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Let me clarify, I'm not asking if a miracle happened, or for a scientific explanation for why the sun might appear to do what was claimed. I'm asking about the actual numbers... if there is any verification for the claims that "thousands" of people saw a strange solar phenomena?

Though there are discrepancies in the numbers, it's a very popular claim by very religious Catholics (and some others) that "thousands" witnessed a strange solar phenomena...

Although an hundred thousand individuals, from many diverse faiths and from no faith, spread out even over several miles, saw the “miracle of the sun,” Source

Gathered in the Cova da Iria near Fatima, an insignificant rural community in the countryside in Ourém in western Portugal, about 110 miles north of Lisbon, were an estimated 40,000 to 100,000 witnesses Source

Etc.

Certainly some people claim they saw something odd. And certainly thousands were present on that day. Source

HOWEVER... Is there any evidence that thousands claim they saw this phenomena? The only statements I ever see (like in my two links above) claim thousands saw it without providing evidence for the numbers. What they tend to provide instead are anecdotes of a small handful of people who claim to have seen it combined with the fact that thousands were present and suggest this means thousands witnessed this phenomena. But that doesn't necessarily mean thousands claim to have seen anything out of the ordinary. It could have been a small handful of people making the claim and others misrepresenting the situation so it seems like thousands were making the claim.

Andrew Whatever
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    The [wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_the_Sun) in your own link seems to answer this. It has a newspaper reporter and a professor claiming that something like 30-100 thousand people were there. Granted not all of them claim to have seen the actual phenomenon, but surely a reasonable fraction of them did. Your claim that only a tiny fraction of the people there might have actually witnessed this seems implausible given the reported behavior by the newspapers. – KAI Jul 08 '15 at 23:31
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    "But surely a reasonable fraction of them did" is exactly the vague kind of logic I am trying to get past. We're skeptics here. I want proof that thousands of people claim to have seen this phenomena. The best I have ever seen is individual anecdotes. IF, for instance, the phenomena was just straight up made up by religious people trying to fulfill a prophecy, it is conceivable that almost no one there saw or even claimed to have seen anything out of the ordinary and people are taking the few they can get to say they did and extrapolating that to the entire crowd. – Andrew Whatever Jul 09 '15 at 04:27
  • I guess what I'm asking basically boils down to... IF something strange happened with the sun, yeah, I agree that of the 30-100 thousand people there probably thousands would have seen it. But do we have any evidence that anything strange happened with the sun besides the small handful of anecdotal stories? I want to know why we should believe that "thousands" witnessed something that may or may not have happened. Essentially, is there empirical evidence thousands saw anything out of the ordinary? Thousands of witness testimonies, etc.? – Andrew Whatever Jul 09 '15 at 04:33
  • I've seen scientific articles that try to give scientific explanations for how thousands of people could see the sun "dance" and such. But that to me is already taking a leap. Why should we believe thousands saw anything to begin with? What evidence is there for these numbers? Have thousands of people who were there come forth and said they saw the phenomena? Has anyone even tried to collect witness testimonies of Fatima in large numbers? Or did they just hear a few claim they saw something and assume? – Andrew Whatever Jul 09 '15 at 04:37
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    It isn't vague logic. It isn't possible to sample everybody from an event that happened a hundred years ago. But, we do have accounts from other parties. This includes multiple newspapers and professors from universities. Now, those newspapers and professors may have had their own biases, but given that they overwhelmingly reported the phenomenon and reported that the crowd saw the phenomenon, it's entirely reasonable to expect that most in the crowd saw it as well. Especially since you would expect them to be less likely to witness it than the real faithful that had gathered. – KAI Jul 09 '15 at 15:39
  • Or, to use the rules of this site: what is the notable claim here? Multiple newspapers and professors claim it happened. Where is the notable claim required by this site that it did not happen? The many skeptics who have addressed this issue take it as a given that people think they saw the event, but try and explain why they might think they saw the solar phenomenon. – KAI Jul 09 '15 at 15:42
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    @kai: We don't usually require notable claims both pro and con; a claim has been offered that about 100,000 people saw whatever it was, and that's sufficient to investigate it. Evidence has been offered that a few people believed they saw it, namely those who are quoted as saying that they did. But the question is, do all or most of the the remaining 99,990 people also believe they saw it? We have not seen evidence to support that. – Nate Eldredge Jul 09 '15 at 23:47
  • "This includes multiple newspapers and professors from universities. Now, those newspapers and professors may have had their own biases, but given that they overwhelmingly reported the phenomenon and reported that the crowd saw the phenomenon" Even though it doesn't answer my question, can you link to multiple professors who claim to have seen this? I've never heard this claim before and I'm curious. Bonus if they are not religiously biased. – Andrew Whatever Jul 10 '15 at 15:18
  • And of course it would be tough to gather the evidence NOW. I'm asking if anyone bothered to do so back then. – Andrew Whatever Jul 10 '15 at 15:19
  • And to clarify my personal view is that something odd probably did happen (explainable by science). I still want to see the proof of the claims that thousands witnessed something odd though. – Andrew Whatever Jul 10 '15 at 15:28

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