Tagged "atheist" and "skeptic," this necklace isn't exactly a paean to intelligent design:

Truth, logic and science...three really important things in life. Show the world you are more than just a pretty face with this super cool science necklace! Great on men too!

This piece was originally inspired by the skepchick herself Rebecca Watson! Thanks for inspiring all of us surly artists to be smart cookies too!

This one-of-a-kind ceramic charm is available (cheap!) from Surly in Hollywood.

Posted by jat at 07:30 PM | Permalink

This billboard appeared like a thief in the night, and a popular seafood restaurant that usually advertised in this spot saw its business drop by two-thirds.

More on Gawker.

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Like the original scanner, I'm a serious devotee of Soviet constructivist art. Beyond the intuitive appeal of the form, I'm fascinated by the degree to which the message in early Soviet propaganda resonates with charity today. Not surprising, really, in part due to the degree to which the ideology of Soviet production adopted the principles of Taylorism, which is also a direct ancestor of the principles that animate social entrepreneurship.

Below: engineering creates the mechanism of efficient production by supplanting the spirit of obsolete faith.

Posted by jat at 05:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Jennifer Emick sends this candid shot of a fervent Christian evangelist disturbing the peace of a forthright friendly atheist:

We took this at our local winefest, which is always vigorously protested by this guy and his friends, who harass all the "fornicators and drunks." (But not the glutton...just out of frame is his 400+ pound pal with his list of six deadly sins...) [H]is pickup matches his signs and shirts. The old guy was actually minding his own business until the preacher spotted his shirt and went bananas.

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A Don Addis cartoon via Friendly Atheist

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Via Retrospectacle

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From Overheard in New York:

Guy: I've been finding myself becoming more and more of a misanthropist.

Bimbette: I tried that once, but the chains were a bit much.

Guy: [Angry glare.]

--BBQ, 8th & University Pl

PETS IN HEAVEN EXTRA:

This recent Overheard is also fun:

Mom: So, what kind of animals do you think we will see at the zoo?

Small boy: I think elephants and snakes... Mom? Are there also pretend things there, like dinosaurs and God?

Mom: I think we need to have a talk when we get home.

--N train near Union Square

Posted by jat at 07:51 PM | Permalink

When denizens of ancient Roman catacombs sketched images of fish, little did they imagine that the role their piscine sketches would play in later culture wars. 

Today, though, I want to turn swords into mindshare and without strife or judgment take a look at how the fish has become an all-purpose symbol for belief. 

What is this last one, you ask?  Why, it's the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which emerged as an object of worship worldwide at the height of the recent Kansas controversy over intelligent design!

Posted by jat at 03:52 PM | Permalink

In the 1980s, a Hollywood prop-maker had an idea.  Wouldn't it be funny, Chris Gilman joked, to promote evolution by putting feet on a fish?  His friends thought it was hilarious, and thus a fad was born.

The inspiration for this bumper bling was, of course, the Christian fish, a symbol now ubiquitous in Christian cars & jewelry.  Why a fish?  Supposedly the inspiration comes from the use of the Greek word for fish--ichthus--as a acronym for Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior:

Iesous CHristos THeou Uios Soter

However, in recent years the Darwin fish has become so ubiquitous in popular culture that some people think that the fish was itself originally a symbol for Darwin's theory of evolution! 

Posted by jat at 01:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yesterday parishioners in hundreds of churches around the world gathered together to praise . . .

Charles Darwin?!?!???

Yes, it's true.  As one of the most clicked stories on the web notes, several hundred churches did indeed participate in Darwin Day, held annually to commemorate Darwin's birth on February 12, 1809.  In fact, the celebration still continues in many towns, churches and universities, as Darwin Day has evolved into Darwin Week.

To mark this event, this week in our devotionals we'll take a look at a heavenly host of bling emerging from the holy war over creation, from the Fish Wars on car bumpers to Pastafarian jewelry and beyond.  

Of course, if you buy all the bling pictured in the coming days you'll need somewhere to put it, so to start I suggest that you pick up a new jewelry box--but exactly which intelligent design I'll leave up to you.

Posted by jat at 07:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (5)