Author: Joe Nickell

Author’s Note: In memory of Tom Flynn. In my investigative travels through beautiful Italy, I have witnessed many marvels—sometimes accompanied by my great friend and fellow skeptic Massimo Polidoro, who has dubbed me “The Detective of the Impossible.” Alas, among the inviting enigmas that I have only been able to read about is in the …

For Tom Flynn I saw you more than once loaded with papers & slides, & pictured what was on the inside, like a piñata, jumble of rational treasures that tumble out now, scattered thought, measures of logical light you continue to spill, far beyond fools’ empty fields & death’s visionless night.

For Tom Flynn How can I believe you’re dead? It’s only something someone said. Would you leave us here to grieve, when you could give the lie to, instead? Perhaps yet live & not let go, for we do remember so— remember then, remember when, at last though remember best, were you here again.

A miracle is usually defined as an event supposedly unexplainable by nature. But such a definition is predicated on a logical fallacy called arguing from ignorance—that is, from a lack of knowledge. It is like saying, “We don’t know; therefore, we do know.” Anglican writer C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) succinctly defined a miracle as “an …

In various religious traditions, adherents have sought heightened states through experiences termed ecstasies. In the ancient Greek Dionysian mysteries, for instance, initiates employed intoxicants and intense dancing to achieve an ecstatic state. Today’s charismatic Christians practice “being slain in the spirit” whereby they may speak in tongues or engage in other unusual behaviors. In Roman …

According to an enduring legend, in 1686 while conquering Turks were praying in the Budapest mosque they had converted from a Catholic church, suddenly—in a great explosion—a figure of the Holy Virgin Mary appeared! The credulous soldiers were fear-stricken and fled, and the Christians began to reclaim their church and city, beginning a joyous procession …

When the treasured Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris suffered a devastating fire in 2019—beginning on the evening of Monday, April 15, and burning for over twelve hours—few could ignore the irony. Occurring during Holy Week (Easter Day was April 21), the horrific event may have seemed to supernaturalists to represent the wrath of God unleashed, or …

Examining the gospels like cold-case evidence is as absurd as it is unreliable.

It began on May 13, 1917—a series of “miracles” and “secrets” that three shepherd children claimed the Virgin Mary shared with them in Fatima, Portugal.

“There is nothing to suggest that Julian’s visions are anything more than imaginative meditations. They contain mostly the dogmas and iconography of the period.”

If the Church wishes to honor a doctrinaire nun, let it do so without an affront to science and reason.

“The forger even included a typographical
error in transcription that was in the online edition he or she used for the copying!”

1 In Argentina, this once, the tango dancers dance for me, who sees a tilt, a turn, a glance, a spin, a hiked-leg stance, and then the two are one, and their romance becomes the dancers as the dance. 2 Birds dance and sing in the sky over Buenos Aires. But I hear the cry …

The Center for Inquiry Institute launches a three-year academic program A program of intensive education in humanism, skepticism, and rationalism has been successfully launched by the Center for Inquiry Institute, a nonprofit educational institution co-sponsored by the Council for Secular Humanism. In addition to increasing public awareness of the need for critical thinking across the spectrum …

More and more frequently, we are seeing news reports of “weeping,” “bleeding,” and otherwise animated icons and effigies. Invariably, these are either in Orthodox churches or in Catholic Churches or shrines (often in private homes)—places where there is a special emphasis on religious images. It was a per-ceived overemphasis on icon veneration, felt to represent …