Our Lady of Fatima:

The Floundering Skeptic

Nonbelievers maintain that all the events of Fatima can be explained as an elaborate hoax, sundogs, unusual weather, atmospheric anomalies, other natural phenomena, mass hysteria, optical effects caused by prolonged staring at the sun, retinal distortion, collective hallucination, or other psychological trickery such as people submitting to the power of suggestion.

As you read the complete story of Fatima it should be apparent that none of these explanations, either separately or together, can account for what occurred. For example, beginning in July 1917 the three children, ages 7, 8, and 10, said that the Heavenly Lady told them she would effect a miracle on a specific date (October 13th) at a specific site (the Cova da Iria where the apparitions took place), and at a specific time (noon). At noon on October 13th at the Cova da Iria the historical event we call the Miracle of the Sun occurred, just as the children had said. Indeed, the fulfillment of the children’s prediction is itself a miracle. If you are a nonbeliever please explain how they came by this specific knowledge of future events unless the Heavenly Lady told them.

This foretelling by the three children is ignored (and indeed must be ignored) by those attacking Fatima. Another event on that October 13th ignored by the nonbelievers is the instantaneous drying of water-soaked clothing by the witnesses.

When you read websites and books offering naturalistic explanations you will find they are full of misstatements and false and incomplete narratives of the events – all manipulated to fit whatever naturalistic explanation is being proposed.

Another tactic is to throw Fatima into the same barrel as the hundreds of other purported visions of Mary and other heavenly beings, including Jesus, that are obviously ridiculous such as the image of Mary on a piece of bread, or a melted candle, or a darkened oval knot in a wooden fence that looked like Mary, or a reflection on a window pane that resembles the typical representation of Mary. These are, of course, quite irrelevant to Fatima’s legitimacy. Their intent is merely to mock and thereby delegitimize all things supernatural.

Once you scratch the surface of these anti-Fatima websites you see how their arguments are not really arguments, but conclusions clothed in the garb of arguments. For the most part the conclusions/arguments are premised upon a false narrative (I’m not sure for any particular article or website whether the misstatements are intentional or reflect shoddy research) of what occurred at Fatima. Be sure to google the sites that try to belittle or naturalistically explain Fatima. Try using the search words: Fatima hoax; Fatima fraud; etc…. Be alert to false narratives, and when you are finished and thoroughly discouraged, come back here and read the articles on Fatima. Then, go to The Whole Truth about Fatima and The Now Word. These websites should quell any lingering doubts.

The truth is that the good-faith skeptic doesn’t understand the complete story of what happened at Fatima. Once understood, the skeptic or unbeliever must flounder and resort to explanations that cannot possibly explain Fatima. And if he can delude himself into believing he has a rational explanation for the Miracle of Sun, he still has to cope with the September 13th heavenly visitation witnessed by others. Of course, the ultimate fallback position is that we may not understand now, but someday we will. When all the non-miracle explanations are exhausted and the atheist is still arguing against Fatima you can be sure he is not interested in the truth; he is interested only in winning a debate. As everyone agrees, on October 13, 1917 something incredibly spectacular and other-worldly occurred. Mass hysteria, suggestion, or atmospheric or cosmological events are illusory explanations and have no substance. What was witnessed was a special vision (not a natural event) granted to those present at the site, and even to some many miles away – even 700 miles on an island in the Atlantic Ocean.

How about that!

Some websites and references

Last modified September 9, 2019