"I'm thinking scientific accommodation of religion is akin to letting someone take your King's Rook off the board because you're winning."
This painting was originally created due to the above Twitter tweet I made, inspired by the writing of Jerry Coyne, Ophelia Benson, PZ Myers, Mike Haubrich, Stephanie Zvan, Greg Laden, Jason Thibeault, Russell Blackford and Richard Dawkins. This painting is an homage to your writing, and the other atheists out there unafraid to speak up (I am sure I have left many out). Mike liked it enough to add it to his rotating quotes, and that got me thinking about how I would visualize it.
Since I began blogging my art, I have struggled with themes of secularism and atheism without being cartoonish or overly mocking. Science and my surreal riffs are fun and fascinating for me, but atheist painting concepts have been a challenge.
The contest: identify all the pieces. I will give the first person to figure them all out a signed print from my reproduction store. Blog comments here at this Flying Trilobite post only to qualify (not Twitter or Facebook at this time, please, it will be hard to see who was first). A higher quality view of the image can be seen in my Reproduction Shop.
Let's say...in order of left to right, with the two toppled pieces in the foreground following the red piece in sequence? I will be away for my usual Art Monday, so let's leave this contest in its stead.
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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
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31 comments:
I'm going to start with Darwin's sketch "Tree of Life," skip the second piece for now, then the fossile of the megalodont jaw, then Mendelian genetics, then Copernicus, then the rook representing religion's "prima nocta" over questions of origins, followed by vaccinations and finally followed by one more piece.
I'll think a bit more, but I didn't want to try to get them all on the first go.
My attempt. In front (L-R):
stem cells, vaccination, and the red bishop representing the church
In back (L-R):
Darwin's tree of life sketch, radio waves (SETI?), representation of organic chemistry (?), Mendel's peas, and heliocentrism a la Copernicus.
Third is Kekule dreaming of the benzene ring (snake eating its own tail).
okay - this was a challenge for my sleep-deprived self...darwin's tree of life, the arecibo message, ouroboros benzene ring (Jung's alchemy), mendel's peas, copernican heliocentrism, i just don't know, our favorite conversation topic: vaccination, and the red bishop (dom helder? or simply the red bishop as representative of the church?)
i'm hoping the missing piece will come to me in my dreams...
thanks for the brain tease.
(it's trish by the way - i've forgotten, ahem, my password, ahem)
is the first piece bottom left a drosophila ovary used for stem cell research?
(yes, it's me, again.)
t.
Red Queen, methinks....
Really hard to see, especially upside down like this, but the one falling off the board could be panda's thumb (actually the entire panda's paw).
Also, I think #2 is radioactivity.
As you can see, I really want this picture! ;-) I am trying so hard!
(I am agreeing with others on those I did not mention myself: Darwin, Mendel, Copernicus, vaccines, bishop)
Still hard to see the fallen piece, but could be three little mice (perhaps used for stem-cell research, or biotech in general).
I think I will close the contest on Friday 28th of August, noon eastern standard. Thanks for the entries so far!
By the way, this piece became a "featured painting" on the CORE religion & science group on Redbubble within a few hours of being posted. So that's nice.
Now I will fall silent as Bass Lake beckons and I think it's unlikely there will be wi-fi there. (I'll still check of course...)
I just wonder if the remaining clues can be found in Jonathan Well's "Icons of Evolution."
(BTW) If I don't win, I will buy.
Red: The Phallic Church Bishop Upholding the Military Industrial Complex represented by the coinage of Charles the First which lost all of his value on his beheading
Toppled 1: Mr Bill
Toppled 2: A dose of reality
A South African Mapangupwe Sculpture which uncannily resembles a sketch from Charles Darwin's Notebooks
The Red Queen
The Sacret Snake Eating It's Own Tail roughly in the shape of Georgia O'Keefe's Vagina
Beans. As in Bean There Done That.
I can't remember which one, but it's one of the Tele Tubbies.
I WIN!!!!!!
OMG I want one so bad!!!!
The one with the clade on top I think is Darwin's sketch, and represents evolution, The fallen over one that looks like a paw I think is stem cells (though I suppose it could be a Panda's thumb, because it does look like a paw), the other fallen over one is definitely vaccination. The pea pod is Mendelian genetics. The one in the back is the Copernican system. The one second from the back is the benzene ring. The back is...is...it looks like radio waves? Dangit this is HARD!!!
Oh and the red is obviously religion as represented by a bishop.
Oh, I like Greg's "Toppled 2: A dose of reality"
I want this on a t-shirt!
Absolutely beautiful. And I fear there's no chance I'll ever win it at this rate, with all the guesses already made, especially since they overlap so heavily with most of my own. But hey. Left to right standing: phylogenetic tree of life as drawn in Darwin's sketchbook, the expansion of the universe from the big bang on, a benzene chain, Mendel's peas, the sun (heliocentrism?), and the Red Piece is a Bishop, obviously. Complete with halo.
The two downed pieces are a panda's paw and vaccines.
Every one of these white pieces is science itself, though,
For that hexagonal structure, I've seen a similar looking... something... of bones. Somewhere. I think. It could be that, if I could remember what it was or where I saw it. Oh, how I wish I had an eidetic memory.
By the by, I'm truly honoured that you'd consider my writings to be of any worth, though you might want to link http://www.lousycanuck.ca/?p=1519 instead if you were looking for examples of my actual input (as what you linked is mostly a linking post -- mind you, all of those links are excellent reads).
Let's try that again. Edit fail.
Every one of these white pieces is science itself, though, so giving up a piece because "you're winning" is akin to dropping a chunk of science specifically because it has the capability of checkmating your opponent.
i think we've got it - darwin's tree of life, james kicked in with curie's theory of radioactive decay and using it for carbon dating, kekule's benzene ring, mendel's peas, copernican heliocentrism, the panda's thumb/paw, vaccination and the red bishop...
hope you have wifi at the lake!
t.
Jason, I've fixed the link. Thanks for that.
And fixed it to include Greg's trademark never-simple-but-very-clear post as well. It's been such a swirl of excellent writing on this subject.
Clockwise from the bottom: vaccination, stem-cell research, Darwin's tree of life, electron cloud model, what I think is a snake biting it's own tail (no idea), Gregor Mendell genetics, Heliocentric solar system, and the big red bishop is obviously religion.
Clockwise from the bottom: vaccination, stem-cell research, Darwin's tree of life, electron cloud model, what I think is a snake biting it's own tail (no idea), Gregor Mendell genetics, Heliocentric solar system, and the big red bishop is obviously religion.
Only a few hours to go!
Most of the answers for piece #2 at the back are sort of right, but a little too complicated.
Someone on my DeviantArt page got it bang on though if anyone's fishing...
Particle wave duality!!!!
*sooo sooo sooo wants to wiiiiiiiin*
Irrelevant comments to the contest have been removed by me. Done.
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Posts over 14 days old have their comments held in moderation - I've been getting an unusual amount of spam for a guy who paints trilobites. I'll release it lickety-split though.