The Parable of the Killer Duck
 

Once there was a monk who lived with his seven disciples deep in the
forest. One day he spake to them saying:

Once upon a time there was a little boy who had trouble sleeping. He
would awake in the night in terror. He screamed out. His mother came
and said, "What is the matter?"

He said, "There is a ghost in the closet. It is going to eat me."

His mother turned on the light and walked to the closet. She held up
his white tee shirt. "Is this your ghost?" she asked. The little boy
gave a sheepish grin and turned to go back to sleep.

Later that night the little boy cried out, "Help, help. There is a
crocodile under the bed." His mother rushed in. "What makes you
think there is a crocodile under your bed?" "I just KNOW" said the
little boy. Mom looked under the bed, an lo, there WAS a crocodile,
mind you made of nylon and cotton batting. Mom said, "You must have
forgotten it was YOU who put the crocodile under your bed. It won't
hurt you." The little boy went back to sleep.

Still later that night the boy cried out, "Mommy, Mommy, a giant
spider!". "But dear" she said, "I never knew you were afraid of
spiders". "Yes, but YOU ARE, tee hee". Just then a giant spider
almost nine inches across pounced down on Mom. She let out a little
shriek, then had a look at it and discovered it was a dried sunflower
attached to a bungee cord. The little boy chortled himself to sleep.

Still later than night the little boy screamed out, "The killer duck
is going to bite me." Mom patiently came in, yet again. "Why do you
think that?" "I can see it in the closet -- see way up on the top
shelf." "I can't reach that high. Perhaps tomorrow morning we can
get a stepladder and have look." "No Mom. It is going to kill me."
"It is probably just a baseball cap." "Every time before, the thing
you found so scary and mysterious had a perfectly ordinary
explanation. Why do you think this time is going to be an exception?"
"You can't PROVE its not a killer duck, Mom." "Why do you think this
duck wants to kill you?" "Because I did not eat my broccoli. I threw
it down the toilet. It is going to kill you too Mom. David Baker who
is 11 and knows everything told me. You have to touch your foot three
times or it will kill you."

After considerable resistance, the mother touched her foot three
times. The little boy fell asleep, blubbering with relief.

The next morning the little boy could see for himself the killer duck
was indeed just a baseball cap. Mom came in, and said, "See dear, it
was just a baseball cap." "NO! He retorted. IT IS A KILLER DUCK. He
just pretends to be a baseball cap in the day. The PROOF is you are
still alive. Touching your foot three times WORKED!"

A disciple asked the master what the Deep Inner Meaning of
the parable was. "It is an allegory." he snapped. "The
little boy is humanity, his mother science, and the ghost, the
crocodile, the spider and the killer duck are God."


I found this quite interesting. It's impossible to prove that the duck is not there, despite it being logical that it isn't, and so it is with religion.