website, Encyclopedia of Life (eol). His dream: “Imagine an electronic page for each species of organism on Earth…” and they are starting to do just that. A page for every species. If you read the ScienceDaily article, it will be amazing. You’ll be able to get information from the Deep Web from images, maps, classification, common and scientific names, links to research and papers, etc.
It’s already there now, and growing all the time. In the future you’ll also be able to get genome sequences and much much more. Basically anything you want to know about a species will be there, at your fingertips, all on one page, for free. My scientific geekiness is giggling with delight! Read the rest of this entry »
I have a bad cold. I’ve been sick for a week and I don’t feel like I’m that much better. Now I’ve lost my voice (my husband doesn’t seem upset by that for some reason.. LOL). And to make matters worse, I am just really tired and can’t think of anything clever for you. Don’t worry. I’ll think of something soon. But just so you don’t feel forgotten or neglected, Lolcat is filling in for me.
“Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings.” I love this bus slogan. It’s brilliant. This is my favorite so far.
“That’s right sweetheart; dreams and goals are satan’s way of distracting you from making dinner.” My comments all involve swearing so I’ll just let it stand as is.
oh JESUS! This is just too freaking much, this cake. I had to show it to you.
Happiness is submission to GodZILLA! LOL!
This is my favorite Russell’s Teapot. Get the drano!
Ceiling Cat guides the hand of man to write LOLbible.
Satan Cat: He’s going to kill you and your family once he gets outta there. LOL!
