Great stuff! A few disanalogies to Fatima immediately come to mind. First, this miracle wasn’t predicted in advance. (Recall that one Catholic interpretation of the Miracle of the Sun is that it was a successful prophecy of an extraordinary, once-in-a-generation meteorological event.) Second, because the Sun was low in the sky when this miracle occurred (5:30pm), cloud dimming actually could explain why the Sun was comfortable to stare at in this case. (Well, maybe. It depends on whether the Sun stood out in the clear sky, as at Fatima. The testimonies you’ve collected don’t seem to say much about cloud density or about the position of the Sun relative to the clouds.) Third, because there was no rapid drying in this case, it’s more plausible that the phenomenon was subjective. Fourth, there are no testimonies from skeptics here. That makes it more likely that the phenomenology was due to suggestion. Finally, note that, even if this example weakens the case for (exclusivist forms of) Catholicism from the Miracle of the Sun, it doesn’t weaken the case for supernaturalism from the Miracle of the Sun. In fact, it makes the argument for supernaturalism stronger: it’s yet another phenomenon that naturalist struggles to explain. In other words, if this is bad news for (exclusivist) Catholics, it’s also bad news for naturalists. The only people who can really treat this as a win are religious pluralists.
Mar 21
at
6:38 PM
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