Another open letter to Richard Dawkins

Dear Dickie,

I am disappointed that you have not yet replied to my open letter of a few months back. That's not like you Dickie. My guess is that you just don't want to deal with the flack that you received over your dismissal of the great miracle of the sun at Fatima in October 1917. 70,000 people can't be wrong. Believers and non-believers alike saw it. Below a newspaper cutting eyewitness account. This is from a virulently anti-Catholic newspaper.

All the best Dickie,

GENE

Eye witness account of the miracle of the sun

on 13^th October 1917

Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose aspect was biblical as they stood bareheaded, eagerly searching the sky, the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws---the sun "danced" according to the typical expression of the people. Standing at the step of an omnibus was an old man. With his face turned to the sun, he recited the Credo in a loud voice. I asked who he was and was told Senhor Joao da Cunha Vasconcelos. I saw him afterwards going up to those around him who still had their hats on, and vehemently imploring them to uncover before such an extraordinary demonstration of the existence of God.

 

Identical scenes were repeated elsewhere, and in one place a woman cried out: "How terrible! There are even men who do not uncover before such a stupendous miracle!"

 

People then began to ask each other what they had seen. The great majority admitted to having seen the trembling and the dancing of the sun; others affirmed that they saw the face of the Blessed Virgin; others, again, swore that the sun whirled on itself like a giant Catherine wheel and that it lowered itself to the earth as if to burn it in its rays. Some said they saw it change colours successively....

 

—  O Seculo (a pro-government, anti-clerical, Lisbon paper)