that still doesn’t explain the Holy Fire. Greek Fire still burned people, the Holy Fire doesn’t.
If Holy Fire is a pyrotechnic, my thought is that it is derived from the same theoretical knowledge that allowed for Greek Fire, but intentionally engineered so as to minimize the risks of burning. I also doubt that it is still understood or even intentionally engaged in. From the reports I’ve heard and the research, I have an untested hypothesis as to what might be going on, which is in contrast to the reversal of the Jordan, which perhaps could be triggered by a sluice gate of some sort but this seems improbable due to the scale that would be needed; it would be a spectacular feat of civil engineering I should think.
My view is that we should regard the Holy Fire as sacred liturgy and simply not provide atheists with a vector to attack our faith, by not allowing the mechanism of its action to become subject to any official dogmatic or doctrinal interpretation, since this could expose us to attempts at debunking, and if, as I do believe is possible, Holy Fire actually is entirely supernatural (although I think it is not) I would not put it past atheists to try to discredit it anyway by demonstrating a similar phenomena and then perhaps using unethical approaches so as to introduce false or contaminated evidence to suggest Holy Fire is the same thing.
My belief, to clarify, is that it is probably pyrotechnic, but liturgically legitimate; possibly supernatural, but if it is supernatural, owing to the extreme sophistication of ancient Greek pyrotechnics and contemporary pyrotechnics, we have given atheists already a vector that they are using in blog posts et cetera to attack our faith, and as I see it the solution to this is a delicate one of characterizing it using liturgical terms which they cannot honestly debunk, and to avoid making a specific interpretation of Holy Fire a major doctrinai or dogmatic issue.
Additionally I think, controversially perhaps, that concerning our miraculous icons and relics that stream myrhh, as an example, since occasional icon fraud occurs, and also because of the danger of iconoclastic Protestants and Muslims trying to destroy these holy and precious relics and icons, that the Orthodox Church should try to avoid broadcasting the existence of these particular phenomena, which I have a very strong faith in. Rather the focus should be on the expeditious conveyance of the sacred myrrh from relics and icons that do provide it, such as the relics of St. Nicholas, to the faithful, as my experience is that the material is of very profound benefit.
I also really don’t want infidels, even if they are prevented from destroying or stealing or damaging myrhh streaming relics and icons, to have the motive or opportunity to desecrate it, but I believe clergy should make every effort to make it available to their parishioners. There retired ROCOR archbishop in Las Vegas, formerly of the OCA, Vladyka Nikolai who often has myrrh available for his people. The Coptic Orthodox monks in Yermo, CA are also very good about this.