archy has posted a description of creationist “proof positive” that humans, mammoths, and dinosaurs shared the landscape, detected in a couple of random lumps on a cave wall. See for yourself: this area of random erosion, which Jack Cuozzo calls a “cave painting,” is a Rorsach blot. He can see the “proof” that he was looking for and I can make cloud pictures:
What does it look like to you, without his prompting? I can make a strong case for an image of the Flying Spaghetti Monster….
(image from www.venganza.org)
He thinks it is a mammoth fighting a dinosaur. My cave image is of lower resolution than the original, so see archy’s original post and analysis.
Postscript: This is the blobbiest actual cave painting of a mammoth that I could find. It’s still recognizable, unlike the “creationist proof” version. Quick! Which side is the dinosaur on in the “confrontation” image?
Tuesday, 3 January 2006 at 12:10
Looking at the blob on the left, I don’t think it’s a dinosaur: I think it’s a polar bear.
Thursday, 5 January 2006 at 03:54
` The one on the right looks like a giant owl-being from the planet Fruzz!
Thursday, 5 January 2006 at 11:28
Bwa-ha-ha! Actually, I think the whole thing could be a duck with its neck stretched out or a very elongated otter. I certainly don’t see any mastodons. The creationist sketch requires ignoring a few of the clearer markings on the cave wall—the same as that book that found sexy pictures and words in adverts’ images of ice cubes and faces.
Thursday, 12 January 2006 at 16:26
Ah… the blog of another technical writer…
Anyway, there’s one major aspect of “The Confrontation” that I don’t think anyone’s pointed out yet.
Why is “The Confrontation” a cave carving (if you can find some resemblance between that and other examples of human sculpture) when every other image left behind by “cavemen” has been a cave painting?
Tuesday, 13 February 2007 at 11:24
I’m a Christian and to be honest, I couldn’t see the mammoth nor the “dinosaur” in the Confrontation and I tried really hard. I also didn’t find the line drawing convincing.
But I did see a lot of more convincing images from all around the world and at different times in history at this link http://www.genesispark.com/genpark/ancient/ancient.htm.
Most of these images don’t require much blinking and guessing and are really quite clear
Tuesday, 13 February 2007 at 14:14
Well, I’ve seen a really clear Mr. Rogers in the salt-stains on the subway steps. Our minds make patterns, that’s all.
The notorious “Mary on Toasted Cheese” looked like Marlene Deitrich to me.
Thursday, 28 May 2009 at 20:56
It actually looks like two animals, yet its not clear enough to decide what it is. But this cave drawing doesn’t expel Dinosaurs and Humans living together. It only shows how atheists only comment on things that Creationists get wrong. A single picture that isn’t a dinosaur like this guy says it is doesn’t disprove the truth of God. It just takes off the minds of atheists that everything is (supposedly) pointless.
Thursday, 28 May 2009 at 23:03
The point is that the images are created by your mind, which has a natural tendency to put things into patterns. See parrot images or cloud shapes. That’s why an old pile of clothes or a curtain can look like a ghost in the dark. It’s not that God or anyone else has created it. My mind can conjure up dwarves, dragons, faces, horses–you name it. It’s a function of your material and biochemical mind, which needs to make sense of the world and notice tigers lurking in the grass. There’s no need to invoke a deity who is “putting those images there for us.”
Creationists get everything wrong: geology, potassium-argon dating, chemistry, angular momentum, mathematics, genetics… and psychology. Who would want a god that punishes someone else when you’re bad? That makes man fallible and then punishes him for failing? That “hardens men’s hearts” to make them refuse and then punishes them for refusing? That approves of offering virgin girls to a mob so they won’t bother important visitors? That commands you to kill your children if they’re rude to you? (That’s right next to the verse about homosexuals, so if you obey one, you really must obey both or you’re picking and choosing.) That says, “Love me or I’ll hurt you!” That’s not a god, that’s a psychotic bully.
And as someone pointed out thousands of years ago, people’s gods look like them. Gods were imagined to reinforce our innate sense of morality, not the other way around. Rats are loving and loyal inside their tribe, and hostile and murderous to outsiders. We don’t need God to make us love our children.
Here’s the best optical illusion in the world.
Wednesday, 11 November 2009 at 13:07
God, God the father of jesus christ is none of those things MONADO. The way your trying to twist the word of GOD is truely an attempt to misslead people, its really sick. potasssium-argon dating doesn’t work, and if it did the cowboy boot thats only 100 years old and fossilized (which is true, theres also a bouler hat, shoes, you name it, it almost always can be fossilized in a very short period of time,there is proof do some research, o and by the way the argon dating also says that the cowboy boot is also 100million years old, which obviousely isn’t the case). and god say that he loves us and thats why he sent jesus to die for our sins, God gives every opportunity for us to believe in him and worship and love and ask for forgivness for our sins. We do not deserve this and i’m not about to say i know every little thing that God does and why, but trust me when i say that were the ones that harden our own hearts, and God knows everyones heart,yours and mine. He knows whats going to happen already. Lastly,God’s unconditional love for us and his forgivness and mercy and the freedom to make our oun choices is something that i really haven’t understood untill now. so i leave with this, God loves everyone, no matter how big, small, white, black, indian, german it doesn’t matter, come to god and confess your sins and ask Him to come in and change your life. He will love you and forgive you and the things you’ve done in the past and the sins that you commit will all be washed away if you just give him a chance. God i pray that people will hear what i talked about and truly understand and will give there lives to you and pour out there need for you in there life. I do. I pray that you forgive me of my sins and my ways, i’m sorry, and i thankyou for everything God and ask that this message resignates with someone out there. I love you lord and i pray this in jesus name, AMEN,
Thursday, 12 November 2009 at 09:52
Or you can just tell your troubles to your teddy bear. Same thing.