It’s a sign!

The nexus of local news and Jesus “sightings”:

At 4:16 in this video, a couple of quotes:

“Maybe it’s a sign that people who ride motorcycles should believe in God”

“We live in turbulent times now… you’re seeing more and more of this. Maybe it’s a sign that we’d better all start taking care of each other”

I realize that this isn’t a particularly rare conclusion to draw from one of these incidents, but for this sort of conjecture to be reported dispassionately in the news is a bit comical. If an omnipotent God wanted to send either of these messages, a blurry picture would be a horrible way to get this message across. Why not just write it in huge letters in the sky? Why not just have everyone hear a booming voice telling them to take better care of each other? (the voice would speak in each person’s native language, of course) Either of these options would be far more effective both in terms of the number of people affected and the degree to which it convinces them. They’re also really obvious.

(video via andrew sullivan)