You know how we great clumsy gallumphing unsophisticated atheists are always comparing belief in gods to belief in fairies at the bottom of the garden or tooth fairies or whatever? We may have to revise those arguments.
Now we really have to worry. If some space probe snaps a picture of an orbiting teapot, we’ll have nothin’.
Crap. Sean knocks the props out from under my godlessness. Now I’m going to have to convert to something…what does everyone recommend? Catholicism, LDS, Scientology, etc., or should I just go all the way primitive, erect a phallus-shaped rock in my backyard, and start worshipping that?
Actually the orbiting teapot hypothesis was proven true. There are millions of orbiting teapots. They just happen to be anchored to this planet :) (from Carolyn Porco)
This reminds me of a line in Christopher Durang’s set of short plays, Identity Crisis, where a person goes to the therapist and recounts a scene from their childhood. It came to the point where Tinkerbell is dying, and all the children are instructed to applaud to show they really do believe in fairies. Then a possibly drunk and disgruntled Peter Pan wheels around and yells at the audience, “That wasn’t ENOUGH! YOU didn’t clap hard ENOUGH and now Tinkerbell’s DEAD!”
Obviously this is the corpse of that very same Tinkerbell.
So, he, like, died and was fossilized in mid-flight? Cool!
This is the most pathetic tizzy we’ve ever been in.
It is, I think, a carving – one hesitates to refer to S. J. Gould, but is this another “lying stone of Marraketch”?
I think the funnist detail is the person at Raincoaster wondering if it’s some sort of dragonfly.
What if the teapots are invisible?? ;)
If an orbiting teapot were discovered, at least we could take comfort in the fact that the God whose existence we had hitherto doubted must have a great sense of humor. I mean even Dawkins would have to chuckle at that one.
Nathan
“…If some space probe snaps a picture of an orbiting teapot, we’ll have nothin’.”
Um, PZ, I hate to break this to you, but you should look here:
http://www.southernskyphoto.com/milky_way/teapot.htm
And it’s in Sagittarius, so we may have some astrological apologetics to go through, too!
That’s not a teapot, that’s a bunch of lines drawn on a jpeg.
Oh, well, even if a real teapot were found, I just remembered we’d still have Santa Claus to bash on.
We can’t forget the unexplained rain of healing spaghetti sauce that hit the town of Rashvolka, Ukraine in 1974. More evidence for His Noodly Appendages.
Well, maybe a DNA sample can be taken to determine the evolutionary history of faries?
Damm, if only we can find some dragon bones now……..
I’d go with the giant phallus. After all, if you make it higher than your back fence, it will have a similar effect on Creationist fundamentalists as this blog: And that’s a good thing.
Yes, join the Church of the Purple Mitre!
O MY!!!! HOW DARE THEY DEFILE A GOOD SET OF INSECT WINGS!!! CURSE THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CURSE THEM FOR ALL ETERNITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Out of that selection, I’d vote for the rock. You could even get Skatje to help you light it dramatically (eg for best neighbourhood viewing effect). But how fickle you are, PZ, not to be suggesting something betentacled instead. Shouldn’t that erection be a cephalopod version of this:
http://herpstead.homestead.com/files/amphibian/images_cg/ToadEmPole153.jpg
The phallus shaped rock (a lingam, for your info) is at least inspirational. You don’t need to worship it but you do have to keep anointing it with clarified butter.
This is just silly, and another example of rampant scientism. Fairyism falls into the magisteria of morals and meaning, and is not the sort of thing science can say anything about, one way or another. Since the existence of fairies is not testable by science, that fossil means nothing. Belief in fairies is still a matter of faith.
Belief in fairies is more of a matter of pharmacology in my experience, hence the fellow on my site who’s no doubt still puzzling out what kind of dragonfly has a skull like that.
Clap your hands!
It’s a little tough to tell, but I think that fairy looks a lot like Stephen Hawking. Or, maybe it’s a fairy with Hawking’s haircut?
And of course, this fairy fossil PROVES without any doubt that faries co-existed with dinosaurs!
So much for just PYGMYS and DWARVES, in no time at all, the Leprechaun fossils will be turning up.
If and When the orbiting teapot is confirmed, this will prove that God is an Englishman. This of course has been known by the English for a long long time. After all, Russell himself was English.
Don’t bother about worshipping a penis shaped rock. Just worship your own naughty bits. That’s what we do here.
Bet yours is not as impressive as ours:
http://www.hawaiiweb.com/molokai/sites_to_see/PhallicRock.htm
If and When the orbiting teapot is confirmed, this will prove that God is an Englishman. This of course has been known by the English for a long long time. After all, Russell himself was English.
And the first sectarian schism is going to be over whether it’s Earl Grey or English Breakfast in the teapot.
Sure, you’ve got a teapot. But where’s the teakettle, huh? You can’t have a teapot without a teakettle to have made the hot water in the first place! Just the teapot don’t prove nuthin’.
Hm. The fossil could be a fairy, but it could also be a primitive doxy. Or maybe a highly derived doxy that has lost its extra limbs.
Do you have evidence of yourself and others worshipping PZ’s naughty bits then? ;-)
My first thought (before your post) was also of Earl Grey versus something else. However, I think the Dormouse should probably be a contender under the circumstances.
The “Fossilized Fairy” seen here is one of “sideshow gaffs” created by internationally active and respected artist, Takeshi Yamada in Brooklyn, New York. Yamada had over 400 art exhibitions internationally. Here is his website with many pics and articles of curiosities, oddities, monsters and marvels: http://sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html
Takeshi Yamada won the first prize at the 2006 Photo Hoax Contest with his gaffs. http://paranormal.about.com/od/ghostphotos/a/aa052206.htm
Here is the link of the detail description of this fossilized fairy specimen gaff: http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/index.php?photo=268763
Takeshi Yamada is currently having solo art exhibition entitled “Museum of World Wonders: Cabinet of Curiosities” at the Brooklyn Public Library – Coney Island Branch. (October 2006 – January 1, 2008) Yamada is also featured in a documentary film shown at the “Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids” exhibition at the American Museum of the Natural History in Manhattan, New York. ((May 26, 2007 – January 6, 2008)
guys space junk ever heard of it?a mission to mars and the people on the space ship through junk out in space a orbating tea pot….