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This material may be protected by copyright law (Titlel 7, U.S. Code) Published 2007 by Prometheus Books The New Enq/clopedia of Unbelief. Copyright ® 2007 by Tom Flynn. All rights reserved. No part of this pub lication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, dig ital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a Web site without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Inquiries should be addressed to Prometheus Books 59 John Glenn Drive Amherst, New York 14228-2119 VOICE; 716-691-0133, ext. 210 FAX; 716-691-0137 WWW.PROMETHEUSBOOKS.COM 11 10 09 08 07 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The new encyclopedia of unbelief / ed[ited] by Tom Flynn, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-59102-391-3 (hardcover ; alk. paper) 1. Rationalism—Encyclopedias. 2. Free thought—Encyclopedias. 3. Atheism—Encyclopedias. 4. Agnosticism—Encyclopedias. 1. Flynn, Tom, 1955-. BL2705.N49 2006 211'.803—dc22 2006012121 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper This material may be protected by copyright law (Title17, U.S. Code) MIRACLES, Unbelief in 541 Greek gods had their special diet, namely, ambrosia. It is MIRACULOUS PHENOMENA. The Anglican writer noteworthy that the Gospel of Luke in particular, while C. S. Lewis defined a miracle succinctly as “an interfer emphasizing Jesus’s flesh and bones, says nothing about ence with Nature by supernatural power.” Supposed mir retrieving his blood, which was presumably spilled earlier. acles have been reported since the most ancient times, Luke’s flesh-and-bones Jesus can suddenly disappear and ironically—even in our own relatively enlightened from the Emmaus apostles’ sight after breaking bread at culture—^they continue to be touted, especially among their table and handing it to them (24:30-31). A similar Catholics and evangelical Protestants. disappearance might be affirmed in Luke 4:30, but the Many claims involve supposedly miraculous relics— passage can be interpreted differently. objects associated with a saint or martyr. So prevalent The Gospel of John tells the story of Mary of Mag- had relic veneration become in Saint Augustine’s time dala, who, upon evenmally recognizing the resurrected (about 400 CE) that he deplored “hypocrites in the garb Jesus, apparently grabs his feet or is about to. “Do not of monks” for hawking the bones of martyrs, adding hold on to me,” Jesus says, “for I have not yet returned with due skepticism, “if indeed of martyrs.” His contem to the Father” (20:16-17). After that, Jesus makes a porary Vigilantius of Toulouse condemned the venera quick trip to the Heavenly Father and then returns to per tion of relics as being nothing more than a form of idol form the miraculous sign of appearing to the disciples, atry, but Saint Jerome defended the practice on the basis who are behind locked doors (20:19, 30). that God works miracles through them. Prayers and Sacrifices. Some theists and polytheists Among the “miraculous” relics of Catholicism is the have believed their prayers carried something akin to lob much publicized “blood” of San Gennaro—Saint Janu- bying influence that increased the controlling power’s arius-—in Naples. Januarius was supposedly martyred propensity to bestow miraculous interventions. Plato during the persecution of Christians by Diocletian, regarded this aspect of prayer as a lack of real piety. Iron although the church has never been able to verify his ically, some culmres have ritualized or instituted sacrifices existence as an actual historical person. In any case, and prayers on a regular basis in the hope of securing the since the fourteenth century what is represented as the order of the universe. Conversely, in times of war, con martyred saint’s congealed blood periodically liquefies, flicting prayers for soliciting miraculous advantages for in apparent contravention of nature’s laws. one’s side and disadvantages for the enemy would seem to While outside researchers have never been permitted contribute to chaos rather than cosmos. to conduct definitive tests on the material in the sealed vial, two modem investigative teams have nevertheless BIBLIOGRAPHY proposed solutions to the mystery. One, by three Italian chemists, involves a thixotropic gel (made by mixing Bowne, Borden Parker. Studies in Christianity. Boston: chalk and hydrated iron chloride with a small amount of Houghton Mifflin, 1909. salt water) that liquefies when agitated and resolidifies Frank, Joseph, and David I. Goldstein, eds. Selected Let when allowed to stand. The other, proposed by forensic ters of Fyodor Dostoevsky. Translated by Andrew analyst John F. Fischer and Joe Nickell, uses an oil-wax- Mac Andrew. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University pigment mixture that liquefies at even a slight increase in Press, 1989. temperature. Although the actual formula may never be Guthrie, Stewart Elliot. Faces in the Clouds: A New uncovered, it is important to note that the “blood” has Theory of Religion. New York: Oxford University occasionally liquefied on its own, without the usual Press, 1993. prayerful entreaties and under circumstances (such as Pervo, Richard I. Profit with Delight: The Literary Genre repair of its casket) that would seem unlikely for the of the Acts of the Apostles. Philadelphia: Fortress, working of a miracle. Also, since the fourteenth century 1987. there have been several additional saints’ bloods that liq Price, Robert M., and Jeffery Jay Lowder. The Empty uefy—all in the Naples area and thus suggestive of some Tomb: Jesus beyond the Grave. Amherst, NY: regional secret. Prometheus Books, 2005. Even more macabre relics exist—among them the Ruthven, Jon. On the Cessation of the Charismata: The allegedly “incormptible” bodies of saints, that is, corpses Protestant Polemic on Postbiblical Miracles. that have “miraculously” failed to succumb to decay. Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic, 1993. Acmally, however, in many cases artificial means, such Sissa, Giula, and Marcel Detienne. The Daily Life of the as wax masks, have been employed to conceal their poor Greek Gods. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, condition. Some appear merely to have become mummi 2000. fied (fostered by tomb rather than earthen burial), or oth Wells, G. A. Religious Postures: Essays in Modem erwise preserved (as by burial in lime-impregnated soil, Christian Apologetics and Religious Problems. which converts the body fat into a hard, soaplike sub Chicago: Open Court, 1988. stance that resists putrefaction). It should also be noted that many instances of alleged incorruptibility cannot be Joe Edward Barnhart verified—or, more importantly, are disproved by the 542 MIRACULOUS PHENOMENA facts, the bodies eventually being reduced to bones or demonstrating imperviousness to fire and poisons, requiring extensive restoration in order to be placed on including poisonous snakes. view. Speaking in tongues—known as glossolalia—^is an Another important category of miracle claims ancient practice, mentioned in the New Testament (Acts involves images that are said either to be supernatural in 2:1-4) and recurring in Christian revivals through the origin or to exude some magical power. Among the ages. Modem analysis, however shows that it is actually former are simulacra—images'seen, Rorschach-like, in “linguistic nonsense.” William T. Samarin, professor of random patterns. A classic of the genre is an image of anthropology and linguistics at the University of Jesus discovered in the skillet burns of a tortilla in 1978 Toronto, conducted an exhaustive five-year study of the (as still preserved at the New Mexico home of Maria phenomenon on several continents and concluded: Rubio). This was followed by similar “miraculous” “Glossolalia consists of strings of meaningless syllables images that appeared in such unlikely locations as the made up of sounds taken from those familiar to the foliage of a vine-covered tree (West Virginia, 1982), rust speaker and put together more or less haphazardly. The stains on a forty-foot-high soybean oil tank (Ohio, speaker controls the rhythm, volume, speed and inflec 1986), and a forkful of spaghetti illustrated on a bill tion of his speech so that the sounds emerge as board (Georgia, 1991). As well, portraits of the Virgin pseudolanguage—in the form of words and sentences.” Mary have been seen in such diverse places as the stains Another charismatic gift of the spirit is prophecy. on the bathroom floor of a Texas auto parts store (1990) Early Christians mined the richly metaphorical ore of the and in the grime on a window in an Italian village Old Testament to “discover” therein supposedly (1987). These appeared not to be anything more than the prophetic passages of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. For result of what one priest termed “a pious imagination.” example, Isaac Asimov points to a passage in Other notorious effigies are the “weeping,” Matthew—one absent from the other gospels—“[w]hich “bleeding,” and otherwise animated icons that surface may well have arisen merely out of Matthew’s penchant from time to time and raise troubling questions even for for interpreting and describing everything in accordance religious believers. For in shifting from the view that a with Old Testament prophecy, ritual, and idiom.” statue is only a representation to the belief that it is truly Among modem prophecies, the most attention-getting animated is to seemingly cross a line from veneration to ones are those that predict the biblical apocalypse or idolatry. Invariably, however, these are either investi other doomsday scenarios. For instance, consider the gated and found to be pious frauds or they are withheld prophecy made by the founder of the Church Universal from scrutiny. An example of the former was the statue and Triumphant, Elizabeth Clare Prophet.

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