imo neither should be looked at as oddities....perhaps that was the point.

something confusing me here though: if a person closes their eyes in a church and says "thank you God for the birds and trees", that's ok....but if a person points and says "thank you God for this tree and every tree like it", how is that worshipping the tree, or using the tree as a conduit (i.e. how's it any different from the former example)?

they sound the same to me.