How very interesting, this concept of “pareidolia”….I’d like to hear more about that, especially since every once in awhile religious statues “cry” or “bleed” or other such things and people interpret this as some sort of message from Beyond. Quite the media sensation.

I wrote down this quote awhile back and can’t recall where it comes from but it seems relevant here:

“Since the creation of the world His (God’s) invisible attributes–His external power and divine nature–have clearly been seen, because they are understood through what has been made”.

The quote has troubled me for some time..like a riddle. As I struggle to understand what this actually means, by breaking it down, I come to understand that humans seem to need to “make sense” of the world and “create order”…it is in our cognitive framework . Like our attempt to make patterns out of images and represent ideas with symbols. Perhaps, religion attempts to fill in the dots and to manage any dissonance or emotional anxiety for us. It has “the answers”. It has “good news” to save us.
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Since God is believed to have “invisible attributes”, anybody can interpret anything as “God” or a message from God, and they can try to convince others to “see” it too. This is where charismatic personalities step in throughout human history. And that is the strength of religion…it’s ability to gain members that conceptualize the same ideas over time and perpetuate the institution! Some may call it a very good marketing campaign.
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What Richard Dawkins said about the existence of God rings true for me personally:
Religious belief is connected to our human tendency to believe what authority figures tell us as children and it provides feelings of safety and security. But now that I’m an adult, religion is “wishful thinking” and doesn’t play a role in my life. I am free from religion and consider being “Godless” a good thing! Even if it means a solitary life.

But I’m getting the impression that there is the beginnings of a supportive social structure outside the religious community. It is within the scientific, intellectual, scholarly arena. And I am grateful for your efforts to shed light on “the good atheists”…the secular humanists who have broken free from the confines of the religious mindset.

I couldn’t even make out an angel or fairy (same thing except fairies are cooler- they hold no pretension about their existence… lol) from that image. How do they do it? But if I look closely, I can see other possible image silhouettes. Maybe a dog with floppy ears or a little girl? Or perhaps, wood!