Ever since my friend showed me this photo of clouds he found on the net; I’ve have been reminiscing back to the day that I realized that I was different from most other kids I knew, and including their parent(s) for the most part. This all happened on a spring afternoon back when I was about 8 years old. I had been playing hide & seek with at least three other kids, two of them were girls. After we had all burned ourselves out from chasing each other around; we all just laidback on the grass and rested.
As one of the girls was looking towards the sky and watching the white puffy clouds pass by, she said: “do you guys see that cute little puppy up there in the clouds?” then the other girl asks: “where, I don’t see it?” then the first girl points at the sky and said: “see, he’s right there!” then the second girl replied: “Oh, I can see him too, I can even see his head and his tail.” The boy then said: “I don’t see him, where is he?” the girls pointing: “he’s right there, don’t you see him,” the boy: “no, I don’t see no damn dog in the sky – you girls are both nuts.” The girls: “you don’t see him because you’re just too stupid to see him; you’re just a stupid boy!” A few moments passed, and then the boy said: “Oh, now I can see him – he looks like he’s waging his tail.” The girls: “you little liar, you can’t see him now; he’s already gone!” then the girls turned to me and ask: you seen him, didn’t you John?” (As the boy sat there nervously fidgeting while waiting for my answer) I look at both of them and said: “no, the only thing that I had seen was white puffy clouds!”
It was at that moment I realized why I had never felt the “holy-spirit” move over me. And why I never felt a personal connection with Gawd or Jeebus either; or anything else “supernatural” for that matter either. I believe this is also why when most people find themselves in these types of situations, where other people are claiming they feel or see something supernatural or spooky; most people will simply go along so as not to be different from all the rest of them – and even if they have to lie about it.
I had seen this happen, many times before at my Pentecostal church when I was a child; during the part of the service when the pastor was performing “exorcisms.” Someone would point and say: “did you see that demon jump out of them – and look, it’s over there trying to climb-up the wall.” Then everyone in the area that they were pointing at, would then get up and start running away from the “demon” and saying thing like: “where’s the demon at now.” And people would start pointing all over the church; at the walls, at the floor, the ceiling and everywhere. They all seemed to be, all having a mass delusion. And at this point, I would always get up, and get as close to the front door, as I possibly could! This profound exorcize in stupidity and ignorance, would then go on uninterrupted and nonstop, for hours at a time.
Neither my mom nor I, had ever seen a demon in this church; but my two older siblings would say they always seen the demons. When these ignorant deluded morons, would ask me why I was standing there so calm, while most of the rest of them, were all playing demon-tag; I would simply say: “I just don’t see the demons.” My response would anger most of them; then they would say: “the only reason you don’t see the demons, is because you must have one living in you too.”
Years later, I concluded, this is about the same mentality as we see exhibited by onlookers, who start chanting “jump,” when someone is out on a ledge of a tall building, and threatening to jump off.
I’m not trying to say that all religious beliefs are as extreme as the Pentecostal ones are; but their all just as deluded and dangerous. When someone forces a young child into believing that there are things outside the realm of normal reality, and that “it” can cause them harm, and therefore they must fear them. And the only way that they can be safe from “it,” is by participating in some form of ritualized religious bullshit – they’re simply creating in their heads, an even bigger monster than the boogieman living under their bed, and that monster, is one, that most will never grow out of. The indoctrination of children by simply instilling fear in them – is one of the most extreme and evil forms of child abuse that has ever contrived by man. I could see this as a child, and I simply decided that no one would ever convince me to adhere to a deluded belief; just so I could be like everyone else.
When my friends first showed me this photo, and claiming that they could see an image of Miss Piggy wearing a Vikings cap, and even with her little piggy ears sticking through the top of cap, (see where the black arrow is pointing) at first I thought these kids must have been smoking something. But as I sat there, and as they were pointing out the piggy-like features in this photo; I too started seeing Miss Piggy, and wondering if this was the same process by which people become “born-again Christians?”
I’m not even going to go into what they claimed the green arrow was pointing at.
