A Canadian photographer was stunned when she went back through the photos she snapped of a polar bear in her backyard to find it praying in front of a cross.
Jessica Andrews, 22, learned the bear was roaming around the Wesleyville, Newfoundland on an island behind her house from an online alert Wednesday.
Andrews didn’t even notice the photo of the praying bear until she went through the 200 photos after the shoot.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4368188/Polar-bear-caught-praying-cross.html#ixzz4cvclXNNh
Surely, this photo will end up in Al Gore’s slide show, and be used in creative ways by WWF and other rent seeking outfits under the guise of something like “polar bear prays for the Arctic”. But, I thought we might find some other, obviously funny captions from our community of readers.
Have at it!
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Who can that be? Why, we used to sing about him in Sunday School!!
Its Gladlee, the cross-eyed bear!
Can I catch a whale with this thing?
Grrr, hmmphh, hmmphh, growl, lick.
I swear the sign for Miami Zoo was here!
I’m unable to be funny with this. To me it’s beautiful! One of God’s magnificent creatures looking up at Him.
The first thought I had was “How great thou art!”
Aw, JesusDidNotGiveUpOnMe (me, too! 🙂 ), that was so cool. Good for you to be yourself, too.
You deserve a song! (one of my faves by one of my favorite groups)
“Somebody’s Gonna Praise His Name” (Petra)
(youtube)
Somebody’s gonna praise His name.
Somebody’s gonna call Him Lord.
It’ll either be you and me
or it’s gonna be a rock or tree … .
“Let the rivers clap their hands,
let the mountains sing together for joy.” Psalm 98:8
“‘I tell you,’ he replied, ‘if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.'” Luke 19:40.
……. and deliver us from gobal warming ….
OK A little bit off-color
“Hey, where did that body of Jesus go? I was saving that for a desert”
Little out of range, too.
“Hellllo, dear! I’mnahlateferrdinnerrr! I’m (hic) errrleee for breakfush……. Dear?…… Oh. Dear. Sheeesh done gawnnannn FROZE TO DEATHTHTHTH! (sob)”
“Oh, Lord….If I visit the North Pole will that make me BI-POLAR??”
What idiot put this thing here? ( Note: If he were praying, it would be a wind turbine.)
(I have a photo of a “begging bunny”. Yes, that is anthropomorphism, but I KNOW he’s not begging, he just looks like it.)
Lord Jesus, Forgive Me for eating that baby seal.
Who took down my flags?
Corrected caption : Father, Forgive Griff for he knows not what he thinks and says!
Yes! It is a global warming story.
http://globalnews.ca/video/3349815/rare-sighting-of-polar-bears-in-newfoundland-labrador
Dang, I *knew* it wasn’t the fourth day!
Caption:
“Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz, my friends all drive Porches, I must make Amends.”
with apologies to Janice Joplin’s great lyrics
John
Caption:
Lord, why is Griff trying to kill me?
“Hmm. Nice pole. I wonder what will happen if I lick it.”
Jerusalem!?
I’ll never trust the GPS route finder again.
+1!
“I can’t wait to read all the comments on WhatsUpWithThat if my photograph ever makes it on to their pages”
This cross marks the location of the last sighting of a live polar bear. (Signed: “Griff”)
ANOTHER +1 (I’d better just stop — I really should +1 just about every comment on THIS great thread!)
🙂
A Polar Bear beseeching his God,
To provide a surplus of cod,
So they’d be the meals
To make a surplus of seals
To maintain his quite ample bod
Not the greatest, but all I can come up with on short notice.
“Lord, please send more arctic researchers. They’re delicious.”
AW:
Please forgive me inserting a serious point into this intentionally humorous thread.
The linked article quotes Jessica Andrews whose camera took the photo. It says,
Her words reminded me of two things.
Firstly, decades ago when studying theology I was considering writings of the great theologian CS Lewis. He defined humans as being creatures who recognised the existence of divine power, and he wrote
My immediate reaction – that I still have – was a desire to know what that “evidence” could be.
Jessica Andrews says she thinks her photo is evidence that the polar bear prays, but few would agree that it is such evidence (and I don’t).
Secondly, as Jessica Andrews demonstrates, people ‘see’ what they want to ‘see’ when seeking confirmation of their beliefs. She ‘sees’ the polar bear leaning against a cross as being evidence of the bear praying because she WANTS to believe the bear should be treated as having human attributes. And I suspect she would not understand if someone told her that her anthropomorphism is no different from thinking Mickey Mouse is typical of mice. In her own words, what she thinks her photo shows gives her a feeling of wonder (i.e. “I was amazed, I mean, beyond amazed.) and she would not want to lose that feeling.
This feeling is a corruption of religious faith. It is superstition: i.e. it has the emotion of faith but no coherent philosophy to support it. And being purely emotional it is impervious to refuting evidence, logic and/or argument.
Similar superstition is typical of believers in the idea that human activities are causing discernible global climate change. As is demonstrated by e.g. ‘Griff’ and ‘seaice1’ on WUWT. They WANT to believe that idea so their superstitious belief is impervious to any refuting evidence, logic and/or argument.
Richard
Very well said there sir.
I have, in the past, been very emphatically informed by a science person that anthropomorphism is acceptable in cases not concerning science. One can call animal groups families and mommies and daddies and kiddies if you are not talking science. Making animals human is only wrong in science discussions. It stands to reason, you can also say they are praying as long as you don’t call it science.
Sheri:
You raise an important semantic point. The nature of anthropomorphism has importance.
Human family relationships have animal analogues.
Prayer and e.g. mathematics are examples of human activities which have no known animal analogues.
I did not say that ALL anthropomorphism is improper or inappropriate.
I said of Jessica Andrews claim that the bear was praying,
Richard
Richard,
Depends upon what you mean by mathematics. Other primates have rudimentary arithmetic abilities:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/jan/06/timradford2
http://www.livescience.com/2160-monkeys-math-humans.html
Other mammals and birds might as well, even if only counting.
http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/050701_parrotzero1frm.htm
Animals lack true speech (i.e., saying something, knowing what it means, and expecting like creatures to understand it) and all the activities deriving therefrom. Likewise, animals do not compose music, perform in ensembles, write novels or plays (or short stories or poems), nor do they learn foreign languages. They do not paint to represent objects or persons. They do not compile histories of families, tribes, kingdoms; they do not form nations or cohesive tribes. They do not use money or other means of exchange, and they do not keep or compile records of incidents or natural events. They do not plant or prepare food in any meaningful way. In short, they are not human, and they are in every intellectual way different from humans.
“Animals lack true speech”…..Oh thank you John, for a moment I thought that whales were able to talk to one another .
Steve,
No one doubts that animals communicate with each other in a variety of ways.
Speech however is another matter. Humans are the only animals which put sounds together in flexible ways rather than stereotyped signals.
Gloateus:
I apologise that I was not clear.
Yes, as you say some animals are observed to conduct simple arithmetic, but I said “mathematics” by which I meant manipulating abstract symbols to investigate abstract concepts (i.e. algebra, trigonometry, etc.).
Please also note that I wrote, “Prayer and e.g. mathematics are examples of human activities which have no known animal analogues.” My inclusion of “e.g.” before one of the examples was intended to imply that my examples were of a type, but I admit that my implication was not clear. I request that you refer to my first post in this subthread and consider my sentence that said, “My immediate reaction – that I still have – was a desire to know what that “evidence” could be”: my implied type of examples were human practices where animal analogues would be difficult to discern.
Language, tool-making and artistic painting are all examples of human practices where animal analogues have been observed.
I hope this clarifies my meaning.
Richard
I had no clue that the photographer actually believed the polar bear was praying. Is this true? — she actually believed this?
If yes, then this would be more amazing than her amazement at the image. I thought her amazement was over the chance juxtaposition of a polar bear with a cross and this coincidental association with catastrophic global warming claims.
Robert Kernodle:
You ask
All we know is what the Toronto Son claims Jessica Andrews said which is as I quoted.
If you believe the newspaper accurately quoted her words and if you accept that she meant what she said, then you agree she “actually believed the polar bear was praying”.
If you do not agree those two things then you have no reason to accept that she “actually believed the polar bear was praying”.
Richard
I believe the quoted words of the photographer and that the media reported these words correctly. I did not think, however, that the photographer meant these words literally.
Robert Kernodle:
This is a genuine request for explanation because I honestly do not understand your point.
You say
Please say what you think she meant by those words because I don’t understand how those words can mean other than they say.
Richard
Are we talking abut THESE words: ‘I didn’t notice it when I was taking them, but when I started to go through to edit them, oh my God, I was like, “Holy cr**, he’s praying!”’
‘I was amazed, I mean, beyond amazed.’
Well, she could be struck by the visual appearance and shocked that it looked so much like praying, and she was referring to this appearance, NOT meaning the words seriously, like when you might say, “Holy crap, I caught a picture of a dog laughing”, NOT meaning that you actually believed the dog was laughing, but you were speaking in a surprised tone that reflected the APPEARANCE, rather than the actual belief in the words uttered … LITERALLY.
But, in the case that she DID actually believe what she saw and spoke literally, I’m afraid that I did not present my best effort in jest, and so to redeem myself, I offer this:
Richard, I tried to reply, but my comment appears to have been flagged for moderation for some bizarre reason that we all do not understand, since it did not appear after I posted it.
Ah, I see my reply now, with the revised pic. I guess I passed the moderation police. (^_^)
The words could mean what they say directly, or it could be read indirectly as her saying it looks like the bear is praying.
People often use shorthand when speaking.
Southern Cross on the North Pole?
…must stop licking those arctic toads….
Perhaps it’s praying for a map to the cool Scottish glaciers.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/03/31/polar-bears-spotted-scotland-animals-flee-melting-arctic-ice/
Noting the date of publication of that article, it wouldn’t be the first visitor from the far north
http://www.strangehistory.net/2013/02/02/inuit-in-orkney/
Thanks Sandy for revealing a gigantesque gap in my history knowledge – had no idea catastrophic anthropogenic global warmingTM forced Finns south already in 1688. At the end of 20th century they skipped directly to Mediterranean and nowadays many seem to prefer Thailand.