Sigh.

OK, so a woman in Massachusetts thinks she sees Jesus in her iron. If she wants to believe that, it’s fine. It should come as no surprise to anyone that I think she is mistaken, and that this is simply a random happenstance, and that it’s so ill-formed and fuzzy that it could be anyone with long hair, and actually looks more like a woman to me, or someone in a straight jacket, and that none of this matters because it’s simply pareidolia anyway.

But I have to give her a bit of credit. She says, "I’m not telling anybody they’re going to be cured or anything if they look at my iron. It’s just a nice story to share," and that the iron "… was my sign that things will be good."

If she wants to interpret this personally, that’s her right, and I’m glad she’s not trying to foist this on others (and I can’t assume that by having a newspaper cover the story, she’s actively promoting it; we don’t know how the paper found out, we don’t know how or if she pursued this, and she doesn’t appear to be trying to profit from this).

Still, I can hope for a world where someday people won’t think that an omnipotent and omniscient God would purposely appear to them as a polymerized chain of organic molecules on a laundry appliance. Or a fried sandwich. I’d think He would have better things to do. But that’s just me.

Hey, it’s been a while since we’ve had some nutty pareidolia, hasn’t it?

Lessee, we have Jesus in wood grain, an angel in a cloud, Mary the oilstain. It’ll be tough to get goofier than those.

But wait! Suddenly, a new contender enters the ring…

A man who sees Jesus in… wait for it… a meteorite!

Yes, rub your eyes and make that comical cartoon head shaking sound, a man thinks he sees Jesus in a chunk of rock that fell from the sky. I have to admit: it’s a good twist. And somehow appropriate.

First off, before you ask, the linked article says it has been confirmed as a meteorite. There is a picture on the site as well, and it looks real there, though that’s very hard to tell from a picture. Still, I have a Campo that looks just like that.

Second, it does seem from the article that the guy really thinks he is seeing Jesus, but the article is, um, not so well written. Or it was edited badly. Check this out:

[Meteorite owner] Cotton said he has seen the changes in his life. He is at peace, he said. He hopes the meteorite can be studied.

“I believe science needs to take a look at this and study it to see what it means,” Cotton said.

See what what means? The face, or the meteorite itself? If the latter, well, yeah. It’s a meteorite and should be studied. If the former, meh.

Then it goes on,

He had scientists from Hardin Simmons University look at the meteorite and confirm it is real.

Several people have offered to buy it for thousands of dollars, Cotton said.

Yes, but then again, almost any iron meteorite that size would go for thousands, especially with a witnessed fall. That makes them more valuable (I think simply because it’s cool). So the article makes it seem like his is worth more because it has a face, which is misleading.

Also, Jesus? Really? That’s the H.R. Giger version of Jesus, then. It looks like an alien. Or a skull. And criminy, it’s obviously screaming. I don’t remember that part of the Bible.

Anyway, y’all know the drill. What do you see in the Rock From Space?

Tip o’ the Whipple Shield to Fark, and the legion of BABloggees who sent me word of it as well. The Fark comments are killers.