I'm constantly amused by all the spontaneous religious figures that people see (I clipped on a related topic a while ago), everything from Jesus in a road stain to the Nun Bun. Every time I hear about these things, I have this imaginary conversation with the person trying to convince me of what they see:

Them: It looks like Jesus.
Me: Oh? And you know for certain what he looked like.
Them: Well, it looks like all the paintings of him.
Me: And the artist was working from life?
Them: Well, of course!

We can't trust photographs in the Photoshop age (probably responsible for ...

I'm constantly amused by all the spontaneous religious figures that people see (I clipped on a related topic a while ago), everything from Jesus in a road stain to the Nun Bun. Every time I hear about these things, I have this imaginary conversation with the person trying to convince me of what they see:

Them: It looks like Jesus.
Me: Oh? And you know for certain what he looked like.
Them: Well, it looks like all the paintings of him.
Me: And the artist was working from life?
Them: Well, of course!

We can't trust photographs in the Photoshop age (probably responsible for the "face of Satan" in the WTC photos), and I'm not going to bother trekking to all these locations to see for myself (not even the "Jesus tree" that's a mere eight blocks from my home); I'm just going to be skeptical.

Of course, Muslims have their own versions - they see the name of Allah in fish scales and verses from the koran in the woodgrain of their kitchen tables. Letters, at least, are not as ambiguous as faces. Do you remember Kjell Sandved's "Butterfly Alphabet" poster? There is a name for this: it's called pareidolia (which, to me, is rather close to paranoia).