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"Somewhere between Brattstrom's 301 Club discussions of God and evolution and White's ethological explanations about the evolution of animal behaviour, my Christian icthus (the fish with Greek symbols that Christians wore in the 1970s to publicly indicate their faith) got away, and with it my religion."

- Michael Shermer, Why People Believe Weird Things.
Of all my favourite writers and skeptics, Dr. Michael Brant Shermer is perhaps the one I feel a curious kinship with. Once a born-again Christian, Shermer initially pursued a degree in theology (with a future career as a theologian in mind) before switching to psychology when he found out that a PhD would require proficiency in several languages. It was there that he found statistics and mastered instead the language of science. By the end of his first year of graduate psychology at California State University,

"I had abandoned Christianity and stripped off my silver ichthus, replacing what was for me the stultifying dogmas of a two-thousand-year-old religion with the world view of an always changing, always fresh science."

- from Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown.
A nontheist and libertarian (and serious cycling enthusiast), Dr. Shermer is currently the Executive Director of the Skeptics Society (of whose magazine, the Skeptic, he was the Founding Publisher), the host of the Skeptics Distinguished Science Lecture Series at Caltech, and Adjunct Professor of Economics at Claremont Graduate University. He also produced and cohosted the Fox Family TV series Exploring the Unknown, writes monthly columns for Scientific American, and has published a number of books ranging in topic from evolutionary economics to the irrationality of pseudoscience and intelligent design.

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So much for swearing off detail.

But I was sick at the time I started this, and detail was the only thing I could paint. I was also partially delirious. Bite me.

Actually, the initial plan was to do a lighthearted tribute to Richard Dawkins and Michael Shermer, with Dawkins holding a sledgehammer and a broken pocketwatch, and Shermer with his silver ichthus and vestment. But then Dawkins got his own serious picture . I was determined not to completely sacrifice my whimsical idea, however. Funnily enough, the thought that kept running around my head as I was putting the finishing touches to this painting last night was, Oh great gizka I've turned him into Sarastro (from Die Zauberflöte). Oh well, hell...

Comments regarding the painting are welcome, as always. Derogatory remarks concerning the person portrayed are not.

Description
"Somewhere between Brattstrom's 301 Club discussions of God and evolution and White's ethological explanations about the evolution of animal behaviour, my Christian icthus (the fish with Greek symbols that Christians wore in the 1970s to publicly indicate their faith) got away, and with it my religion."

- Michael Shermer, Why People Believe Weird Things.
Of all my favourite writers and skeptics, Dr. Michael Brant Shermer is perhaps the one I feel a curious kinship with. Once a born-again Christian, Shermer initially pursued a degree in theology (with a future career as a theologian in mind) before switching to psychology when he found out that a PhD would require proficiency in several languages. It was there that he found statistics and mastered instead the language of science. By the end of his first year of graduate psychology at California State University,

"I had abandoned Christianity and stripped off my silver ichthus, replacing what was for me the stultifying dogmas of a two-thousand-year-old religion with the world view of an always changing, always fresh science."

- from Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown.
A nontheist and libertarian (and serious cycling enthusiast), Dr. Shermer is currently the Executive Director of the Skeptics Society (of whose magazine, the Skeptic, he was the Founding Publisher), the host of the Skeptics Distinguished Science Lecture Series at Caltech, and Adjunct Professor of Economics at Claremont Graduate University. He also produced and cohosted the Fox Family TV series Exploring the Unknown, writes monthly columns for Scientific American, and has published a number of books ranging in topic from evolutionary economics to the irrationality of pseudoscience and intelligent design.

---------------

So much for swearing off detail.

But I was sick at the time I started this, and detail was the only thing I could paint. I was also partially delirious. Bite me.

Actually, the initial plan was to do a lighthearted tribute to Richard Dawkins and Michael Shermer, with Dawkins holding a sledgehammer and a broken pocketwatch, and Shermer with his silver ichthus and vestment. But then Dawkins got his own serious picture . I was determined not to completely sacrifice my whimsical idea, however. Funnily enough, the thought that kept running around my head as I was putting the finishing touches to this painting last night was, Oh great gizka I've turned him into Sarastro (from Die Zauberflöte). Oh well, hell...

Comments regarding the painting are welcome, as always. Derogatory remarks concerning the person portrayed are not.