Andrew Paquette
Administrator
It has been a long time since I attempted to discuss Marian apparitions and attendant miracles at Skeptiko. The last time might predate my PhD work almost four years ago. Why is this? Do all critics simply know that these things are always the delusions of religious fanatics or cynical deception? I can understand the willingness to embrace such explanations, but the history of at least some of these events is very solidly attested to by many witnesses.
Lourdes has skeptic doctors employed to disprove the medical miracles, even one with a Nobel prize, yet they keep happening. In Medjugorje, local officials did everything they could think of to prevent the strange events from happening, resorting even to throwing a group of children in prison, yet the events continued to occur. At Zeitoun, thousands of people have seen the apparition and it has been photographed. And what about the miracle of the Sun in Fatima, witnessed by between 30,000-100,000 people? Explain the celestial event as you like, it remains unique and it was predicted in advance. It may have been a solar flare, a comet, mass hysteria, or any other thing you care to fancifully imagine, but it happened to tens of thousands of people simultaneously after being predicted in advance. That remains amazing no matter how you care to interpret the event.
These types of events are so much more powerful than statistical inferences drawn from laboratory data that I wonder why they don't come up more often here. Is it because critics disregard them as ridiculous and everyone else don't feel like bearing the brunt of unfounded ridicule? I know I hesitate to raise topics that have religious connotations, but these kinds of events lend some credibility to some religious ideas. If religion isn't all wrong, if God is real (for instance) does it not make sense to pursue lines of inquiry when they are presented, such as these Marian apparitions?
AP
Lourdes has skeptic doctors employed to disprove the medical miracles, even one with a Nobel prize, yet they keep happening. In Medjugorje, local officials did everything they could think of to prevent the strange events from happening, resorting even to throwing a group of children in prison, yet the events continued to occur. At Zeitoun, thousands of people have seen the apparition and it has been photographed. And what about the miracle of the Sun in Fatima, witnessed by between 30,000-100,000 people? Explain the celestial event as you like, it remains unique and it was predicted in advance. It may have been a solar flare, a comet, mass hysteria, or any other thing you care to fancifully imagine, but it happened to tens of thousands of people simultaneously after being predicted in advance. That remains amazing no matter how you care to interpret the event.
These types of events are so much more powerful than statistical inferences drawn from laboratory data that I wonder why they don't come up more often here. Is it because critics disregard them as ridiculous and everyone else don't feel like bearing the brunt of unfounded ridicule? I know I hesitate to raise topics that have religious connotations, but these kinds of events lend some credibility to some religious ideas. If religion isn't all wrong, if God is real (for instance) does it not make sense to pursue lines of inquiry when they are presented, such as these Marian apparitions?
AP