Virgin Mary Breaks Into South African Apartment
Curious flock to see 'Virgin' witness
...Francesca Zackey's Alphen Park home in Benoni, to which people have been flocking since word got out that she had been visited by the Virgin Mary.
The apparitions - in all, about 20, the girl claims - have happened for just over a month...
Five spots in the garden have been marked with her statues, roses and candles. There is also a rose on the garden chair where, according to the teenager, Mary sat.
The Zackeys are devout Catholics and their house is adorned with pictures and statues of Mary and Jesus...
According to Francesca, Mary first appeared on May 7. There was a strong scent of roses, which drew her to her bedroom.
"I found her sitting on my bed. She had blue eyes and long brown hair. She was wearing a royal-blue veil and light was coming from her open hands."
Francesca says she asked: "Is that you, my lady?"
"Yes," Mary is said to have replied.
The teenager said she told her family, who also smelt the scent but couldn't see Mary.
Francesca claims to have touched the lady's "baby soft" hand when Mary cried sadly about "gays, gay marriages and abortions, saying they were not from God"...
Which is more likely:
- a non-corporeal manifestation of a 2000+ year old woman who was impregnated by an omnipotent entity appeared to a teenager while remaining invisible to her parents
- a teenager craved attention and made up a story that she knew would get it for her.
The substance of religious belief is the willingness to pick option 1 over option 2 based on faith and ignoring experience. Personally, I think the girl in question is lying through her teeth and has conned a lot of people into going along with her story exactly because they want to believe. Their faith is thus reinforced by sheer deception. Falsehood is never a good basis upon which to hold a single opinion, let alone an entire worldview.
Occam's razor is a wonderfully useful tool for the dissection of any situation in which supernatural explanations for a phenomenon are advanced. It should be used with precision but without mercy. A surgeon should not faint at the sight of blood.
