Saturday, April 01, 2006

Virgin Mary Visits Moline Pareidolia Anyone? [posted by Troy] My Quad City connections inform me that the Virgin Mary has decided to show up as an image on a bridge in Moline, Illinois. This has reached national attention. This is similar to Mary visit in the form of cement muck on the Kennedy Express way in Chicago, as a piece of toast that was sold on EBay, and a list of other Mary faces. All of this makes me a bit scared to paint my walls or eat toast. What if I accidently eat a Holy message from the mother of Jesus? I would hate to miss something like that. Natrually, I am skeptical about this type of thing. It is kind of a like having an answer and searching for a question. People want to see something that has meaning, and they will find patterns in the world and match them with their images. This is known as Pareidolia in psychological circles. It's the "the tendency in people to perceive a meaningful pattern in a vague stimulus." Why do we see shapes in clouds? Why do we see a man in the moon? Why do we see hints of life in our President? I also should point out that we really do not know what Mary looked like. All we have are a bunch of Renaissance paintings that make Mary look very white (Franco-Italian) and very innocent. I just hope that this image of Mary isn't really Mary Queen of Scots or someone like that trying to send us messages about the need for more bridges across the Mississippi River. 8:33:56 AM  permanent link  Reader Comments []  Google It!

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