The Need For A Miracle

People Worship Weeping Tree In California, Tears Are Actually Insect Excrement

A growing number of Catholics in Fresno, California believe that a tree outside St. John’s Cathedral is weeping God’s tears.“When you say ‘glory be to God in Jesus’ name’ the tree starts throwing out more water,” parishioner Maria Ybarra told KGPE-TV. Ybarra was the first person to feel the drops of liquid, which began falling from the Crape Myrtle tree on Wednesday. As news spread, more and more people gathered under the tree to pray. “I said my prayer and asked the Lord to give me a miracle cause I’m really, really sick,” Rosemarie Navarro said.

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Aphides, the insect whose poop is mistaken for Holy Water. If you look closely, you'll notice the little bugger is laughing his ass off.

This reminds me of a recent episode of the TV program Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho on GMA7 showing Filipinos worshiping (or “venerating”, they’d deny that what they do is actual worship) a tree inside someone's backyard, because the trunk has an image (more of a sketch of an outline, really) resembling that of a human figure wearing a sort of hijab. They superimposed an image of the Virgin Mary on it and decided that it IS the Virgin Mary.

And people flocked to it, and prayed to that tree growing in someone's backyard. They brought towels and used these on the image on the tree. They then used these same towels on their bodies. Not long after, a few had claimed that their illnesses were cured, or that their sick child, who had been sick for some time, suddenly showed signs of recovery. 
An agriculturist explained that this “outline” is caused by insects in the tree trunk, but I don’t think anybody heard him.
One can’t really blame these people. What one feels, mostly, is sadness: that people should have to resort to this nonsense because they couldn't afford to go to a decent hospital. 
They need to believe in something, anything—that would take care of them; they want to believe that a father- or mother-figure is always there for them. 
And if they see no evidence for this, if all they experience in life is one gigantic and life-long snub, all the more they are eager and willing to believe anything like these supposed “miracles.”  Or even manufacture a few.
Who else could they turn to? Where else would they go? The better life they believe they would have is not even in this world; they believe they would have that life after they die. If people can believe this, they'd believe anything.
What’s even more tragic is that rulers, religious leaders, and other charlatans throughout history know this, and how useful this simple fact is in manipulating people. 

History has been the account of one long scam after another inflicted upon the gullible.

It is not a coincidence that mostly miseducated people and/or people living in poverty-stricken areas are prone to believe in all manners of superstition.
There is something very wrong about all this, yes, but I don’t think making them understand various scientific principles and natural phenomena around us would open their eyes. After all, it is much easier for them to believe instead in a supernatural being. It's comforting, and effortless, too.

It’s just not the lack of proper education; it’s the whole shebang—the culture, the society, the poverty. Superstition goes soul-deep in these shores.

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