Bill D - thanks for your point about scepticism!

Sinsull - the Lourdes visions may have occurred only a couple of hundred years ago but the mindset that produced them and the Lourdes cult that followed are firmly rooted in medieval Catholic mysticism.

This may be a bit of thread creep but it's also somewhat on-topic:

A few weeks ago, my mother-in-law had a heart attack followed by a mild stroke which put her in the hospital. While examining her, the doctors found that she also suffered from a bleeding gastric ulcer which caused her blood pressure to drop to a life-threateningly low level. The doctors told her it would take one or more blood transfusions to save her life.

Being a lifelong Jehovah's Witness, she refused the transfusions, knowing this could kill her. The family supported her decision, prayed a lot, and she survived and is now recovering.

I think that refusing a life-saving medical procedure on religious grounds is the height of idiocy. But then to me, all religion is superstition. I'd like to ask whether anyone here agrees with my point of view, and further, whether anyone would say that it was the prayer, or a miracle, that saved my mother-in-law?

Cheers,
Michael