Last week I came across a news article relating the exhumation of a body in Italy. The body is that of Francesco Forgione, a Capuchin friar, popularly known as Padre Pio. He died in 1968, and was ordained a Catholic “Saint” by Pope John Paul II in 2002.
Many Catholics believed that Padre Pio had the “stigmata”, the wounds of Christ’s crucifixion, appear on his hands and feet by a miracle. Though some believe him to have been a fraud, and it is suspected that he used carbolic acid to create the wounds, he remains revered by millions of Catholics. His body will be contained in a glass topped coffin, to be viewed by Catholics for several months.
Pio’s tomb is visited by 7 millions Catholics a year. A Catholic magazine survey once found that more Italian Catholics prayed to Pio than to any other Catholic Icon, including the Virgin Mary and Jesus. There are over 3,000 “Pio Prayer Groups” worldwide, boasting a membership of around 3,000,000. One story claims that Pio wrestled with the devil in his monastery cell. Some Catholics claim he could predict the future, that he has been seen in two places at once, and could tell people their sins before they confessed them. It is widely believed that a prayer to Pio could lead to a miraculous cure of sickness. (Information from Reuters article, 3/3/2008)
Such silly claims give the skeptic ammunition in his contention that Bible believers are credulous morons who base their faith on outlandish superstitions and ancient lies. Bible miracles are not examined on their own merits, but are lumped in with the above examples of ridiculous superstition.
However, the skeptic is often guilty of similar gullibility in his haste to reject any evidence of the divine. Outlandish claims under the guise of “science” have sought to give natural explanations for such varied Bible events as the star that stood over the place of Jesus’ birth, and the parting of the Red Sea.
One example of this forced and absurd practice was reported by Reuters on March 4th. Benny Shanon, a professor at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, recently contended that the Israelites at Mount Sinai may have been high on a hallucinogenic plant when Moses brought the tablets down from the mountain.
He contends that two plants in the area have the same qualities as ayahuasca, a highly hallucinogenic brew often prepared by natives of the Amazon. In his article on the subject, he wrote:
“The thunder, lightning and blaring of a trumpet which the Book of Exodus says emanated from Mount Sinai could just have been the imaginings of a people in an ‘altered state of awareness.’”
“In advanced forms of ayahuasca inebriation, the seeing of light is accompanied by profound religious and spiritual feelings.”
Later, Shanon revealed that he was familiar with the ayahuasca brew’s properties, “having partaken of the… brew about 160 times in various locales and contexts.” No doubt! In fact, it sounds like he may have been under the influence of the drug while writing his report!
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
