Okay, so on October 13, 1917, 70,000 or so pilgrims flocked to Cova da Iria expecting to see a miracle. The little girl exuberantly tells everyone to look at the sun. Now it should be noted that out of these 70,000, less than half actually reported seeing anything unusual. And the reports of those who actually claimed to have seen something varied. For example, some reported seeing the sun sway from side to side, while others claim to have watched it spin violently in circles. Others saw the sun casting a rainbow over everything. And still others saw it change colours. The bottom line is that not everyone saw the same thing while the majority saw nothing at all.Originally posted by okinrus
70,000 saw the dancing sun at fatima and thousands saw the apparition at Zeitun. The photographs at Zeitun add considerable weight to the testomony of the people who saw the apparition and there were also many medicle miracles. The main difference between this evidence and scientific evidence is that scientific evidence must be repeatable. However I see no reason to doubt what the people who were there said because it is not entirely scientific. So my faith is "irrational" somewhat but still based upon evidence.
If you have studied any amount of the psychology of perception, you would know that our expectations greatly colour our perceptions. People expecting to see some sort of a miracle are more susceptible to perceiving things that never really happened. It is no coincidence that the rest of the world reported seeing nothing unusual with the sun. It's also strange to note that while there are many pictures of people witnessing the alleged miracle, no one seems to have bothered to take a picture of the "miracle" itself. Besides, there are much more plausible explanations for what these people actually saw. I mean, really, what do you expect to happen when you do something stupid like looking directly at the sun?
The dancing sun can be explained by the fact that the eye cannot focus on an object as bright as the sun. The eyes of those foolishly attempting to glare into the sun would have darted back and forth, creating image and after-image, resulting in the appearance that the sun was "dancing". The eyes may also attempt to focus, retreat, attempt again, et cetera, creating the illusion that the sun is pulsating. About the colour changes, have you ever noticed that when you see a bright light, the image gets "burned" onto your retinas for a short period of time? During that time, the burned image (often of varying colours) obscures your visual field and jumps around to wherever you may move your eyes. In this case, it would have the effect of making the sun appear to move back and forth in the sky or even fall to the horizon and return back to its original place. The point is that looking directly at the sun will cause all sorts of weird things to happen, and these things are by no means miracles.
The sightings at Zeitoun have been attributed to tectonic strain-induced luminosities. An analysis of seismic activity in that region revealed an unprecedented peak in the number of earthquakes during the period of the alleged "miracles". It appears that the Marian observers were predisposed by religious background and social expectation to interpreting the light displays as related to the Virgin Mary. It is interesting to additionally note that there have been a larger number of reports of UFO phenomena during historical periods of tectonic stress release. According to Tectonic Strain Theory, anomalous luminous phenomena are generated by brief, local changes in strain that precede earthquakes within the region. Psychological factors determine more elaborate details of the experiences because there are both direct stimulations of the observer's brain as well as indirect contributions from reinforcement history. A good summary of Tectonic Strain Theory can be found here.
And as for the medical miracles, it has been well-documented how the power of the mind and our beliefs have a great influence on healing. Here is a good article.
And this is reflected in dictionary definitions, not Google searches.The definition of words is based upon conventual usage and this is based upon numbers.
Laws are made by governments. A law that "there is no government" cannot be proclaimed or enforced if there is no government to do this. As soon as a law is proclaimed (even if it is one abolishing government), a government, by definition, exists. Once this happens it is no longer true anarchy.While anarchy is the abstance of goverment, it can still be defined as a system of goverment because it has one law of goverment: "There is no goverment". The goverment is defined entirely by individuals but the rule "there is no goverment" is universal and could be considered part of a govern system.