The Passion of Belief Over Reasonable Debate

"I was simply trying to develop a scientific understanding of this 'miracle' and to look at it from a scientific point of view.  Distributing this water and claiming it was a cure-all was irresponsible.  It could have been infected with bacteria."  Sanal Edamaruku

Now that is the voice and the reasoning of an intelligent man.  That is also the voice and the reasoning of a man accused of 'blasphemy, lies and defamation'.  An objective view of the situation would tend to place most people in the position of agreeing with Mr. Edamaruku.  But, unfortunately, there is a vast distance between intellectual rationality and spiritual emotion.

And never the twain, alas, do quite meet in harmony.

In a suburb of north Mumbai, the business capital of India, the church of Our Lady of Velankanni in Andheri, has a statue of Jesus on the cross.  Unaccountably, other than the result of a miracle, someone noticed that water was dripping from the feet of the Christ.  Which caused thousands of faithful worshippers to gather to see the miracle for themselves.

The faithful are not named faithful for nothing.  It was a miracle.  They came in their thousands to look, to wonder, to pray and pay homage.  And to collect the precious liquid in bottles, to drink it as a cure for whatever ailed them, from arthritis to cancer.  No word yet whether any of the faithful experienced miracle cures from the miracle liquid.

Was the statue of Christ weeping? 

Mr. Edamaruku, who is, surprise! an atheist, is the president of India's Rationalist Association.  He heard of the commotion and, two weeks on, visited the church.  He did this "in the public interest".  But his visit to the church and his explanation of what had occurred was less than palatable to the faithful.  Who declared him despicable for having come to the conclusion that the drips were a result of a malfunctioning toilet.

He now faces blasphemy charges that could result in a prison term of up to three years.  Faith is not debatable.  It is what it is, and may not be interfered with.  And India has a 152-old blasphemy law to prove just that.

Joseph Dias from the Catholic-Christian Secular Forum has brought legal action against Mr. Edamaruku, insisting that his comments were quite simply "intolerable".

"His remarks were blatantly false.  The abnormal phenomenon was captured live on TV and the media for two days and no plausible explanation could be found as to why the crucifix was dripping with water. This was blasphemy, lies and defamation."

India's legal code places a ban on "any act which is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities".  A laudable piece of social engineering in an attempt to ensure acceptance, equality and forbearance.  And it excludes rational explanations of seemingly otherworldly interventions.

"The water came from a toilet", Mr. Edamaruku stated conclusively.  "It was not a miracle."