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This is the worst pareidolia ever.
Click to embiggen and see more from the source (the Las Vegas Sun).
You know, I like to poke gentle fun at this sort of thing, since it’s clearly not a supernatural sign, but instead the way our brains see patterns in random noise (unless you really think Lenin came to watch me bathe, or Abe Vigoda is in the Eagle Nebula).
But then you get something this ridiculous, and a virtual tongue-biting is nearly impossible. I just want to scream, "What are you thinking?" I see all kinds of faces and shapes in the tile in my bathroom: monsters, aliens, fish… even the letter E. Does that mean I should build a shrine to Elvis?
This sort of thing is symptomatic of a larger willingness to drop any critical thinking when it becomes something personal, and that is a human foible that causes an unimaginable amount of grief. People want to wash over this and just say that seeing the face or figure of their savior gives them comfort. I understand that and sympathize with it, but I also think it’s a sign, if you will, that as long as we’re willing to suspend disbelief for things like this, we’re willing to do it on much larger scales. And there’s a lot of harm in that.
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I wonder how the savior feels about being stepped on?
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Why is Jeebus holding a Magic 8-Ball™?
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:28 pm
That depends. How big a shrine are we talking?
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Right, that does it! Two pareidolia in one day is more than I can stand, Phil! So, I am posting this as an antidote:
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:34 pm
I don’t get it. They claim to see Jesus in the pattern, but they’re using a picture of some sandy-haired white guy for comparison.
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Its a forgery by a white guy. The rock Jesus definitely has a ‘fro.
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:54 pm
There’s a sorta witch with an Irish Setter in the pattern of my showercurtain.
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:55 pm
so… a floor tile. It appears that JC likes being walked all over. heh. Looks more Like Obi-wan if i squint my eyes a bit.. Youngish Obi-wan at that.
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:58 pm
I see things all time… and hear voices too
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Obi-Wan?
Looks more to me like Lenin.
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Unless Jesus is a Anthromorphic horse, I just don’t see it.
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:27 pm
It looks more like the Black Knight from Monty Python.
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I see mountains. Mountains and some clouds.
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:47 pm
lateral placoderm fossil impression
Rotate the image 90 degrees clockwise. skull and inferognathal visible on the left.
If you still can’t see it, use a paint program and edit the image as needed
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Looks like Strong Bad to me.
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Ummm…Jesus is totally smoking a bong.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:20 pm
So an image appears in every single copy of a mass-market product that was obviously manufactured by human artisans, and that is somehow interpreted as a divine message from beyond the moon? Weird logic, that.
Next, portrait of Jesus miraculously appears in illustrated Bible.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Actually, on second glance it looks like Dr. Zoidberg, from Futurama, droopy mascular tentacles and all.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Weird, yet “She wasn’t allowed to read or use the computer, so she had to stare at the floor for three weeks.” No wonder she is seeing stuff that isn’t there.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:55 pm
How do they know it’s Jesus? No one has the slightest idea what Jesus looked like. All they know is what the clerics sponsoring medieval artists wanted Him to look like.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Frankly, it looks more like Omega from Doctor Who.
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Omega
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:35 pm
To me it looks like Rorschach (from Watchmen) playing with sock puppets. My brain does weird things sometimes.
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:40 pm
You don’t already have an altar to Elvis?? I am so disappointed in you.
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:30 pm
I think the best explanation for this phenomenon is: it’s Jesus!
I actually experience audio pareidolia quite often, and it can be very convincing at times.
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:36 pm
It looks like the Pale Rider. OMG!!! We are DOOMED!!!
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:35 pm
At the risk of being flamed for being a believer among skeptics…..please keep in mind not all of us “buy” stuff like this eh?
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:00 pm
You get it for free?
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:46 pm
I do see the Christ! Unfortunately, I also a two horned demon, Todd McFarlane’s character Spawn, and Mike Myers’s Dr. Evil, and I’m afraid they do seem to have the drop on Him…
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:01 am
That’s pretty bad, but I thought that the worst pareidolia ever, if I can even call it that, was a story I saw in several places right around Christmas, about a supposed “angel” sighting that accompanied a supposedly miraculous recovery (in a hospital, BTW). The picture of the “angel” just showed sunlight coming through a window, and that’s exactly what it looked like, hardly even distorted from a basic rectangle. It’s like they weren’t even trying.
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:09 am
Here’s the “angel”:
http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=116185&catid=57
January 3rd, 2009 at 3:01 am
On the subject of Dr Who, my first reaction was it looks like Sutekh from Pyramids of Mars (he was mostly shot in profile. Google it, you’ll see an example or two).
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Sutekh
January 3rd, 2009 at 4:42 am
Said the Bad Astronomer (mercifully with italics now fixed!)
“I see all kinds of faces and shapes in the tile in my bathroom: monsters, aliens, fish… even the letter E. Does that mean I should build a shrine to Elvis?”
No, its clearly an allusion to the perhaps the greatest ever observational astronomer E. E. (Edward Emerson) Barnard – telling you to build an observatory or, given you’ve already got access to one, teelling you to check up on Barnard’s star (the 2nd nearest, red dwarf, highest proper motion or “fastest moving” star)
… Or his maybe his Galaxy (NGC 6822 observed by EE Barnard on August 17th 1884.)
… Or one his many comets or dark nebulae (he was first to photographically detect a comet & published a famous catalogue of Dark Nebulae.) Hmm .. he also discovered Amalthea, Jupiter’s fifth & inner moon, maybe its a message that something is about to happen there!
Or not. Maybe it’d just be fun to observe all these things anyway! Playing the what’s that inkblot look like Rorscach (sp?) test game is fun for artistic purposes but really can’t be taken too seriously ..
—-
PS. For What Its Worth, & food for some thought, Jesus most probably looked like one of those Palestineans being butchered in Gaza by the Israelis … If you want to know what Jesus looked like look at them. Maybe if folks want to think Jesus-wise, they might consider telling & pressuring Israel to stop killing innocent children, men and women and learn to love their neighbours rather than threatening, bombing, invading, and occupying them.
January 3rd, 2009 at 5:45 am
Hmm … Looks like General Grevious from ‘Star Wars : Revenge of the Sith’ to me!
Or perhaps some mythical fox spirit from Japanese folklore…
Hey why should Western mythology get all the pareid ..whatsists!
@ StevoR :
Yes, Jesus was a Palestinean Jew.
I spose that means if he were around today he’d hit himself over the head with a stone with one hand and a 100 tonne bomb with the other!
Seriously, I did hear the israeli’s say something about dropping a 100 tonne bomb on some hams boss and his family. Can’t imagine how they got it there – you’d think it’d be too heavy to fly.
Bein’, eeuuurrgh, serious for a sec. My understanding – & I’m athiest btw – is that Jesus, the Palestinean jew went on (as I see it anyhow) to reject the worst part of his own religion and found a better more compassionate way of thinking. Y’know not stoning adulterous women and “loving thy neighbour” and stuff. Plus Jesus also rejected physical kingship and military revolt for a spiritaul (ie. in my view non-existent but hey, like I said .. ) kingship and notions of redemption for everyone – even the people who crucified him. (His followers, sadly, kinda lost that message somewhere ..)
A-n-y-w-a-y, that’s the sorta solution we need – new thinking and rejection of severe punishment & violence – but I’m not holding my breath waiting for it.
Now if we could get back on track – General Grevious, a fox spirit, Elvis’s E or a tradesman’s delight – place your bets ppl!
) to
reject both his
January 3rd, 2009 at 6:04 am
I see Cthulu riding an ice cream cone.
January 3rd, 2009 at 7:34 am
Can’t really see anything comprehensible in the pattern. This one just floors me!
January 3rd, 2009 at 9:53 am
I can sort of see a humanoid-ish shape in the floor tile there, but only if you imagine a long floppy nose. To me, that looks like Alice the Goon from the old Popeye cartoons, albeit wearing a hooded robe.
http://images.darkhorse.com/covers/300/12/12696.jpg
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:30 am
Looking just to the left of “Jesus’s” head, I see a young lesbian couple having a good smooch. I wonder what the Jeezie crowd would think of their savior hanging around with that kind of crowd.
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:23 pm
[...] a really bad case of pareidolia, and a good analysis of this here, and the original report here. Sorry to hear that He left the cat’s leg, and too bad if [...]
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:57 pm
That’s not Jesus. It’s totally Michael Jackson from the cover of the Thriller album. Go ahead, google the image, I’ll wait…
Pretty uncanny isn’t it?
January 5th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
What do you expect? The story was written by the Pope!
February 6th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
It looks sort of like Darwin, mixed with the Mona Lisa.