THIS IS HOW MYTHS ARE ESTABLISHED;
RUMOUR,COINCIDENCE AND SNOWBALLING STORIES!
"Usually when we hear a miracle story it's not from an eye witness,but from somebody who heard about it from somebody else,who heard it from somebody else,who heard it from somebody else's cousin...and any story,passed on by enough people,gets garbled.The original source of the story is often itself a rumour that began
RUMOUR,COINCIDENCE AND SNOWBALLING STORIES!
"Usually when we hear a miracle story it's not from an eye witness,but from somebody who heard about it from somebody else,who heard it from somebody else,who heard it from somebody else's cousin...and any story,passed on by enough people,gets garbled.The original source of the story is often itself a rumour that began
so long ago and has become so distorted in the retelling that it is almost impossible to guess what actual event-if any-started it off.
After the death of almost any famous person,hero or villain,stories that some body has seen them alive start rushing around the globe.This was true of Elvis Presley,of Marilyn Monroe,even of Adolf Hitler.It's hard to know why people enjoy passing on such rumours when they hear them,but the fact is that they do and that is big part of the reason why rumours spread.
Here is a recent example of how such a rumour gets started.Soon after the popular singer Micheal Jackson died in 2009,an American television crew was given a guided tour of his famous mansion called Neverland.In one scene of the resulting film,people thought they saw his ghost at the end of long corridor.I have looked at a recording and it is very unconvincing ;however it was enough to start wild rumours flying around. Micheal Jackson's ghost is at large! Copycat sightings soon emerged.For example on the opposite page is a photograph that a man took of the polished surface of his car. To you and me,especially when we compare the 'face' with the other clouds on either side,what we are looking at is obviously the reflection of a cloud.But to overheated imagination of the devoted fan it could only be ghost of Micheal Jackson and the picture on you tube has received more the 15 million hits !
Actually,there's something interesting going on here,which is worth mentioning.Humans are social animals.so the human brain is programmed to to see the faces of other humans,even where there aren't any.This is why people so often imagine they see faces in the random made by clouds,or on slices of toast,or in damp patches on walls.
DIVINE MIRACLES :-
...As it happens ,we know that lots of fiction has been made up about this particular preacher called Jesus.For example,there is a little pretty song called the Cherry tree carol,which you may have sung or heard. It is about when Jesus was still inside his mother Mary's womb[that is the same Mary as in Fatima story,by the way] and she was walking with her husband Joseph by a Cherry tree. Mary wanted some Cherries but they were too high on the tree and she couldn't reach them.Joseph wasn't in the mood to climb tree,but...
then up spoke baby Jesus,
from in Mary's womb,
'bend down,thou tallest branch,
that my mother have some,
bend down,thou tallest branch,
that my mother have some',
then bent down the tallest branch,
till it touched Mary's hand,
cried she,'oh look thou, Joseph,
i have cherries by command.'
[Richard Dawkins; The magic of reality-how we know what's really true,published by Random House 2011;page 248-49;262].
After the death of almost any famous person,hero or villain,stories that some body has seen them alive start rushing around the globe.This was true of Elvis Presley,of Marilyn Monroe,even of Adolf Hitler.It's hard to know why people enjoy passing on such rumours when they hear them,but the fact is that they do and that is big part of the reason why rumours spread.
Here is a recent example of how such a rumour gets started.Soon after the popular singer Micheal Jackson died in 2009,an American television crew was given a guided tour of his famous mansion called Neverland.In one scene of the resulting film,people thought they saw his ghost at the end of long corridor.I have looked at a recording and it is very unconvincing ;however it was enough to start wild rumours flying around. Micheal Jackson's ghost is at large! Copycat sightings soon emerged.For example on the opposite page is a photograph that a man took of the polished surface of his car. To you and me,especially when we compare the 'face' with the other clouds on either side,what we are looking at is obviously the reflection of a cloud.But to overheated imagination of the devoted fan it could only be ghost of Micheal Jackson and the picture on you tube has received more the 15 million hits !
Actually,there's something interesting going on here,which is worth mentioning.Humans are social animals.so the human brain is programmed to to see the faces of other humans,even where there aren't any.This is why people so often imagine they see faces in the random made by clouds,or on slices of toast,or in damp patches on walls.
DIVINE MIRACLES :-
...As it happens ,we know that lots of fiction has been made up about this particular preacher called Jesus.For example,there is a little pretty song called the Cherry tree carol,which you may have sung or heard. It is about when Jesus was still inside his mother Mary's womb[that is the same Mary as in Fatima story,by the way] and she was walking with her husband Joseph by a Cherry tree. Mary wanted some Cherries but they were too high on the tree and she couldn't reach them.Joseph wasn't in the mood to climb tree,but...
then up spoke baby Jesus,
from in Mary's womb,
'bend down,thou tallest branch,
that my mother have some,
bend down,thou tallest branch,
that my mother have some',
then bent down the tallest branch,
till it touched Mary's hand,
cried she,'oh look thou, Joseph,
i have cherries by command.'
[Richard Dawkins; The magic of reality-how we know what's really true,published by Random House 2011;page 248-49;262].
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