Friday, August 18, 2006

Why does the Virgin Mary keep turning up in foods? Some employees at a chocolate factory in California claim that a “statue” of chocolate drippings looks like the Virgin Mary. The article is here. I also remember that recently someone sold some french toast on ebay that apparently had a portrait of Mary fried onto it. In my opinion, these observations seem to raise questions, not so much about faith and religion, but about human psychology. First of all, how can you convince yourself that something looks like the Virgin Mary? Ok, everybody sees weird stuff from time to time, but I have never found any kind of religious symbol, signal, person, etc. in my meals. Even if there was ever something there, I probably wouldn’t notice it before eating it. Second, how can people find such deep significance in such random occurrences? Assume for a minute that this is some kind of sign from the mother of God; what’s the message? Eat more chocolate? Eat less chocolate? Don’t worry, be happy? I’m not anti-religious and I don’t want to attack anyone’s purportedly meaningful encounter with Mary. I just wonder whether people even consider what they are seeing and why? Psychology research seems to suggest that people (everyone whether religious or not) tend to think what they want to, and this extends to our visual perception as well. We have a tendency to see what we want to, without even being conscious of it. This may or may not explain why people seem to find spiritual significance in the strangest of circumstances. Think what you want…I won’t try to stop you.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dude.. you seem to have way too much free time. now that Eric is gone and isn't bothering you at 6am in the morning.. :D