Can an athiest explain this? Heck can anyone?

Question

http://www.catholicpilgrims.com/lourdes/ba_bernadette_intro.htm

*roll your mouse over the picture*

St Bernadette's body has never corupted. As I know Catholics do not use mummy chemicals consideringit was 1879 when she passed.

Answer 1

It is obviously miracle of almighty GOD....

Answer 2

Read the information on this site: http://mike.friese.com/pilgrimage/paris/bernaut.html

You'll notice accounts of the previous exhumation of St Bernadette's body revealled significantly more decay than shown in the pictures on the site you posted.

In reality, she hasn't been preserved as well as that site would have you think. Instead, the church responsible for her have laid finely crafted wax masks over her face and hands to give this appearance.

From what I understand though, her body did show incredible signs of preservation. I am slightly suspicious of the fact that doctors have said that the body "looks mummified" though.

I would suggests that you also read this article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu - which goes into some detail on the act of self-mummification.

Basically a few Japanese monks discovered that sticking to a diet of poisonous substances they made their bodies near enough incapable of being consumed by bacteria or maggots etc. In the end, some were preserved so well that their status was elevated to the level of Buddha.

Answer 3

"The fact that Bernadette's body was perfectly preserved is not necessarily miraculous. It is well known that corpses decompose to varying degrees in certain kinds of soil and may gradually mummify."

"a precise imprint of the face was molded so that the firm of Pierre Imans in Paris could make a light wax mask based on the imprints and on some genuine photos. This was common practice for relics in France, as it was feared that although the body was mummified, the blackish tinge to the face and the sunken eyes and nose would make an unpleasant impression on the public."

http://www.catholicpilgrims.com/lourdes/bb_bernadette_body.htm

Answer 4

have been all born atheists, without non secular ideals what-so-ever. that's no longer till toddlers are indoctrinated right into a faith that they grow to be deists. it oftentimes has to return at an early age, with the aid of fact no sensible grownup will have faith in flying magic angels, containers that kill upon touch, human beings strolling on water, human beings therapeutic the lifeless, magic previous adult men who build super boats able to conserving 2 of the each and every 10 million species of animal on earth, or that reducing your hair will do away with your super-human capability. that's dazzling how human beings would be skeptical of plenty different than for an historic stupid previous e book that asserts supernatural issues that no one might have faith immediately, yet with the aid of fact it became into suggested to occurred, then written down some hundred years later they take it to be the literal reality. i'm an atheist with the aid of fact the organic clarification for existence is unquestionably backed and logical. I even have in no way seen something supernatural and subsequently don't have faith its possible.

Answer 5

Stalin's body has not corrupted either. I would like to see testing done before I made a claim about no embalming chemicals. I would like to see some independent third party testing of most of these miracles. They usually have not stood up to inspection. Catholic or other miracles.


http://www.michaeldietsch.com/mt32archives/science_and_technology/

Regarding incorruptibility
Yesterday, I pointed to a 1998 letter, printed in the Catholic magazine This Rock, from a Michael Dietsch in South Berwick, Maine. That Michael Dietsch discusses a couple of 1998 articles from This Rock debunking Darwinian evolution. Dietsch also mentions an article by Phillip Johnson from First Things magazine, in which Johnson writes that accepting evolution as fact requires an a priori commitment to materialist thinking. (It's worth pointing out now that Phillip Johnson is an advisor to the Discovery Institute, the Seattle organization that's so active in promoting the concept of Intelligent Design, which, of course, requires an a priori commitment to religious thinking.) So Dietsch then writes:
The only issue remaining is proof of the supernatural world, which is proof that materialism is nothing more than an unfounded philosophical assumption. This is where the incorruptibles come in. Look at St. Catherine Labour�, for example. She died in 1876, and her body has remained entirely incorrupt for the last 122 years. St. Bernadette Soubirous is a similar case. She died in 1879, and her body has remained incorrupt for the last 119 years. Ask any materialist for a purely natural, material explanation of these phenomena, then stand back and watch him stuttering because of a loss of words."

South Berwick's Michael Dietsch would have you believe that the clear supernatural origins of these incorruptibles render moot any claim that the world is bounded solely by natural, material forces. These incorruptibles are said to be saints preserved by their lingering connection with the Holy Spirit. For these claims to be true, however, you have to demonstrate a couple of truths: * No natural explanation could ever possibly explain their preservation. * No non-saintly being anywhere is so preserved. I decided to do a little digging. I didn't find much on Google--a few articles about moral incorruptibility, a few Catholic websites that laud these incorruptible saints as miraculous without critically examining the claims, and a bunch of French-language hits. I did find a couple of interesting articles, though, including Saints Preserve Us and Incorruptibility: Miracle or Myth?. I learned from these articles that Dietsch was mentioning only two of many incorruptible saints, and I also learned that historians and scientists generally accept that these bodies are indeed those of the saints in question--that is, these aren't hoaxes as I initially suspected. The Church, apparently, takes no official position on the incorruptibility of saints' relics. As the Fortean Times piece points out, church "authorities, quite sensibly, are more interested in the person's virtue." And, in fact, not all who are preserved are saintly, or even, in fact Catholic. Fortean Times points to a cardinal who collaborated with Mussolini and also to Hindu and Buddhist clerics whose bodies are revered. Dietsch's Saint Bernadette, it turns out, had her face coated in wax after her second exhumation, and her body sealed in an air-tight glass coffin. Seal me in wax and bury me in an air-tight coffin, and I'm likely to stand up for decades too. Finally, these are saints, and Catholics have a history of revering their relics. Such veneration requires Catholics to keep close tabs on the remains. How can we know for certain the rate of decay of the millions of bodies that aren't so revered? Decomposition depends on burial conditions such as the airtightness of the coffin and vault; the presence of insects, water, and microbes in the soil; and various other factors. Dig up a few dead Jews or Protestants and see what they look like. Among millions, you're statistically likely to find some that haven't decayed much after decades of burial. "The only explanation is supernatural," Dietsch claims. I'll admit, it doesn't appear that scientists can fully explain why some of these remains are undecayed. But Dietsch has fallen for the same fallacy that Phillip Johnson and his fellows at the Discovery Institute like to preach: If science can't fully explain something right now, the only possible answer is, "God did it, so science, you just shut your piehole and look pretty."
March

Answer 6

Well there are similar hapennings from people of other religions too. I once saw the same thing about a Buddhist monk on Discovery channel. Don't remember the name though.

So how do u explain that?

Answer 7

It could very well have been arsenic, which was used around that time to preserve bodies.

The catacombs of Palermo have a 2 year old child who died in the 1920's but still is perfectly preserved:

http://members.tripod.com/~Motomom/child.jpg

Answer 8

I placed a Tomato at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, fourteen Days later it was still as fresh as on the day I placed it there, am I a holy Men now?

Answer 9

Vacuum sealing her body.

It is a process that has been around for awhile.....

It could also be a process known as saponification which is less likely since that process was not invented that time.

Answer 10

I explain it with the fact that in the end times there will be many miracles proclaimed by the followers (catholics) of the false religion of the antichrist

Answer 11

She probably ate alot of food with preservatives-don't tell me it was 1879 I don't care.