The Jesus Tortilla

Oct 5, 1977: Maria Rubio was preparing a tortilla in a skillet in her home in Lake Arthur, New Mexico. When she looked down, she realized that a burn mark on the tortilla resembled the face of Jesus.

The Rubio family created a small shrine where they displayed the "Jesus tortilla". Over the years, tens of thousands of people came to see it. Many of the pilgrims believed that the tortilla had the power to heal.

Maria Rubio with tortilla - 1978

Maria Rubio's daughter, Angelica, grew up to become a New Mexico state senator, and she kept a blog where she discussed her experiences with the holy tortilla. She also wrote an article on eater.com about it.

The Jesus Tortilla - source: thetortillakid.com

According to Roadside America: "In late 2005, Mrs. Rubio's granddaughter took the Miracle Tortilla into school for Show and Tell, and it was dropped and broken! The shed shrine has been closed and the remains retired to a drawer in the Rubio's home."

Albuquerque Journal - Dec 22, 1987

Posted By: Alex - Mon Sep 21, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Food, Religion, 1970s, Pareidolia

Cherry Berry Wine

Biblical revisionism regarding the influence of alcohol on historical events.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Aug 24, 2020 - Comments (0)
Category: Music, Religion, 1960s, Alcohol

Cooking with God

Poe's Law, loosely paraphrased, states that it can be very difficult to tell the difference between parodies of extreme beliefs and sincere expressions of those beliefs.

Confusion of this kind occurred with the 1976 cookbook Cooking With God. The authors, Lori David and Robert Robb, intended it to be, in all seriousness, a religious-themed cookbook. But due to the title, many people apparently assumed it was some kind of joke.

Recipes included Manna Honey Bread, Oasis Stuffed Eggs, Caravan Sweet Potatoes, and Eggs Bathsheba.

If you want a copy to add to your collection of weird cookbooks, you can pick one up used on Amazon for $6.95.

Fort Worth Star Telegram - Mar 16, 1977

Posted By: Alex - Wed Aug 05, 2020 - Comments (5)
Category: Food, Cookbooks, Religion, Books

Out of This World by Jam Handy

Heaven and Hell battle for the soul of a bread salesman.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 02, 2020 - Comments (0)
Category: Food, Religion, Supernatural, Occult, Paranormal, 1950s, Gambling, Casinos, Lotteries and Other Games of Chance

Jesus in a Tree

Last month, crowds in Magangue, Columbia flocked to see an image resembling Jesus that appeared in a tree at night.

Streetlights beneath the tree created the illusion. So it's not clear why no one had ever noticed it before.

As far as pareidolia goes, it's actually a pretty good one.

More info: The Sun



The tree during the day:

Posted By: Alex - Sat May 30, 2020 - Comments (1)
Category: Religion, Pareidolia

Sweet Jesus Chocolate

Created in 1991 by Australian philosophy student Richard Manderson. They were Jesus-shaped chocolates filled with raspberry jam so they would "bleed" when bitten.

Weekly World News - May 21, 1991

More info from wikipedia:


The Jesus Question blog delves more deeply into the history of chocolate Jesuses.

Posted By: Alex - Fri May 15, 2020 - Comments (8)
Category: Religion, Candy, 1990s

Does holy water help radishes grow better?

In 1979, researcher Sandra Lenington of the University of Santa Clara set out to answer this question. Her curiosity had been sparked by learning that Canon William V. Rauscher had reported that “canna plants given holy water left over from use in religious services grew more than three times higher than canna plants which were not given holy water.” She decided to try to duplicate his observations under more rigorous conditions.



She watered one group of radishes with regular water, and a second group with holy water. After three weeks, she concluded that there was “no significant difference in the growth rates of these radish plants given holy water versus radish plants given tap water.” She published her results in the journal Psychological Reports (1979, 45, 381-382).

However, she noted that Canon Rauscher believed in the power of holy water, whereas she didn’t, and this may have affected the outcome of her study: “There are numerous documented studies showing that positive or negative belief will either benefit or adversely affect plant growth.” She suggested that future studies might try to better control for this variable.

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 01, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Religion, Science, Vegetables, 1970s

Faith Healing

On his website, Hank Kunneman describes himself as the senior pastor of Lord of Hosts Church and founder of One Voice Ministries. He also notes that he occasionally performs “prophetic demonstrations including tongues and interpretation.”

I guess that’s what we’re seeing in the video below. I wish the video had subtitles. At one point I could swear he’s saying “prosciutto, prosciutto, prosciutto…”

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 21, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Religion

Spaghetti Jesus

May 1991: many motorists claimed they could see the face of Jesus in a Pizza Hut billboard outside of Atlanta.

I do see a face, but it doesn't look anything like a Jesus face to me.

Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer - May 26, 1991

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jan 12, 2020 - Comments (4)
Category: Religion, 1990s, Billboards, Pareidolia

The Temple of Plastic Excess

Created by British artist Andy Hazell circa 2010 for a New Year's parade in Newcastle. It's street legal and uses more than 4000 LEDs. He says, "I tried to imagine what Barbie and Ken would use for wedding transport."

More info: andyhazell.co.uk

Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 19, 2019 - Comments (0)
Category: Art, Religion, Cars