Wow. The above statuette (behind plexiglass) shows Mary with very dark skin. Talk about a deep tan. Oh. And baby Jesus had dark skin, too. Shocking.

How many Bible-Belt worshippers, I wonder, would continue to bow down to Jesus if he were presented as having dark skin and curly hair. Far fewer, I bet.

To me this is evidence that religion is largely a social phenomenon. It’s about real relationships in the real world. Sure, an important component is imagined relationships to entities in a supernatural realm. But these entities and the relationship with them matter in terms of real-world implications: perceptions, beliefs, feelings, behavior.

The photo, by the way, was taken on public property in Sicily. Many towns had religious icons right there in their parks and public spaces. Of course, Sicily is much more religiously homogenous then other areas of the globe, particularly in the older and smaller cities and towns.

It seems to me modern believers attribute three classes of events to the work of a god . Yet in each case they are mis-attributions.

1) Large-scale natural events.

Earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. These events have a profound impact on people’s lives. Yet they are not “about us,” so to speak. While dramatic, natural events occur, sometimes seemingly from out of the blue, and while the effects may be significant in terms of human lives affected, we are mistaken if we take them personally.

2) Fluke events.

An understanding of probability doesn’t come naturally to the human mind. So, if a person who survives an airplane accident is found unconscious and clutching a cross necklace (or even without it) — it’s a miracle. Meanwhile, the far more numerous passengers that perished with or without clutching their religious artifacts . . . they get left out of the equation.

When the improbably occurs it is not a miracle. Rather, it is a fully natural fluke. At least to those who see the bigger statistical picture.

3) The work of men and women.

An army is victorious in battle against its foe. Why? Not because they had greater numbers, better weapons or whatnot, but because they had a god on their side. An impressive cathedral is built. Not by human hands alone, but human hands doing the work of their god. The poor are fed. How? By people doing their god’s work.

What’s the unnecessary variable in all of this? A god. People do works they attribute to a god. Yet the works can be fully explained without a god.

The above photo shows a massive stone pillar and arch supporting the heavy ceiling and roof to a church. Wouldn’t a god’s house be more impressive if that god allowed his people to support it with not granite columns, but tall pieces of straw? Or better yet, cause the covering structure to continually hover, unattached? The reason we never see this: human hands can only do for their god what they could do without a god.

My conclusion: god is a worthless variable.

Technorati Links: atheism, religion

This morning I encountered this pic over at. PZ called it adorable, saying its the large eye that makes it so. I agree.

My psychological self wonders why. Do smaller eyes tend to be found behind partially drawn lids (to offer protection in possibly ensuing aggression)? Is vulnerability relatively “cute” . . . easier/safer to approach? Why does our brain make these particular assumptive short-cuts in perception?

When I look at the above photo I see a face with awfully odd, dangling lips. But of course, that’s no squid face. That’s an eye with appendages hanging from the body where my mind expects lips to be. And so I see them. Mistakenly.

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[photo source: Cephalopods: A World Guide, by Mark Norman, via Pharyngula]

Technorati Links: perception, psychology

It seems to me that part of the appeal of Jesus is his dual nature: part human, part god. He walked the earth, had a beard, a nose, two eyes, could suffer, and perhaps even farted now and again.

Sacrilege!

But ultimately, he was a true super hero. He healed the sick, walked on water, leapt small buildings in a single bound, etc. He was a spiritually turbo-charged one of us.

Is he popular, in part, for the same reason children prefer their cuddle toys to have two eyes and a nose?

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In case you are unfamiliar with the story, it can be found in Mark 6 — these verses from the New International Version:

Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests.

The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”

She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?”
“The head of John the Baptist,” she answered.

At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”

The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother.

A head on a platter . . . kindof’ an odd thing to hang on the wall of a “holy place,” wouldn’t you say?

Technorati Links: photograph, religion