Juan Diego and the Image-Superimposed Dream Tilma!

Great Debates
1

I was inspired to inquire about this after viewing the thread on stigmatics.

I’ve heard plenty of amazing claims about the tilma that features Our Lady of Guadelupe. No brush strokes. Irridescence. Reflections in the eyes that match what would be expected in an actual human eye. Should have deteriorated 400 years ago. My only problem is this - in all of my research, I’ve only found information on the tilma on Catholic websites, where it would be safe to assume there is a “Dude, this is SO totally a miracle” bias. Which, of course, makes me hesitant to trust all of the claims I come across.

Well, Dopers, I ask you - what’s the deal with the tilma? Have these claims been scientifically verified? Is this thing for real?

2

I asked something like this a while back, and no one seemed to have much to say.

A non-Catholic book on the subject is OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE by Poole. Unfortunately, it only addresses the historicity of the Juan Diego story, not the question of the properties of the tilma itself.

I believe there have been articles in THE SKEPTIC and SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, but have not read them. Their conclusions are fairly predictable, I would suppose.

I suppose the arguments will go back and forth and forth and back, getting nowhere–as always.

Maybe that’s the point about real religious miracles: “God” wishes to remain intriguing, but unverifiable.