Our Lady said at Fatima that “Wars are a punishment from God for sin.” That " polite little light show in the middle of nowhere" is one factor in an apparition that has spread devotion and prayer to millions since then, so it is not an isolated event even in the least.
Well the Miracle of the Sun is an interior vision but also God enables many to see at once at times and some see different things, but with many similarities. God and His angels open the eyes of man to see what he wants them to see. It does not mean that the sun actually moved, yet those there at the time sure felt it was and some thought it was the end of the world. I am certain that it is as with other miracles, as Jesus said let those who have eyes to see, let them see it. When God spoke at the Baptism of Jesus, saying" this is My Son, in whom I am well pleased", some say they heard it and some say they heard something faint. Some rejoiced at the miracles of Jesus, some grumbled and some began to plot to destroy him. I believe in some ways the same was true back then, in Fatima, and now as well.
You don’t think that’s just a bit silly?
Do you believe that God hears and answers prayers? If you do, perhaps all of those prayers prevented even worse atrocities from happening. Just a thought
Err… you think men in war zones don’t pray to stay alive, and their families don’t pray they should return unharmed? Or are you saying God doesn’t hear them as well, that a prayer in the trenches doesn’t count as much as a prayer from an air-conditioned condominium?
When did I say he was a vending machine? So you don’t believe in prayer??? Why do you think God allows for all of this to happen? I’m just trying to understand what you believe.
You said that “perhaps all of those prayers prevented even worse atrocities from happening.”
Ok? Do you believe the Words of the New Testament are true? I guess I would like to know if you are Christian or hold a different set of beliefs.
I’m Baptist, it’s on my profile on the top left of my posts.
mass hysteria, bad reporting, impossible to evaluate at this point in time. its a private revelation, so I’m not obligated to believe.
I thought my meaning quite clear. I don’t see anything more I could do except to reiterate.
“If they will not listen Moses and the Prophets, they will not listen even if one should rise from the dead.”
If you don’t mind inocente, I think this is an important point, which I think I will add in conjunction with my earlier response. God, as you said, is not a vending machine. Therefore, I don’t know why you seem to insist that while He is not at our whims, He should (would?) have stopped the war with a miracle if it had actually happened. Does God owe it to us to stop us from destroying ourselves? If so, then I would say He is more of a vending machine. If He doesn’t owe it to us, along with the fact that there have been many wars throughout history He hasn’t stopped, why would WWI be an exception. This is in conjunction with my earlier response, here:
I’ve never met a non-Catholic who believes in it, and I know Catholics who don’t either, so there’s no point trying to lay guilt trips on me.
Guilt trip and argumentum ad populum.
That’s not my argument, please see post #54.
You keep referring to it as a light show, with the seeming implication that it was a miracle for miracles’ sake. While I definitely find it to be a decent tool for conversion, as I stated in my original post on the first page, there was a message to be given out which I don’t think would have been nearly as effective for the reasons I stated earlier.I’ve never met a non-Catholic who believes in it, and I know Catholics who don’t either, so there’s no point trying to lay guilt trips on me.
You can’t use the supposed miracle to validate itself, that’s circular. It’s like claiming an ointment will positively fix all known ills just because the label on the jar says it will.
This is a philosophy forum and I’m making an obvious philosophical argument. God rarely if ever puts on an inexplicable light show whether or not there’s a war going on. Unfortunately wars are far more common than inexplicable light shows. Yet it is being claimed that God, who knows the number of hairs on our heads, who cares for us so much He sent His only Son, chose to locate a light show in a back-water where we can’t even be certain what took place rather than where it could have stopped the slaughter of what was then the biggest war ever, and perhaps ended war for ever. All it needed was to write in the sky, or on the surface of the Moon, War Is Over If You Want It and then everyone would know for certain, so why did He choose not to?
I thought you might give some kind of free-will answer, you know the kind of thing, “God can’t make a 100% believable miracle because then we couldn’t choose not to believe it”.
Why do you think it would end the war? I am sure that people would say it was just the effects of war… Shell shocked troops, or shells exploding in the air. If God so chose to have this miracle appear on the battlefield I am quite sure you would be here today making the argument that God should have done “his light show” at some other place at some other time, not in the confusion of War.Yet it is being claimed that God, who knows the number of hairs on our heads, who cares for us so much He sent His only Son, chose to locate a light show in a back-water where we can’t even be certain what took place rather than where it could have stopped the slaughter of what was then the biggest war ever, and perhaps ended war for ever.