Regularly Expressing

Category: Theology

  • UFO’s over Mexico City?

    I recently saw a show on the travel channel which mentions a sighting of UFO’s by millions of people in Mexico City during a solar eclipse. They also mentioned that there were about 17 videos of the object, and one was shown. It would make sense to see lots of reports if a UFO was visible near some prominent event in the sky. On the surface, this sounds like an important sighting and possibly worthy of belief. It actually reminded me a lot of the Miracle of Fatima, which was also seen by many people at once, and which I believe is a convincing miracle.

    So I thought I’d look into it a bit further. I was a bit disappointed to discover that the UFO sighting is easily explained and is the result of low quality videotaping of Venus. Certainly it would be nice to believe the little green men are out there. Fortunately, however, I have not heard any particularly convincing debunking of the Fatima Miracle. Here is a brief summary of interesting characteristics of the Fatima event:

    1. The Sun was seen to dance in the sky, change colors, etc.
    2. The time of this “sign for unbelievers” was foretold by the visionaries, but they did not reveal what was to happen. People did not know to look toward the sun.
    3. 70,000 people witnessed the event.
    4. Atheists who came to heckle the believers were converted on the spot.
    5. The visionaries also predicted the onset of WWII (there is some slight controversy here, regarding the exact dates)

    Friends of mine who don’t believe in God, however, think that the Fatima event should be explained by UFOs. So this story has a nice circular quality.

    The interesting point here is that my standards for evidence (the ones that I used when considering Fatima) seemed to apply in another area, and that caused me (for a short time) to reconsider my general belief that aliens have not visited the Earth. I hope some of you out there give similar consideration to the Fatima story.

  • Tomb of Christ?

    Cameron is claiming to have discovered the Tomb of Christ.

    Pros:

    1. The tomb contains
      1. Jesus
      2. Mary
      3. Mariamne (Mary Madalene?)
      4. James, Brother of Jesus
      5. Judah, Son of Jesus
      6. Matthew
      7. Yose

      The claim is that this conjunction of names is statistically unlikely to occur. It is a little unclear to me how this “Jesus” equation is supposed to work or how exactly it was done. Supposedly without Joses (and without Matthew, since the gospels tell us nothing of a brother named Matthew) we have a 1 in 600 chance. But Yose is extremely rare.

    2. DNA evidence shows that Mariamne is unrelated to Jesus. The claim is made that the only reason two unrelated people would be buried together is if they were related by marriage. They conclude, therefore, that these two people are married.

    Cons:

    1. The “James, Brother of Jesus” ossuary may have been forged, and may not even have come from the Talpiot tomb. (see this link in the Star, near the end of the article)
    2. James tomb should be elsewhere. (See “New Addendum” on this post from Ben Witherington)
    3. The name “Jesus” may actually be “Hanun” (the Semitic script is difficult to read) (see this link in National Geographic)
    4. In an interview, Amos Kloner, who oversaw the original discovery in 1980, claims that no James ossuary was present at the original dig, there was only an unmarked one and it is not missing. (Jerusalem Post).
    5. The inscriptions on the tomb are not what they should be if this were Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, etc. (Archaeological Institute of America).

    Who would like to add to these lists?