Top Ten Scientific Explanations for Fatima

CMR ^ | October 14, 2008 | matthew archbold

[NYer]

The Miracle of the Dancing Sun at Fatima which was seen by 70,000 people on October 13th, 1917 has been written about often. I truly do enjoy reading about all the "scientific" explanations for the "anomaly of Fatima." The way that science has bent itself into a pretzel to explain away the vision of the sun dancing in the sky at a foretold time is always fun.

So, last year, I got together my top ten "scientific explanations" for Fatima that I was able to find on the internet.

First I'll start with a little history history: A writer named Avelino de Almeida who wrote articles for O Século, (a big newspaper in Portugal at the time). The papper took a strong anti-religious stance. Goodness, even then, the media wasn't a big fan of religion, huh? In fact, all of Almeida's previous articles had mocked the previously reported events at Fatima but here's what he wrote that day 81 years ago:

"Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose aspect was biblical as they stood bare-headed, eagerly searching the sky, the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws — the sun 'danced' according to the typical expression of the people."

But despite the fact that one of their own reported this, secularists have amassed an enormous amount of explanations as to why we should not believe our own eyes. Here are the astounding reasons they've amassed so we should believe nothing at all special happened in Portugal that great day.

10. Stratospheric Dust. Steuart Campbell, writing for the 1989 edition of Journal of Meteorology, theorizes that a cloud of stratospheric dust altered the appearance of the sun on 13 October, making it easier to look at, and causing it to appear yellow, blue, and violet and to spin. In support of his hypothesis, Mr. Campbell reports that a blue and reddened sun was reported in China as documented in 1983.

9. Not everyone saw it so nothing happened. Oddly, this is the exact opposite of their argument that people in China saw it so it didn't happen. Astronomers, they say, noticed no dancing in the sky from all over the world. The dancing sun was a regional event thus disproving it. A quick question would be the fact that it was a regional event should prove that something out of the ordinary happened. If it happened worldwide it would be written off as simply an astronomical event because the whole world saw it.

8. ESP! (Always my favorite) Author Lisa Schwebel claims that the event was a supernatural form of extra-sensory phenomenon. God? no way! ESP? Yup! Schwebel has said that throughout the history of man there have been several reported cases of religious gatherings culminating in the sudden and mysterious appearance of lights in the sky so therefore it's ESP. The logic evades me a little but I guess if you're a believer in The Exorcist Part II, then it's as believable as Richard Burton as a priest.

7. Mock-Sun. Didn't even know this one existed but it's worth a listen. Joe Nickell, a self described skeptic and paranormal investigator, according to Wikipedia,

claims that the position of the phenomenon as described by the various witnesses, is at the wrong azimuth and elevation to have been the sun. He suggests the cause may have been a sundog. Sometimes referred to as a parhelion or "mock sun", a sundog is an atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with the reflection/refraction of sunlight by the numerous small ice crystals that make up cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. A sundog is, however, a stationary phenomenon, and would not explain the reported appearance of the "dancing sun". So Nickell further suggests an explanation for this phenomena may lie in temporary retinal distortion, caused by staring at the intense light and/or the effect of darting the eyes to and fro so as to avoid completely fixed gazing (thus combining image, afterimage and movement).

So, in effect, 70,000 people all shook their heads and thought a mock-sun was dancing. All 70,000? Prety ridiculous, huh?

6. Dust cloud! Paul Simons, in an article entitled "Weather Secrets of Miracle at Fatima", said that it's possible that some of the optical effects at Fatima may have been caused by a cloud of dust from the Sahara.

5. The old mass hallucination theory. Author Kevin McClure is one of many on this claim which goes something like this: The crowd at Cova da Iria was expecting to see signs in the sun so they did. Yeah because that happens all the time. But McClure doesn't factor in that people several miles away who weren't thinking about the event also saw it.

4. UFO! The old alien craft pretending to be a sign from God trick. Happens all the time, didn't you know. Of course, the spaceship just happened to come on the day that the three children said a miracle would occur. Or perhaps the apparitions were all the works of little green men. This all sounds a lot more real than the Church's explanation.

3. Solar Storm. A gigantic coronal mass ejection (CME) occurred. Better known as the Northern Lights in Portugal. You see, solar flares emit high-speed particles that cause the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis. Well that explains it all right there. Because we all know the Northern Lights look exactly like the Sun dancing. Or not.

2. Peer pressure. There was significant social pressure to see a miracle so everyone fooled themselves into believing they did. 70,000 people? That's some pretty strong peer pressure especially for the people who saw it 20 miles away.

1. An Eclipse. These fellas don't mind contradicting themselves. This would be a very very regional eclipse. Wouldn't astronomers have noted the eclipse?

Bonus Reason:
-1. Evolution. This is sadly from Institute of Physics, Catholic University of Louvain. Evolution has provided us with the infamous “zoom and loom effect”. It occurs when you see an image at some unknown distance. Your brain considers the possibility that it might come closer so without your knowledge your brain performs "an illusory mental zoom, where the apparent size of the object is progressively increased." Here's why this occurs, says scientists: Evolution forces us to be constantly worried that something dangerous is coming to eat us so we might need to skedaddle right quick so the brain zooms it in to scare us into skedaddling. When the “idea” of an approach does not lead to any real danger, the perceived object returns to its normal place. Thus the dancing sun. Amazing. 70,000 people thought the Sun was coming to eat them. When they realized the Sun had no teeth they "zoomed and loomed" it back to where it belonged. That might just be my favorite one.

So after listening to these level-headed scientists(?) explain away Fatima hasn't it convinced you to join the Richard Dawkins fan club? Me neither.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ!

[Quix]

And you for your kind encouragements in The Lord.

[fatima]

I think his insights sucked.God bless,Fatima

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you for sharing your views, dear fatima!

[fatima]

((((Hugs))) So much.God bless,Fatima

[dangus]

A UFO event? It was identified... ahead of time. Those 70,000 witnesses didn’t happen to be on the field praying to Christ because Lucia was so cute. They were there for a miracle.

... and one came.

Once the most godless nation in Europe, tens of thousands converted to Christ, and for as long as the memory of the message of Fatima burned bright, Portugal was spared the horrors of WWII, communism and abortion.

Of course, you discount that because the worship of all those people doesn’t meet your standard.

>> The hypothesis about the maiden/personage claiming to be ‘Mary’ at the Fatima UFO event quite likely being a long planned very skillful hoax from hell is very reasoned and based on considerable data points . . . particularly compared to the biased hostility I’m responding to. <<

I guess hostility is in the eye of the affronted.

[Titanites]

I think his insights sucked.

You are not alone. Thanks for exposing the "insights" for what they are. For some, any miracle experienced by a Catholic must be evil at work.

[Quix]

The Lord God Almighty

does NOT smile at bearing false witness.

[Titanites]

The Lord God Almighty does NOT smile at bearing false witness.

Then stop.

[Quix]

Difficult to stop when I never started.

[dangus]

Yes.

[MEGoody]

The miracle at Fatima served to encourage hundreds of millions of Catholics to pray for the conversion of Russia

How would a 'vision' of the sun dancing and crashing to the earth do that?

[Zionist Conspirator]

Ya gotta understand one thing ...

The apparation at Fatima came to us through the Catholic Church.

To some folks, that makes it ipso facto evil, demonic and deceptive.

If the exact same phenomena had occurred within the context of some "independent", "nondenominational", "bible" "church" it would be an amazing prophetic witness.

It's all about the context.

Kinda like the way so many Catholics (including Catholic FReepers) insist that if it happened in the "old testament" it's either a myth adapted from ancient paganism or a chr*stological allegory, but if it happened in the Middle Ages it's a miracle. Yes?

[ArrogantBustard]

Welcome back. Is computer fixed? Hope you didn't lose any files ... that really sucks.

As for the rest ... No, it's really not "kinda like" that.

[Zionist Conspirator]

As for the rest ... No, it's really not "kinda like" that.

Funny. Seems to me Catholics have been embarrassed by Joshua's miracle of the sun for centuries while the miracle in Portugal is waved like a flag.

C'mon, fess up: you don't really believe Genesis 1-11 is actual history, do you? If not, then why are you arguing with me when you should be agreeing with me?

[Quix]

LOL.

Consistency and logic are not exactly applauded by . . . a certain perspective on these threads.

[ArrogantBustard]

Seems to me Catholics have been embarrassed by Joshua's miracle of the sun for centuries

"Seems to me" you're mistaken.

Centuries?

Nonsense ...

[ArrogantBustard]

Consistency and logic are not exactly applauded by . . . a certain perspective on these threads.

Interesting ... that statement is actually true, as written. "A certain perspective", of course, is vague ...

[Zionist Conspirator]

AB, let's quit beating around the bush. Let's stop the word games. I'm tired of being taken to task by Catholics for saying "most Catholics believe in evolution" and then having those same Catholics defend evolution in other threads. Let's put our cards on the table.

The miracle of Joshua, like geocentrism, is an embarrassment to Catholicism. Every Catholic apologetic work seems to want to explain it away so the intellectuals won't be offended. Yet for some reason the intellectuals never seem to be offended by the post-Biblical miracles of Catholic saints. Can you explain this?

I asked you a question in my last post which you avoided answering. Do you believe Genesis 1-11 is history or myth? If the latter (as I highly suspect), then you have no business attacking me for merely pointing out the truth about the mainstream Catholic attitude towards the Hebrew Bible.

[ArrogantBustard]

If you want to fight, go elsewhere.

I've never met a "Joe in the Pew" Catholic who's "embarrassed" by Joshua's Miracle of the Sun. I suspect very strongly that I've met many more "Joe in the Pew" Catholics than you have. I believe that you may have mistaken over-educated "intellectuals" for normal people.

If you want to believe in Geocentrism, or 6-day creationism, I have no beef with you. You're even welcome to do so as a Catholic, ravings of over-educated "intellectuals" to the contrary notwithstanding.

HOWEVER ... a geocentric model of the universe isn't particularly useful to me if I need to calculate an orbit higher than GEO ... and even there, it can get a bit flaky. Beyond that ... it's just inaccurate and not useful. Make of that what you will.

As to your question.

There are several "questions", and several general topics, which I WILL NOT discuss in any detail on this forum. My reasons for this are good enough for me, and not any of anybody else's business. No apologies.