12.18.06.1801
Pareidolia, the reason fools see the the face of the Virgin Mary on the face of a slice of grilled cheese. The Shroud of Turin, statues bleeding or crying… it’s all in the mind.
So, I guess the real question is… Is there any religious person on this site that believes that they can see images that represent figures of their belief system on objects that do not plainly reveal them (i.e. a picture of clouds, but you may happen to see a bunny in those clouds, or Buddha, or… etc.)?
Yeah, I saw a painting of Jesus just last night. One time, I saw a stain on a tree-stump that looked like Him too. The painting I’m pretty sure was a result of an act of will, a conscious mind rendering the image of Our Lord onto canvass and pigment. The tree-stump, I’m not so sure about.
I have a picture of Jesus on the cross beside my computer. I’m pretty sure that non-religious people can see it too.
I don’t eat grilled cheese, which probably explains why I don’t see the virgin Mary much.
12.19.06.1805
I see I have done a poor job of asking specifically the kind of question I was expecting specific answers for. I will edit my original post and post the new question here as well:
Is there any religious person on this site that believes they can see images that represent figures of their belief system on objects that do not plainly reveal them (i.e. a picture of clouds, but you may happen to see a bunny in those clouds, or Buddha, or… etc.) ??
By representation, are you implying intention? That is, I think seeing a cloud that looks like Moses or whatever can’t be that terribly odd of an occurance. But it would be another thing entirely to say that the cloud IS Moses, or that God shaped it into Moses to make some profound religious statement such as “Hey, don’t forget about that Moses guy!”
So, I have seen images of religious figures in places like clouds or tree-stumps and so on. Upon occaision, seeing such things have been an opportunity to reflect upon spiritual things, or have a ‘religious moment’. Since God is God, I sure He knows that. I guess all that’s missing is the idea of whether or not He put those images there specifically to bring about the response it did. A determinist would have to answer yes, I would answer not necessarily- I have never seen an image of Whomever like what you’re talking about, that was so clear and well-formed that I felt forced to accept God created it intentionally as a message.
I see all sorts of shapes and images on objects that do not plainly reveal them. Isn’t this like a Rorschach inkblot test? What if all of the images of Jesus that I had been shown during my life were actually pictures of a red man with two horns and a spiked tail? Would I then be seeing Jesus in the clouds or 
?