The latest stop on the Jesus tour takes us to the small town of Crystal City Texas. They say everything is bigger in Texas and this latest Jesus visual association is no exception.
Crystal City is a unique town. Popeye currently resides here and during WWII many Japanese aliens were forced to live there as well. But now a new resident is taking up roots in Crystal City. Jesus has seemingly popped up out of the ground and taken the form of a tree. Why a tree? Who cares! It’s Jesus and the 95% Hispanic and mostly Catholic town couldn’t be more happy.
On a serious note though, check out the video and notice the shear ignorance of the townspeople. To me it proves that religion thrives among the destitute and desperate. One guy in the video even admits that the town doesn’t have much and lives off of faith. Brings a tear to my eye almost.
I would like a Christian reader to acknowledge this. Just admit that religion is a crutch for the weak. Check out some of the quotes from other townspeople:
“I think He’s here for a reason.”
“I think it may be a sign.”
“It will bring peace to their house. Miracles, if they are sick or get them better.”
One person even left a picture of their wheelchair-bound daughter. Are they expecting her to walk tomorrow? Sad.
To the credit of the reporters though they actually mentioned that it may just be pareidolia. Check out the link and read all about it.
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I don’t really know much about the state of Christianity in the US apart from what I hear about it on sites like this.
A statement like “the religion is a crutch for the weak” in general is a little too dismissive in my opinion (although it seems appropriate here). Faith has to be conditioned by knowledge. Knowledge to distinguish between the charlatan and the genuine and to shield oneself from impressions like this. The need for such contingent “evidence” to validate ones faith is a sign of weakness I think.
Reminds me of something I read. “Unless you’re a saint, mistrust the clearest signs”.
I’d like to know what the Christian take is on this. Anyone?
It is sad, and a reoccuring theme. People who are poor, or sick, or whatever often believe in god because it makes them feel better. Like they are suffering in this existence to ease their way into the magical kingdom of heaven. Its a sickness in a way.
N: “Faith has to be conditioned by knowledge. Knowledge to distinguish between the charlatan and the genuine and to shield oneself from impressions like this.”
Well, it doesn’t HAVE to be. In fact, the christian religion would prefer it that you didn’t gain knowledge. Its right in the bible. Near the beginning, you will notice that Adam and Eve were ejected from the utopia of Eden for the heinous crime of partaking of the tree of knowledge. If that isn’t obviously symbolic I don’t know what it is. Also, they are referred to as sheep in the bible constantly. Are sheep known as smart animals or dumb animals?
SEE I TOLD YOU ALL.
90 something % Hispanic.
And I think we should all be even more saddened that the poeople that were skeptical about it and didn’t see Jesus in a tree were afraid to be publically known.
Why all the fuss? It’s only a miracle, sheesh…
Why is it always Hispanic people that see these things in inanimate objects?
I agree with you about religion, Gasmonso, but the fact that 95% of the city’s population is from hispanic origin has nothing to do with it at all. Don’t forget the biggest examples of religious freakness come from caucasian, noth american, republican people who live in the “Bible belt”. I don’t know what’s your point of view about race, but even if 95% of the citizens are hispanic, they shouldn’t be put in the same bag just because of a buch of nutizens who believe that are yelling up and down. Of course if you enter in a religious temple and asks people randomly if they have faith, of course mostly of them will answer “yes”, the same with the nutizens who gather around that tree that resembles a religious figure (I don’t see any other kind of people who would stay around it instead of believers). Media hype does a lot to embelish things for the sake of audience.
Nuts are nuts despite of their skin’s color.
Claudio, I mentioned it for two reasons. First, the article decided to make a point of mentioning it. Secondly, if you look at the other posts in this category you will see that there is a high correlation between these sightings and Hispanics.
But yes I agree that the white republicans represent the vast majority of religious freaks :) But when it comes to sightings, Hispanics have a disproportionate number of them. At least that’s what’s being reported.
gasmonso
I think it has more to do with the high percentage of Roman Catholic Hispanics. RC’s in general are more likely to “see” things like this since they put more stock in signs/symbols. And given that it’s in Texas a hispanic Catholic is more likely than a white protestant speaking purely in terms of statistics.
So that tree’s been sitting there, just like that, for years. People have walked by it hundreds, thousands of times and not given it a second look. One part of the tree has branches split in the shape of a Y. When you crucify someone it looks kinda like a Y. One day someone looks at it and says it looks Jesus, and now people are putting stuff at the base of the tree (I’m tempted to say ‘sacrificing’) to have miracles happen.
There are so many things I’m tempted to say, but most of them boil down to ‘that’s retarded’. So I’ll just leave it at that. Although I have to say, I wish this happened near me. I’m not sure why.
If this happened by me I would have to go there, with tip bucket in hand, and start speaking in tongues.Bet you could make some good bank.
gasmonso
Heheh, no offense. I was not upset about the hispanic conotation. Plain-text may sometimes give the wrong interpretation about one’s feelings. :)
I remember when I was young, I stayed some months in an ugly apartment and water infiltrations made stains on the wall. I could see almost ny kind of figure out of those stains. The same still happens today with clouds. I ended doing some pattern-recognition software for video security when I grew older.
Now in my bathroom (walls covered with stones) I can see an image of a Pokemon of sorts every time I’m sending an “e-mail” to GWB.
Yep, it seems we hispanics have a lot of imagination. :D (I’m more of a mix of native brazilian indian and portuguese). When I made my mother see “Jesus in a dog’s buttocks” she was very pleased until she realized where Jesus really was. :)
You should check some works of Octavio Ocampo (mexican painter). He made his imagination work in a more beautiful way than those people who spot Jesus in every trunk.
bless you. ;)
Ouch. I wrote “Deity of choice” bless you as a joke, but it seems it seemed like an html tag to the parser, so it didn’t appear.
Rectifying:
“Deity of choice” bless you.
well, apart from “wierdo sees jesus in random object” I learned that there’s actually a word for this. “Gasmonso, educating the masses”
Michael Says:
“It is sad, and a reoccuring theme. People who are poor, or sick, or whatever often believe in god because it makes them feel better. Like they are suffering in this existence to ease their way into the magical kingdom of heaven. Its a sickness in a way.”
Yeah, I think it’s sad when people do stuff that makes them feel better too. ;-)
@gasmonso:
I agree with you that religion can be a crutch for the weak, though I’m not sure that’s always a bad thing.
I think the Jesus-in-a-tree thing is stupid, but if it makes the people there feel better, or happier, or whatever, I don’t see the harm in it. Now if someone with a broken leg went to the Jesus tree instead of going to the doctor, I’d have a problem with that. But as long as it’s just some sort of vaguely spiritual/inspirational thing for a few locals, then I don’t see the problem. What about it specifically rubs you the wrong way, other than it just being silly?
You are missing a part of this picture. These people do have problems they are laying before invisible men in the sky, everything from broken legs to poverty. Yes, it is a bad thing because it is a crutch most people never discard. Here we are discussing people who believe fervently that god will miraculously save them. Faith makes them expect to be lifted out of poverty and their lives made better. They expect it to “just happen”.
The rub is that it will never happen for the very simple reason that god is not real. Believing in something that does not exist to put food on your table or heal your illness in a path on a dead-end street, often resulting in tragic consequences (e.g., faith healing). People must learn that if they want a better lot in life, they have to work for it.
I understand and readily acknowledge that is easier said than done. For people suffering difficult circumstances, I do not have all the answers. However, I can say with certainty that sitting around with your hands folded in prayer is not a good first step. It will not get you an education, get you a good job, make you smarter, stronger, or better prepared to cope with life. It is just a waste of time if it comes at the expense of constructive activities.
Let me follow-up by saying this is why the work of atheists and humanists is so important and why more of us need to get vocal. We are not just an annoying political movement as CNN and others would like to portray us. We are truly working for the good of our species using the best tool available: reason. This is a fact I hope no one here forgets. Dawkins is right to chide us for looking at people lost in religion as a source of diversity in culture. How condescending and self-important for us to think of them as entertaining or quaint when we should act by giving them help and education.
Religious organizations certainly do charitable work, but they ultimately convey the message that your life is in the hands of god. This nonsense is self-defeating for reasons I have described in my previous post. Genuine solutions must be taught to the unfortuante among us, not delusions and false hope. To put it another way, we must build schools instead of churches, and pack the former instead of the latter.
When I was a boy, attending Christian school, I was taught a story about poor people going to a church in a city where there was a large statue of Jesus. The pastor insisted god would raise them out of poverty, but the congregation decried the claim, citing that Jesus had turned his back on them as was literally the case—the church was situated behind the monument. In response, the pastor enthusiastically told them that Jesus had not turned his back, but was leading them out of the slums. This was met with applause (and I assume tithing).
Decades later, the impoverished slums remain. Does it still seem fair to let religion remain a crutch of the underdog?
No, religion is not a crutch for the weak. Quite apart from the fact that the use of the word “weak” sounds way too totalitarian for me.
But there are a lot of stupid people in the world, and many of them use religion as a crutch. Others use politics, others use sport and yet others seem to use Ayn Rand (though maybe there are just more of them on the net).
The fact is, 80% of people in the world will do anything to avoid thinking. Religion just often happens to be what’s handy.
@Pseudonym
hmmm, you’re really contradicting your statement of “No, religion is not a crutch for the weak”, unless you assume weak means physically weak. look at this site, look at the religious people that frequent it. i see no other way to describe them than mentally weak.
Not all religious people are entirely mentally weak just like all nonreligious people aren’t brilliant thinkers and experts about the subject. As for physically weak, I am very much so, and yet I am an atheist. There’s some otherwise perfectly rational, sane religious people, and there’s some complete idiots who are atheists. I think the statement’s a little too general.
boris: First off, your assertion is not true about people who frequent your site. This site is “religious freaks”. Most half-smart people can agree that the “freaks” described in the stories are dumb. People who agree with that can either be religious or non-religious, and you don’t know unless they tell you. This site is also full of borderline cases. Would you call a deist “religious”?
I also agree with Taylor. Have you seen the “blashphemy challenge” videos? I’d say roughly 50% are smart, intelligent and thoughtful and 50% are idiotic, juvenile and stupid.
Why is Jesus a tree? Obviously he’s a druid that gained his Tree of Life form.
There is nothing new here. People have always looked for signs. When Jesus walked the earth the people demanded signs from him, although, the reason that they knew of him at all was because of all of the miracles that he performed (Remember- no internet-no tv, radio etc. Word traveled via word of mouth) So they came to see all of the wonders and hear what he had to say but many weren’t satisfied to see a blind man healed. They demanded instead their own “personal” miracle (in other words “Magician, show me a trick!”). But Jesus’ answer to them and His answer today -”Even if a man rose from the dead, you would not believe”
Those who seek God will find Him and those who want to make up one that fits their perception of God will find many arguments and justifications for what they believe.
Crucified Jesus Makes Appearance In COSTA RICA
I’ve decided to share with the world something I found a few months ago, when I saw what today is more to me than just a sign from heaven. In one of my work trips, nine hours away from my home, I discovered something that to me carries a message or a sign send from above to all of those that have faith and hope, and are able to feel love in their souls. These are unexplainable signs, that not everybody understands, but when they see them, they make them believe or doubt at the same time.
A series of events have happened to me since I found it, they are unexplainable phenomena that have presented to me and keep on happening every time I try to show it to the world.
Now I’m going to narrate how I found it.
I was working in Playa Zancudo, Costa Rica, 9 hours away from where I live. It was Holy Week, when I was cleaning my machine and sweeping my surroundings, I found some kind of marine skeleton. Right next to me there was a boy around 5 or 6 years old and it was HIM the key person to why I’m here today. That kid’s name is Jesus and he is a native of that place.
At first I didn’t realize what you could appreciate on that skeleton, it was the boy who told me: Look, I think it’s a… (I don’t want to influence people into seeing it the way we saw it, judge with your own eyes and form your own vision of it.)
Many things have happened since that day. My machine was stolen with everything there was in it, however, when I got the machine back, none of my belongings where in it, just one: the marine skeleton.
If you see the love message, pass on the link:
http://delmonte14.badoo.com/entry/250063/ to your friends.
Look at this picture with your soul so that it will go around the world. John.3-16: Because in such a way did God love the world, that he has given his only child, so that everyone that in him believes, doesn’t get lost, and have an eternal life.
Comments at eduardodelmonte2005@hotmail.com
see it in this link;
http://delmonte14.badoo.com/entry/250063/
Crucified Jesus Makes Appearance In COSTA RICA
I’ve decided to share with the world something I found a few months ago, when I saw what today is more to me than just a sign from heaven. In one of my work trips, nine hours away from my home, I discovered something that to me carries a message or a sign send from above to all of those that have faith and hope, and are able to feel love in their souls. These are unexplainable signs, that not everybody understands, but when they see them, they make them believe or doubt at the same time.
A series of events have happened to me since I found it, they are unexplainable phenomena that have presented to me and keep on happening every time I try to show it to the world.
Now I’m going to narrate how I found it.
I was working in Playa Zancudo, Costa Rica, 9 hours away from where I live. It was Holy Week, when I was cleaning my machine and sweeping my surroundings, I found some kind of marine skeleton. Right next to me there was a boy around 5 or 6 years old and it was HIM the key person to why I’m here today. That kid’s name is Jesus and he is a native of that place.
At first I didn’t realize what you could appreciate on that skeleton, it was the boy who told me: Look, I think it’s a… (I don’t want to influence people into seeing it the way we saw it, judge with your own eyes and form your own vision of it.)
Many things have happened since that day. My machine was stolen with everything there was in it, however, when I got the machine back, none of my belongings where in it, just one: the marine skeleton.
If you see the love message, pass on the link:
to your friends.
Look at this picture with your soul so that it will go around the world. John.3-16: Because in such a way did God love the world, that he has given his only child, so that everyone that in him believes, doesn’t get lost, and have an eternal life.
Comments at my email
If God does not exist, why do “atheists” spend so much time and effort trying to prove it?
If God made a noise in the forest, and an atheist wasn’t there to deny it, does God not exist?
– one uv those “stupid Christians”
Matthew 7:6
“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs.”
“If God does not exist, why do “atheists†spend so much time and effort trying to prove it?”
Simple, because you “assholes” keep demanding the proof whenever someone challenges your beliefs. By the way, there is no proof that there is a god, but an abundance of evidence that proves claims made in the bible as false.
If God made a noise in the forest, and a christian wasn’t there to hear it, does it not mean the bible is not inerrant but incomplete?
Oh, the wonders of using bible verses as insults and going against the same verses in one quote.
The whole discourse of judgementalism is about not assuming oneself to be better than other people as one claiming so is donning the mantle of the god upon themselves. Which leads right to the next verses telling about the false prophets.
Is not the one who falsely claims being better, and thus have godlike ability to judge others, infact a false prophet?
Wonderful dissection job, Jagannath! I’ve always found a great flaw in the “if a tree fell in the woods” idea, for two reasons: sound waves (like gravity and other physical processes) are independent of observers, and what about all the little forest critters in the woods who *do* hear the tree fall? Anthropomorphic humano-centric thinking is all that little idea is . . .
it’s sad how retarded these people are, i mean i see it too but COME ON!!!!!! IT’S JUST A FUCKING TREE!!! AND THE ONLY REASON WHY PEOPLE SEE IT IS CAUSE OF HOW WELL THEIR IMAGINATION IS!!! I hate religious retards like this
Wow…Religious people are stupid…wow
Beware of the seductions of the devil “he always changes himself in an angel of light …”
FIRSTLY, anti-Christ will rule and only afterwards Jesus Christ will come back to kill him and his followers.
I usually enjoy your articles but unfortunately this time you perhaps have been too tired while writing because the article it seems rushed.
You completed some fine points there. I did a search on the theme and found the majority of folks will agree with your blog.
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Crucified Jesus Makes Appearance In Texas! » Religious Freaks…
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