Y
yankee_doodle
Guest
First, it wasn’t a true solar phenomena … it was either an alleged vision by roughly 70,000 people, or a localized atmospheric event (or something else). Like I said before, no one in any other region of the world witnessed the event; and scientists didn’t report any unusual solar activity.
I’m not a scientist or meteorologist so I don’t have a theory for what might have caused such a phenomena (if this event actually happened in the first place), except to say it falls in the category of all other paranormal religious claims. A one time event that cannot be replicated and therefore cannot be subjected to independent verification. For all I know it could have been some sort of trickery (or something promulgated through group think and the power of suggestion).
What I do know is 70,000 people are alleged to have reported this vision, but there were a variety of different accounts of the event (although there was perhaps some continuity in the eye witness statements). It was something investigated exclusively by religious authorities; and to my knowledge has never been subjected to serious independent scrutiny. The way it’s reported by Catholics is often inaccurate, for instance claiming the newspaper (who was reportedly skeptical) was “an atheist” paper (when it was merely a secular news organization with no ties to the church … but it’s not to say there weren’t Catholic reporters on their staff).
There’s substantial doubt as to the veracity of many elements of the story … but frankly the sources on either side of this issue that I’ve read don’t strike me as sufficiently credible. At any rate IMO there’s no serious scholarly value in the alleged events at Fatima. It’s the stuff that mythology is built around (like Benny Hinn allegedly healing the wheelchair bound by laying his hands on their heads).
I’m not a scientist or meteorologist so I don’t have a theory for what might have caused such a phenomena (if this event actually happened in the first place), except to say it falls in the category of all other paranormal religious claims. A one time event that cannot be replicated and therefore cannot be subjected to independent verification. For all I know it could have been some sort of trickery (or something promulgated through group think and the power of suggestion).
What I do know is 70,000 people are alleged to have reported this vision, but there were a variety of different accounts of the event (although there was perhaps some continuity in the eye witness statements). It was something investigated exclusively by religious authorities; and to my knowledge has never been subjected to serious independent scrutiny. The way it’s reported by Catholics is often inaccurate, for instance claiming the newspaper (who was reportedly skeptical) was “an atheist” paper (when it was merely a secular news organization with no ties to the church … but it’s not to say there weren’t Catholic reporters on their staff).
There’s substantial doubt as to the veracity of many elements of the story … but frankly the sources on either side of this issue that I’ve read don’t strike me as sufficiently credible. At any rate IMO there’s no serious scholarly value in the alleged events at Fatima. It’s the stuff that mythology is built around (like Benny Hinn allegedly healing the wheelchair bound by laying his hands on their heads).