Indeed.
The ability helps us a great deal (pattern recognition is what allows us to read, to perceive images on a screen, is instrumental in problem solving, etc), but all it takes is a slightly overactive imagination and a lapse in skepticism to make us see, as Phat says in someone's signature, "monsters where others see only windmills."
There is a rock down the shore from my parents that neighborhood folklore says looks like (a) a lion head, (b) a crouching frog or (c) with two other rocks, a sea turtle poking head and flippers out of the water. And yes, one can pick out these patterns in this one rock.
Man in the Moon - Wikipedia
quote:
The Man in the Moon is an example of pareidolia. Other cultures perceive the silhouette of a woman, a hare/rabbit, a frog, a moose, a buffalo, or a dragon (with its head and mouth to the right and body and wings to the left) in the full moon. Alternatively, the vague shape of the overall dark and light regions resemble a Yin Yang symbol, on it side and backwards.
In Chinese culture, the rabbit in the moon (a companion of Chang'e) is pounding medicine. Similarly, in Japan and Korea, popular culture sees a rabbit making mochi and tteok, respectively, in the moon. The mythology of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica also featured a lunar rabbit, for example, Tecciztecatl, the Aztec moon god, was sometimes pictured as an anthropomorphic rabbit.
But I think there is something else going on with the Mary\etc images. In these cases we have people that believe (a) Mary\etc is an angel\god - a powerful spirit, (b) that miracles happen, and these appearances are such, and (c) that their god\etc is communication by such images to those of the faith (see John 10:10 for this kind of thinking).
In other words, sever confirmation bias: it's a miracle because they want a miracle and it looks enough like Mary\etc to be like a miraculous vision, so it's a miracle.
There likely is also cognitive dissonance: tell a believer that it looks like something else, and they'll probably deny it (like John 10:10 saying that you need to look with faith to see the evidence that justifies faith).
So we should start believing because of the evidence before our eyes, evidence that you need faith to see, but evidence you will see once you have faith.
So pass the mochi and believe in the Great Rabbit.
Enjoy.
Edited by RAZD, : ...
we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand
Rebel American Zen Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.
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