I was raised Catholic, and the one thing that still bothers me is the miracles in Catholicism. Recently a group of elderly ladies from my church (friends of my grandmother) claim that on a trip to Israel they all saw a flame over the host at Mass. This was several people I know and they are not liars, regardless of what they believe. I just can't explain this.
This is nothing new to Catholicism. You have the miracles of Lourdes, the sun Miracle at Fatima, the Eucharistic miracles, the Christ like wounds bore by the monk Padre Pio, the tilma at Guadalupe, and the incorruptibles (saints that refuse to decompose). In fact, every saint canonized needs to have 3 miracles attested to them. So the list is very long. I don't see this in any other religion. In fact, googles article on incorruptibles says that the Catholic sect is the only one with this phenomenon. How does one explain this?
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Could be that we are the one true religion. Nonetheless, I don't have to explain it. I don't feel the need; I just need to believe.
It's curious that atheists think that miracles don't leave evidence behind or that they aren't investigated by outside scientists. That simply isn't true. It wouldn't be a miracle otherwise. When someone is cured of a disease that is incurable, the Church DOES have SEVERAL doctors--many of whom are NOT Catholic--who look into the cure. When they have done all their tests and can't find a medical reason as to why the cure has happened, like a deadly tumor suddenly not being there anymore, THAT'S when the Church declares it a miracle. How do you figure this isn't leaving evidence behind?
the problem is issues that were commonplace by technique of maximum as a miracle some thousand years in the past were commonplace by technique of all regardless of the undeniable fact that the delusional fundamentalists as having a clinical clarification, and issues that would't be defined now it really is called a miracle would also be defined by technique of technology eventually. So theists are eventually basically gonna ought to settle for that surely each thing they declare to be brought about by technique of God would have a clinical clarification eventually.
Miracles do happen to may people ever day. The problem is that they give luck the credit or take it for granted and move on. People do anything but give God the credit. For example my friend Tommy and l were driving on a beach road in Georgia, he was drinking some, it was late at night. Something happened and we rolled over several times. Did l say that this was before the seat belt law. The car landed in the passengers side, my shoulder broke the door window out. We got our selves out of the car and when the police came he asked who was in the passenger seat. l told him that l was. He said son you should of been dead and point to the windshield. It looked like somebody took one half of soccer ball and put it on the windshield. That was done with my head. Never giving it a thought l moved on with my life but many years later l realized that God kept me alive for a reason and today l considered it a miracle.
One cannot deny that "Miraculous" things DO happen. There have been thousands of crutches and other physically well documented cases of people being cured at Fatima, Lourdes and other shrine sites. In modern times........with modern technology.........cases of people with inoperable tumors, having them one day........and there is NO medical trace of them the next.
Padre Pio was examined by countless doctors who looked after him. Many do not understand that his wounds BLED. He lost blood DAILY. for DECADES....a physical IMPOSSIBILTY. The continous loss of blood, thru open wounds, that never healed. Even if he was a hemopheliac and just never healed......he still lost the blood. It would have drained him. But it didn't.
In fact.......he was robust and healthy, and lived for decades with these wounds performing his duties as if nothing were wrong. There are literally dozens of miracles attributed to him. .
But he and others were absolutely ADAMNANT, that you don't worship HIM.......that he was only doing these things thru the power of Jesus Christ. Mother Teresa was the same way as were most saints. They never asked for , or sought fame......they only asked that you pray to CHRIST.
They are merely the intercessors. Even the Virgin Mary, INTERCEDES on your behalf, THRU Christ.
She herself, is not suppose to be doing the miracles.....she does them thru the power of Christ.
It is perhaps because the power of Christ that flowed thru THEM-------that it physically changes their bodies........which is why they don't decompose like everyone else. That's one theory.
An excellent movie, if you are really interested, is called "The 3rd Miracle" starring Ed Harris and Anne Heche. It shows you the process for someone to be declared a saint.
After each miracle is confirmed......allllllll stories up to that point are THROWN out....and you start over with NEW stories. Confirmable stories.
To reach sainthood...you need THREE seperate , confirmable miracles. It also shows how well meaning and good people also sometimes fake the stories.....and it's up to the "Devil's Advocate"......a specially appointed Priest, to confirm these stories or not.....which is why he is so named.........because he tries to argue AGAINST the case for sainthood. The demands are strict.
First, there are no miracles if by miracle you are suggesting that some sky daddy stepped into our lives and "bingo !!!!!!!" something unexplained happened.
And, obtw, just because it is not explainable, doesn't mean "goddidit".
Things happen for all sorts of reasons... hallucinations, coincidents, poor nutrition on the part of the witness, yaydadyadyadya.
See, if there is no sky daddy who will save a child from starving.... one every five seconds on this planet---- do you truly believe he'd give a rip about playing miracle games on unsuspecting people? Like making fires????? ?
And, you have some Christian ideas incorrectly memorized.
You refer to the wounds of Jesus. See, those only occur in John, the last gospel to be written, and not until the early-mid ' 90's..... almost 60 years after the death of Jesus.
In none of the earlier three, do we have Jesus getting speared, or NAILED. In the other three, Jesus show "his hands and feet" but you will notice there is no mention of nails. Most always, folks crucified by the Romans were simply tied and left hanging, and allowed to suffocate to death. This took anywhere from a few hours to a few days.
As well, the Catholic Church has all sorts of things that make zero sense..... again, if we go back to John, only in John does Jesus say that he and the Father are one.... in essence, that he is God.
Now, this is then pretty silly, since humans --- the Romans--- murdered him. Where does it make sense that humans can kill God???
If you are still Catholic, I have two question for you......
1, With something this simple, and no logical answer to it, since they themselves proclaimed the Trinity idea in 330 CE, why the hell are you still Catholic?
2. If Religion really means anything to you, why haven't you read the Bible, and studied it in an academic fashion?
Catholicism is the true faith.
They are miracles of God's
Catholic Christian †
Hindus are also big into miracles. All of the stuff which catholicism claims as being miracles unique to catholicism also happen to Hindus.
It's easy to explain. satan has the power to appear as an angel of light, thus all of those apparitions which claim to be Mary, saints, etc. could be (and probably are, imho) satan and his fallen angels appearing as angels of light. Note that any apparition which claims to be Mary and also claims to have any heavenly power to do anything is a liar. Jesus is the only human who, as God in the flesh, has any power to do anything.
Lucifer.
http://666truth.org/
Curious that these miracles never leave behind any evidence and are never verified by experts.