From: spike66 (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Wed Oct 30 2002 - 00:08:04 MST
Gina Miller wrote:
> I did the same. I clicked the foreground color then the background color in
> each square. ... Gina
I did the old punched holes in paper trick
and was astounded. Truly this is the best
optical illusion I have ever seen.
Many years ago I had a minor epiphany while
in training for the ministry. Having discovered
Darwin, it occurred to me that there were
serious anomalies in the theory I had been taught,
some profound logical tension, or cognitive
dissonance, as we liked to call it.
I was pondering these matters one day in
church when the minister called the children
forth for a story. He gathered them around
an overhead projector and placed upon it a
viewgraph of the common optical illusion with
the two equal length line segments, the upper
one being made to appear longer by inverted
arrow heads. He asked the children which
line was longer. They chorused the top one.
He stated that they were mistaken, that in fact
the lines were equal. They were fooled, he
explained, by an optical illusion.
The kicker is that because of the image
distortion inherent in overhead projectors,
*the top line really was longer*! The kids
were right.
So then he showed them another similar
optical illusion and asked the same question,
at which time the children chorused in perfect
agreement that the line segments were the
same length. The pastor congratulated them
on their astute observation, and sent them
back to their pews. They were wrong the
second time of course, for again the overhead
projector had made lines of unequal length.
That odd little episode led to the epiphany
that I was just like the trusting children.
I was forced to sadly conclude that my entire
religious belief system was an intentionally
distorted image, merely an optical illusion.
With that epiphany, all the pieces fell into
place. Cognitive dissonance gave way to
cognitive resonance. I became an engineer
instead.
Thats my story, boys and girls.
spike
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