This Guy.

Let me begin this with a note. I have a VERY slow computer. Working on getting that fixed (as in buying a new computer). Roughly 90% of my posts are made at a university computer, and not my own personal one. This post is an exception. I updated my computer to Windows 10 and that actually did help, it’s now running at a significantly faster pace, but to call it fast would be an exaggeration. I am most likely going to purchase a new laptop in the near future, and hopefully that laptop will make writing a breeze. I write A LOT. I am currently looking through sets of Laptops under $500 that can handle streaming videos and have relatively solid wifi connectability (not a word, even though it SHOULD be). If you know of any you’d recommend, let me know! Now onto the REAL post. This is meant to be a sort of “Silly Argument Saturday”, but that’s too nice. These arguments you’ll be hearing are downright dumb. Say hello to my least favorite person: Tony. Miano.

 

First things first: I am covering this now, because I loathe these arguments. I had never heard of Miano until this month (which is why I am only now talking about this guy instead of doing it earlier), and I’ve been listening to the idiocy he spews, internally debating whether or not I should give him more coverage than he’s already gotten… I decided that he’ll get the “fame” he wants one way or another and thus I should talk about his nonsense. If you don’t know why I think him gaining fame is inevitable it’s because he’s worked with Comfort, and with Jeff from Apologia Studios, and he’s just… he’s one of those Apologists who will make himself famous. Because he’s a jerk who has no qualms about filming people who are in the process of making an incredibly difficult decision, and he has no real issues with making women cry, or acting like he has a moral high horse. I edited this sentence because without an explanation it kind of demands more than “he’s a dick” which is what it originally said. And because he is willing to do things for fame. I’ve seen dozens of his videos and I have listened to his nonsensical rambling for far longer than I should have, and I can confidently state that he desires fame. He, like many other apologists, will state that he doesn’t, but he does. And that’s not actually a bad thing (I don’t think wanting fame is bad despite what many in society will say about that), but he has to act like he believes wanting fame is a bad thing.

This video was uploaded on May 1st of last year, and it’s just 16 minutes of bad arguments. Let’s talk about it.

The first argument he makes is both an appeal to fear and an appeal to misusing definitions. Which is doubly bad because he has some experience in law-enforcement and thus should KNOW that abortion by definition isn’t murder. I’ve written about this, and it was largely inspired by him and people like him that I wanted to talk about how abortion and murder, provided the abortion is legally acquired, are not the same thing.

Second argument (begins at 0:45)? Nazis. Yep. Tony goes full Nazi in order to make this lady feel bad. But of course it’s not the same thing. No one is forcing these women to get abortions. And the “escorts” and staffers are there to ensure people like Tony don’t break the law. No one tries to stop women from leaving Planned Parenthood if they aren’t comfortable with what’s happening in the clinics.

Third argument (around 1:00); people of color and Planned Parenthood. This one is trickier. It is sort of correct, if you view Planned Parenthood as a “murder/abortion” mill. Of course he’s not talking about the needs of families in low income neighborhoods populated by families of color, but trying to demonize Planned Parenthood.

Forth argument (begins at about 2:35); the parasite thing. I don’t know if Planned Parenthood teaches this, but it is a nonsensical thing to say. It’s easy to see what people think of this term could apply to a fetus growing inside of a female of any species. Tony is trying to make emotional arguments instead of real ones that can be discussed, by attaching terms that tend to evoke negative emotional images. Fetuses aren’t parasites, but that’s not the point here. Tony is making a radical claim in order to get a reaction. Also the whole “empowering women” thing. It’s true. This does empower pregnant women who don’t want to be pregnant, to make the decision to not be pregnant anymore. That is empowering them.

Political Agenda comments at around 3:20. No Tony, the people who work at Planned Parenthood, especially regular workers, don’t have an evil agenda like you wish they did. They are men and women who have jobs. People like you, who want to criminalize abortion have political agendas.

A note about the religious stuff: Tony isn’t making compelling arguments FOR CHRISTIANITY. He is making God look like a rapist, and making it clear that there are SOME (not all) Christians who are Christians because they are cowards. They are cowards who believe God will punish them if they accept responsibility for their actions, and instead believe it is MORAL to let someone else suffer for them. It is better to question this system and the being who allegedly designed it, than to accept this system as reality without compelling evidence. And if you think Miano will ever make arguments supporting what he believes you are incorrect. He has stated multiple times that he and Sye Ten are the same kind of apologist and refuse to support what he is trying to assert is real, and will instead focus on making YOU and anyone who disagrees with him feel like evil, pathetic, worms.

At 7:35 Tony begins to talk about Sanger. This is actually a real argument. But he refuses to realize that organizations can change overtime. He also doesn’t talk about how Sanger was praised by plenty of African American civil rights leaders, AND how she was invited to some neighborhoods inhabited mostly by people of color for her clinics. This is a stupid talking point, and while it has the appearance of a real argument it doesn’t work when investigated. Yes she was problematic, BUT the work she did and the people in Planned Parenthood do now is real and has genuinely positive effects. Also Tony goes on to talk about “heritage”. No Christian should ever make this argument. Ever. The heritage Christians inherit is one which supported slavery, one which includes the Crusades, the eradication of Native Americans, the Salem Witch Trials, the European Witch Trails, the Ku Klux Klan. It is HILARIOUS that a Christian apologist wants to argue about “heritage”.

This video includes lots of bad arguments. I think it’s worth not spoiling the rest of the video, but I’d love to hear what you think about Miano, who is just… he makes awful arguments, and refuses to do research once he hears a claim that he thinks he can use against people who disagree with him. I’d love to get your opinion on this particular apologist. I think he’s awful. And dangerously regressive. But he’s also not popular. So there is that.

Let me know what you think! Do you think I should talk about other apologists? If so, who?

Some sources on Sanger.

If You Want to Visit “Fun” Places as an Atheist…

This post is meant to show some of the “best” Facebook pages for atheists to visit. Please note; this isn’t for every kind of atheist. If you’re a vocal atheist, who likes debating, even with the least imaginative theists, then you might like these pages.

1: Atheist Central. Run by the remarkably dense Ray Comfort, this page will never fail to provide laughs, even if you aren’t someone who enjoys debates. Ray Comfort is an apologist who antagonizes atheists to gain a new audience so that his YouTube videos keep on being watched, and keep on earning money for his really annoying ministry, “Living Waters”. Comfort’s whole job is to annoy people, Christian, atheist, and otherwise so that he can film videos which earn money for him, and ensure that his website continues to be visited. His page is filled with all sorts of Christians, and atheists debating back and forth. It’s a fascinating page to visit and to see for yourself.

2: Freedom from Atheism Foundation (FFAF). I can’t think of anything nice to see about these trolls. They have a website, and on it more information about them can be found, including their mission statement. If it had any degree of truth, it’d almost be okay. But it’s not. Their mission is to antagonize atheists, and to work to reverse the work done by “movement atheism” and secular groups advocating for separation of Church and State. If you want to debate more than just Christians, this is a good place to find posts which will get you heated.

3: Ken Ham. We all know who Ken Ham is. But if you don’t, he’s the genus behind Answers in Genesis. Yep.

4: Cross Encounters. Tony Miano. If you’ve never heard of him… I don’t know where to begin with this guy. He’s one of the most vocal Christians when it comes to criminalizing abortion, and he’s also a proponent of calling abortions murder. Which as I’ve talked about previously, isn’t a fitting description of abortion. For some of his videos (comments tend to be disabled on them, but not every single time he posts a video. Some of them can be commented on) check out the following links. If you are interested in social justice, (and frankly even if you aren’t) some of his comment is… it’s a reminder that people with his old-fashioned (oh hey, I’m being nice) viewpoints still exist and can still be quite vocal.

 

 

 

If you want people to argue with… I think I just gave you links to various pages which will help sate your thirst for impossible debates, with some of the most annoying theists (who speak English) that you’ll meet. Have fun.

Real Life, An Update

Hey all! Once again this week has been a relatively crazy time for me. I’ve been both in training (I work as a summer conference assistant, or S.C.A., for the University of North Carolina at Greensboro), and occasionally had to go rather far relative to my apartment in Greensboro and that has kept me from being at a computer for the amount of time I would have liked. But that is over. I finished training yesterday, and today I was able to finish the last stuff I needed to do out of town, and I got back home at 5 in the afternoon.

I am really excited to be back home, and to be writing again. Tomorrow I’m expecting to post at least 2 times (which is a bit unusual for me, but this is something I am excited about), and on Patheos I’ll be writing about silly arguments, and about Latin American history. I am motivated, despite a rather long week, and I look forward to making serious contributions to here and to Patheos.

If you want to chat, let’s do it! If you’d like to see any specific silly arguments, or any specific episodes in Latin American history to discuss, leave me a comment down below.

Some More Legends (Urban and Not), Mythology Monday

Like last week, this Mythology Monday will cover Latin American urban legends. I enjoy covering them and there’s certainly a variety to cover in this area of supernatural storytelling. Let’s get started!

In this tale, a girl is walking down a random street in Latin America, and she felt like she was being followed. She made the decision to go further into the streets, where she shouldn’t have gone. She encountered some men who asked her what they should do to her. She was allowed to pick between being used by them (you can just read this and know what it means), or them making her smile. She picked for them to make her smile. They grabbed a knife. With that knife they proceeded to give her a Glasgow smile.

The video proceeds to explain that this is a real thing, the Glasgow smile. It’s been made more famous by various urban legends from Japan, and Korea, and it was part of the Joker from The Dark Knight.

This video is a origin story of a Colombian creature which supposedly sought to punish unfaithful men. In this origin story, there was a wife who was unfaithful to her husband. Her infidelity is ultimately discovered, and in his rage, her husband murders both her and her lover. She comes back as a spirit of rage and temptation, who lures men to their deaths, by appearing as a temptress, and then raging once men are far away from civilization. Like an empusa from Greek mythology, these creatures only have one (human) leg. For more on the Patasola, check out this link!

Do you enjoy reading, and or hearing about legends like this? If so, let me know!

The Importance Of Being Vocal

In Latin America being a professional, and a vocal atheist can lead to some awkward situations. This was demonstrated by a video which was uploaded on Sunday, which talks about Miguel Trujillo, a Colombian philosophy teacher who is openly an atheist, and also happens to be working in Garzon, an area which could be the most Catholic part of the country. His interview (which can be seen above) demonstrates why it is important that we be vocal.

In Latin America, and in the United States (and even in the UK, and other parts of Europe) there are religious leaders who would absolutely love to roll back progress. Not just politically, legally, or economically, but culturally. I’m not going to say these men and women are evil, or realize what they are doing, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. And it definitely doesn’t mean that they should be allowed to do this unchecked. Leaders like Pat Robertson, the dude from Duck Dynasty who casually told a story about a family of atheists being raped and murdered, Glyn Barrett, and like the leaders mentioned by Trujillo in this interview (they aren’t named), want to make us move backwards as a society globally. If we want to keep them from doing what they are doing, it’s not enough to just write about it. We have to show people what atheists, and other types of non-believers look like. We cannot afford to be quiet. Not just for ourselves, but for others who can’t be vocally and openly non-believers but must appear to be Christian, or Muslim, or Hindu, or any other religion. Or for the brave people who are pressured to be silent, but refuse. For the men and women who adamantly refuse to let religion control education and discourse related to certain subjects. When an atheist, agnostic, skeptic, secular humanist, or other brand of nonbeliever is vocal they aren’t just helping themselves. They are helping all nonbelievers. They are also encouraging anyone with doubts to pursue those doubts. Being vocal is perhaps the most effective tool to change minds both in terms of personal belief, and in terms of opinions about nonbelievers.

I don’t want people to be obnoxious about their lack of belief, but if they want to do that, that’s fine. I’m obnoxious about my lack of belief. But I really do want people who aren’t believers to be vocal. This will go a long way towards changing how believers look at non-believers. When they realize that we are everything they are, they’ll stop viewing us with fear, and with hesitation. In some places this matters more than others. In good chunks of the U.S.A. someone can be an open atheist or a vocal nonbeliever without too much trouble. And we obtain victories somewhat often, like how 3 nonbelievers in Oregon managed to win primaries and thus got one step closer to election the other day. In Latin America these victories are not as common. And instances like what happened with Miguel are almost certainly not unknown, the difference is that they don’t get publicity. Sharing interviews like this matters. Enabling people like Trujillo to be seen more and listened too more might discourage some from being vocal but it shouldn’t. When I listen to Trujillo talk about his experiences and his opinions, it makes me realize that I made the right decision when I became a vocal atheist. Especially as a Latin American. Being vocal is great. I want to encourage people to view nonbelievers the same way they view believers. I want us to be heard and respected the way believers are. Even if we don’t agree with each other, we can still respect each other.

If we as nonbelievers care about ourselves, our fellow nonbelievers, and our children, then we must be vocal. We must be willing to engage with those who have been convinced to fear and hate us, or even pity us. For the sake of our lives, and the lives of nonbelievers we’ve never met. Being vocal is critical to the future. At least that’s what I think. What do you think? Do you think being vocal can lessen hostility towards nonbelievers? I’d love to know!

If you want to see some information about what Miguel is talking about I did another article about the content of the interview on Patheos. Check it out!

Mythology Monday #7 Efforts to Highlight Myths In Latin America

This Mythology Monday will be highlighting something different. I did a Mythology Monday on Patheos on Joaquin Arrechavala a Nicaraguan ghost, so for the Mythology Monday on here, I wanted to share some videos made by Latin Americans throughout Latin America which highlight local monsters, myths, tales, and legends. There have been efforts throughout Latin America to promote interest in their old monsters, and they are worth discussing.

“When night falls, don’t walk alone, because in the darkness it’ll be waiting… the Cadejo!” “The night is bad for drunkards!” Some good advice that was evidently ignored by the people in this trailer.

The Cadejo is a spooky spirit dog found in Central American stories. It’s known to appear generally dog-like, with goat hooves and occasionally blazing eyes. There are two Cadejos, and they are typically white and black, and usually (but not always) the white Cadejo is good, and the black Cadejo is bad. This trailer seems to focus on the Cadejo as a bringer of darkness and death to those who disobey good advice.

A little warrior. A tiger. A cute story about an unlikely friendship, that despite the title “Stories so you don’t sleep”, this story ends well. The Mapuche are an Indigenous culture in Chile and Argentina. This story is easy enough to understand, even without an in-depth understanding of Spanish.

Urban Legends from Argentina. 6: The Devil Dog (In Spanish it’s called something else, something along the lines of “the family dog”). A man makes a deal, for the sake of his business. It involves a dog. And peasants. I think that this could easily be understood, but the dude’s business flourished supposedly because the dog’s owner, would feed the dog people. 5: This is (according to the video) a super famous urban legend, and that’s why it’s ranked at 5, because it virtually isn’t scary. It’s a gigantic rat. Two dudes get a rat, think it’s a dog (which has been injured), send it to a vet, and the vet is like “This… is a rat”. 4: (Wow a creepy-pasta. This is about a photo) There’s a ghost in the background of the photo. But when the photo was taken… there was no one in the background. Just the two people at the front of the picture. Oh and some people think it’s not a ghost, but a spooky demon. 3: The woman of white (or the woman in white). Two versions of this story exist according to the narrator of the video, in the first the girl was somebody’s girlfriend, and her boo-thing died on the road. She lures people so that they die in the same way. In the other version a girl died on the road, and then another girl exactly a year later, and so on and so forth. Oh, and sometimes a ghost bothers taxi-drivers. 2: (The last two are related to drivers or roads of some sort) The Driver’s Accident. A driver is nearly done with his work for the day, when for a few seconds he saw a lady in front of his vehicle. He couldn’t stop in time and ran into her. He decides to try to hide the body because he figured he’d be blamed for the accident. Fast-forward and he feels a chill. He sees in his mirror, the lady he slammed into, in his backseat. 1: (This one is read in its entirety, and it is according to the narrator, disturbing and perturbing) A driver is on the road, and sees a young man. He sees a would-be hitchhiker. He at first slows down to pick up the young man, but decides against it (reasoning that he might be a victim of a crime if he decides to help, or that the person is abusing his generosity). He gets closer to the hitchhiker(s) and then proceeds to slam on the accelerator, zooming away. The would-be hitchhiker(s) looks annoyed. He drives on, until his gas-tank is nearly empty and then stops at a gas-station, to fill it up. At the gas-station (service station) he gets a terrifying surprise (That I can’t really understand/translate accurately).

If you’re interested in more of these here’s another gas station one. It’s about serial killers, gas stations, and is similar too a common urban legend in English (which was vaguely referenced/is somewhat similar to a story told in Scream Queens episode 9 “Ghost Stories”) featuring the “Killer In The Backseat”.

I know this was different, but it’s cool to highlight efforts by Latin Americans to highlight our own legends, myths, and spooky stories. I hope you enjoyed this, because I know I did.

Abortion Isn’t Murder. Stop Saying That It Is.

I wrote about this on my Facebook page (if you haven’t liked my Facebook page, it’s linked so that you can. I’d really appreciate the support.) the other day, but I want to reiterate it. Abortion is not murder. And if you say that it is you are potentially lying to someone (if you know the definition of murder). If you don’t know the definition of murder, you just happen to be wrong.

Murder isn’t JUST the act of killing someone. It’s killing which is unlawful. The death sentence, provided it was a punishment decided upon by a judge (who legally obtained that position, of course) isn’t murder. It is killing, but it was legal, and thus lawful. Abortion is also legal. In the United States anyways. In many Latin American nations (such as Honduras) abortion IS technically murder. But if you live in a place where abortion is legal… it’s not murder.

People will call women who have abortions, and the doctors who perform them “murderers” but that’s not accurate. At least in the U.S.A. abortion-performing doctors and women who get abortions are not murderers. This is a lame attempt to emotionally turn people against women who have had an abortion, and the doctors who decide to perform abortions. If this is the best argument that individual pro-lifers have, they shouldn’t be engaging in this debate. That’s harsh, but it’s the reality. The consequences of this ongoing debate are far too important to enable anyone with an opinion to just state whatever they wish and for those opinions to be made into law. The consequences are far too real for people who are directly affected by this debate, to allow for people who aren’t willing to do research. And the research can actually lead people in either direction, the pro-choice (we could be considered the pro-abortion camp, but many of us aren’t pro-abortion) camp, or the pro-life camp (we could call them pro-birth, but we won’t make assumptions about their political views once we know that they happen to be pro-life).

In the United States in order for abortion to become “murder” it’d take someone ignoring the Supreme Court. That likely won’t happen, even as hard as right-wing Christians and many (but not all) Republicans want it too. This doesn’t change the fact that some people are… determined to call people who aren’t murders, murderers.

The videos which inspired me to get annoyed enough to state this, and then find it worth restating, are the ones like this one. If you want to comment, I’ll give you a spoiler: he disabled the comments. On all of his videos. All of them. And I know that I shouldn’t watch them, because he’s undoubtedly monetized them. Tony is just… he’s a piece of work. And he wants to make people think that a murderer is ANYONE who has ever killed someone. That’s. Not. True.

Dictionaries matter. Don’t ignore them just because it is convenient to do so. Or just because you believe the Bible says it is. Don’t be like Tony.

If you want to contribute to a discussion about the future of Fallacy Friday’s, check out my latest post on Patheos!

Mythology Monday #6 Hummingbirds

First of all, let me just apologize. I normally post 3 or 4 times a week and last week I really did kind of mess up. I only posted once. It was a Mythology Monday which is my favorite kind of post, so in my opinion that makes it just a little bit better, but not enough. Last week was college time, and I was finishing up my finals. And my girlfriend graduated with her undergraduate degree and the weekend was filled with celebrations and preparations for our move to our summer apartments. BUT I am back now. And back to semi-regular posting. Tomorrow is the day before move-in day, and I am currently prepping myself for that, which is fun, BUT I do intend to get back to regularly posting. And by regularly I mean more than once a week. Preferably, I’d like to post 4 or 5 times a week, but you know… real life gets in the way. Anyways, onto Mythology Monday!

Let’s chat about the Taino people! The Taino are/were indigenous people from (among many other places) the same place as my parents: Puerto Rico! They inhabited a wide range of land and sea, and were one of the Indigenous groups living in Puerto Rico at the time of Columbus’s arrival, the group which inhabited Puerto Rico (and Hispaniola) is known as the “Classic” Taino (this might be due to the language spoken by those people being considered “Taino Proper” by some). Some state that the Taino are currently extinct (this is largely contested), but various groups of Caribbean Indigenous people in places like Puerto Rico are establishing a new form of Taino identity. This post will talk about myths and monsters from Puerto Rico, and not just the Taino people. If you want to share sources about the Taino, and want me to write more specifically about them let me know!

One myth from Puerto Rico is the tale of the Hummingbird. This myth prominently features two Indigenous peoples (a male and a female) and their love for each for other. Sadly they love doesn’t seem meant to be, because by coincidence, the man is a member of an enemy Indigenous tribe, and when the father of the daughter discovers the son of his enemy (tribe, not specific individual) romancing his daughter he shuts down the budding love, or tries too by preparing to marry off his daughter to someone from their tribe. The daughter beseeches her god to step in and find a way to help her. Her god’s idea is to turn the girl into a flower. The young man is left unaware of this, and waits for her until the ruler of the moon informs him of what had happened while he was gone. He begs the moon ruler to do something about it and they respond by transforming him into a bird. So he commences a search for his love. According to one version of the myth I found online he has yet to discover the location of his love. It also stated that his wings made noise which people liked and that’s how the bird became known as a hummingbird.

This is another short post, but if you want to read about the Taino and their… revival and how people dispute the idea that they went extinct (I have no opinion of this because I don’t know enough about it to speak about it and I don’t know how else to word the movement by those who identify as Taino, given that some believe the group went extinct. I will be learning and reading about this and talking about it at length in the future. If you have sources to recommend please do so in the comments section!) click here, and here. If you want to read about Puerto Rican myths, click here and here. If you want some material on Tainos in general here is some, and here.

I am in the process of reading historical materials about Latin America and Spain, and I want to add those to my writings in the future. Now that summer is here I can truly focus on improving the quality of my writing. If you want to assist me in doing so, check out my Patreon page! Let me know what you think of my summary of a popular myth from Puerto Rico! I will be talking in the future about the Taino people, and about things related to Puerto Rico so I hope that that excites you. If you want to see me cover something specific, let me know!

 

Mythology Monday #5 Madrid’s Haunted Royal Palace

Oh hey. I’m back making Mythology Monday’s again! I’ll be skipping the usual story today, but next week I will be posting the story again. I hope that you don’t mind, but I doubt many people actually read the stories anyway. If you actually enjoy the stories don’t worry I’ll be bringing them back for next week. I want to make them real stories, not the tiny blurbs they’ve been. That’s why this week I won’t be posting one this week. This time I’m translating a legend about Madrid.

Madrid is a city filled with mysteries, especially in the oldest part of the city, where there are stories of spells, ghosts, and apparitions. Any visitor MUST see the royal palace, where they could witness the changing of the guard, and obtain a guided tour, so that they can experience a thoroughly haunted location.

The area between the slope of San Vincente and San Francisco El Grande, have historically been identified as the habitat of witches, monsters, and ghosts, who allegedly began to form during the reign of Alfonso VI, and the construction and expansion of the area that is historic Alcazar in 1537. Many believed that the work done disturbed the rest of these entities and motivated them to disrupt the work of humans in the area, which caused the death of many of the workers.

Decades later in 1698, an excorism occurred in Alcazar, of the monarch Carlos II. Due to events which happened during his life he was known as “the Bewitched”. He was believed to have been spellbound since he was 14. The source of this spell was allegedly his own mother, assisted by an duende (monsters that are believed to live in Spain, Portugal, and places with heavy Spanish influence with a variety of traits from helpful to downright silly).

Later on during the reign of Felipe V in 1734, while the monarch was away in Buen Retiro, the palace began to burn for 4 days. When the sovereign in charge of the reconstruction in 1735 decided to build on the ashes of the ruins, the new construction was made of stone. During this time the workers spoke of ghosts, demons and more which traveled throughout the area and climbed the walls. This was when the official decided an exorcism was necessary to do away with the spirits who wished to claim credit for a variety of accidents (I know the article says that the workers attributed the accidents to the spirits, this just sounds better in my mind) which pushed the workers to leave the post.

(Here’s where things get kind of metal) At the end of the work, to ensure the architect never designed another palace like this one, Felipe V ordered that his eyes be taken out, that his arms and tongue be cut off, and that they place a sculpture of his face in the palace. To this day there are claims that the statue of his head is causing noises, and causes a ghostly presence which moves furniture and slams doors.

If you want to read the source of this translation, check it out right here.

If you want some information about the stories within, here we go. The following links are about “The Bewitched King” Carlos II. Here are some about Felipe V and the Palace ablaze. Some of the designers of the royal palace in Madrid are Filippo Juvarra, Giambattista Sacchetti (following Juvarra’s death in 1736), and Francesco Sabatini. I don’t know if that part of the legend where the architect gets killed by the king is true, but it likely isn’t given that I can’t find any mention of it. Another source that mentions this is here. That source talks more about the role of the wife, Isabel de Farnesio.

I honestly can’t find anything about this extreme, yet fascinating claim. Not in English or in Spanish. If I am wrong, please let me know. But either way this is a fascinating set of urban legends and shows off some of the haunted parts of Madrid. Let me know what you thought of this!