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THE POPE TART
Seeing Faces on Food and Mugs on Mars


 

 

Pareidolia Museum

The Good, The Bad and the Stupid

 

 

Virgin Mary Cheese Sandwich

 

Remember the Virgin Mary’s ‘visit' upon a humble cheese sandwich? This phenomenon has a long history, including the Face on Mars, the Jesus Tortilla and the Nun Bun.

 

This is known by the user unfriendly name of pareidolia or simulacra...i.e., seeing faces in food, nature, and places other than on heads!

 

To test this theory, I created the Pope Tart. Visit here to see the original ebay advertisement. The story appeared in The Skeptic and will be reprinted in the March/April 2008 edition of the Skeptical Enquirer.

 

The Mug on Mars    And the moon is made of cheese…

Is this a natural formation or was this ‘face’ created by aliens?

Eric Idle put it best when he sang… “Pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space, ‘cause there’s bugger all down here on earth.”

 

 

The Jesus Tortilla

It’s a miracle! (That anyone could believe Jesus ‘appeared’ on this forlorn old tortilla)

 

But Wait...the 30 year old tortilla has broken! Why has God forsaken us?!

 

Oh well…Why not just make your own pious pancakes in the Jesus Pan? 

   Kitler

Pareidolia is a common experience.

 

It’s as though we are hard-wired to search for familiar patterns in everything.

 

Check out this kitty from Cats That Look Like Hitler.

   Sin-a-Nun Bun

Some examples are immediately recognizable, such as the glazed, gluggy Nun Bun that amusingly resembles Mother Theresa.


Although
you’d have to be a #$%@! to believe that this IS Mother Theresa.

   Cheesus Christ

Others are crappy examples, and require the imagination and persuasive powers of another to sway us into believing that something is really something else the Holy Cheeto allegedly represents the ‘Legs of Jesus Christ’.

 

Virgin or Vulva?

So why is it that people chuckle over some examples, but worship, wail and weep over others?

C’mon…

the Nun Bun is as much ‘Mother Theresa’ as this salt stain is the ‘Virgin Mary’!

          

 

Giving the (Holy) Finger

 

Did ‘God’ appear in the skies, cloaked in cloud, to gesture Fuck You!

to atheists?  Or…

Does this work much like the Rorschach Inkblot Test

a subjective interpretation of a pattern?

      

Jesusspotting

 

 

Jesus?

Frank Zappa

or eroded paint?

‘Holy water’ must have made its way into the beers of those Sydneysiders who thought that Jesus appeared on a train platform at Waverton Station.

 

Lenin Shower Curtain

One morning Bad Astronomer Phil Plait discovered that he’d shared a revolutionary shower with deceased Communist leader Vladimir Lenin!

Lenin hath returned to bring communism to capitalist-weary America!

Admittedly, isn’t this contemplative communist a more striking example than most others?

The Holy Toast Maker

Now you can think of God with every bite! Note that the 'Miracle Bread Stamper' is sold in the toy department...

Linoleum Lord

Rick Gillis was floored when the Lord he found on this new holy ground. It was an Easter miracle! God is truly omnipresent.

Derriere Deity

"Profound manifestation of Christ" or arse? After all...GOD is DOG backwards. See the revered rear of Angus.

Concrete Jesus

Deb Serio, a teacher from Virginia, sent me the following fervent message: "We found this image under a five gallon vat of driveway sealant. It has been removed from our garage floor. Do you know anyone who buys this sort of stuff?"

Stoned Virgin

As the Sydney Morning Herald put it, New Zealander "Corlet found the pebble at Kaikoura's South Beach last year and decided to sell it after she ran out of money." Ironically, she also said: "I got it and I started having an awesome run of luck."

Voluptuous Virgin

Hooded Mother Mary, Voluptuous Woman or fence post? I'll leave it up to your imagination to interpret the markings (as is the nature of pareidolia anyway...)

Jesus to the Core

Jesus visited, but briefly. Here He is...minutes before the apple oxidised...

Virginal Fence

This piece of pareidolia is like a magic-eye puzzle. It's best viewed when vision impaired. The Coogee Virgin Mary was found at Coogee Beach, Sydney. A pious few seek to have a place of worship built on the spot. Even the church agree with the skeptics on this one...
(with thanks to the Stupid Evil Bastard for the photo.)

Evolutionary Toast

Atheist Donald Chapman thanked Darwin that he was the recipient of the miraculous Big Bang Toast that evidently shows "the beginning of the world". Atheists from all around the UK have flocked to witness this "scientific relic." Atheists move in mysterious ways...

 

Copyright © 2006-2008

#$%@!
and Welcome to Bad Language

I'm Karen Stollznow (Cunning) Linguist,
Author, Skeptic and Investigator of the
paranormal and
pseudo-scientific.


 

God on a Gonad?

Send your pareidolia to the Cunning Linguist

 

 

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