EntropicOrder

I was wondering what the atheistic/agnostic view on stigmata is. How are bleeding wounds in pious individuals explained? If your explanation is pyschosomatic, then how is it possible that these people can lose incredible amounts of blood and remain alive? Furthermore, with the subject of demons and exorcism, how is it possible that a person that is "possessed" can detect trace amounts of holy water in food or speak in dead languages? I currently hold a freethinking agnostic mindset, however these are some current, empirical situations that seem rather difficult to explain with a materialist mindset. I'd greatly appreciate any reasonable ideas/responses.

Thanks
EO

Demigawd

Do you have links to the sources of these claims?

Yellum Notnef

Please show us some cases were people lost incredible amounts of blood

EntropicOrder

http://www.rockinauburn.com/columns/stigmata.html

This site speaks of cases where there were up to 1.5 pints of blood lost per day.

Sephiroth

Got a non-biased source for that?

I don't see why the stigmata receives all the hype it does in the first place, if that's the way god rewards "pious" individuals then I'd hate to see how he deals with people who get on his bad side.

beastmaster

The Skeptic's Dictionary thinks the best explanation for stigmata is self-inflicted wounds caused by pious frauds.

Unless I see evidence that undermines or rules out that possibility, I must concede it is the best explanation.

Here's another skeptical article.

Oh, and Cecil Adams' take on the matter.

EntropicOrder

Here's an article about stigmata, however it specifically focuses on Padre Pio.

http://mailbox.univie.ac.at/~muehleb9/stigmatabc.html

This article brings up the interesting fact that the Vatican was suspicious of stigmata claims and had the priest's confession box tapped. They found claims that he had been using nitric acid to inflict the wounds himself. However, later in the article it says the the wounds never healed, never showed signs of being self-inflicted (upon medical examination), and never got infected.
I, with the majority of you, tend toward skepticism. Psychosomatic and self-inflicted explanations seem plausible, however I'm sure a Christian would scoff at the idea (like most other reasonable argument).
As far as the "reward" part is concerned, these individuals mostly want the stigmata and pray for it for extended periods of time(which further gives credence to the psychosomatic explanation, which even the catholic church has acknowledged as a major possibility).
The more I look for evidence of excessive blood loss (which seems to be the only part that would defy explanation), the more I become doubtful there actually is any credible documentation. it all seems to be hearsay and rumor with no specifics given.
Still though, what about people speaking in Latin, Ancient Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic when they are supposedly possessed by a demon? I'll look for some reliable,recent evidence of this and get back to the board.
Sorry I didn't come more prepared, but I thought there were explanations for even the blood loss that were known and not just that the blood loss was fraud.

Thanks
EO