--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Robin Carlsen" <maskedzebra@...> wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "salyavin808" <fintlewoodlewix@> wrote: > > > > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Robin Carlsen" <maskedzebra@> wrote: > > > > > > http://www.miraclesofthesaints.com/2010/10/levitation-and-ecstatic-flights-in.html > > > > > > > It's just a shame that they seem to have stopped just before > > the invention of cinema. > > RESPONSE: No, "they seem to have stopped" because they stopped. God--or the > supernatural grace which precipitated this miracles--said: Fuck it! I've had > it. I'm going to change up the game. > > And ever since then (just before our lifetime) there ain't no miracles (or if > there are, they are not being done through the agency which determined the > miracles in this article). > > I think if cinema had been around in the 13th to 16th centuries in > particular, the Holy Ghost might have permitted there to be a few miracles > filmed. But maybe not. It might have destroyed the meritorious value of > faith. "Show me the nail marks, Jesus, baby--that is, if you really > resurrected."
I think you've inadvertently hit the nail on the head (sorry) these things are all about faith, specifically the church keeping its flock enthralled by the supposed power of devotion. If the only evidence people have is of the leaders they have been brought up to believe have a hotline to the almighty, then a few stories like this would sure help the donations flood in and if people suddenly had a way of checking for themselves the miracles would dry up, which we all agree they have done. > The veracity or purported veracity of an eyewitness account is of course a > special field of investigation. But, even were I totally skeptical, I would, > in going through all what is said in this article, find my skepticism > significantly challenged. > I suspect that it what happened to you--when you began reading. I've heard it all before actually, levitation, sea serpents, UFOs from venus, they all disappear once understanding increases to the point that the objects of faith can't even fit into the way we now see the world as being. UFOs are a particular favourite subject of mine, the speed at which the angelic beings from Venus stopped visiting us once we discovered that it rains flouro-sulphuric acid on their home world is amazing. All of a sudden the aliens came from much further away. Levitation might have been a poetic way of saying saints can get close to god or be drawn to heaven but once the four fundamental forces were nailed down and realised to be *not* optional without the universe falling apart the saints were seen as mere flesh after all and the miracles stopped. > No, the present ontological context of the universe would make Saint Francis > of Assisi probably an honest existentialist (of the atheistic variety). > > No one will levitate or fly in my lifetime. This seems certain to me, because > I sense zero miracle potential in the universe. I don't know about that, religion still seems to be the order of most people's day. I think god is missing a trick in not manifesting something paranormal now. > But when I read these accounts *it is a very different metaphysic* I > encounter. A metaphysic which simply does not exist and therefore would seem > never to have existed. > I think your reaction a normal and healthy one.
