"Bleeding Religious Statues"

[KichigaiNeko]

http://sciencebasedlife.wordpress.com/20...g-statues/

People were mistaking the excretions of microorganisms as signs of the devil, seeing what they wanted to see. I do not blame these people for being frightened, it is very unlikely that 200 years ago the lay public had any good idea what microbes were, so they invented something that fit their already firm beliefs. But divine these statues are not. It is infinitely more plausible, at least for some of the cases, that these bacteria were simply hanging out in the dew-kissed recesses of religious statues, “cranking out red pigment” that believers mistook as blood. For my money, this is a much more interesting explanation than the religious one.

[Justtristo]

Thank you for posting that article Kichi, I found it quite enlightening.

[KichigaiNeko]

You are most welcome Tristo!

[Captain Scarlet]

Good find KN. The title is also a pun, have to admire that :-)

[Doubting Thomas]

For some reason I'm reminded of that South Park episode where the statue of Mary was bleeding. Out her ass.

One thing that Catholics have to answer is (and yes, it's always Catholics who believe that bleeding statues are miracles), if this really is a miraculous sign from God, what does it mean? Ask twenty different believers and you'll get twenty different explanations. It's as if there really is no miracle and people are just making up their own explanations as to what it's supposed to mean.

I mean, if I want a sign from God, first of all I want to know without any doubt that it's really a sign from God, and secondly I want to know extremely clearly what he is supposed to be telling me. A bleeding statue doesn't really mean much, nor does a vague shape that looks like Jesus in a water stain. I mean, am I supposed to give up all my earthly possessions and follow Jesus (notice how nobody ever gets this as a message), protest an abortion clinic, or try to keep gays from getting married?

[frankiej]

I was considering posting a clip from that South Park episode... But, you mentioned it.

I also can't seem to find a good clip...hmm.

[Minimalist]

Ignorant peasants centuries ago can be forgiven for being ignorant peasants.

Ignorant fundies today merit no such consideration.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Yeah,just like the Azande people and many African tribes who believe all misfortune is caused by witchcraft. (God of the gasps)


Eg A man sleeps under a water tower every afternoon for many years. One day it collapses,killing him.Villagers immediately begin looking for the witch.When it is pointed out that the supports were riddled with termites and could have collapsed at any time,they respond,as one: "Well,yes,of course,BUT,it did not,the tower collapsed when he was sleeping under it. Therefore it's witchcraft".

True story, taken from E E Evans- Pritchard's " Witchcraft, Magic And Oracles Among The Azande"

[Doubting Thomas]

They'd probably still have called it witchcraft even if the guy hadn't been sleeping under it when it collapsed.

As far as the bleeding statues goes, we really can't rule out pious fraud which makes up the vast majority of cases of "bleeding" or "crying" statues. I read of a study where scientists took a sample of "tears" from a crying statue to have them analyzed. Turns out it was plain olive oil (don't know if it was virgin or extra virgin, lol). Apparently when you apply olive oil to a statue like that, it gives the appearance of liquid continuing to flow from the statue since the olive oil doesn't dry. Similar tests done on "blood" from bleeding statues showed olive oil and food coloring or some other kind of red pigment. Apparently nobody ever sees the statue start to bleed, but the "miracle" is witnessed by the faithful already in progress, giving reason to believe that someone applied the fake blood to it at some point.