Middle Eastern Jesus, of course, must be a terrorist.

All that aside, religious art has suffered greatly over the past half-century or so. Not since Dali’s masterful Last Supper (which exudes a sort of power even for me) have there been any notable Xtian works.

Instead of Micheangelo or Carravagio or the Ghent altarpiece, we get schlock like Danny Hahlbohm and Thomas Kinkaid

Perhaps this is a good thing! Maybe the best of us are now no longer swayed by the need for belief in a god and therefor no longer create powerful artwork in worship.

(btw, I don’t think Dali was a Xtian, but he could still put more power in a “worshipful” painting than the current crop of believing painters)

or are they drawn to absolutist doctrine, because their minds can’t process subtlety? …I’m convinced it’s the latter.

I agree with you completely. There’s a profound incapacity in evidence for processing objective reality, even among those (like that fellow I wrote about who gave the creationist lecture) who manage to finesse degrees out of Ivy League universities. As I keep saying, I’m convinced it’s neurological – and as I also keep saying, this is why they should be treated as adult children, to the extent of limiting what we’ve come to regard as rights.

Oh, and about John Hinkley, you’d think that if he knew Jodie Foster so well he would have had a clue she was a lesbian…

Another Steve “Just as John Hinckley somehow thought that killing Ronald Reagan would make Jodie Foster love him…”

He was way off. If Hinckley had killed Reagan, that would’ve made Jodie love me. Obviously.

Most of the rest of those cartoons just don’t make any point. Did I miss something?

No, I think you understand it as well as anybody. Fundies this extreme (the ones who orgasm over the thought that nuclear armageddon is right around the corner) are mentally ill. They suffer from distorted thinking.

Just as John Hinckley somehow thought that killing Ronald Reagan would make Jodie Foster love him, these fundies think that starting WWIII and killing seven billion people will make God love them.

The thoughts of a diseased brain make sense only to the sufferers themselves. To outside observers, it’s all gibberish.

That Darwin cartoon slays me. It’s what they do, with Biblical “prophecy”, all the time. I’ve never seen a group of people so prone to projection.

What’s so ironic (What? Fundie irony? Impossible!) is that those cartoons are from Hal Lindsey’s website, the grand daddy of Bible faux-prophets.

…their minds lack subtlety.

Who needs subtlety when you live in a world of moral absolutes? So that raises the interesting question: Do they lack subtlety because that’s a trait they’ve never needed to develop (because of their absolutist doctrine), or are they drawn to absolutist doctrine, because their minds can’t process subtlety?

I’m convinced it’s the latter. I’ve been meaning to write an article on that for several years now.

I’ve said this here before – their minds lack subtlety. Their collective sense of humor is like that of a six year-old – viz., the cartoons above.

It’s clearly the Texas Sharp Shooter fallacy. I was just trying to hijack it. But honestly, I can’t figure out what those misses are the cartoonist is referring to.

Looking at that cartoon, it seems to me that the fundies are trying to say that evolution (Darwin) is counting the hits and ignoring the misses. Or some variant on this theme.

It might also be something like the “Texas Sharp Shooter” fallacy.

In case you (or one of your readers) has never seen this one: The would be sharp shooter takes his weapon out to a barn and fires multiple rounds into a feature less barn wall. After he’s done, he looks at the various groupings on the side of the barn and draws a target centered on the largest grouping. He then reports his results as skillful marksmanship.

A third meaning of the cartoon may be the often heard claim that evolution by way of “survival of the fittest” is a tautology.

At this point, I feel compelled to offer up my favorite disclaimer: I do not read minds especially little ones.

Exactly what (or indeed IF) the fundies are thinking remains beyond my ability to discern.

One final word: Edward Currents Youtube videos rock!

“Checkmate atheists” I love it!