Path of the Secular Humanist: Hucksters, hoaxes, hogwash and hullabaloo in Hobbs

Richard Hempstead | For the Sun-News

"Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense." - Voltaire.

The Las Cruces Diocese is investigating a "weeping" Virgin Mary statue in a Hobbs Church and outgoing Bishop Oscar Cantú in May told the Sun-News:

"If it is supernatural then is it not God? Or is it an evil spirit? We do believe in fallen angels because we believe from the scriptures that they're frustrated — and sometimes they use things, they can be rather cunning. So that would be other piece: what are the fruits? If it's from God, it's going to produce positive fruits of joy, of peace, of healing--perhaps physical healing."

Cantú goes on to promise an investigation "on many levels" under the direction of Deacon Jim Winder of the Las Cruces Diocese. Winder said, "we will investigate to rule out any chances of man made causes or natural causes."

More: 'It's a miracle': Virgin Mary statue wept at Mass, Hobbs parishioners said

More: Bishop Cantú explains investigation into 'weeping' Virgin Mary statue

The skeptical and scientific among us would rather see an independent, impartial investigation to minimize, if not completely eradicate, confirmation bias. The gullible and pseudoscientists among us us might prefer attendance at Ripley's Believe It or Not booths or seek the wisdom of the local palm-reading fortune teller. Faith, dogma, revelation, and superstition have no place in the scientific method and are guaranteed to lead to incorrect, untestable or conflicting conclusions. All superstitions claiming to show the truth are pseudoscience. Surely, it should not take months to years to test an oily rose-scented substance from a hollow bronze sculpture.

On June 5, I spent an hour on the phone with Joe Nickell, who is the Center for Inquiry's senior research fellow. He has spent a career debunking purported miraculous or supernatural events across the globe. After onsite investigations, Nickell writes a piece describing his findings in the Investigative Files section of "Skeptical Inquirer," the Magazine of Science and Reason. He has covered ghosts, apparitions, Big Foot giant pandas, extraterrestrial encounters, flying saucers, Nostradamus and Roswell aliens. I asked him if he was aware of the reports out of Hobbs. He was. Had he ever investigated a similar case? Indeed, he had.

Nickell referred me to a piece he wrote for the May/June 2011 issue of "Skeptical Inquirer" titled, "The Case of the Miracle Oil." The story was featured on the Oprah Channel show "Miracle Detectives."

Nickell said that Deacon Jim Winder "seems like a reasonable guy." Nonetheless, he did admit that there are other clergy who are "piously fraudulent" and "willfully ignorant" in their investigative approach. He went on to tell me of an exchange between him and a parish priest after the conclusion of a Virgin Mary statue weeping oily scented tears in a parish in Nebraska. After toasting each other for the mutual respect shown between them during the investigation, this exchange followed:

Parish priest: "Joe, it's not my job to wrestle these people to the ground." And Joe responded "No, Father, that's my job!"

He finished by advising me on several points:

Ask Deacon Winder to provide copies of the diocesan lab results to the public which should easily discern between a "drying" oil like linseed oil and "non-drying" oil like olive oil. A non-drying oil will slowly drip for days. A hand holding an oil dropper — like one would "cup" a cigarette — could be used to replenish the oil in a statue's eye socket. A hoaxer would cover their hand with a cloth and pretend to wipe away the tears, squeeze the dropper bulb, and voila, continuous tears. Since oils can be purchased with "rose" or other scents, be certain to test the Hobbs tears oil for glycol ether — a synthetic compound used by the perfume industry to help keep scent/oil elements from separating. Surely, God would not need to use any synthetic materials in his mother's tears.

Cantú, in July, told the Sun-News a sample of the fluid collected from the sculpture was sent for chemical analysis, which revealed the tears were rose-scented olive oil. Hmm?!

More: Investigative team examines tears from 'weeping' Hobbs statue

A copy of Nickell's "A Case Of the Miracle Oil" is available by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope to 509 S. Main St., Suite B, Las Cruces, NM, 88001.

And I finish this month's commentary with one more quote from guess who: "A supernatural explanation for a natural phenomenon is always based on a logical fallacy called an argument from ignorance. Since no one can explain it, it must have been a miracle. Substitute X-Force for miracle and we see what a non-explanation is." - Joe Nickell.

Dr. Richard W. Hempstead has been in private practice in dermatology in Las Cruces since 1984.

More Path of the Secular Humanist:

There is no such place as hell

Critical and magical wish thinking

The essential secular humanist dictionary, entry 1