Painfully Dumb

Ok. Prepare yourself. Go grab a bottle of Tylenol because you're going to need it. What you are about to read is so incredibly inane that it is likely to induce a headache.

"Evolution is nothing but a denial of God. Let me pose a question to the godless! On a clear crisp night, when the moon is full, what do you see? Do you see a formless terrain on the moon? If you do, it is because God has placed a veil over your eyes. The entire moon is the face of a man, formed by the shadows of the moons features. It is a beautiful face but mysterious. It's eyes are those of an old man, while it's nose and mouth are those of a child. It's expression is a look of awe. How could there be a face sculpted on a body that circles a body with creatures having a similar face? The odds of this occuring by accident are astronomical, leaving only one answer: IT WAS SCULPTED BY GOD." - Jerome Shaunnessey

Ouch.
Have you recovered from your migrane yet? Ok, good. Let us critique this statement, shall we? Mr. Shaunnessey here is basically claiming that the moon resembles a man, and this is absolutley improbable to have occured by chance, so it had to have been made by God. The idea of a "man in the moon" is far from an original idea. Im sure you've heard of it before and spent time as a child trying to pick out the vaguely humanoid features on the moon's surface. Personaly, I've never been able to see a man's face but maybe I'm simply not imaginative enough. And THAT is the key word here - imagination. The "man in the moon" is nothing but imaginative. There is no "face". This is supported by countless high-resolution images of the moon taken over the last few decades. Take a look at this picture and try to point out what resembles a face. Not only that, but we have actually been on the moon (despite claims otherwise) and we know with certainty that the terain is pretty formless (at least in respects to resembling a face).

But lets ignore that for just a moment. If the moon really did resemble a face, then all cultures around the world should have made such a moon-to-face association, shouldnt they? All cultures have faces, do they not? If a face in the moon - designed by God, no less - really existed, then all cultures should see a face in the moon. But, this is not the case. The Chinese and mesoamerican cultures believed the moon displayed a rabbit; whereas Shia Muslims believe that the name of Muhammad's son-in-law, Mauli Ali, is written across the moon. There are many other shapes that can easily be seen in the dark and light spots displayed across the moon. Try and come up with your own; if you look hard enough, and have a good imagination, you can see pretty much anything up there.

What's more, Shaunnessey claims that the face has "eyes...of an old man, while it's nose and mouth are those of a child". He then says that the Earth has creatures with "similar faces". I cannot think of a single person with the eyes of an old man and the mouth of a child. That sort of sounds like a debilitating genetic condition to me. Perhaps Shaunnessey grew up next to Chernobyl, but claiming the man in the moon resembles people on Earth is a stretch.

And then comes the kicker: "The odds of this occuring by accident are astronomical". Astronomical? Really? I guess the odds of Jesus appearing on a grilled cheese sandwich is also astronomical, or the Virgin Mary appearing in a stain on the highway or the Pope on a pop-tart (thanks, Skeptical Enquirer!) is also astronomical, but it happens. Alot. The man on the moon is a simple case of pareidolia and nothing more.

And, being a typical creationist, Shaunnessey includes a clause that makes his statements unfalsifible: "Do you see a formless terrain on the moon? If you do, it is because God has placed a veil over your eyes." In other words, if you dont see his proof as being selfevident, its because God is making you not see it, not because he's wrong. How typical.

I've read some really wacky claims for "proof" of God's existence, but this ranks up there as one of the craziest. In actuality, the only thing that this proves is Poe's Law.