God puts pictorial parables into our general environment. They are not put there intentionally by people, and may have been there for a long time before being noticed. There are many examples on the world atlas as shown elsewhere on this website. This letter is an attempt to prove the case for these pictorial parables.

Pictorial parables are very difficult to prove because they are subjective; people can disagree about what they see. In an attempt to prove the case for pictorial parables, I make the assumption that they only arise in situations that are infinitely complex. Therefore, they should not occur in a mathematically derived image because such an image is not infinitely complex (it relies on a set mathematical function).

I have used the random map generator at http://www.lysator.liu.se/~johol/fwmg/fwmg.html as a baseline for comparison with images generated by God. The map generator uses a mathematical technique called fractal image generation. Although fractal patterns can be infinitely complex, they are predictable because they rely on a mathematical formula. I used the parameters '2000 iterations', '65% water', '0% ice', '135 degrees rotation' and the 'Mercator' image type. I set the 'random seed' from 0 to 99 to generate 100 images and analysed them for pictorial parables at all angles of rotation.

I then took a tray with black card affixed to the base and placed one tablespoon of sugar into the tray. For each round of image generation, the tray was shaken to distribute the sugar crystals and a piece of cardboard was dragged over the surface. During image generation, my eyes were closed, and the movement was random. I took a photograph of the resulting pattern of sugar on the black card, and repeated this 100 times. I then analysed the images for pictorial parables at all angles of rotation.

After doing this, I found potential pictorial parables in 30 of the images created with sugar, and only in 19 of the images generated by fractal mathematics. In addition, some of the sugar-derived pictures acted as parables or supported other parables, namely a flying pig (an expression used in English to mean that something is impossible) and an image of the whore of Babylon riding a beast. None of the images created by fractal mathematics formed parables in this way. In addition, the images found in fractal maps are generally much smaller and of lower quality than those found in the sugar. The images are also different in nature; unpleasant faces can be created at random, but I have never known God to create an unpleasant face deliberately. I have selected four of the best images from each set and displayed them here. The full sets of images are available here (30MB).

Four images from the pictures created with sugar:

Four images from the pictures created using the fractal map generator:

The flying pig is a lower quality image, but still resembles a pig with small wings:

It is very difficult to prove the case for pictorial parables because of their subjective nature. However, I have found a definite difference between pictures created where there are infinite possibilities and pictures created using a mathematical technique.