Of God and human delusions

I’m sure many readers have noticed stories in the news now and again of how some aspect of religious faith has been found in something ordinary and everyday. Recent examples include:

• Christ on an oyster shell;
• Christ on a grotto wall;
• The Virgin Mary on a hospital window;
• The Virgin Mary on a piece of toast (leading to inevitable comments about the Holy Toast!), which was eventually sold to an online casino (hardly the holiest of repositories!) for $28,000;
• Jesus on a pancake (which turned out to be a marketing stunt for a frying-pan that imprints an image of Jesus on anything cooked in it);
• Various weeping statues of Jesus, Mary and others (most of which are quickly debunked by Church authorities, as in this case).

I’d thought that such ‘apparitions’ (or their labeling as such) was confined to the nuttier elements of the Christian faith: but apparently it’s not so. There have been Hindu statues alleged to drink milk, for example, which caused a worldwide rush to temples among the faithful. It’s almost a pity that science has debunked these milk-imbibing mannequins. There was also the incident in Mumbai, India, a couple of years ago, where it was widely believed that a 13th-century Sufi mystic, Makhdoom Ali Mahimi, had “sent a blessing” which turned sea-water sweet. It was ultimately found that the “sweetness” had been caused by massive pollution! Those who drank the “sweet” sea-water out of an excess of piety might have reduced their life expectancy by a fairly significant proportion . . .

The latest such “apparition” comes from Sweden, where a woman claims to have found the names of God and the prophet Mohammed inscribed inside a mango.

Rubina Sheikh from Helsingborg in southern Sweden believes she’s received a message from God – in a rotten mango.

As the two halves of Sheikh’s freshly sliced mango fell away from her knife last Saturday, she discovered what she says is a sign from God.

“When I sliced the mango in two, ‘Allah’ was written in one half and ‘Muhammad’ in the other. It’s a miracle, a sign from Allah,” said Sheikh to the Metro newspaper.

The practicing Muslim is convinced that the black lines emanating through the fruit form characters in Arabic which spell the holy words.

And local Muslims have been streaming in to see the miracle for themselves.

“I’d heard of the phenomenon earlier, but never before seen it with my own eyes,” Ghulam Mughal told Metro.

But an emeritus professor in Islam from nearby Lund University is less convinced the rotting fruit is a sign from Allah.

“There are 14 recognized ways to create the word ‘Allah’. When you think about how many mangoes there are out there, it’s not strange that one of them has a pattern which can be interpreted to be the right combination of characters,” said Jan Hjärpe to Metro.

Hmm. I know the Biblical standard for believers is “by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20): but I’ve never heard that God would make Himself known quite so literally in His fruits!

It brings to mind the satire on Jesus-in-toast perpetrated by the Museum of Hoaxes.

John Ordover sent this in. He was looking at a picture of Jesus (or rather, an artist’s interpretation of what Jesus might have looked like) when he realized a piece of toast had miraculously appeared on it.

I think this must be a message from John’s toaster! But can we be sure that actually is a piece of toast? It kinda looks like a granola bar to me.

Peter