I realize that PZ and Skeptico have already posted this, but it's just too hilarious for me, as a bit of a connoisseur of pareidolia, to pass up, regardless of who might have posted about it before.
We've seen Jesus in many strange places, even on toast, but I bet you've never seen Him appear in a location such as this before. I'm not sure if the first part of the animated GIF is Photoshopped or not, but it is hilarious. (Warning: Not for the easily offended.)
Hallelujah!
And if that's not enough, Evolving Thoughts points out that new images of the infamous "Face on Mars" Cydonia confirm that the "face" is nothing more than yet another example of pareidolia.
More like this
I have to admit that I've always had a soft spot for pareidolia, that phenomenon wherein people see things that aren't there because human brains are wired for pattern recognition.
Pareidolia is everywhere, as you know.
One of my favorite phenomena that represents better than perhaps any other how humans are wired to look for patterns, whether there is a pattern there or not, is the phenomenon known as pareidolia.
I bet you'd like better the .
Ooops, dunno what happened there. The link should read: Einstein pareidolia.
That dog's tush is equally the funniest and creepiest thing I have since on the web...
Today's Astronomy Photograph of the Day gives another view of the hill on Mars. Like ORAC, APOD is one of the sites I check daily.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060925.html
You know schools would turn out much better citizens if there were a unit on wishful thinking, how to recognise it and avoid it. How people can fool themselves so easily is astonishing. We all have a pretty good opinion of our own intellect, yet time and again our emotions make fools of us.
I guess I would be guilty of wishful thinking though, if I convinced myself that critical thinking was going to be a universal subject in our schools any time soon. There's at least one vested interest that would be dead against it.
The real joke is that no one has any idea of what the real Jesus looked like, so how can we tell if a random image resembles him?
I'm sure no Christian will disagree that Jesus is the dog's bollocks.