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Comments:

322. Comment by Bob, 08 Jan, 2017

     I read a funny news article on the BBC web page this morning. In Brazil an old lady, a devout Catholic, had been praying every day for years to a statue of St. Anthony. That is until her granddaughter took a close look at it. It turned out to be a figurine of Elrond, an elf from The Lord of the Rings.

     I imagine it would have been just as effective.

323. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 08 Jan, 2017

     Well spotted Bob, and you're right, praying to a fictional elf would have been as effective, meaning useless, as praying to a long dead religious nutter. And that again also highlights how ignorant and/or dismissive Catholics are of commandments from their God written in their Bible. God's Ten Commandments clearly state that God's servants must not worship, ie pray, to anyone but God, and that God is a jealous and vengeful god. Under no circumstances is there to be any praying to graven images or objects, which is clearly what a figurine of St Anthony is, and Elrond the elf, and even paintings and carvings of Jesus himself. Why is it that an atheist knows far more about what their God demands than do Catholics themselves? Of course we dismiss God's demands because we view them as fictional, but why do Catholics, who supposedly fear their God, do the same? Do they want to go to Hell and be tortured?

324. Comment by Patrick, 08 Jan, 2017

     Hi John. The above Methuselah post reminds me of a discussion that I had some years ago with a girl friend. I was telling her that I didn't believe in the bible, that it consisted of myths and exaggerations, and that, for example, it was impossible for human beings to live for several hundred years. She then replied that it was nowadays no longer possible but that in the past there was much more oxygen and that due to this people could live much, much longer than presently. Some time later I was discussing with a guy from the Jehovah's witnesses and I was telling him that, the Noah's ark could not have existed for a multiple of reasons like how is it that Mr. and Mrs. tiger didn't eat Mr. and Mrs. gazelle whilst on the ark. To which he replied that there was nothing surprising about that as there was no carnivores in the past. All animals were herbivores. Whether he realized it or not, he was incidentally using some form of evolution concept to make his point.

     If you have some free time and are in a good mood it's always entertaining to listen to people like Jehovah's witnesses. Never a dull moment.

325. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 09 Jan, 2017

     Hi Patrick. It's amazing what Christians throw up to support their faith. Let's first look at the argument that much more oxygen in the past led to 1,000 year life spans. Was there really more oxygen back in the Bronze Age? I read recently in Robert Kandel's book, 'Water From Heaven: The Story of Water from the Big Bang to the Rise of Civilization, and Beyond' (2003), that animal

     'metabolism depends on the availability of oxygen, today about 21 percent of the atmosphere. It could not have worked for the first living things, because the fraction of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere was then very small, rising above 1 percent only fairly recently (2.2 billion years ago?)'.

     I also read on this Wikipedia page — 'Geological history of oxygen' — that 'Since the start of the Cambrian period, atmospheric oxygen concentrations have fluctuated between 15% and 35% of atmospheric volume. The maximum of 35% was reached towards the end of the Carboniferous period (about 300 million years ago)'. On this page I read that 'For humans and many animals to sustain normal functions, the percentage of oxygen in the breathing environment must be within a small range... between 19.5 and 23.5 percent oxygen'.

     So all this shows that for most of the time that life has existed on Earth, some 3.8 billion years, there has been almost no atmospheric oxygen. In fact for the first forms of life oxygen was toxic. There was more oxygen 300 million years ago (35% compared to the present 21%), but there certainly weren't any humans around then to see if it helped them live longer. And since these fundamentalist Christians say that the creation events in the Bible took place between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago, this is a time when oxygen levels were pretty much the same as they are now. It's true to say that oxygen levels were higher in the past, meaning 300 million years ago, but utterly bogus to say they were higher a mere 6,000 years ago. It's annoying when these devious bastards find and then distort scientific evidence to bolster their fairy tales. The only reason we know oxygen was higher in the distant past, or that oxygen even exists, is because of science, the Bible certainly doesn't reveal this information. These hypocritical fundamentalists use scientific facts in their attempt to prove science wrong, without grasping how ridiculous and circular that is. If science is wrong, its methodology flawed, then the scientific facts gained through this flawed endeavour must also be wrong, and should be dismissed outright. But instead they indecently embrace the odd scientific fact that suits them, eg oxygen was higher in the distant past, while quickly rejecting the scientific facts that don't suit them, eg the distant past was 300 million years ago. The fundamentalists are telling the true when they tell gullible people that oxygen was higher in the distant past, but they're being fraudulent by implying that the "distant past" was just 6,000 years ago.

     But even if there was much more oxygen 6,000 years ago, what evidence is there that this would allow people to live for a thousand years? And what does 'much more oxygen' mean, what percentage was it? This site explains why pure oxygen is dangerous: 'Is it harmful to breathe 100-percent oxygen?' And then we have archaeological evidence that shows that few people reached 100 years of age, let alone 1,000. And I'm not aware of any studies that show people living today in elevated oxygen levels live any longer than other people, they may even live less. Kandel also notes in his book that 'excess of oxygen is dangerous for the eyes of newborn infants as well as at the level of the living cell'. So the argument fails on two counts. There wasn't much more oxygen 6,000 years ago, and there's no evidence that more oxygen would increase your life span at all, let alone by 10 times.

     As for saying that 'It was impossible for human beings to live for several hundred years', I'd say it was certainly improbable, and there is no evidence that anyone has, but I wouldn't say it was impossible. It wouldn't break any laws of physics. I mean, why do humans have a life span of around 100 years rather than just 10 years? Some organisms live for mere hours and other live for many hundreds of years. Whatever repair mechanisms our body uses to stay healthy for 100 years could plausibly keep it going for a thousand years. Pretty much our entire body, from bones to skin to blood, is completely renewed every few months, so why does this replacement fail after many decades? Theoretically someone could fluke being born with perfect or near perfect genes that are ultra-efficient in bodily repair and super-effective on the immune front, fighting off all diseases. So barring a fatal accident, which along with disease is what kills most people before they reach 100, it could be possible for someone to live a lot longer than 100. There is also the theory that we die when the telomeres on our DNA reduce to a certain size, like a countdown timer, but again a genetic mutation could switch that off and we live forever. Then you have stem cells which can make any type of new cell, which is how we are made as embryos, but many of these amazing abilities are switched off after birth. But again, if, perhaps due to a mutation, a body was to retain use of its embryonic stem cells, then if the body was injured and an organ or limb damaged, it could simply grow another one, an ability a few animals already have. Even humans can regrow liver tissue, but not the heart. So all the mechanisms exist in nature to prolong life, but unfortunately they haven't all appeared in humans. Or perhaps to a degree they have, since humans already live much longer than almost all animals. Be thankful you're not a dog.

     A thought-provoking drama/sci-fi movie on the topic of human life-spans is 'The Man from Earth', staring David Lee Smith, Tony Todd and John Billingsley. The synopsis is that 'An impromptu goodbye party for Professor John Oldman becomes a mysterious interrogation after the scholar reveals to his colleagues he is an immortal who has walked the earth for 14,000 years'. It's not a block-buster movie with big name actors, there's no action in it, no special effects, no laughs, no sex or nudity, and even worse in the view of many, it's sacrilegious. It takes place in essentially one room, and as one person said, it's just talking heads, and they're talking about intellectual things, not sport or the sex lives of celebrities. But I enjoyed it and it's well worth watching if your video store has it.

     As for the question of why the tigers didn't eat the gazelles on Noah's Ark, it is often explained as the animals all being herbivores. And like everything in the Bible, there are verses that support that view and those that don't. The few Christians that think about these things (the majority couldn't care less), usually offer this verse from Genesis with Adam and Eve to show that humans and animals were originally all herbivores:

     'Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground — everything that has the breath of life in it — I give every green plant for food." And it was so.' (GE 1:29-30)

     Of course it doesn't say that humans and some animals couldn't physically digest meat, merely that they were told to only eat plants, told to be vegetarians. And the implication is that they all obeyed. But things go down hill fast and next thing we know a furious and vindictive God is going on a global killing spree, but decides to save Noah, his family and a few choice animal species. Apparently God wasn't too fussed on the likes of the dinosaurs, dragons or unicorns. So after horrific slaughter on a massive scale, the Bible tells us:

     'Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. "But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it."' GE 9:1-4

     So what's happened here? Besides Noah, his family and their petting zoo, God has wiped out the entire human race and all the completely innocent animals, because he was appalled at the growing evil nature of humans. He had hoped they would be friends with animals and only eat plants, which the Bible hints was the case, but when God tries to start again with Noah and purge the world of evil, what does he do? He immediately scraps the law about eating only plants and being nice to animals and tells Noah that they can now attack, slaughter and devour any animals they choose, and that the animals will now fear humans. God has taken an idyllic garden of Eden and turned it into a world of fear and slaughter, of predator and prey, of festering evil. And it was all unnecessary, since being an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving God, he could have (should have) easily designed our bodies so that we all flourished as herbivores and lived peacefully with each other, humans and lambs walking with lions, without the fear and dread and suffering. But obviously this Bible story is just another primitive attempt by ignorant men to explain the world around them, wondering why some animals are predators and others prey, and why some eat flesh and others only vegetation. They were like naïve children wondering how a fat Santa can get down skinny chimneys. It's interesting to see how ancient man thought, but depressing to realise that today many fools still think they got the explanation right.

     So going by the above verses, it would seem that perhaps tigers and lions did only become carnivores after the flood of Noah. But if they didn't have fangs and claws and didn't stalk, terrify and attack other animals, then it's debatable if they can really be called tigers, lions, crocodiles or Velociraptors. I'd argue that they were completely different species that merely looked a lot like our modern carnivores, and since herbivores and carnivores have quite different digestive systems and physical attributes, eg fangs, along with different mental states, eg vicious predator or timid prey, then a friendly herbivorous Biblical "tiger" likely wouldn't be able to breed successfully with a real carnivorous tiger. One has genes for fangs and the other doesn't, making them genetically incompatible. So as you point out Patrick, apparently herbivorous "tigers" have evolved into carnivorous tigers. Of course God, being a powerful wizard, could have simply waved his wand and instantly turned various species into carnivores, but the Bible makes no mention of him doing this, so the obvious answer is that certain species evolved, very quickly, without God's help, into carnivores after the flood.

     But of course the Christians that still believe in the silly myth of Noah's flood, the creationists, aren't willing to admit that animals can evolve, and certainly not that quickly. So we find this comment on the creationrevolution.com website: 'Did they [aniamls] begin to eat meat before the worldwide Flood? Scripturally and scientifically, the answer appears to be yes'. And on the creation.com website we find this argument:

     'Actually, there is a hint in the Bible that there was pre-Flood carnivory, although I won't be dogmatic about it. That is, when Cain was enraged that God (YHWH) rejected his sacrifice, God counseled him that "sin is crouching at the door" (Genesis 4:7b). God pictures sin as 'crouching', but this means 'ready to spring forth'. The same imagery is used in Genesis 49:9, "he crouched as a lion". Indeed, in Genesis 4:7, the verb robets (???) is masculine to agree with the implied wild beast, not feminine to agree with 'sin'. So sin is like a lion waiting to pounce on Cain and consume him. Such imagery could indicate that animal predation had already started by this time. This time could be a little under 130 years after Creation...'

     I agree with that view, since phrases like, 'he crouched as a lion', only make sense if lions are feared predators, and the full Bible verse clearly portrays lions as such. Of course that verse was written after the flood, when lions were predators, but when you look at the full verse written about times before the flood, clearly it also was referring to a dangerous predator: 'Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." GE 4:6-7. Again, that metaphor only makes sense if Cain already knew to fear carnivorous predators that desired to attack and eat him. So while God gave all the animals plants to eat, it appears that some ignored him and quickly started eating other animals, and since they were able to do so, clearly they didn't evolve, they were made as carnivores with the appropriate fangs and digestive systems from day one.

     So again Christians can argue for either side and find Bible verses to support their argument. But even if they say animals only became carnivorous after the flood, they still have to explain why an all-loving God punished trillions of innocent animals by turning many into prey to be chased and eaten alive, when God's gripe was with humans, whom he then blessed and told to go out an kill animals. He ordered man to slaughter animals and eat their flesh. Had God forgotten why he caused the flood in the first place? But as you say Patrick, even if this argument stalls, there is a multitude of problems with the silly flood story, all of which expose it as superstitious nonsense. We looked at some of these problems in our article on a NZ Christian fundamentalist, Ian Wishart.

     And you're right Patrick, it can be entertaining listening to Christians explain their faith, and great fun poking it full of holes. It's often not much of a challenge, like stealing candy from a baby or shooting fish in a barrel, but we can only respond to what they give us. Evangelists I'm likely to encounter like the door-knocking Jehovah's Witnesses are apparently among the most knowledgeable about the Bible (my friends and relatives who call themselves Christian are quite ignorant), but even the JWs are woefully ill-equipped to debate with anyone who has read some books other than the Bible. Sometimes I feel a little guilty making them look so foolish, but I quickly get over it.

326. Comment by Bob, 10 Jan, 2017

     Going back a bit to the comment by Rene, I believe the explanation for the change of Catholic policy on burial is bullshit. The real reason for the change is that with the world's increasing population some countries can no longer waste land space on permanent cemeteries. Those countries are encouraging cremation. The Catholic Church has simply bowed to the inevitable practical problems and changed their policies.

     Germany is one country with that problem. To solve it they are digging up graves after thirty years and re-using them on the basis that little is left of the body and relatives have long since ceased visiting the grave.

     One thing about the Catholic Church they will give in when they know they are beaten.

327. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 11 Jan, 2017

     You're right Bob, the Vatican's explanation on why Catholics can now be cremated rather than buried is bullshit. And as you say, every change the Catholic Church ever reluctantly makes is to fit in with real-world problems. You're also right that the Catholic Church. unlike many fundamentalist, evangelical churches, does begrudgingly change some policies when forced into a corner, but only on some things and only after long delays. One of the reasons they now allow cremation will be because lack of space requires its use in some countries, and because many Catholics were opting for it anyway, regardless of Church policy. But a great many Catholics use contraception, have premarital sex, masturbate and opt for abortion if needed, all actions against Church policy, and yet the Church has made it quite clear that they are not going to give up those policies, even though it's clear they have lost those battles. Even with a worldwide abuse scandal involving their priests having sex with children, and the apparent reality that half their priests are having sex, usually with other adults, quite a few are even secretly married, they still won't change their policy that priests must be celibate. As ridiculous and as dangerous as that policy is, and with much of the world against it, they still won't give it up. And even when they do relent and change some 2,000 year-old Church policy, it always comes under their terms, and they never concede that they were actually wrong. They always have a pathetic excuse, like the rapist who admits that he raped a woman but puts the blame on her, saying that dressed the way she was she was asking to be raped. The Catholic Church will never admit they were wrong, even when they appear to be doing just that.

     For example, many Catholics say that they now accept evolution, but this is not strictly true. They do accept that life evolved from simple cells to more complex forms over billions of years, but evolution also says that this happened naturally, that there was no divine hand guiding it to ensure that humans evolved. But the Catholic Church insists that God actually created evolution, and set it going in such a way as to guarantee that humans turned up. So as much as they might pretend otherwise, the Catholic "theory of evolution" is most definitely not the same as the scientific theory of evolution. It's the same with the Big Bang theory, Catholics accept that the universe began some 13.7 billion years ago, but then again, without any evidence to justify it, modify the theory to insist that their god designed and created what scientists call the Big Bang. Only in a superficial sense has the Catholic Church appeared to have given up and accepted scientific evidence that contradicts their worldview. Only when they can think of a silly excuse to keep their god involved and in charge do they concede and make changes to bring them in line with real-world views. They are beaten of course, but they're not admitting it, every time they're forced to accept that reason and evidence conflicts with their primitive dogma, then the explanation for their backdown is always couched in god talk. Never do they admit that mere humans got it right and their Bible got it wrong, it's always that inferior man was misinterpreting the Bible, that the complexity of God's creation was too great for the early church fathers to fully grasp, and science, history and philosophy has now revealed hitherto unknown truths in the Bible. The Vatican want us to believe that every time they change some centuries old belief it's because of some revelation from God and that it's actually making the Catholic faith stronger and closer to what God intended. Unlike scientists and their theories, never does the Catholic Church admit that they ditched some belief because the evidence showed it was totally wrong.

     While you don't usually hear Catholics labelled as creationists, they are of course creationists, as is every Christian, Jew Muslim, Hindu etc that believes that their god created the world and all life. They're what you'd call old-Earth creationists rather than the young-Earth creationists that believe the Earth is only 6,000 years old. But whether God designed and created the world billions of years ago or just thousands, and whether he made humans in one day from dust or over billions of years from inorganic material, eg dust, the basic claim is still that their god created the world and all life, ergo they are all creationists. Many Christians would likely be insulted if you called them creationists, they believe in science and not in Adam and Eve, but if that's the case, then the very foundation of their faith crumbles. Catholics quibble over petty details like whether you can be cremated, but if they can't admit to being a creationist and explain and defend that worldview, then it's like believing in Santa Claus but refusing to debate his existence, and concentrating solely on irrelevant details, such as what his wife's name is. By tweaking minor details like Catholic burials, the Catholic Church is implying that the big questions have been answered — yes God is real and did create the world and life — and that now only the minor bugs need to be worked out concerning how we properly worship God. There have been and likely will be a few more changes concerning Church policy, but these are just around the periphery, the core beliefs of Catholicism are rock solid. People are fooled into thinking that the Catholic Church is honestly seeking the truth and will actively make changes when new evidence arises, but this is bullshit. Catholics are convinced they already have the truth, so any changes they make are only cosmetic and ultimately irrelevant. The few Catholics that do discover the real truth become atheists, since the real truth is that God doesn't exist, not that he's changed his mind about cremation.

     A Catholic accepting evolution but still having God in charge is like a child accepting that his parents, not Santa, actually put his presents under the Xmas tree, but only because Santa hypnotised them into doing it for him, because the world is just too populous these days for him to do all the deliveries personally. The child begrudgingly accepts real-world evidence of his parents' actions, but still blindly refuses to be swayed from the fantasy that Santa exists and is in control. While the child may have changed some of the minor details concerning his belief, in real terms he is just as delusional as ever, and it's the same with Catholics. They may accept evolution or that it's now OK to be cremated, but they're just as delusional as ever, because they still believe their God is real and in control. The evidence has assailed them, but they haven't given up, and for most of them they never will. Occasional concessions made by the Vatican are just a smokescreen, they are no closer to admitting that God isn't real and that the Bible is as fictional as the Harry Potter books than they were 2,000 years ago.

328. Comment by Bob, 13 Jan, 2017

     Methuselah, whoever he was, did not live 900 years. The human body will last only approximately 100 years. There is a good reason for that. The body is made up of billions of cells. These cells are constantly reproducing themselves then dying off. However every now and again a cell will die off without reproducing. As time goes on more and more cells die off which we see as ageing. While the individual cells die randomly the average of billions of cells will see the whole body die around the 100 year mark. Of course there is more to dying than that, such as cancer and heart problems as well as infections so common in previous ages. In fact it is the death rate of young people especially children and mothers dying in childbirth which brought about this myth based on wishful thinking.

     For Methuselah to live 900 years his body must have been different from modern humans running on different principles. The genes must have been different. Yet we descended from Methuselah and others at the time taking Methuselah as a genuine historical character. But we know that genuine evolutionary change takes hundreds of thousands of years at least.

     Don't bother trying to explain this to a genuine fundamentalist, after all God can do anything as I have been told.

329. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 14 Jan, 2017

     Hi Bob. For the record, ridiculous life span aside, I doubt that Methuselah was even a real person. He and the other long-lived characters would simply have been stories based on the rare person that managed to fluke living out their full life span, while their children and grandchildren died around them. People would have known that long life, ie 100+ years, was possible, though not common, and would invent stories to explain why most people died much younger, which was that God had changed his mind yet again as to how long humans would live.

     There's no evidence that humans have ever lived for hundreds of years, or that our bodies functioned differently back then, but as you say, you can't explain this to fundamentalists. It's impossible to reason with anyone that believes in talking snakes and invisible space fairies.

330. Comment by Patrick, 15 Jan, 2017

     Hi John, did you know that the Catholic church has never banned Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler's famous autobiographical book? I didn't and only learned about this today whilst surfing on the internet. The Vatican had since the 9th century created an "index Librorum Prohibitorum" (list of prohibited books).

     'The 20th and final edition appeared in 1948, and the Index was formally abolished on 14 June 1966 by Pope PAUL VI. The aim of the list was to protect the faith and morals of the faithful by preventing the reading of heretical and immoral books.' (Index Librorum Prohibitorum — Wikipedia)

     You can see a selected list of the books/authors here.

     So apparently, for the Vatican, Hitler was morally more decent than people like Galileo, Copernicus, Balzac, Hugo, Kant, Jean-Paul Sartre to just name a few.

     I guess that some people will say that the Vatican could not ban the book of such a powerful man for various reasons. That might be true, but why then didn't they ban it after 1945? Why was this book not present on the 20th and final edition which appeared in 1948?

331. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 16 Jan, 2017

     Hi Patrick. No, I wasn't aware that the Catholic Church had never added Hitler's book 'Mein Kampf' (My Struggle) to its list of prohibited books. But if I were to be insensitive to Catholic feelings and frankly honest, I'd have to wonder why it would be placed on their list? Catholics have been persecuting and killing Jews for centuries, eg the inquisitions and during the crusades, and Hitler's pogrom against the Jews was just a continuation of their work, although on a much grander scale. It would have been quite hypocritical of the Catholic Church to condemn Hitler for trying to wipe out those who they believe are the immoral heretics that had their Messiah killed. And remember that in the Bible God commands his followers to kill heretics, so for Christians it's a moral duty. While some Catholics, those that were more humanist than Catholic, were appalled at what the Nazis did, we must remember that most Nazis were Christians, and apparently in the 1930s around 33% of Germans were the Catholic version. On the Wikipedia page 'Catholic Church and Nazi Germany', I read that,

     'Mary Fulbrook wrote that when politics encroached on the church, Catholics were prepared to resist, but that the record was otherwise patchy and uneven, and that, with notable exceptions, "it seems that, for many Germans, adherence to the Christian faith proved compatible with at least passive acquiescence in, if not active support for, the Nazi dictatorship".'

     So while I can understand why after examining Hitler's book they never banned it, as you say, you would think that after the horrors of the Holocaust were revealed and Hitler was long dead that the duplicitous Vatican would have banned his book simply to make it appear that they were in line with how the rest of the world saw his evil deeds. But no. They had up until mid-1966 to do this (when the list was finally discontinued), but I guess this shows their arrogance and delusions of power and superiority, that they could walk a path different to world opinion and still have their followers and governments kowtow to them. I mean, what other silly bloody church is part of the United Nations? That the Vatican has any say in the United Nations is as ridiculous as giving witches a voice as well. It's a right that needs to be stripped from them, this isn't the Middle Ages.

     What I don't understand is why the books of Charles Darwin were never placed on their silly list, especially since a book by his grandfather Erasmus Darwin was placed on the list in 1817, just some 40 years before 'On the Origin of Species' was published. That book has arguably done more harm to the Catholic Church and belief in God than all the books on the list combined, and yet they ignored it. People might argue that Darwin and the theory of evolution had too much scientific support for the Church to ban his book, but when it was published Darwin and his theory was relatively unknown, and anyway, fame and scientific support had never stopped the Church banning the books of famous scientists in the past, like Galileo. As well as the ones you mentioned Patrick, this passage reveals that,

     'The Index included a number of authors and intellectuals whose works are widely read today in most leading universities and are now considered as the foundations of science, e.g. Kepler's New Astronomy, his Epitome of Copernican Astronomy, and his World Harmony were quickly placed on the Index after their publication. Other noteworthy intellectual figures on the Index include Jean-Paul Sartre, Montaigne, Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Victor Hugo, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, André Gide, Emanuel Swedenborg, Baruch Spinoza, Immanuel Kant, David Hume, René Descartes, Francis Bacon, Thomas Browne, John Milton, John Locke, Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Blaise Pascal, and Hugo Grotius.'

     The article also talks of the 'burning at the stake of Giordano Bruno, whose entire works were placed on the Index in 1603'. A book I'm reading at that the moment also reveals that 'Bruno was burned at the stake for heresy in Rome in 1600, his tongue pierced by an iron spike and his jaw wired shut'. The Catholic Church wasn't always content to simply ban books and prevent their followers from reading them, at times they decided to kill their authors as well, and not just kill them, but torture them in the process. That in the 21st century we still have millions of people devoting their lives to such a deluded and sadistic organisation is unfathomable. What makes present-day Catholics any different to neo-Nazis? They both know, or should know, what unspeakable evil their specific group has committed in the past, they both claim to understand the ideology, and yet they both still remain committed followers of the offensive dogma each group pushes.

     I know many Catholics and without exception they all remain subservient to their fantasy because of ignorance, fear and apathy. Most are good people and are appalled when they hear, usually from an atheist, never a priest, of how the likes of Giordano Bruno died, and yet they still seem incapable of connecting his gruesome execution with the Church they kneel in each Sunday. If they ever hear of them, they condemn the untold atrocities committed by the Church in the past, and even reject many of the Bible stories and much of the Church's teachings that caused those atrocities, but they can't seem to grasp that to reject the very foundations of the Bible, of Christianity and Catholicism, is to turn their religious belief into an empty façade. How could someone be a committed neo-Nazi if they condemned much of what Hitler and the Nazis did and stood for? It seems impossible. But then we have Catholics that present this paradox. Committed Catholics condemn the actions of their Church for its past horrors and even its ongoing sexual abuse against children, they laugh at silly stories of Adam and Eve and Noah and his dinosaurs, and yet they still call themselves Catholics and support the Church as it hides abusive priests from justice. Their attitude disgusts me, their willingness to turn a blind eye to the ongoing atrocities that their Church is still committing, all because they are too ignorant to understand how the world really works, and too lazy and fearful to find out.

332. Comment by Patrick, 16 Jan, 2017

     Hi John, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I forgot to mention it, but I discovered that Mein Kampf was never banned by the Vatican whilst listening to Michel Onfray (Michel Onfray — Wikipedia) on his website and was genuinely very surprised by that. I decided to verify the info by myself and discovered that Onfray was telling the truth. Now, to make things clear, I am against censorship and don't understand on what grounds could the church decide for others about what was correct and what was reprehensible. But since there was a list of banned books, I find it most shocking that Mein Kampf was never included in it.

333. Comment by Ron, 26 Feb, 2017

     Hi John. Yet another one of these seemingly endless stories has been aired in the media today. A story containing the usual ingredients of gullibility, brainwashing, devotees in denial, sex, money, power. Have you heard about Imre Vallyon, a so-called spiritual guru? To me he comes across as an odd cross between a preacher and a psychic. He is elderly and he runs a retreat in a nice location near Raglan, also spends our winters at retreats in the Northern Hemisphere. The Foundation of Higher Learning is what it is all about. Followers pay thousands to visit these retreats to listen to him and purchase books, etc. They are all trying to bring light into the world. Trouble is the guru has a not too virtuous past and there are convictions and a 3 yr jail term. This past has been made difficult to unravel. A young girl visited him in Raglan, with her mother to find out about a deceased relative. The trusting girl had to have a one-on-one teaching session. Under this guise he kissed her, on the cheek, he says. Nothing more. What did come out was he lay on top of her on a bed, indecently touched her, massaged her sexually and performed oral sex. He cannot recall all that except the kiss. Funny though, he offered her money. Isn't this all so sickening, yet how often do we hear similar stories coming to light? Like Ken Ring, he is also credited with predicting the killer quake in Christchurch on 22.3.2011, just 2 days before. Devotees, of course, blame "evil forces" for trying to shut them down and continue to see him as an "enlightened being".

     How blind are those who cannot see?

334. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 26 Feb, 2017

     Hi Ron. The sickening story you mention can be read here on the Stuff website:
     'Foundation of Higher Learning 'guru' Imre Vallyon's followers kept in the dark about his past'

     We'd never heard of Imre Vallyon or his silly retreats until this revelation about his conviction for child molestation, where he was sentenced to three years' jail. Based on his name, I initially thought it was yet another exposure of yet another guru in some foreign country for sexually abusing his followers, but no, he's a local guru stalking Kiwis. We're not even safe in 'God's Own' any more! But it's even worse than that, since he visits retreats in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, and Hungary, so who knows how many he may have preyed on. There's some evidence that he committed a sexual offence in Canada.

     It's scary enough that clearly delusional people like Vallyon have access to naïve, gullible, ignorant and trusting people, and fill their heads with spiritual bullshit, but far worse when they turn out to be disgusting animals preying on children to gratify their deviant sexual urges. And so often the followers of people like Vallyon are just as depraved as he is, since they often knew what he was doing, or heard worrying rumours of his sexual abuse, and yet they did nothing and/or even increased their support of him. Look at the depraved Catholic Church, when revelations of the widespread child abuse surfaced, instead of the Church membership imploding in disgust, the majority of Catholics rallied around the abusers and condemned the victims for not keeping their mouths shut and protecting the Mother Church.

     Schools and parents teach young children to beware of strangers, 'Stranger Danger' they call it, and it works, as I've had many young kids that attend the nearby Catholic School and Church (sometimes accompanied by a parent) cross the road to avoid me on the footpath. How ironic is that, and dangerous, that they avoid someone like me that has no interest whatsoever in kids, some even saying 'Stranger Danger' as they do so, and seek refuge in a place that is infamous for harbouring pedophiles? The statistics reveal that of those children that are sexually abused, only a few percent of children will be abused by strangers, that the great majority will be abused by family members, friends of the family and people they know, such as priests and scout leaders. And of course spiritual gurus. Parents naively pull their children away from harmless strangers like me and thrust them into the arms of smooth-talking priests and gurus, and happily leave the room when the salivating bastard says they need to commune with the child in private. The 'Stranger Danger' movement, hiding as it does the most likely source of abuse, the people kids know and trust, is surely causing far more harm than good. That's not to say that children shouldn't be wary of strangers, but they also need to be taught that when a friend of your parents sticks his hand down your pants, that's not OK, even though he's your guru or priest and not a stranger.

     And as you say Ron, like astrologer Ken Ring, Vallyon also claimed to have predicted the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. And his bloody moronic followers believed him! When I read about recent scientific discoveries and theories, it amazes me how truly brilliant some humans are, and yet when I read about people still believing in spiritual gurus, not to mention the likes of astrology, homeopathy and invisible gods, it depresses me to realise how stupid the great majority of humans are, always have been, and likely always will be. It doesn't seem to matter that we've seen an explosion in knowledge about how the universe works, easily accessed knowledge, the morons will keep retreating back into the caves to consult the deluded gurus. The only thing that will change in the future is that they won't have to physically go into the caves anymore, a smartphone app or drone will do that for them. They just need to pray that they don't break down, since they won't have a fucking idea how they work. Some sort of magic?

335. Comment by Ron, 28 Feb, 2017

     Hi John. Thanks for sharing that little bit about kids and parents avoiding you by crossing the road near the Catholic school in your response to my above post on the guru/molester. Such action, although promoted, can be hurtful to decent men. I just read a comment on the Press (Stuff) site you may wish to read. It is titled "By teaching children to fear men, we are letting our kids down". It's a good enough read, written by Ben Pobjie for the Sydney Morning Herald, in response to an article by a woman called Kasey Edwards, whose piece was titled, "Why I won't let any male babysit my children". I detect anger and umbrage in Ben's words.

     Her article is also in the Stuff site today. Have you seen it yet? Not all us blokes are as good looking as we were in our youth and age can bring changes we can do little about. I am a very serious looking person and I can understand that to some young kids I could even look a bit intimidating, maybe scary to them. There are no very young girls on our side of the street, mostly boys flying past on scooters so I have not experienced that avoidance but I would find it, well, not very nice or comfortable to be honest. Teen girls pass when I'm out front but ignore me. But what to do if young girls were frequent. Smile more at them, offer them a chocolate bar sometimes or simply ignore. The 2 former ideas could easily be taken the wrong way. Sorry this is a bit off track from the silly beliefs genre but thought it a worthy little topic.

336. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 28 Feb, 2017

     Hi Ron. No, we hadn't seen those articles, so thanks for pointing them out. And no, it's not 'a bit off track from the silly beliefs genre', it is a worthy topic. It may not have anything to do with a silly belief in gods or psychics or astrologers, but believing that most men and most strangers are just waiting for their chance to sexually abuse children is a truly silly belief. It's a misguided, unfounded, dangerous belief that harms society just as much as a belief in a vengeful God or a bogus cancer treatment does. We've written about this topic before, eg 'Innocent parent or sexual pervert?', but unfortunately it's not getting any better. There are still ignorant, mean-spirited people out there, such as Kasey Edwards, the parent that won't let her children be alone with men, anywhere. I read her article before I read Ben Pobjie's reply to it, and like Ben I was immediately struck by the irrational fact that she feared all men, and had banned all men from ever being alone with her children, and yet that blanket ban didn't include her husband. Who we're assuming is a man, and she's not one of those weird lesbians that call their female partner their "husband". She even produced statistics that showed that 13.5 per cent of child sexual abuse was by the father or stepfather, and even admitted that, 'We're also not sure if we can trust our judgement. If anything, the statistics suggest that many parents aren't very good at determining which male adults are safe and which are not'. That surely means that she can't trust her own judgment as to whether her husband is a safe male adult or not. Letting her husband be alone with their children destroys any credibility she might have had.

     She also backed up our claim that 'Stranger Danger' is a bit of a myth, noting that 'the Australian Institute of Criminology paper said that "in the vast majority of cases, children's abusers are known to them". Children are at far greater risk from relatives, siblings, friends, and other known adults such as priests, teachers and coaches'.

     But let's agree that children are at some risk of sexual abuse, does that mean that the answer is to ban men from their lives? Of course not, the trick is to manage the risk, to allow children the clear benefits of interacting with males while minimising the chance of anything harmful occurring. Let's note that Kasey Edwards also acknowledged that there was a small but very real risk of children being sexually abused by mothers and other females, so by her logic her children should also be banned from being alone with not just other women, but even her. So where does that leave cranks like Edwards, since there is no one that we can absolutely prove is child safe, should her children be raised by robots?

     But it gets worse. Children aren't just at risk of sexual abuse, they're at risk from car accidents, infectious diseases, plane crashes, jungle gym falls, bike mishaps, shooting deaths, choking on Barbie doll accessories, scalding from electric jugs, asteroid impacts, poisonous spiders, ravenous crocodiles, exploding smartphones, junk food obesity, parents who use homeopathy or prayer to treat their illnesses... the list is endless. And depending on where children live, their risk of serious harm from one or more of these causes will be far higher than their risk of being sexually abused. So if the sexual abuse risk demands that the potential threat is removed from their life, then logically all activities that carry a much higher risk of harm and often death must surely also be eliminated. If truly serious about her children's wellbeing, then Edwards must ban cars, bikes, Barbie dolls, nature walks, and, well, even crossing the street to visit a friend. After her friend's house has been swept by security for the presence of men of course, and don't forget to check under the beds.

     Kasey Edwards and her obsequious husband are ignorant fools. Rather than asking how we can all reduce and minimise the risk around child sex abuse, they instead elect to turn their house into a kind of medieval convent, and raise children that will have a psychologically damaged view of genuine human relationships. What will they be like as adults having to go out into the real world where men aren't merely seen in the distance and on TV? For example, I used to often past on the footpath a certain young mother as she walked her young child to school, hand in hand. The disturbing and insulting thing is that if need be, she always pulled her child to the other side so that she was positioned between me and her child as we passed. Clearly she believed I'd snatch her child, or at least reach out and fondle her indecently, if I was allowed to get too close. I haven't seen either of them for a while now, so perhaps the male risk just became too great — maybe the school hired a male teacher? — and the child is now home-schooled?

     The belief that children should be taught to fear men, all men, since we don't know who's safe and who's not, is a seriously harmful and deeply silly belief, and one all sane, intelligent people should be fighting to dispel.

337. Comment by Ron, 02 Mar, 2017

     Hello John. Good response to the Kasey Edwards article re. keeping her daughters away from men in her mediaeval convent. Her article drew near 500 comments. I sure would like to see more comment here on your site. The more I think of that woman the more agitated I feel. Your comment covered a great deal, actually making points that I did not find in the 70 odd that I read from the SMH newspaper. They tended to repeat too much but the vast majority were against Edwards' paranoia, women constituted a good percentage of views. The most prevalent issue was the husband not being exempted from her smug little plans. Some women were upset about her sleepover comments, one saying that little girls live for those sleepovers. Edwards did not appear to state whether or not she was abused when younger. She is an author and has a book coming out in May titled "Guilt Trip, my quest to leave the baggage behind". It's about the difficulties of being a woman and all her guilt trips, etc. Her article quotes lots of statistics but there is quite a difference between both. Factors that come into it could be what is the socioeconomic status of the community where the stats come from, lots of broken families? What sort of questions were asked? The unrepentant, almost proud of herself Edwards says one in three young females are sex abused, the figures appear to be one in four. Many commenters believe, in their own social experience, that it is much less than that. There is also this belief out there that women could never harm children. Facts and stats prove otherwise. A study by Cortoni and Hanson in 2005 showed 4-5% of young sexually abused victims were abused by female offenders. But the Dept of Justice in the USA came up with 8.3%. Others show 9% up to a whopping 25% and even that has been considered underestimated. Whatever, there is a much bigger problem with female gender offenders than many care to admit.

     When someone says a man did this or that abuse, to me the complainant will be very readily believed, but if they try to say a female did it there is likely to be disbelief, neutral reaction maybe even stony silence. To finish, I was annoyed to read what you said about a young woman with her kid that you often passed, that she would position so her daughter would always be on the far side of her. How blatantly insulting. My mouth has got me in trouble sometimes, but in such an instance I would be very likely to throw a few sarcastic words her way.

338. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 03 Feb, 2017

     Thanks Ron. After we'd made our comments, I saw on TV3's new 7pm "news" show, 'The Project', that they made some brief observations on the idea of 'Stranger Danger'. The young reporter said he had been actively teaching his young children to fear strangers, especially men. I think news of an attempted child abduction was what motivated them to run their story, not the Kasey Edwards article. However we were pleased to see that he admitted that he was wrong, and the conclusion of the panel was that they had all been wrong to promote 'Stranger Danger', since the risk of attack and abuse was far, far greater from those you know, not from strangers. A policewoman was interviewed and acknowledged that kids being abducted by strangers was very rare in NZ, and because of that the Police ceased promoting the 'Stranger Danger' idea back in the 1980s. She said that almost every case of children being abducted on their way to school or the shops was by a parent that was having a custodial fight with the other parent, not by strangers. And yes Ron, I was sorely tempted to say something to that ignorant woman that always shielded her child from me on the footpath, but I fear that speaking to her would just have fuelled her paranoia, convincing her that I was watching her and her child, and for nefarious reasons of course.

     As for the claim that one in three, or even one in four, young females are sexually abused, we have trouble believing that it's anywhere near that high. We suspect that studies that show high numbers are probably invalidated by the surveys asking leading or simply the wrong questions. We've seen women claiming that wolf whistles are a form of sexual abuse, that a man saying, 'Wow, nice boobs' or 'Nice legs' is sexual abuse, and conversely, even a man saying that they wouldn't sleep with a woman because she's too fat is classed as sexual abuse. Some women claim that all men are rapists, so just being alone with a man might constitute sexual abuse for those women, since they'd imagine that the whole encounter was them acting in ways to keep themselves safe and discouraging what they perceived as his sexual advances. Sexual abuse is often defined as 'undesired sexual behaviour by one person upon another', and sexual harassment can be defined as 'unwelcome sexual behaviour, which could be expected to make a person feel offended, humiliated or intimidated. It can be physical, verbal or written'. So when in a survey a women is asked if she has ever experienced an incident that had a sexual element where she felt offended, humiliated or intimidated, we'd expect most everyone to answer yes. Even if it was just the workplace nerd trying to cuddle and kiss them under the mistletoe at the Xmas function. And that goes for males as well. The key here is 'undesired or unwelcome sexual behaviour'. We've found that if a woman receives a compliment or attention of a sexual nature by someone she likes or is attracted to, then she normally welcomes the attention. But if a comment of a sexual nature is uttered by someone she doesn't like, then some women suddenly feel they're being sexually harassed or abused. When the office hunk says, 'Morning sexy' or pats them on the behind, they love it, but when their fat, married boss does the same, they call their lawyer. When they ogle the courier in his tight bike shorts or sigh while watching the object of their desire strip off in TV's 'The Batchelor', that's just normal human behaviour they feel (and it is), but when asked a survey question about whether they've ever felt uncomfortable, offended or humiliated over some incident that had a sexual element, they remember when that bastard from accounting kept leering at them at the office pool party, when they wore that skimpy bikini. So they tick YES, they have been sexually abused. And then they recall when they played doctors and nurses with little Jimmy when they were both eight-years-old, so YES again.

     We feel that none of that is what most people should think of when the term sexual abuse is raised, since it's just normal human interaction, and humans are sexual beings. We think that many confuse normal sexual behaviour with sexual assault, where force is used to bring about undesired and unwelcomed sexual behaviour, eg rape, or any sexual act such as oral sex or fondling of the genitals where one participant is an unwilling participant. And this is where we have a problem with the claimed statistics, that one in three girls are sexually assaulted. As children most every girl would have had on average at least two good friends, and that means that every girl was either a victim of sexual assault, eg rape, or one of her two friends were. And yet of all the women we know and have known, not one admits to anyone in their group of friends being sexually assaulted as children, or even as adults. Of course some would hide the abuse, but surely with one in three being abused decade after decade, there should still be a huge number of victims that we have heard of, and a huge number of offenders in jail, or at least gossiped about in the community. We find it unbelievable that of all the people we've known over the decades, not one has come forward and admitted to being a victim of sexual assault. We know people that are homosexual, that have committed suicide, that died in road accidents, that are nudists, that are victims of domestic abuse, that have committed crimes and are in prison, that have cheated on their partners, that are alcoholics and drug addicts, and yet none of us know a woman that was a child victim of sexual abuse. What are the odds? Yes, we know that victims do exist, that sexual assault of girls (and boys) does happen, and it's something we must all work to prevent, but if it's really happening to one in three, or even one in four, young females, and presumably to a similar number of young males, why isn't it more obvious? Why isn't the Catholic Church using this evidence for abuse to take the spotlight off them, arguing that while they may be sexually abusing children, the numbers are a drop in the bucket to the community at large, and that young children have far more to fear from their real father than their church father.

339. Comment by Ron, 07 Mar, 2017

     Hi John. This comment is about tooth fairies, eh what? Read today a piece titled 'What's so bad about the tooth fairy?'. (well, for starters the damn things do not exist)

     This mum of 3, at a playground, has a 6-7 yr old boy come up to her and shows his wobbly tooth. She starts on about the tooth fairy and how he must put the tooth under his pillow etc. Seems the boys mother overheard and gesticulated wildly at her then castigated her, saying "thanks for nothing" and "we don't have the tooth fairy in our house". Could be too expensive. She was concerned about many kids today getting up to $40 for one tooth compared to when she was a kid and got $1. I got far less than that. I recall believing for a time but then becoming suspicious my mother was the "tooth fairy" [TF]. I never felt angry at learning the truth about that and Santa being unreal. But all kids are not the same. Anyway, back to the playground mum, the writer. She found out her TF was her father and was happy he filled her home and childhood with this magic. But she feels for the boy for having a mum like that, for his disappointment, for denying him the magic of the existence of a fairy, real or not. She hopes parents still keep the TF myth alive. Polls suggest she has little to worry about. Only 6% of those polled said the tooth fairy skips their house!! How absolutely unbelievable is that? Am I being a grinch here. Apart from extortionate expectations of receiving up to $40, is not the real issue the fact parents are lying to their kids, pure and simple. Have we become a nation of such habitual liars that almost nobody cares anymore, that most do not know or realise they lie? What do the parents say to the boy or girl when the realisation sets in and the tricky questions follow. Some kids will have less trust. When their parents tell them they must eat their greens, exercise more, brush your teeth daily, etc. they may start questioning what reasons do I have to. Is it true. Surely there is abundant magic and happiness in the world for children that surrounds them without giving credit to a silly non-existent tooth fairy for heavens sake. Why not give a treat up front to a child after the loss of a particular milestone tooth. Up to what age should these youngsters be still believing in this crap. A mother wrote that her 13 yr old son still believes in the TF. Bloody hell. She said "we never lied to him that it was real or fake". What a silly statement. She and many others use the cop out that the kids grow up too fast these days. I found in reading comments that so many boys, often older, believe. I find it all quite disturbing.

340. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 08 Mar, 2017

     Interesting questions Ron. How old is too old to still be believing in the tooth fairy and similar fantasies, and should they even believe in the first place?

     I loved comics as a kid, and I still enjoy animated movies like 'Shrek' and 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas', but I've never had to believe that Shrek or Daffy Duck or Superman are real to enjoy the "magic" of those stories. Most people can suspend their disbelief and happily immerse themselves in a fantasy book or movie, and that includes young children. Knowing something isn't real doesn't detract from the thrill of the story, and for many, especially young children, it can actually enhance their enjoyment. If they're told from the start that pirates and dragons and evil trolls aren't real then they can enjoy the story without the fear of having to deal with evil trolls after the story is over and the lights have been turned off. I think it's nonsense that you have to lie to kids and tell them that beings like the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Sandman and Jack Frost are real, simply so that they can have an "magical" childhood.

     I'm a fan of what Carl Sagan said (and you expressed a similar sentiment Ron) about people that feel they need to lie, not just to children, but to adults as well:

     'We all have a thirst for wonder. It's a deeply human quality. Science and religion are both bound up with it. What I'm saying is, you don't have to make stories up, you don't have to exaggerate. There's wonder and awe enough in the real world. Nature's a lot better at inventing wonders than we are.'

     I think that society should have outgrown the likes of the tooth fairy, not that they should stop telling these old tales to children, but they should have long stopped trying to convince their children that these magical beings are actually real. Parents can and do read their kids stories about talking rabbits wearing cute little waistcoats or of a trio of pigs battling a big bad wolf, all without deviously making them believe that talking rabbits, pigs and wolves are real. Parents telling their children that pigs don't talk, and don't build houses, doesn't destroy the magic of the story or set them up for a deprived childhood. If anything, parents being honest with their children would make them better adapted to deal with the real world, more able to fit in and transition to an adult. The commercial world encourages childhood belief in the likes of Santa and the Easter Bunny (not to mention Halloween and Valentine's Day), because they make obscene fortunes from parents lying to their kids. It's less obvious why the tooth fairy hangs on, I suspect it's just a way for lazy parents to take their child's mind off the trauma of losing a tooth. If they stop crying, an invisible tooth fairy will, for reasons that are never really explained, purchase their tooth for cold, hard cash. Welcome to the big world of business, kid. You're now a budding capitalist. But if that's the case, why aren't parents inventing similar fairies for other problems that kids encounter? Why isn't there a scraped knee fairy, a sprained wrist fairy, or a, 'I've broken my toy' fairy? Why can't you put a bike your dad accidentally run over, under your pillow, and exchange it for some serious moola? More importantly, why aren't kids told that there are fairies that protect them from strangers on their way to school? Why do parents console their children with a tooth fairy, but for everything else that childhood throws at them, they have to be told the truth? Sorry Timmy, but fairies aren't interested in anything but teeth, there are no fairies that collect hair or nail clippings. We don't know why.

     There is simply no need to lie, kids can have amazing childhoods that are not lessened in any way by not believing in fairies, and would actually be improved by them learning how the real world works. In the past many parents told their children that the bogeyman was real (so go to sleep or else), so does that mean that they had better childhoods than modern kids who lack that belief? As Sagan said, kids can be enthralled and entranced by stories about the wonders of the real world, and yes, they can be entertained with stories of evil trolls and hungry wolves, but there is no good reason why parents should pick out a fairy with a tooth fetish and an egg-loving bunny from this fantastical menagerie and convince their children that while most are just make-believe, one or two are actually real.

     As we've said before, most reasonable parents immediately give up the lie of the tooth fairy, Santa, the Easter Bunny etc as soon as their children start getting suspicious and asking questions. And most kids quickly get over the charade and move on, it doesn't seem to do any obvious harm. You never hear of adults lapsing back into belief of the tooth fairy or having serious trust issues throughout their life because of the silly lies their parents told them. We don't think parents need to tell these lies in the first place, but if they do they are nipped in the bud early and apparently cause no lasting harm.

     So some will say, what harm is there then? Well, it could be that it facilitates belief in another fantasy being that usually does remain with people throughout their lives. We're talking about gods. Our childhood is a formative time, and if kids are encouraged to believe in the reality of all manner of magical beings, then a base belief is set down, kids adopt the habit of believing that the supernatural realm is real, and habits can be hard, if not impossible, to break. Yes, parents eventually tell their kids that the tooth fairy and the bunny aren't real, but all they're doing here is dismissing a couple of magical beings, they're not dismissing the underlying belief that the magical realm still exists. Kids grow accustomed to believing in magical beings, and as they grow up their parents finally reveal that most of them aren't real, but building on their existing belief in a magical world, they reassure their children that one magical being, God, is still very real. And it's not just their parents, but all the adults and authority figures around them reaffirm the parental claim — Yes, the tooth fairy was just make-believe, but God certainly is real. A childhood belief in the tooth fairy can only help a belief in God. If, when kids started asking questions, parents went out of their way to explain that not just the tooth fairy, but all that magical, supernatural talk was nonsense, then kids would have considerable trouble accepting the other stories about gods, which when you analyse them, are just as silly. I don't think there is any doubt that belief in the likes of the tooth fairy softens kids up for a lifelong belief in gods.

     You say Ron that the woman that wrote the article 'feels for the boy for having a mum like that, for his disappointment, for denying him the magic of the existence of a fairy, real or not'. But this same woman would no doubt deny her children the magic of believing in the Norse god Thor, or the Greek god Zeus. Surely each magical being you believe in makes for a more magical childhood? The tooth fairy only deals in discarded teeth, Thor could protect you from schoolyard bullies. By her logic she would be making their childhood a poorer place by not telling her children that they were real too. If she argued, and of course she would, that neglecting to lie to her children about Thor wouldn't ruin their childhood in the slightest, and if anything it would probably save them from ridicule, then she would be correct, but the exact same argument also applies to the tooth fairy. Just as she would explain to her children that Thor was just a story, and never real, she should be brave enough to do the same with the tooth fairy from the very beginning. If she wouldn't lumber her children with silly beliefs in Thor and Zeus, then why push the tooth fairy on them?

     As for how old is too old to still be believing in the tooth fairy and similar fantasies, well, certainly 13 is way too old. You'd have to be mentally challenged to still believe in such bullshit at that age. By the time you've reached your teens you should have long woken up to the lies your parents were feeding you about the tooth fairy, Santa, the Easter Bunny etc. And if you haven't, caring parents should have broken the news to you to stop you being teased and ridiculed by your friends and peers. I have no memory of when I stopped believing, or even if I ever really believed, so I was certainly quite young, and by 13 I was dreaming of girls and fast cars, not the tooth fairy. But that said, even though people of average intelligence and above should laugh off these fanciful, childish beliefs at a very young age, the sad reality is that many don't, and they go to their grave still believing that while the tooth fairy isn't real, their sky fairy still is. We may be astounded that people that should know better still try to keep the tooth fairy myth alive, but we should be equally astounded that far, far more people still try and keep the sky fairy myth alive.

     

341. Comment by Ron, 14 Mar, 2017

     Hi John. Another comment on Biblical themes. Was thinking about my Catholic primary school years that I and two siblings had to undergo, being taught by the nuns and the mandatory church attendances twice weekly plus the mammoth effort to brainwash us.

     I felt angry. The realisation hit home how Christianity preyed on kids and no doubt still does. I can remember how fear was a powerful factor, not taking over my childhood totally but nevertheless very much there in the background. I see it as a form of terrorism via gruesome portrayals of horrors and suffering that kids will be subjected to if they do not live good Christian lives. The Bible and Christianity can be very child unfriendly. Countless children over umpteen generations have very likely had their younger years darkened by these fears, the fear of dying while in mortal sin, as the nuns were good at telling us, with the eternal torment as a result. Kids did not have the ability to analyse what they were being told. The 2000 plus yrs of child terrorising has to be a crime of Christianity. Children traumatised by graphic stories of endless burning to ensure they will be too scared to ever question religion? I wonder if there are many young ones out there that dislike science and scientists because it/they disprove their own parents religion thus leading to shortcomings in scientific knowledge and understanding. Then there are those who let their kids die because medical help is forbidden. I read about a father who took his excited 5 yr old girl to visit an old mission in California. She ended up running out in tears. The place was full of wooden and plaster sculptures of Jesus and his crucifixion, cut and bleeding. Some very realistic. A tortured man in agony, the most famous killing in history. The 5 yr old had no savvy of all that and saw it as a chamber of horrors and torture. Her dad questioned how does a secular parent explain to a 5 yr old; "Um, well you see... lots of people think we are all born evil, that there is this all-powerful god who wants to punish us forever in hell, but he had his only son killed so we could be saved from eternal torture. Get it?" Makes a good point in my opinion.

     Apart from being horrible and sadistic, is any of it true? Very unlikely. Christianity appears to teach that kids are intrinsically evil. Not because they did anything, just for being born. That has to be a false twisted message. Plus they are told about Satan, the devil, so that instills more fear, etc. Many parents have described the devil side of it as the most traumatic for their youngsters, a number described it as abusive.

342. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 15 Mar, 2017

     Hi Ron. We can't but agree of course with everything you say. As Richard Dawkins has said, it's nothing short of child abuse. That parents and society gleefully still work together to brainwash young children into believing that such a vile, disgusting god is real is unfathomable in this modern age. And brainwash is the correct term, since children do not reason their way to belief, they are never asked to consider the evidence and decide, they are forced to believe in bullshit when they are at an age of being incapable of resisting, and too naïve to believe that those they trust would lie to them.

     Imagine a young terrified child telling a parent that they think there's a monster under their bed, and the parent assuring the child that there's not one, but actually several bloodthirsty monsters under their bed. And if the child hasn't been good, then during the night those monsters, if they're hungry, may come out and attack and kill the child as they sleep. And even if the child thinks that they have been good, their parents tell them that the monsters might easily disagree and kill them anyway. And night after night the parents retell this story to their children, recounting tales of other children that misbehaved and were killed in their sleep, they even show them graphical picture books to show them what can be expected if the monsters come out.

     What decent, loving, responsible parent would terrify their children with such a story, reinforcing again and again that it's all true? And yet this is exactly the type of story that religious parents have been telling their children for centuries, only the names of the monsters change. Maybe government departments that look after the welfare of children should look at taking children off Christian and Muslim parents that insist on lying to them, and not nice, harmless lies about friendly Santa, but vile, disgusting lies about evil gods.

343. Comment by Ben, 16 Mar, 2017

     I went to church schools. I never felt I was being abused, terrified or brainwashed; in fact many of the positive messages I received have stayed with me and shaped my life. I may have my hang ups but they were not caused by my exposure to religion. Those who went to school with me grew into well adjusted teenagers and adults.

     My own children went to schools that had an emphasis on Christianity. They have all developed into fine young men. Three have more or less rejected any form of religion which bothers me not one bit. I brought up my kids to think for themselves and question everything and I am glad they do. One boy has made a choice to embrace Christianity with no pressure whatsoever from me.

     My wife has for many years specialised in the field of child mental health and has dealt with hundreds of abused and troubled children. She cannot recall a single case where the abuse stemmed from religious indoctrination. The abuse she encounters comes from lack of love or parental care. Of course there are parents (and sadly teachers and priests) who claim adherence to some faith who abuse their children but their are even more parents who claim no faith who abuse children. You cannot pin all abuse on religion.

     Your suggestion that children should be removed from Christian or Muslim parents merely confirms my suspicion that you are as intolerant and dangerous as the worst type of religious zealot. When I drew an oblique comparison between you and Torquemada, you appeared to regard it as an insult. You however are more than happy to insult and malign decent parents purely on the grounds of their beliefs. Like many who feel free to insult other you are remarkably touchy when the mildest of insult is directed at you.

     I have my own beliefs. I do not discuss them with others. I do not force my beliefs on others. I do not dislike, insult or condemn those like you who do not share my beliefs. I certainly do not have the insufferable arrogance to suggest that those who do not share my views are any worse than me or should be deprived of their children.

344. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 17 Mar, 2017

     Going to church schools you may have never felt that you were being abused, terrified or brainwashed Ben, but you were. And if your religion teachers weren't brainwashing you into believing in a fictitious god and his bastard son, or terrifying you with images of Hell and eternal punishment for sinning, then they weren't doing their job. And of course, as should be obvious, we, and Ron, were talking of intellectual and emotional abuse, not physical abuse, although that too was present in many church schools. And lying to naïve children is surely an abuse of trust if nothing else.

     Would you support your local school if they taught kids that jackal-headed gods would punish them if they misbehaved, or that storks and not sex was the source of babies, or that aliens are abducting people from their beds as they sleep, or that astrology and alchemy are more believable than astronomy and chemistry? We doubt that you would, because of course it is wrong to fill the heads of gullible and trusting children with pure bunkum. It would be brainwashing children, and a form of intellectual abuse, because lying to children is enslaving their minds, denying them the freedom of discovering the world for themselves, imprinting nonsense on them before their reasoning skills have fully developed. In some sense mental enslavement to a false belief is worse than bodily enslavement. They'd be slaves to an imaginary master and they wouldn't even realise they were slaves. If the religious truly believed that reason and evidence supports their belief in gods, then they would let children mature intellectually before presenting them with the case for their god. If their argument for that god was sound, then the children would become believers. We don't try and teach 5-year-olds general relativity or genetics, fearful that if we don't then they'll never believe that gravity and DNA are real when they grow up. And the reality is that teaching young impressionable children that an invisible god called Jehovah or Allah is real is just as irresponsible as teaching them that invisible jackal-headed gods are real. You can't just support religious indoctrination when the school is teaching about your god. As a Christian you have to be equally supportive if your school were teaching your kids how to pray to Allah or Shiva.

     You say your wife deals with cases of abused and troubled children. If she encountered the case we imagined, of a young child terrified after her parents had repeatedly told her that there were real, dangerous monsters under her bed, would your wife class her as an abused and troubled child, or would she tell her to grow up, there no monsters? We'd hope she would visit the parents and try and get it across to them the very real psychological harm they were causing in a vulnerable child. But if the parents insisted that they truly believed under-the-bed monsters were real, and it was their duty and right to instruct their child in their beliefs, would that mean the child wasn't being abused and troubled? That's certainly the belief of Christians and Muslims, that while their children may be truly upset about the stories they're told, it's their duty and right to tell them the horror stories as well as the humdrum stories from their religion. But let's remember that, as far as all the evidence goes, stories of gods are just as fantastical as stories of under-the-bed monsters.

     Certainly there will be many more cases of abused and troubled children due to neglect than those terrified about what the devil is going to do to them sooner or later, but that's no reason to pretend that those troubled souls don't exist. Your wife can handle those due to neglect, and we atheists, by educating young parents, will try and protect children from having to go through life forever terrified that God is watching them have sex, and that if they enjoy it too much, they're destined for Hell. You're lucky at least that three-quarters of your kids have 'more or less rejected' belief in gods, and only one is still hearing voices. We know many people that have 'more or less rejected' belief in gods, but none of them can stop occasional relapses to the nonsense they were taught as children. They just can't shake the brainwashing completely. The devil still haunts their thoughts occasionally, especially when they seem to be having too much fun, doubly so if sex is involved. But these occasional doubts they have about sex and science are trivial when compared to the children of religious parents who refuse them medical treatments on the foolish belief that God will heal them, if it's part of his plan, or that force their children to undergo genital mutilation, which is especially harmful, sometimes fatal, to their daughters. Others teach their children that women are inferior, that homosexuals are abominations, and that heretics should be persecuted, and killed if possible. We make no apologies in our attempts to dissuade people from continuing to tell their children barbaric fairy stories under the guise that they are true. If the stories are indeed true, then they'll still be true when they grow up, so tell them then when they are far better equipped to deal with the horrors their god has planned for them. Of course logically it can't be true that Jehovah, God, Allah, Shiva and Quetzalcoatl are all running the show, so at the very least most parents on the planet are, without a doubt, unknowingly lying to their children. We atheists would argue that they all are.

     Of course children that have had a religious upbringing generally don't see themselves as having been abused, either psychologically or physically, since they believe that the stories, while certainly horrific, are true, and need to be told, and that the genital mutilation and corrective beatings were ordered by God in his holy text. No caring religious parent is going to knowingly abuse their child, so the trick is to relabel your actions. An atheist parent beating their child is physical abuse, but a Christian beating their child is God-directed behavioural correction. An atheist parent terrifying their child with "real" stories of under-the-bed monsters is emotional abuse, but a Christian terrifying their child with "real" stories of monsters from the Bible is how to raise a good God-fearing child. Until Christians, Muslims, Scientologists or some other nutty cult produce the evidence that the silly and often horrific stories they tell their children are true, then we contend that they are harming their children by telling them those stories, and at the same time are reducing their ability to experience and enjoy the real world.

     We also have a problem with this comment of yours: 'Of course there are parents (and sadly teachers and priests) who claim adherence to some faith who abuse their children but their are even more parents who claim no faith who abuse children'. We challenge you to provide the evidence for that claim. Most people in the world are religious believers, atheists probably account for less than 10%, certainly a small minority, and while atheists are just as capable of abuse as anyone, it's quite false to claim that abuse from atheist parents outstrips that of religious parents, that 'their are even more parents who claim no faith who abuse children'. That's like Christians who argue that immoral atheists are the major source of problems in society, because without a controlling belief in God, nothing is forbidden, and that includes all manner of crime. And yet strangely our prisons are full of mostly Christians, not atheists. The number of atheist inmates isn't even as high as our percentage in society, Christians take up the slack, meaning something in our worldview helps keep us honest.

     But you're correct that we 'cannot pin all abuse on religion', and we have never suggested that we should. But we clearly don't have the time or resources to expose all causes of abuse, so we focus on that caused by religion (and other silly beliefs) and let others focus on other causes. Just because there are other causes in the abuse of children doesn't mean we should turn away from religion, since if we were to look at neglectful parents, they'd simply deflect our gaze by using your argument, and say that we can't pin all abuse on neglect you know, what about drug use, or religion? You'd have us going around in circles, with no reduction in abuse.

     And Ben, clearly we're not actually arguing that children should be taken off Christian and Muslim parents that insist on lying to them. We were wondering, and maybe your wife can shed some light here, how child welfare services would react to parents terrifying their children with stories of under-the-bed monsters being real. Would they ignore a child clearly troubled by such stories, and if they wouldn't, if they would talk to the parents, would they also talk to the parents of children clearly troubled by religious stories of Hell and demons? And we know for a fact that children are troubled by stories of Hell and demons (even adults are), it's the very purpose of the stories after all, so why does a caring, humane society continue to look the other way when religious parents deliberately scare the shit out of their kids?

     If our pointing out that 'decent parents' are harming their children by fulling their heads with false stories, many of which will scar the child for life, if this is taken as an insult, we make no apologies, since we will not apologise for telling the truth and attempting to reduce harm where we can. As atheists we are more than used to insults from religious folk, everything from, 'The fool says in his heart, "There is no God". They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.' (PS 14:1), to loving Christians telling us that we're going to burn in Hell for all eternity, and that they'll gleefully applaud our torturers. However our confidence in our stance, based on reason not faith, means that we don't feel insulted. You may view our impassioned response to an insult as being 'touchy', but it's simply our attempt to show that insults won't work on us and that we ask for evidence and reasoned arguments instead. The religious may feel humiliated and hurt when we point out how silly their beliefs are, they may feel we're being insensitive and rude to expose their fantasies, but the reality is that if they don't want our skeptical claims to feel like insults, then they should stop believing such silly things. Different people that believe in everything from gods, ghosts and psychics to chemtrails, astrology and UFOs have all claimed that we have insulted their beliefs, and by 'insulted" they really mean exposed as baseless. They are very annoyed that we don't take them seriously, and unable to respond with evidence, they resort to insults. To us, once the insults begin it's a sure sign that our opponent has dredged the bottom of their argument bin and found it empty, and so a desperate tactic is employed to cover their retreat.

     You wrote that, 'I have my own beliefs. I do not discuss them with others. I do not force my beliefs on others. I do not dislike, insult or condemn those like you who do not share my beliefs'. You say you do not discuss your beliefs with others, and yet here you are, again, discussing your beliefs with others. You say you do not insult others, yet you accuse us of being 'as intolerant and dangerous as the worst type of religious zealot'. Or is that a compliment? You say that you 'certainly do not have the insufferable arrogance to suggest that those who do not share my views are any worse than me'. Wait... what? Surely by describing us 'as intolerant and dangerous as the worst type of religious zealot', shows that you do have the insufferable arrogance to suggest that we are worse than you, or are you admitting that you're an intolerant, dangerous religious zealot too?

     Unlike you, we do enjoy discussing our beliefs with others, it's how we examine their validity and improve on them, and we encourage others to do likewise. Religions have flourished because they discourage discussion and push blind faith, they shield themselves off from those that might question their dubious claims, and deprived of debate and honest dissent, their sheltered followers continue to erect barriers against a sea of scientific evidence. The plaintive cry these days is, "Respect my religion", which actually means, leave me alone, ignore me, let me corrupt children without having to explain why science and reason are tools of the devil.

345. Comment by Ben, 19 Mar, 2017

     I am not quite sure why I continue this discussion. From previous posts you clearly think that those who have any beliefs or faith are at best deluded brainwashed nutters and at worst evil monsters who set out to terrify children and warp their minds. On that basis any discussion is pointless since neither a nutter nor a monster is likely to have anything worthwhile to contribute.

     However my sense of masochism, no doubt arising from my religious education, compels me to make one further comment after which I will do something productive like count the knot holes in my garden fence.

     Whatever you may think I was not brainwashed at school, unless we both have different ideas of what brainwashing means. We had a curriculum that included religious instruction and this included looking at fairy stories, as you put it, from the bible. Perhaps I went to an unusually liberal school but we were encouraged to question and dispute what we read and there were many boys who openly said they thought the idea of a God was nonsense. The teaching staff accepted those views and encouraged debate.

     It was the same with my own children with the difference being that other faiths were included. You may well say the concept of a God is absurd, but absurd or not religion plays a huge part in our history and there is in my view no reason why religion should not be taught and the content of the bible discussed with children left to make up their own minds.

     As I have said it is a matter of indifference to me what you do or do not believe. What irritates me is your zealotry. I can imagine that if we ever had a government that banned religion and made worship punishable by death you would be the first volunteer for the religion enforcement police.

     If you will excuse me there are knot holes requiring my attention.

346. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 20 Mar, 2017

     We have no problem with people having beliefs Ben, we have a few ourselves, our problem is with silly beliefs. And yes, we do think that those who hold religious beliefs on important matters on nothing but blind faith are, to use your words, 'deluded brainwashed nutters'. And by blind religious faith we mean believing in something even when there is no good reason to believe it, no evidence to support it, and actually evidence and/or reasons that contradicts that belief. As Bertrand Russell said, 'When there is evidence, no one speaks of faith. We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence'.

     The religious are deluded because they have been deceived, they are brainwashed because someone placed falsehoods in their mind, and they are "nutters" because these implanted lies force them to do irrational things, like beg favours from invisible sky fairies, and even do immoral, harmful things, like persecute those their fairy tells them he hates. You can't surely expect us to believe that someone who worshiped Anubis the jackal-headed Egyptian god wasn't deluded? Or that they hadn't been brainwashed into believing he actually existed? Nor can you convince us that the Aztec priests that sacrificed thousands of people to their gods weren't just a little bit evil. No doubt you'll complain that those ancient religious beliefs and faiths weren't what you were referring to? But let's remember that those pushed at your church school are ancient too. Perhaps you were referring to the faith that motivates Muslim terrorists to become suicide bombers, or that saw Christians burn witches at the stake? No... perhaps still not what you meant by people of faith? Do you seriously believe that the only faith that counts is your modern, wishy-washy interpretation of the Christian faith? And even then you seem to be in denial that horror stories told by priests are likely to terrify children and modify their lifelong behaviour, stories of Satan and of Hell and eternal torture in its burning lakes of sulphur, where most everyone is destined because there is none that haven't sinned. Need we repeat that it's a fact that children are troubled by stories of Hell and demons, as are adults, that was the very purpose of the stories after all. Fear of the Lord is instilled in them from a young age to keep them in line, to keep them faithful. It's sheer nonsense to argue that their minds weren't warped as children when we see grown adults cross themselves and offer prayers of thanks to a sky fairy, simply because they've survived some natural disaster. You write that discussion is pointless, and you could be right. Would you consider it worthwhile to reason with an utterly committed believer in the likes of Anubis, the jackal-headed Egyptian god that we mentioned above? We suspect not, and frankly we see no difference between followers of Anubis and Jesus. Faith in one is just as silly as faith in the other, and Christians have tried and failed for some 2,000 years to show otherwise.

     You say you weren't brainwashed at your church school, but you're a Christian who believes 'in a loving God and a loving Jesus', and that Jesus was the son of God, so clearly you were brainwashed somewhere. And by brainwashed we mean, 'The application of a concentrated means of persuasion in order to develop a specific belief'. We don't believe you came to understand and believe in Christianity and men walking on water without input from others. If you already believed in God before going to school, then you were brainwashed at home and your church school reinforced and increased that brainwashing. You wouldn't see it as brainwashing if your parents had already planted the lie. You say that during your church school's religious instruction classes students 'were encouraged to question and dispute what we read', that the 'teaching staff accepted [atheist] views and encouraged debate'. Well, as we've said, your religion teachers weren't doing their job. As you've already noted, Christians are expected to believe because of faith, not reasoned debate. Even Jesus said he favoured people that believed through faith rather than evidence, saying, 'blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed'. Martin Luther, leader of the Reformation in the 16th century, described reason as "the devil's bride" and "God's worst enemy". He wrote that:

     "There is on earth among all dangers no more dangerous thing than a richly endowed and adroit reason, especially if she enters into spiritual matters which concern the soul and God. For it is more possible to teach an ass to read than to blind such a reason and lead it right; for reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed."

     "Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees it must put out of sight, and wish to know nothing but the word of God".

     "Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but more frequently than not struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God."

     "Reason should be destroyed in all Christians."

     "Whoever wants to be a Christian should tear the eyes out of his reason."

     If you think that priests, religious parents and religious instruction classes are merely promoting reasoned debate, and are just as happy if children leave as atheists as god believers, as long as they've reached their stance honestly and rationally, then we think you've got a fairy tale view of religion. You may have been lucky enough to have religion teachers that didn't care all that much about your soul and what nasty things God was going to do to it on your death, but most religion teachers, as well as most priests and religious parents, try and convince children that God is real, and is coming for them. Brainwashing.

     And yes, we do view the concept of gods as absurd, and you're correct that religion has played a huge part in our history, but then so too has slavery, superstition, xenophobia, warfare and subjugation of women. Just because something has had a real impact on our past doesn't mean we should continue to blindly promote it. We should indeed teach kids about religion, and the impact it has had and still has, but it should be taught in the same manner that we teach the majority of religions from our history, as mythology, not as history or science. You reveal your Christian bias when you say that religion should be taught, but then suddenly you're thinking solely of, 'the content of the bible discussed with children'. You do realise that religion encompasses thousands of different religions don't you? Why, when pushing for their kids to learn about religion in school, do we never hear Christians say that they want the content of the Koran discussed with children, or the Vedas, or the Egyptian Book of the Dead?

     You talk of the 'the content of the bible discussed with children left to make up their own minds', but religious instruction classes aren't offering kids the appropriate forum and information to truly reach the truth. In these classes you have a teacher who is almost always a devout Christian, and never alongside them do you have a scientist, philosopher, historian or atheist that can offer alternative views to God's creation. When kids have questions about evolution or morals, it's always the Christian that answers them, not the scientist or philosopher. Thinking that religious instruction classes aren't biased towards Christianity is as silly as thinking that visiting a Catholic priest might see him recommending Buddhism.

     And thanks for ending on yet another insult. With Ken Ring indisposed, it's nice that someone is prepared to step in and remind us what immoral bastards we are, or least have the potential to become. We're atheists, and you're religious, and yet every time you want to compare us with a vile, evil individual or institution, you continually choose someone from your team. Which of course leads us to believe that to be doing truly vile and evil things you have to be doing it with religious motivation. Because of course monotheistic religions are infamous for banning and persecuting other faiths and those of no faith, and of having organised departments to enforce their beliefs, eg the inquisitions and the modern day religious police in many Muslim countries. Even today the Catholic Church still threatens followers with excommunication. Of course we do have individuals and movements that focused more on atheistic thoughts than gods, such as the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the scientific revolution and democracy, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone that tried to force atheism on believers, or persecuted them in the name of disbelief, or discouraged the discussion of new ideas. It's telling that you have to liken us to a religious zealot to insult us, that we're as intolerant and as dangerous as a person who sincerely believes in God.

     You say that, 'What irritates me is your zealotry'. We're guessing that you would have said the same thing to Jesus as he hung on the cross. You would have explained that like him you have your own beliefs, but you don't discuss them with others. 'Look Jesus, if you really believe something', you would have said, 'something important, you should keep it to yourself'.

347. Comment by Ron, 21 Mar, 2017

     Hi John. As many know today, the Bible appears to be shockingly misogynistic, full of stuff that simply implies women are very inferior in most ways. As you will know there is so much of it that choosing what to quote is rather difficult. In this comment I wish to relate some of those shockers. Two quotes do not come directly from the "good book".

     A large section of Leviticus 12 talks of the purification of the woman after birth. You will note that following the birth of a son she will be "unclean" for 7 days and must purify herself for 33 days. After a girl it's double, 14 and 66 days respectively. Leviticus 19:20-22 basically states if a man rapes a female slave she is to be punished, but the man has to bring an offering, a priest makes atonement for him and his sins are forgiven. Leviticus 27:3-7 The Lord via Moses to the Israelites, where he puts a value on men and women in shekels. You will see how in each age group the man will have much more value than the woman. There is this one from the new testament. 1 Corinthians 11:3-9 It is clear that God is over Christ, who is over man and man is over woman. Further in 14:34-35 it says women must not be allowed to talk in church, if a woman wishes to ask something she must ask her husband after church. This well known one, Ephesians 5:22-24, women must treat their husbands as they do God. Wives must submit to their husbands, in everything, as head of the wife, as Christ is head of the church. Revelations 14 goes on about these 144,000 virgin men in heaven who have never been "defiled" by a woman. Yet, in Genesis, oddly, God says "be fruitful and multiply". In Exodus it's permissible to sell a daughter into slavery but not a son! This awful little quote is not from the bible but from someone called St Jerome. "Nothing is so unclean as a woman in her periods, what she touches she causes to be unclean". And this horrid gross piece from an early church father, Tertullia: "In pain shall you bring forth children, woman, and you shall turn to your husband and he shall rule over you. And do you not know you are Eve? God's sentence still hangs over all your sex and his punishment weighs down upon you. You are the devil's gateway, you are she who first violated the forbidden tree and broke the law of God. It was you who coaxed your way around him whom the devil had not the force to attack. With what ease you shattered that image of God, Man! Because of the death you merited, even the son of God had to die... woman you are the gate to hell". Vile isn't it? Everything blamed on woman. Back to the Bible and Exodus 22:16-17. If a man sleeps with an unmarried virgin then he must marry her but if her father refuses him his daughter he has to pay some dosh. Then it becomes ok. 1 Timothy 2:9-14 women must dress modestly with propriety and decency, no braid, gold or pearls or expensive clothes but good deeds appropriate for a woman who worships God. Full submission in quietness, not permitted to teach, or have authority over a man, must be silent. Judges 19, but verses 22-25 the worst. The story condensed tells us some evil men came to an old man's house who had a husband and wife guests. They demanded the male guest for sex. The old man refused, not wanting such vileness, but offered his daughter and guest's wife to do with as they wish. They took the concubine (wife) and raped and abused her all night and let her go. A bit further we are told she was chopped into 12 pieces. What would anyone get out of that story? Most of this stuff just makes you want to squirm. John, one could ask how can any Christian woman read and study the Bible's teachings and still remain a Christian. Also, do some Christian men justify abuse based on various teachings? And yet women churchgoers outnumber men approx. 60/40. Want equality? It's against the will of God.

348. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 22 Mar, 2017

     Hi Ron. The only thing we'd change in your comments are where you say that 'the Bible appears to be shockingly misogynistic'. It doesn't just appear to be, it is without doubt shockingly misogynistic. God and his Bible treats women as nothing more than the chattels of men, no different than a slave, donkey or a nice belt. And he expects his male followers to do likewise, and this extends across Judaism, Christianity and Islam. As you say, there is so much evidence for God's hatred of women that it's difficult to know what verses to quote. That's why some years ago we wrote this post: 'Sex, women and the Catholic Church'.

     The commandments issued by God and taken up by men that women must remain silent in church, that they must not teach or have authority over men, and that 'wives should submit to their husbands in everything', are no different than what we today would force on a dog. But as unjust and inhuman as they are, the real horror emerges when that old man offers his virgin daughter and a stranger's concubine to a group of wicked homosexuals to be raped, in order to stop them raping the man. It mirrors the tale of Lot offering his two virgin daughters to another group of wicked homosexuals in order to save some male strangers. But what do these stories mean? Was ancient Israel plagued by rampant homosexuality, with bands of violent, roaming homosexuals preying on any newcomer? Apparently so. But the Judges story doesn't make sense. The men desperately wanted to have sex with the male stranger, and refused point blank the offer of the two women for sex. But when one woman (the concubine) was thrown out to them, they immediately left to spend the night raping her. Why would a group refuse the offer of two women for sex, but then accept just one woman for sex? That's the most stupid negotiation I've ever heard of. Plus they wanted to have sex with the male stranger, hence their lack of interest in the women, so why would men with clear homosexual desires suddenly be interested in spending the entire night having sex with a woman? And sharing one when they could have had two?

     I think some of the Bible's authors may have been secretly struggling with their own homosexual urges, and this plays out in their writing stories that condemn such behaviour. It's a common ploy even today. But think about the Bible's underlying message. Almost the entire Bible is full of stories about men, of men protecting other men, of their fellowship and devotion to other men, and of their utter contempt for women, viewing them as filthy, evil, conniving and on the level of a dog, useful for some things, like cooking and cleaning, but nowhere as wonderful and as valuable as a "close" relationship with another man. As a heterosexual it's certainly not the book I would have written, since while there is lot's of sex in it, women are the vile villains and men are the heroes that we are expected to swoon over, like David and Goliath, even a naked Jesus on the cross. And Jesus, with his collection of all male disciples, wasn't married, when all Jews were expected to be, which suggests that he may have been homosexual. Then we have their disturbing fascination with each others penis and the state of the foreskin, and the many arguments that sex between a man and women is for procreation only, not recreation. Clearly these were not men that enjoyed spending time with women, let alone wanted to touch them or see them naked. After eating the forbidden fruit Adam was quick to put clothes on Eve, whom we can assume was the most beautiful and sexy woman imaginable, but apparently Adam got no thrill from her nudity. Me, I would have been saying to Eve, Are you kidding, it's too hot for clothes! But seemingly the female body was not to Adam's taste, and he wanted it covered. Homophobic Christians say that their god created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, but maybe based on reading between the lines in the Bible, Adam wishes God had created Steve instead.

     You're right Ron that it is astounding that so many women want to be a part of Christianity, and Judaism and Islam, when their god and the holy text demands that they be treated so badly. Do they like to feel owned and controlled, and viewed as filthy and devious? Why do they willingly sign up to a group that demands they sit at the back of the bus and keep quiet? And it's just the same for homosexuals. Leaving aside the confusing and worrying homoerotic messages in the Bible, God clearly says that he hates homosexuals; they are an abomination to him and he demands that they be persecuted and killed. And of course we're talking both male and female homosexuals. So why, like so many women, are so many homosexuals struggling to be accepted by their church? Most women and most homosexuals wouldn't think of joining the Ku Klux Klan because of its racist attitudes, or a Muslim terrorist group because of its intolerant attitudes, so why do they work to remain in their religion when they should be fleeing in droves? They should be ashamed of their association with a group with such disgusting attitudes towards women and homosexuals (not to mention atheists, we're on their hate list as well). Why stick with a group that bans sex with goats but not sex with children?

     I guess it comes down to most god believers being quite ignorant of what their religion really stands for and really demands, and being too lazy and apathetic to care. As long as they think their name is on the list for Heaven rather than Hell, then they think they've probably done enough. Of course news of the harm that religion is doing around the world occasionally filters through, like fundamentalists slaughtering heretics, or Christians banning the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS, but what can they do to prevent those atrocities? They don't seem to grasp that every woman and every homosexual that continues to support a mindless belief in God is giving oxygen to those atrocities. Just imagine the destructive effect if well over half the planet's population (women and homosexuals) did the right thing and walked away from a religion that treats them like shit.

349. Comment by Ron, 23 Mar, 2017

     Hi John. Thanks for your response. Your words are so true where you say, "I guess it comes down to most god believers being quite ignorant of what their religion really stands for and really demands, and being too lazy and apathetic to care. As long as they think their name is on the list for Heaven rather than Hell, then they think they've probably done enough."

     I know there is a fear among many Christians that if a discrepancy was found in the bible it would mean God is not real and the good book is not holy. Yet, as we well know, it has 100's of discrepancies. Many Christians, whether they know it or not, worship the bible, it stealthily becomes their idol. The idea that it may have an error or two is as blasphemous as stating God makes mistakes. Christians generally will have a bible or two at home but only a small number have ever read it cover to cover. Many have said that if their house was on fire the bible would be the number one item they would take with them when fleeing. Christians enjoy talking about what it says in the bible, well chosen of course, but how many actually pick it up except to carry it under their arm to church.

350. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 23 Mar, 2017

     Yes Ron, you're right that many Christians treat the Bible as an idol, and without error, which is as delusional as saying that the All Blacks have never lost a game of rugby. Of course I've never read the bloody thing from cover to cover either, but as an atheist it's not really expected. We have better things to do, and much, much better books to choose from. Christians might see this as hypocritical, but they happily dismiss Islam without ever reading a word in the Koran, and thousands of other religions that they know nothing about. And the reality is that informed atheists that don't believe in God still know more about what the Bible says than does your typical Christian who does. Something is not quite right there, and yet your typical Christian doesn't live in a bubble, so I suspect that they've heard of errors existing in the Bible and are just too terrified to look for themselves. As you say Ron, better to just carry it under your arm to church each week, consult only those safe passages recommended by the pastor, and then place it back in the drawer until next Sunday.

     Christians believe that understanding the truth about God is unquestionably the most important thing to achieve in this life, and yet they all seem to waste their lives doing other things. Heathen things. In the dictionary next to the definition of hypocrite there should be a picture of a Christian.

351. Comment by Ron, 23 Mar, 2017

     Hello John. Just how much of the bible is man-inspired. These days, more than ever, it seems to me that a heck of a lot appears man-inspired as opposed to God inspired. Most articles written by Christians naturally tell us there is no doubt, the answer is obvious. They would have to say that. Ones level of belief in God dictates ones feelings on this as well. The well known passage 2 Timothy 3:16 says "All scripture is God-breathed (inspired) and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness". Jehovah Witness folk say Paul wrote that and it means God, by means of his Holy Spirit, guided the bible writers to write only what he wanted them to write. Also there is 1 Thessalonians 2:13 "We constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God's message, you accepted it not as the word of men but for what it really is, the word of God". In Ezekiel 23 there is plenty related to prostitution etc but verse 20 is another of those that Sunday schools would say we'll give that one a miss, "there she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses". This quote from a disgusted male Christian says "just became more aware of this verse and it shocks me, this is almost porn. Am I supposed to believe a holy and pure God inspired this verse. I have problems with that. Why would God need to mention and compare penis sizes to donkeys and their ability to ejaculate, to horses? Can you imagine youths, esp. females reading this? This is gross. Why did God inspire man to write such stuff, he could have omitted it." Good points. I say it is totally unnecessary and irrelevant. I figure it was written within a farming culture where mating animals were a familiar sight, but in a book that is supposed to offer wisdom and guidance, etc.? I recently read an article written by a nameless Christian which had its sole purpose of proving that the bible is God-inspired. Period. Indisputable. His/her main theme to prove this was "fulfilled prophecy". He states, "God spoke to men telling them of things he would bring about in the future. Some have already occurred. Others have not. For example there were more than 300 prophecies concerning Jesus' first coming 2000 yrs ago. There is no doubt that these are prophecies from God because of manuscripts and scrolls dated before the birth of Christ. These were not written after the fact. They were written beforehand!! Scientific dating proves this". A little more of what he says, on a different tack. "Unbelievers throughout history have tried to find archaeological evidence to disprove what is recorded in the bible, they have failed. Proving scripture to be untrue has not been done. In the past the bible contradicted the current "scientific theories" only to be proven true later. A good example is Isaiah 40:22 where it says God sits on the circle of the earth. This was long before scientists claimed the earth was flat". To finish, the Jehovahs admitted there are errors in the bible but we must not dismiss all as it could be a fatal mistake, that we will be dismissing the true God-inspired words that abound.

352. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 24 Mar, 2017

     Hi Ron. To answer your first question, 'Just how much of the bible is man-inspired', it's far more than 'a heck of a lot', it is of course the entire book, every single word from talking snakes to talking, flaming bushes that don't burn. It's no different to wondering just how much of the Harry Potter books was woman-inspired.

     As for Paul claiming that the Bible was inspired by God, Paul was an ignorant persecutor of early Christians who never met Jesus or God, so how the hell would he know? Opinion doesn't count as evidence. And no Christian believes the Muslims when they say that their holy book is an updated edition dictated by God, nor do the Christians believe the Jews who claim God's word stopped with the Old Testament. The reality is that every religious believer throughout all time claimed to have their god's word revealed to them, somehow, and clearly they are all deluded.

     Regarding the passages describing prostitution and genitals, you quote a disgusted Christian: 'Why did God inspire man to write such stuff, he could have omitted it'. What arrogance, presuming that he can tell God what he needed to write. One minute God is all-knowing and all-powerful, and the next he's too ignorant to be able to write a good story and give readers what they want. Apparently God should have stuck with creating worlds and left writing books to someone with a bit more talent. It's amazing that every time a bored Christian flicks through his Bible and discovers yet another passage that they have trouble accepting, then with god-like powers they quickly proclaim that it was obviously added by ignorant man, that it's not part of God's word.

     This is typical, Christians are highly offended by sex, a quite natural and necessary activity that most people happily indulge in, but they take no offence at all of all the accounts of murder, slaughter and genocide committed in the Bible, both by God and his chosen people. They condemn something that is legal and natural and promote something that is illegal and immoral. And they even promote it to children, everything from God's glorious worldwide genocide of innocent men, women and children in the flood of Noah to the contrived torture and murder of Jesus on the cross by his own father. And this Christian hypocrisy and immorality plays out nightly on TV and in movies, where our screens are flooded with highly graphic scenes of people being murdered and tortured, often in slow motion. And it's not just a single grisly murder, and the numerous replays per episode, that we're asked to watch before the police solve the case, we are forced to sit through epic battles where hundreds and even thousands of people are killed with everything from swords and arrows (think 'Lord of the Rings'), to assault rifles and grenade launchers. And then we have horror movies with the sole purpose of terrifying the viewer and showing as many innocent people getting killed in as horrible a manner as possible. And we're not expected to lose a minute's sleep over this violence and massive lose of life. People get killed every day, violence is it's an unfortunate part of real life, so why shouldn't we portray reality in our movies? Of course the scenes are fake, but the realism today is so high that we might as well be witnessing the real thing. Just how many people might your typical person, including children, have seen being killed on the big screen over the years? Hundreds killed up close no doubt, and thousands killed in large battle scenes, and thousands more in scenes of natural disasters such as earthquakes. How desensitised have we become to violent death? Last night on the TV News we were shown a real dead body lying under the wheel of a bus, a victim of the Islamist terror attack in London. They felt they had to show it to us, and that we wouldn't be unduly upset. But if there had been a nude beach in the background, without doubt all the naughty bits would have been pixelated out so as not to shock and offend our sensibilities. Not only is the portrayal of sex utterly banned from our screens, even non-sexual, innocent nudity is banned, eg a nude beach. We can be shown a woman being beaten to a bleeding pulp in her bathroom and then dragged screaming to the bedroom where she is shot in the head in front of her children, spraying blood and brain matter all over the wall, but we can't be shown a scene without a murderer, one where that same woman is walking naked from the bathroom to the bedroom, unless it's from behind and in a very low light. Call us weird, but we'd much prefer to see a loving couple have graphic sex on TV than a murderous couple graphically stab and shoot each other, we'd much prefer to see full frontal nudity than full fontal disembowelment, and if something must be censored, we'd much prefer to see deluded people praying to their God pixelated out than genitals. But our 'make love not war' view isn't shared by Christians, Muslims or Jews, they're enamoured by violence and disgusted by nudity and sex. Rather than be shocked that some talk of ordinary, innocent sex slipped into the Bible, that 'disgusted Christian' should be questioning why so much barbaric violence found its way into the Bible, and went on to become the guiding light of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

     As for this nonsense about fulfilled Bible prophecy, you'd have to be living in bubble with the IQ of a burnt piece of toast to believe that the Bible has made a single correct prophecy, and ignore all the untold failed prophecies. Saying that there will be earthquakes and wars and famine in the future is not prophecy, it's simply common sense. And as we've said before, even the prophecies that Jesus made were false:

     'And he said to them, "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power."' (MK 9:1)

     That's Jesus telling his disciples that he would return before all of them died, that some of them would witness the Second Coming. Yet they all died without even so much as a phone call from Jesus saying he was running late. If you're not convinced that the early Christians thought the Second Coming was imminent, here's another quote from Jesus:

     "Behold, I am coming soon!"... Then he told me, "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near... "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done... "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches... He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon." (REV 22:7-20)

     Not only are those prophecies false, we're still waiting. If someone owned you money and promised that you would receive a cheque in the mail 'soon', and 2,000 years later your descendants were still waiting by the mailbox, wouldn't it be time to admit you've been conned? You'd get a better feel for the future reading 'Harry Potter' than you would the Bible. And to claim that there's no 'archaeological evidence to disprove what is recorded in the bible', only shows that these morons haven't read anything besides the Bible. There's plenty of evidence that human civilisations were being built when according to the Bible God hadn't even applied for planning consent for his new universe.

     As for the claim that, 'In the past the bible contradicted the current "scientific theories" only to be proven true later', and the example given that, 'God sits on the circle of the earth. This was long before scientists claimed the earth was flat', I'm assuming they're relaying the Christian argument that God clearly said in the Bible that the Earth was a sphere, and yet men came to think it was flat, and then much later we finally realised that the Bible was right all along, it is a sphere. This is of course a false argument that sees Christians trying to claim a Biblical view that never existed in order to align themselves with science. Annoying science which keeps debunking their claims but which can't be ignored.

     To start with, scientists have never claimed the earth was flat. The ancient Greeks knew that it was a sphere, they even measured the radius quite accurately. People claim that sailors like Columbus and contemporaries were afraid that they would fall off the edge of the world, but this is nonsense. Learned people knew the Earth was a sphere, only ignorant peasants, and those that wrote the Bible, ie ignorant peasants, thought the world was flat. If we look at the Bible verse mentioned, it doesn't actually say the Earth was a sphere, which is what Christians are falsely trying to imply:

     'He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.' ISA 40:22

     A circle is two-dimensional, it is not a sphere, which is three-dimensional. They imagined the Earth as being flat, like a dinner plate, and God is looking down from above so he sees the shape of circle. But like the plate, while it has a little thickness, it's still essentially flat. And if you imagine a flat Earth, what shape would it be boundary wise? The Bible is simply saying that the flat Earth is in the shape of a circle rather than a square or pentagon. Furthermore, their metaphors of a canopy and a tent also suggest a flat surface. You can erect a tent or a canopy on flat ground, but not on a big soccer ball. If they knew the Earth was a sphere then they would have used a metaphor that suggested completely wrapping or enclosing a ball-shaped object. Other Biblical verses that shows they firmly believed the Earth was flat are the following:

     "Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor." (MT 4:8)

     No matter how high the mountain is, you can never view the Earth's entire surface (not even from space), never see 'all the kingdoms'. This sentence only makes sense if the writers of the Bible thought the world was flat, which of course they did. And some more problematic verses:

     "He shakes the earth from its place and makes its pillars tremble." (JOB 9:6)

     "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?" (JOB 38:4-7)

     "When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm." (PS 75:3)

     Again their language reveals their ignorance. They're only familiar with flat constructions, imagining that the flat ground must have a foundation and pillars beneath it to hold it firm. When they asked, 'Who stretched a measuring line across it?', that is what you say of a flat floor, not a sphere, where you'd ask who stretched a measuring line around it, not across it. And they talk of cornerstones, and it's impossible for a sphere (or a circle) to have corners. But not for a flat Earth, a flat Earth that might be square or rectangular, which of course conflicts with the 'circle' shape made above. And do we need mention that stars don't sing together in some sort of choir? And remember that these are direct quotes from God. A related bogus claim in the Bible is this one:

     "Tremble before him, all the earth! The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved." (1CH 16:30)

     Seriously, the Earth is firmly established and can't be moved? But we thought it rotated once a day, and orbited the Sun, which in turn orbits the galactic centre, which in turn is moving? Not only is the Earth moving, it's moving very, very fast. Of course it's bullshit like that that made Christians argue that the Earth was the centre of not just the solar system, but the entire universe. And like all their other "scientific" claims, they got it badly wrong.

     The reality is that there is nothing mentioned in the Bible that is actually true that other civilisations hadn't already discovered long before the Jews did. There is nothing mentioned that people couldn't and didn't figure out for themselves without the help of some god. Of course the factual parts of the Bible are trivial and few and far between — Yes, ancient Egypt was real, but the Hebrew Exodus from it wasn't — but the truthful bits are absolutely swamped by the silly bullshit, as they are in the holy texts of every ancient, primitive, ignorant, superstitious religion. But there is a lot of bullshit to work with, expressed in many varying English translations, and so desperate Christians troll through it in their ridiculous and futile attempts to argue that these ignorant Bronze Age goat hearders might really have been revealing God-delivered details about quantum mechanics, cosmology and genetics. Or that when the Bible talks of how 'she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses', that they were actually predicting the coming of Internet porn sites thousands of years later. Yeah right, we'll swallow that.

353. Comment by Patrick, 26 Mar, 2017

     Hi John. Some years ago I bought a property and built a rather big house on it. In order to do so, I had to take a loan from the bank. As I had to refund the financial institution afterwards, I decided to take a tenant. I was lucky to rent the house to a reliable business company that paid the monthly rents without any difficulties.

     Then after about four years I received a phone call from someone (let's call him Laurence) working for this company. He introduced himself to me, stated his position (senior staff). He was not very direct and I did not understand what he wanted to explain at first, but then I understood that some staff members refused to work overtime because there was some strange noise on the property at dusk time, I explained that during the construction I never received any complaints from the people who were building the house, nor from the watchman who came at night. He also talked to me about some crushed gravel that was surrounded by grass that was present on the left side of the house. I explained to him that there was a septic tank underneath and that we decided to put crushed gravel on it as a decoration. I did not realize that some people would think that this decoration was a tomb.

     Finally, he asked me that me to give him the contact details of the person who sold the property to me. I told him that it was not possible and he said that it was okay. A few months later they decided to leave the house. One of their neighbors afterwards told me that they also went to see him to discuss about the presence of a ghost. This happened three years ago and I have since then had a new tenant (also a business company) who has been happily renting the house without any ghost and never confused a septic tank decoration with a tomb.

     With hindsight, I am more angry with Laurence than with the junior staff. You don't have to be a genius to figure out that the junior staff for whatever reason didn't want to do overtime and that all this supernatural silliness was just a pretext, a ploy. But Laurence, who must surely have studied at a university, took all this seriously and even phoned the landlord (me), went to see the neighbor and wanted to talk to the previous property owner.

     This true story is just a trivial news item, but it shows that on our planet some people use supernatural elements to achieve their personal goals, and that some people, even intelligent and cultured ones, fall into the trap.

354. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 27 Mar, 2017

     Thanks for that Patrick. Like you we find it quite astounding that in the 21st century so many people still think this supernatural nonsense is real. We're not talking about natives in the Amazon jungle, these are people that have all had the benefit of a modern education, and yet they are still so easily fooled. In NZ, the 5th season of the reality TV show 'Sensing Murder' is currently screening. In it psychic mediums claim to talk to the dead spirits of victims of real unsolved murders. Episode after episode and season after season they continually and reliably fail to ever solve a single murder, and yet the show has a popular following with its deluded supporters gushing about how amazing the psychics are. It's almost as if they live in an alternative reality where the psychics actually do solve murders, rather than the real one where they fail miserably. Clearly there is a mental threshold for some humans, and when society and knowledge advanced beyond what was understood in primitive and superstitious medieval times, they had clearly already reached their limit of comprehension. To them, everything from smartphones to strange noises in the night have the same explanation — there are invisible, spooky forces at work. Maybe in the distant future when genetic boosts in IQ are possible, we can drag them into the modern world, but until then we just have do our best to limit their impact and the damage they do, the same way we toilet train a pet.

355. Comment by Rene, 27 Mar, 2017

     (a forwarded message, but cool concept to snap minds!)

     "I was told a theory from an atheist who was a former christian that believes that God will only save Atheists or people who DON'T believe in him, because he believes that those who do good just to suck up or out of fear of Hell are missing the point, and God's not stupid enough to be fooled by their motives. An Atheist on the other hand has nothing at stake and simply chooses to do good.

     And to prove the point, he quotes Jesus himself: "You see and you believe. Blessed are those who do not see and yet still believe". Christians take this to be a statement of faith... HE takes this to mean that God wants people to do good even when they don't know about him nor any rewards, and in fact may prefer it that way, hence why he never appears nor performs any miracles.

     He believes God's standing back obscure, seeing how people behave and how they respond to his absence, and acts accordingly, making his absence in the world a DELIBERATE act. (ironic position from an atheist I agree, but still an interesting theory...)"

356. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 27 Mar, 2017

     Yes, we've heard that argument before, but of course it fails miserably. For one, it's impossible for a committed atheist to argue that a god that doesn't exist might save him for any reason. This faulty argument seems to always come from people who call themselves atheists but who clearly still aren't convinced that God might not be real. It's utter nonsense for an atheist to argue that we don't see God performing miracles because he's testing our motives. The thought of wishy-washy atheists thinking that God will be pleased with how they're living their lives is just pathetic.

     While it's certainly true that most Christians are sucking up to God and behaving simply on the hope of getting into Heaven, the Bible clearly shows that these are exactly the sort of obsequious people God wants. He desperately wants mindless followers that will sing his praises for all eternity, not atheists that tell him that we're busy doing fun things and to take a hike. So based on the Bible, which is the only information we have about God's wishes, there is no evidence whatsoever that God would send atheists anywhere but Hell, no matter how good we are and how pure our motives are.

     As for reinterpreting that statement of faith from Jesus, clearly our ex-Christian atheist is talking bullshit. When will Christians, and ex-Christians, learn that you can't twist Biblical verses to suit some new agenda? Either the Bible means what it says, or it doesn't. If it's lying in just a single claim then it could be lying with every single claim. If you can argue that Jesus and God were not very good, pathetic in fact, at explaining what they meant, then every claim becomes suspect. If Jesus meant something quite different when he said, 'Blessed are those who do not see and yet still believe', that it had nothing to do with believing in God but simply in doing good deeds, then perhaps when Jesus said, 'Love your enemies', what he really meant was that you shouldn't go fishing after dark. Once you believe you can start making up your own interpretations of what the Bible clearly says, then it becomes even more of a joke than it already is.

     Jesus said, 'Blessed are those who do not see and yet still believe', so if Jesus isn't a bald-faced liar, then clearly being blessed, being saved and going to heaven, all hinge on believing in him and in God. Let's also remember that in the Bible Jesus says that, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'. JN 14:6 So again, quite clearly, if you don't believe in Jesus then you won't be getting saved. Only a deluded person could read the Bible and argue that atheists could be saved by doing good and not believing.

     It seems to be irrational fear that motivates these silly arguments, people clearly see that talk of gods is silly, and yet they still want to go to heaven and live forever. They want the carefree atheist lifestyle and yet they still want the 72 virgins when they die of old age.

357. Comment by Ben, 20 Apr, 2017

     "Can science prove the existence of God?"

     You may find this article of interest. I am not sending it because it proves anything but because of its rational argument; in fact it is probably a cogent argument against the existence of God.

     There are two small quotes I think worth commenting on.

     "I am very open about not being a man of faith myself, but of having tremendous respect for those who are believers."

     Unlike you the writer does not exhibit the same arrogance and contempt of those like you who dismiss those who happen to have faith as crackpots, lunatics, nutters, etc.

     My second point is:

     "May your faith, if you have one, only serve to enhance and enrich you, not take the wonder of science away!"

     I do have a faith but as the writer suggest I like to think this enhances and enriches me and it certainly does not for me take away the wonder of science.

     I enjoy reading a rational and well reasoned argument even though I may disagree. I detest the arguments of those who dismiss anything that does not fit with their own thinking and who just enjoy belittling others for their beliefs.

358. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 20 Apr, 2017

     Yes Ben, it is an interesting article, the conclusions of which we generally agree with, that it's very likely that life is common elsewhere in the universe, but that truly intelligent life may be quite rare. We disagree with the view of many that just because the universe is huge with billions of planets, then advanced aliens could likely be visiting Earth any day now, if they're not already here. There is a huge difference between life and intelligent life, and big numbers don't guarantee the evolution of self aware intelligence. If we look at the only example we have — life on Earth — and point out that roughly 500 million different species have evolved over some 4 billion years (some 98% of which have since gone extinct), only one species out of half a billion evolved an intelligence sufficient to contemplate their own existence. Alien microbes and even alien sheep may well exist, but we don't think the universe is teeming with advanced space-faring aliens, à la the 'Stars Wars' movies.

     Not surprisingly perhaps, the first statement that you want to comment on also caught our attention, but unlike you we thought this was the one case where he shifted from reason to nonsense. This is where he says he has 'tremendous respect for those who are believers'. Frankly this just sounds like a timid atheist trying to placate religious believers, we can't believe he really feels that way.

     We can't ask him if he truly has tremendous respect for religious believers, but we can ask you Ben. As a Christian, do you have tremendous respect for believers that follow other religions? Do you respect the Muslim terrorists who slaughter the innocent with their car bombs? Did you respect Mother Teresa when she withheld medicine from the dying in her hospitals, arguing that their suffering brought them closer to God? Do you respect the priests who rape children and the bishops who then hide them from secular justice? Do you respect the evangelists who withhold condoms from Africans at risk of HIV? Do you respect the Christians who persecute homosexuals in their community, and sometimes even in their own family? Do you respect the fundamentalists who fight to have creationism taught in science classes? Do you respect the believers who welcome the threat of climate change, pollution and nuclear war because they'll all bring us closer to the apocalypse and Judgement Day? Do you respect believers who make animals suffer because their holy book takes no account of pain? We could go on and on giving examples of things believers do worldwide, inhumane, horrible and despicable things, and we hope that you'd withhold your respect to those believers that commit them.

     You praise the author for not exhibiting the same arrogance and contempt towards believers that you claim we do, and you imply that your outlook is the same, so that must mean that both of you must have tremendous respect for Muslim terrorists, to pick just one example, since they are of course believers, very serious believers.

     We'd hope that you now realise how specious that argument is. Of course you'll no doubt complain that he didn't mean, you didn't mean, that you have tremendous respect for believers that do horrible things. You only respect believers that think and behave as you do. And if that's the case, it makes the statement a farce, it expresses a sentiment that's quite deceptive. Tremendous respect for believers means ALL believers, not just those you like.

     We respect that everyone has the right to freely hold different beliefs, as long as those beliefs don't cause harm to others, but we don't have to respect those beliefs, or those that hold them. We respect people that honestly use reason and evidence to form their beliefs, we respect the method used, even though we may disagree with the conclusion reached. But we don't just blindly respect believers, because quite clearly that includes everyone, from the Dalai Lama to the fanatical members of Islamic State.

     You say that we, 'dismiss those who happen to have faith as crackpots, lunatics, nutters, etc.' That's only partially correct. What we're really dismissing is your faith, your religious belief, and lamenting your inability to see how flawed it is, which is strange since you can all readily see how flawed and silly competing religious beliefs are. Many religious people are very intelligent and well educated, it's only when it comes to considering talking snakes and angels and men rising from the dead to walk the Earth as zombies, that their cognitive skills fail them. If a child went into adulthood believing against all the evidence that an unseen, powerful, supernatural being was watching over him, and following judgement would reward or punish him depending on his behaviour, and that being was called Santa Claus, then society would label him with some of your words: crackpot, lunatic, nutter. Yet if we change the name of that unseen being to God, and even though this belief is still against all the evidence, people like you say we should respect this type of believer. Why, just because lots of people have always believed in unseen gods? As Anatole France said, 'If 50 million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing'.

     As for your second point, where the author said, 'May your faith, if you have one, only serve to enhance and enrich you, not take the wonder of science away!', we fully encourage this notion. He implores believers, 'don't let your faith, whatever it may be, close you off to the joys and wonders of the natural world. The joys of knowing — of figuring out the answers to questions for ourselves — is one that none of us should be cheated out of'. He's telling believers not to let their religion hide the truth of reality from them, not to settle for a comforting fairy tale, something he calls 'the illusion of knowledge', and argues that, 'To allow an uncertain faith to stand in as an answer where scientific knowledge is required does us all a disservice'. If you want answers, if you at least want a chance of discovering the truth, then look to science, not to 'an uncertain faith' that has consistently got its explanations of how the universe works wrong. Demonstrably wrong. We don't dismiss religion simply because it competes with science and our worldview, we dismiss it because its claims conflict with reason and evidence. Even the byword for religion — faith — exposes how shaky its foundation is: 'A belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence, and may exist even contrary to the evidence'.

     And returning to the topic of the article, how does the search for extraterrestrial life impact on belief in God as the creator of the universe? If life is found elsewhere, especially advanced intelligent life, then clearly Earth and humans are not God's unique creation, which would just be another nail in the coffin for Christianity, Judaism, Islam etc. However, if no life is found, and it appears that the universe and life truly is so astronomically improbable as to need a god to have created it, then that scenario doesn't aid Christianity either. Let's recall that the universe started out as something very, very simple, maybe a quantum fluctuation that saw some energy turning into a very hot, dense plasma, and that for hundreds of millions of years there was basically nothing but hydrogen and helium gas. Humans are complex, but we are very recent additions to the universe, and the religious argument is not just that humans needed a creator, but the universe, the very simple universe, did too. Even our simple universe couldn't arise naturally, or so the religious argument goes, but this is where the argument goes awry. Which is more complex, a very simple, very small universe of hydrogen gas or an all-powerful, all-knowing God? Clearly this god is mind-numbingly more complex than our little ball of gas, but if this simple ball of gas is still too complicated to have arisen naturally, it needed a creator, then there is no question whatsoever that God, being far more complex, must also have needed a creator. And by the same logic, the creator of God must also require a creator, ad infinitum. The reality is that no matter how widely improbable the universe and life is, it is still far, far more likely that it arose naturally than that an all-powerful, all-knowing god that has existed for ever just happened to feel like some human company. And even then, after creating the universe, he was prepared to wait nearly 14 billion years for us to turn up. And now that we are here, the bastard hides from us.

359. Comment by Rene, 09 May, 2017

     4 Creepy Visions of Hell From Real Near Death Experiences

     still probably hallucinatory, but interesting to see that not EVERYONE sees Jesus and the bright light.
360. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 09 May, 2017

     Hi Rene. You're quite right that not everyone sees Jesus on experiencing a NDE. It's long been known, except by your typical Christian, that Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and even atheists have had NDEs, and yet strangely only Christians come away thinking that they've met Jesus. But that said, they all read like total, delusional bullshit to me. There is no good reason to even suspect that these accounts even happened, but if they did, they read just like someone describing a dream or nightmare, where all manner of irrational things happen, but we carry on as if it's all normal. Then when we wake up we invent ridiculous scenarios to try and explain the nonsense we just dreamt.

361. Comment by Patrick, 21 May, 2017

     Hi John. I was asking myself why bookmakers never offer bets on religious stuff. By religious stuff I mean things like the return of Jesus (Will Jesus return in 2018?) another apparition of the virgin Mary in Fatima, and so on.

     Now let's consider this. Bookmaking laws vary considerably among countries. In some countries it's completely illegal, in other countries it's legal but there are some restrictions and in others it's "all the way"... You can bet on everything except bad taste topics (Will Prince Philip live until next year?) and dead certainties. That's for legal bookies. But you also have Illegal bookies and these blokes don't give a damn about good or bad taste and will probably accept bets on anything except certainties.

     So why won't they organize betting about religious stuff? Did I mention certainties?

     There's lots of religious people out there, but none of them (and most of them love money) will bet that Jesus will return next year, that Virgin Mary will make another apparition next year and so on. Money is often revealing about the true nature of people.

362. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 22 May, 2017

     That's an interesting observation Patrick, one we'd never considered. We don't know much about bookies and the sorts of bets they offer, but it is apparently true that some wacky ones have been offered. We heard of one offering a payout if Elvis is found alive, if aliens turn up, and an even larger payout if someone could show that they had been abducted by aliens. And of course some people would bet on how long it takes paint to dry if they thought they could make money out of it.

     The truly religious will at least claim that they are utterly certain about all their religious beliefs, some asserting that the end is nigh and Jesus will return any day now, certainly before the decade is out. Can it be that those predicting an imminent apocalypse and second coming shun money? Of course they could argue that if they're right then the extra money would be worthless to them, since they'll have been taken up in the Rapture and would be lounging around a pool in heaven, where they don't accept Earth currency.

     But until the Rapture arrives, there are plenty of other religious bets that the religious could make to ensure their final years on Earth are a little more comfortable. Like your example of where and when the Virgin Mary will make her next appearance, or where the next miracle will occur, or God turning up to testify as a character witness for a priest in his child abuse trial. Many religious folk absolutely adore money and the lifestyle it can buy, just look at the pope and all those millionaire evangelists running huge churches and TV shows begging for donations. Combining their greed with their certainty in their beliefs and their claimed hotline to God (many claim God talks to them and tells them what's going to happen), it is surprising that more don't gamble on what they supposedly know is going to happen.

     Unless of course they're all hypocrites, and they secretly know that it's all bullshit, that they don't really know what's going to happen and God doesn't actually talk to them? We've met many outwardly confident believers that claimed to have knowledge of God's plans and were on speaking terms with him; but without exception, when pressed to provide some details that would confirm their silly claims, they all either refused to explain further or just made fools of themselves by spouting nonsense. Our conclusion is that beyond the confident charade, most religious believers are drowning in doubt, and know all too well that they have no idea when, or even if, any of the claims they make are ever going to happen. They know that if betting were offered on when and where various supernatural events might occur, they would be simply guessing, and that people that just guess tend to lose money.

     That's not to say that there aren't religious believers that are willing to bet on their convictions, because there are, but they're out to win a free pass into heaven, not money. There are people that believe so strongly that they're prepared to die for their beliefs. Think of the Islamists, the Muslim terrorists that martyr themselves by killing not just themselves, but also many innocent bystanders. There have been many Christian groups that have committed suicide confident in the "fact" that they were going to meet God, eg Jonestown. And many individual suicides are no doubt aided by the personal belief that they were going to heaven, going to a better place, as those that grieve for them often say. There have also been numerous religious groups that predicted the imminent end of the world and gave away all their worldly possessions since they would have no further use for them. They were wrong of course, the world didn't end and they didn't die and find themselves in paradise. So if bookmakers offered bets on the chance of supernatural events happening, there are true believers out there that are deluded enough to place a bet, it's just that they're also the sort that have no interest in betting, since they know that the end is nigh, at least for them, and money is worthless when you're dead.

     To a lesser extend, the rabbis, priests, nuns, imams and holy men and women of all the various religions are standing by their religious convictions, betting that they're right if you will, to a greater degree than the man and women on the street, since they're all throwing away a normal, happy life in the obsequious service of their imaginary god. But just like the religious person on the street, priests and rabbis etc wouldn't be prepared to bet whatever money they have, let alone their life, on their religious beliefs. They know as well as we atheists do, that historically whenever someone has made a religious prediction that can be checked and verified, they have been wrong. No matter how confident they may be that Jesus will return soon or that some miracle will occur, they know that the odds of it happening are truly astronomical, and only a fool would make that bet. And while religious folk are certainly foolish, they're not complete fools. If religious betting was offered, we suspect that the religious punter would quickly realise it wasn't a sensible way to try and make money. The believer would probably argue that their reluctance to gamble on the return of Jesus was due to some passage in the Bible. Of course it doesn't seem to stop the religious gambling on all manner of other things, events that they apparently have more confidence in.

363. Comment by Rene, 01 Aug, 2017

     Funny obscure bible-referenced things that God hates, like mold and ugly people. You know, the BIG sins!

     5 Things You Had No Idea God Hates

364. Comment by Miles, 16 Aug, 2017

     Hi, John. This, in the Independent today:

     Cancer patients who use alternative medicine more than twice as likely to die

365. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 16 Aug, 2017

     Thanks for the link, Miles. Of course we're not surprised that those who opt for alternative therapies over real medicine are risking their health. The article talks of 'anecdotal evidence from some who say their cancer was cured by turning to natural or alternative remedies', but clearly this study shows that it's all just empty talk. Real medicine can demonstrate its success, but believers in alternative therapies can do nothing but gossip about "cures" that they heard may have happened to some unknown person in some unknown location.

366. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 25 Oct, 2017

     You've no doubt heard of the scandal involving the many accusations of sexual harassment and rape against Hollywood big shot Harvey Weinstein. These have mainly come from aspiring actresses and models that his position and reputation gave him access to. This has given rise to the hashtag "Me too" on Twitter (#metoo), where many others have affirmed that they too have been sexually harassed (and worse) by men using their positions of power and influence on vulnerable women.

     But is rape immoral? Is what these men are doing actually wrong? Many people in the US (and even in NZ) insist that they live in a Christian country, and claim that we all get our list of what is right and wrong from God. They argue to have the Bible's Ten Commandments conspicuously displayed in their schools and courtrooms, and nowhere on that list is rape prohibited.

     But no doubt you'll argue that there is more to Christian morals than just the Ten Commandments and the Bible offers other stories on how God feels about rape. Indeed it does, and to that end Rene sent us a link to the following post:

     'The Bible Teaches That Rape Is Just Fine'

367. Comment by Patrick, 15 Nov, 2017

     Hi John, I had my first car servicing done this morning (free of charge because it's new) and whilst in the waiting room I decided to surf on the internet. I used the public WIFI of that car company and tried to go on your website. And guess what? Your web page was blocked! I then decided to go on a shroud advocate website (http://theshroudofturin.blogspot.com/) and there was no problem at all to surf on it.

     Some time ago I sent you a comment (#330 above) regarding the Vatican's policy and it seems that this car company shares the Vatican's values and there's apparently nothing wrong with websites promoting the Shroud of Turin's authenticity through the use of scientific vulgarities, historical lies, censorship of skeptics' arguments, but a website denying it's authenticity is considered "morally indecent" and has to be blocked!

     I copy paste the message that I received on my screen below (but removed "Client IP address" for confidential reasons).

     If I remember well, another member was also complaining about your website being censored in his country?

     Web Page Blocked!

     You have tried to access a web page which is in violation of your internet usage policy.
     URL: http://www.sillybeliefs.com/
     Category: Alternative Beliefs
     Client IP:
     To have the rating of this web page re-evaluated please click here.
     If you believe that you need access to this website, please contact with a screenshot of the screen.

368. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 15 Nov, 2017

     Hi Patrick. Yes indeed, others have found our website blocked when using some public Wi-Fi providers, my own local library has blocked it, twice, but then granted access each time when I complained. On a positive note, I guess it's gratifying to learn that some people feel so threatened by what we reveal on our website that they go out of their way to get various businesses to have us blocked. Clearly our arguments can't just be read and then easily dismissed as nonsense, they must be blocked so the deluded never even get to consider them.

     When businesses bribe their customers with free Wi-Fi, I find it quite arrogant that they then think that this gives them the right to control what they look at on the Internet, an independent entity that their particular business has nothing to do with. And let's not fool ourselves, free Wi-Fi is nothing but a bribe to stop you from going to a competitor that does offer free Wi-Fi.

     The Internet and the information it contains is something most businesses have made no real contribution to and have no authority over. Once they direct you to something outside their business then their sphere of control ends, or it should. Even within their business some attempts at control would be deemed dictatorial. Imagine if they offered you a free coffee while you waited, but they dictated whether you got milk or sugar in that coffee. Or if they said, to thank you for your custom we'll give you some complimentary book vouchers or movies tickets or pizza vouchers, but we'll dictate which books, movies or pizza toppings you can choose and which you can't. Most people would consider that blatant attempt to control how you took your coffee or what books, movies or pizzas you could enjoy as totally unacceptable, with the business taking the part of Big Brother. How is this any different to them dictating what ideas you can encounter on the Internet? If we wouldn't accept them telling us what books to read, why should we let them tell us what websites we can read?

     Imagine if before you were allowed into your car company they insisted on searching your bag to ensure you didn't have any magazines that they considered to be of an obscene or heretical nature, like 'Playboy' or 'Scientific American'? No customer would put up with that sort of censorship, but that's exactly what they're doing with Wi-Fi, it's just that the business is blocking what you can read with an innocuous screen message and not a burly guard. Businesses get away with their close-minded censorship because it's effectively hidden on a little screen, whereas an angry confrontation with a burly guard over a physical book would make their prejudices known to all the customers in the waiting room — 'What do you mean you're blocking me from reading Richard Dawkins' book 'The God Delusion', that it's in violation of your company policy?'

     If they're prepared to offer you the Internet while you wait, then that surely is the only choice they get to make, access or no access. Websites with content that is deemed obscene or illegal in a particular country are already blocked by the government, so there is no moral justification for some random business to play the role of censor.

369. Comment by Ron, 24 Dec, 2017

     Hi John. A brief comment on that subject that keeps coming back — Homeopathy, the worlds most expensive water.

     I was very surprised to read recently that homeopathy is claimed to cure cancer. Rather a bold claim isn't it? On www.badscience.net there is an item from the BBC telling us about a woman who supposedly was cured of her cancer using this method. I did not find it very convincing to be honest. Study after study reveal that various homeopathic remedies kill cancer cells, particularly certain cancers.

     Seems homeopathy is very big in India and is a medical treatment sanctioned by their government. 1000's are treated that way, for cancer. They claim 20% show total regression of tumours.

     Another long time favourite argument for the "success" of this method is quoting the British Royals esp. the Queen and Duke, always noting their ages and the fact they have used them forever. Does that really tell us anything worthwhile? Maybe. What about good genes. We know several people well in their 90's and a now deceased lady who hit 105 but none of them ever used homeopathics. Of course dilutions are the key. A study illustrated a fact many in conventional medicine cannot accept that decreasingly minute dilutions, to the point where there is little, if any, physical molecule of the original substance left, actually produce greater physical effects on the body. They call it an electromagnetic effect.

370. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 25 Dec, 2017

     Hi Ron. Claiming that homeopathy cures cancer, or anything for that matter, is as bogus as saying that witchcraft cures diabetes. If it was true that, 'Study after study reveal that various homeopathic remedies kill cancer cells, particularly certain cancers', then it would be huge news, not some insignificant news item that the rest of the world's media dismissed. Researchers would be begging for more details, and doctors and hospitals would be clamouring to offer it to their patients. And the fact that Dr Ben Goldacre, a man famous for exposing bogus health claims, makes fun of the BBC homeopathy item on his Bad Science webpage only reinforces my view that claims about the efficacy of homeopathy have no basis in fact. It's easy to say that homeopathy is very big in India, just as you can say raping virgins to cure AIDS is big in parts of Africa. It doesn't matter that thousands in India are treated with homeopathy, or that Mother Teresa treated thousands of dying Indians with prayer. People should be looking not at how many are treated but how many are cured with homeopathy, or prayer. And the reality is none, zilch, not a one. If homeopathy potions in India could cure even 20% of cancers then would not the rest of the world be flocking to their shores in search of the cure? Years ago the Beatles went all the way to India to seek spiritual enlightenment, so why can't people be bothered to go to India these days to seek a cure for their cancer? Is it racism?

     As for the longevity of the Queen and Duke, as you say, everyone knows people that are as old and older that have got to that age without having to use homeopathy. And if someone did a little research, I'm sure that it would be found that even though these two people are still alive, millions of people that regularly used homeopathic potions died young. It can't even be said that homeopathy keeps the Queen and Duke in perfect health, since both have recently cancelled public engagements due to illness. Their longevity and general good health has nothing to do with homeopathy, and everything to do with their genes and their wealth and status, meaning that they have access to the world's best doctors and the healthiest environments that money can buy. Take away their money and put them in the filth of an Indian slum, where they can still receive potions from a local Indian homeopath, and let's see how long they last.

     Homeopathy claims to work based on what is known as sympathetic magic, although naturally they don't use that phrase since it might make them look rather foolish in today's modern world. They claim to achieve this sympathetic magic by the bogus method of ultra-extreme dilution. We read in an article where Professor Shaun Holt, a Victoria University medical researcher, gave these examples of homeopathic products:

     "Berlin Wall" — consists of dust from the Berlin Wall, diluted until none remains, sold to people to help them stop feeling repressed;

     "Saturn" — light from a telescope aimed at the planet Saturn is focused on sugar, which is then diluted many times and given to people for allergies, amongst other things;

     Homeopathy is nothing but superstitious nonsense, and if it works, then why do people keep demanding the likes of antibiotics from their doctors instead of pleading for diluted water that contains a memory of dinosaur urine?
371. Comment by Ron, 27 Dec, 2017

     Hello John. Hope this is not too tedious but I found that on Nov. 19th in a speech the Pope cautioned the faithful against having a mistaken idea of God as a punishing, evil, harsh master, saying this fear will end up paralysing and preventing one from doing good, rather than spreading his love and mercy. He continues, saying, fear always immobilises, is self destructive and can lead to bad choices and encourages many to seek refuge in safe guaranteed solutions, thus ending up doing no good. The faithful, to grow etc., have to trust. He reminds the flock that J.C. showed God as a father full of tenderness and goodness, slow to anger.

     With respect, I disagree with his sentiments regarding God. That is assuming, as you often say John, that God does exist and of course the pope has to say these things as pope. I am saying that fear rules among Christians. I speak from experience. The fear of hell is the No. 1. My Catholic childhood, as I've said before, including 2 siblings, was dominated by fear. JC apparently repeatedly said hell does exist, that we need to fear god who can punish both body and soul in hell (Matt 10:28).

     Its all very nice for Francis to say these lovely things about what a wonderful god, so tender and full of mercy. What about the Adam and Eve thing? I realise it's old hat and well aired, but how can the pope overlook the fact that God, due to a small act of disobedience and triviality in some garden, condemn every living human from then on to death? A rather short lifespan most likely ending in disease, organ failures, pain, suffering in many ways, then death. No logic, no fairness. Talk about over the top punishment. But the pope says no, we must not see god as a harsh punishing master. Baloney.

372. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 27 Dec, 2017

     Hi Ron. To me the Pope's cuddly stories about God sound like someone who's scrambling to push skeletons back into a closet. For example, imagine someone who's a neo-Nazi and has been promoting Hitler all his adult life and has finally realised that the rest of the world views his hero as an evil monster. With this shocking realisation comes the desperate PR push to repackage Hitler by focusing on some of his more positive attributes, like how he loved children and animals, while at the same time arguing that the world has a mistaken idea of Hitler. He was really a nice guy. With his childish belief in God, the pope has clearly backed a monster, and no manner of spin about some jolly old guy in a white beard will erase the fear that the blood soaked pages of the Bible evoke. Anyone that reads the Bible and believes it and who isn't scared shitless, clearly didn't understand it.

     Putting the fear of God into people is something the Church has openly and vigorously promoted from day one. It's quite silly that the pope now claims that priests and popes and pastors with their fire-and-brimstone sermons have been getting it wrong for centuries. While he may have read bits of the Bible, for the pope to claim that Jesus 'showed God as a father full of tenderness and goodness, slow to anger', makes one think that the pope's reading comprehension skills are abysmal. As the purported father of Jesus, God got Mary pregnant without her knowledge or permission (today we'd call God a rapist), and then immediately deserted her leaving her to raise her son alone. He didn't even pay child support. God didn't enter the life of his son until Jesus was in his 30s, and even then he didn't show up with a nice gift and an apology for his absence. From the shadows he had concocted a plan where the leaders of his chosen people would have his son Jesus arrested, tortured and killed by the Romans. Surely you can't get a more fatherly act of tenderness and goodness than that! It now makes me realise what a deprived childhood I had, since my father didn't once try and have me killed. I guess he just didn't care.

     Seriously, how could any fuckwit say that God acted as a loving, caring, tender father towards Jesus, or as a heavenly father towards all the untold people in the Bible stories that he personally slaughtered or had his chosen people slaughter for him. In the flood of Noah he drowned everyone on the entire planet, innocent men, women and children, bar the handful on Noah's little tub. Is that the sign of a loving father or a mass murderer? Anyone that reads the Bible must come away with the unshakeable conviction that God is, as per your quote Ron, 'a punishing, evil, harsh master'. The Bible clearly says in DT 10:20, 'what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God', and again in DT 10:20 in case you missed it, 'Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name'. This is clearly a master enforcing obedience through fear, telling a slave that their only purpose in life is to serve their master, and that punishment will quickly follow if they have any thought of doing otherwise.

     I agree with you Ron, 'fear rules among Christians'. When Christians I know question my sanity in not believing, they're not worried that I'm missing out on a nice card from a good and loving God on my birthday, they're astounded that I can blithely ignore the horrors of Hell that an evil and sadistic God has planned for me. 'How can you not fear Hell?', is the typical response. The silly pope says that, 'fear will end up paralysing and preventing one from doing good', whereas I believe it's just the opposite. If I truly believed in the Bible stories, as good Christians are supposed to, then the fear of Hell would make me the most obsequious person on the planet. I'd be killing homosexuals and atheists and even my own grandmother if she blasphemed, because the Bible says that we are 'to observe the LORD's commands and decrees'. I'd be doing everything I could to please God, my master, everything to keep in his goods books. I'd have no fear of human justice and fleeting condemnation since I'd know that ignoring God's decrees and then suffering his divine justice and condemnation would be a gazillion times worse.

     God is a right vicious bastard, his past exploits and what he has planned for us in Hell make what Hitler and the Nazis did look like shoplifting a chocolate bar. And it doesn't matter if God likes dogs, as did Hitler, whatever good is in God is massively cancelled out by the overwhelming evil. The 'Star Wars' universe had Darth Vader, whereas our universe, according to Christians, has God. Our universe may have had Jesus, a version of Luke Skywalker they say, but God had him killed.

     That the pope, an aging, celibate guy in a frock with no real experience of life and the world, can read his Bible and come away believing that it describes a merciful God that loves us is perhaps no great mystery. I believe the technical term is early onset dementia. But how millions of other Christians can read the stories of God's horrific and unjust exploits and his threats of future torture, and can come away saying that this is a demon worthy of their worship is beyond me. They can't all be stark raving mad. Only blind ignorance and mind-numbing fear could make them side with such a monster.

373. Comment by Ron, 27 Dec, 2017

     Hi John. This could be a bad news for John comment. Lol. Was reading a piece in the paper about the future of Christianity and it sure looks like it won't be going away any time soon. Sorry about that!! Its struggling in the west but is still growing globally.

     A few yrs ago the writer wrote about the persecution of Christians these days and the indifference of western govts and media. He suggested the contempt of many liberals toward Christianity may be behind that indifference. However, a much more positive view has emerged today for Christianity. He touches on the grand cathedrals around Europe that stand empty now and are mainly tourist attractions, relics of what they once were. Looking beyond Europe and secular NZ (we are now the most godless of all developed nations) a different picture emerges. He has researched info from Pew Research Centre in the USA and I relate some here. In 1910 there were 600 million Christians, in 2015 it stood at 2.3 billion. Pew say by 2050 it will be 3 billion. The same pattern holds for Catholics. Mainline Protestants are facing a near extinction situation in the west (very obvious to me) but not in the developing world. Less traditional Protestantism is surging in many countries. Pew expects the number of those with no religion to decline over 3 decades. Why this growth of Christianity? The writer cites 2 reasons. Millions of conversions annually, many from Islam (??) despite the risks. He claims that countries where Christianity is dying appear to be dying out themselves. Then there is fertility. For a population to remain stable the women need to have 2.1 children in their lifetime. In NZ it is 2.2, in irreligious Sweden 1.88, atheistic Germany 1.45, East Timor (98% Catholic) 4.8 and very religious Philippines 3.02. Pew states that the total fertility rate for Christians is 2.7 but for the unaffiliated it is 1.7. In summary religiosity is a better predictor of fertility than either education or income. Despite the challenges it looks like Christianity is going to be around for a long time to come.

374. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 28 Dec, 2017

     Don't worry Ron, you haven't ruined my day. I've never thought that the demise of Christianity was nigh, and I'm well aware that while Christianity is dropping in Western countries, that's not the case in the developing world.

     But we have to be careful not to reach the wrong conclusion based on these statistics and predictions. The religious would have us believe that these numbers argue that the validity of faith and belief is trumping that of reason and disbelief, but that's utterly bogus. We're not seeing a worldwide increase in believers because convincing evidence has been found for gods and the tide is turning. The increase is not because educated and informed nonbelievers are losing the debate about gods, but simply because, like rabbits, the morons are outbreeding the rest of us, they're like a horde of screaming zombies overwhelming a group of victims, or like the barbarians overthrowing the Roman civilisation. Rome was the largest and most advanced empire in the world, but thanks in part to the Christians and the barbarian hordes, it fell and civilisation went backwards for a thousand years. People went from heated baths and indoor plumbing to shitting in the streets and killing witches. Christians took an advanced civilisation and ushered in the dark ages, a time of ignorance, intolerance, squalor, disease, suffering and blind obedience to a cruel sky fairy. Human progress didn't just stagnate for a thousand years, people actually forgot what had already been discovered, and it's scary to think that this could happen again.

     An increase in Christians in Africa and Asia doesn't mean Christianity is true and desirable, anymore than an increase in HIV cases in Africa and Asia means that it's better to have HIV than not have it. Worldwide there are now more Christians and Muslims than there were 20 years ago, just as there are also more people with HIV, but both these increases are due to ignorance. Ignorance sees more and more Christian and Muslim parents lumbering their children with superstitious beliefs in gods, and ignorance sees them adopting unwise practices that leads to the spread of HIV, like the Christian prohibition on using condoms, and the belief in parts of Africa that sex with a virgin will cure AIDS. Educated couples in advanced, secular countries choose to give one or two children a safe and comfortable upbringing, whereas poor, ignorant couples in religious countries choose to struggle to raise a dozen children in squalor and misery. So yes, in the breeding stakes the production of ignorant kids will outstrip knowledgeable kids in sheer numbers, but this isn't something we should be proud of.

     I also think that the quote, 'Pew expects the number of those with no religion to decline over 3 decades', is misleading. It seems to imply that that nonbeliever numbers will decline as they see the light and switch to belief, which I can't see happening. I predict that the numbers of those with no religion will increase in the future, there will be millions more worldwide than there are now, what will decline is the percentage of nonbelievers to believers. Numbers of nonbelievers will increase as the population increases, it's just that their growth will be outstripped by the growth in believers.

     I do hold real fears for the future, the optimism of my youth is long gone. You see Muslims risking their lives to escape backward and dangerous countries and fleeing to Europe and other western countries, and yet when they get there, many then try and drag their adopted home back to the primitive beliefs and conditions that they fled from. For example, they argue to have Sharia law introduced. If they want to live in a country that has Sharia law then why don't they flee to such a country in the first place, or just stay where they were? The problem is that they want both the backwardness of Islam and the advancements found in secular countries, like big-screen TVs and antibiotics. And Christians are no different, they also crave access to MRI scanners and highly trained surgeons and then, when modern science has cured them with some life-saving surgery, the bloody hypocrites turn their back on their surgeon and drop to their knees and thank an invisible God. There is a huge disconnect with religious morons wanting all that modern society and science can offer, and at the same time wishing that we could go back to a simpler, God-fearing world. There is a real possibility that the ignorance of the future Christian and Muslim hordes could once again overwhelm civilisation and thrust us back into another dark age. It's not about who is right or wrong, it's simply about the numbers. Think zombies. And as unthinking hordes go, could it get any worse than a rampaging horde of drooling religious folk, since remember that zombies aren't real, but people that see angels and demons are.

375. Comment by Peter, 16 Jan, 2018

     Dear fellow Skeptics,

     Thank You very much for Your good work! It is as informative as it is fun to read.
     I would like to ask Your opinion on the following:
     There is an American "Psychic" "Medium" named Thomas John. He is getting more & more famous and is already making huge money with his scam. Of course, it IS scam... I don't believe in any psychic powers.

     What I'm not sure about: how is he doing it on this regular radio show. Can this be achieved by only cold reading or is there hot reading involved? And then: what is the method?

     Have a look :

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiWPrrmG97w

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THZdzUYg81U

     With some callers/sitters he has hit after hit... too good to be true? Plants?

     Thank You very much for any help & keep up the good work!

376. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 17 Jan, 2018

     Hi Peter. Well, I can't say I had ever heard of American psychic medium Thomas John, which straight away tells me that he's a fake. If people do something amazing and/or important then the whole world quickly hears about them, or conversely if they do something hugely moronic, eg Donald Trump, or threatening, eg Kim Jong Un of North Korea, then again we hear about them. If Thomas John had clearly demonstrated an ability to talk with dead people and to reliably predict future events then he would be the most talked about person on the planet, not to mention the most sort after. But beyond a very small community of gullible believers in the USA, Thomas John is unknown, and even when people do hear of him, most quickly dismiss him as a con man. He hasn't been able to convince any academics like scientists or historians that his claims are valid, or any organisation or government that his skills could be of great value. Instead he makes a living by lying to foolish people and charging them for the privilege.

     And when I Googled Thomas John I discovered that no one can argue that he is an honest person that would never try and rip people off or fool people. This article — 'Manhattan Medium' Thomas John has celeb clientele — and shady past as scammer and drag queen — reveals that before he started scamming people as a psychic medium he was convicted of stealing security deposits from two people, and also spent years earning a living as a drag queen in Chicago. And while this wouldn't apply to his radio shows, the article claims that, 'A number of online reviews claim the medium's clairvoyance comes from his use of Paypal — which gives him the not-so-miraculous ability to research people's full names before doing a reading'.

     You're right Peter, what Thomas John does is a scam. After having a listen to some readings he provided to callers on the radio, it appears that he's just using cold reading. You say that, 'With some callers/sitters he has hit after hit... too good to be true? Plants?' In the readings I heard he never got hit after hit, although I'm sure that many people will insist that he did. He never gave a single piece of information that revealed that he was talking to someone's dead mother or grandparent etc. For example, he never produced the dead person's name or any information that wasn't a guess. Like all mediums he made far more mistakes than the few bland claims that he got right, and because he concentrated on the good guesses and quickly ignored his mistakes, listeners quickly forgot all the claims he made that were wrong.

     Believers in mediums always insist that they didn't tell the medium anything about the dead person, and yet they are always mistaken, Typically for all mediums, Thomas John started the reading by asking them what their question was, who they wanted contact, and his whole reading was him asking them more questions rather than simply telling them what some dead person was telling him.

     Let me give some examples from the radio show readings from 8th Nov, 2015. Before his first reading his co-host asked for his psychic predictions for what was then the upcoming US presidential elections, where Donald Trump eventually won the Republican Party (GOP) nomination and then the presidency. Thomas John said his prediction was that Rubio would win the GOP nomination and presidency. Of this he said he was '100% confident!'. Of course we know now that, unfortunately, Trump won and not Rubio. This is a perfect example of believers in psychic powers never going back and checking to see if the predictions that their favourite physics made actually came true. The only predictions that psychics advertise after the fact are the one or two vague ones that come true, eg an unnamed famous person will die, and the great majority of failed predictions are never mentioned again.

     On the reading to the first caller who was seeking a message from her dead mother. The instant the caller finished her short opening question, Thomas John immediately said her dead mother was there talking to him. Think about that for a moment. What is the afterlife like if you can be relaxing watching a movie or lounging in the pool discussing philosophy with Socrates and suddenly you're yanked away and instantaneously stuffed into the mind of some lowly psychic medium in New York? Is every dead person the client knew or might have known suddenly summoned to the reading just in case their name comes up in conversation? Or do billions of dead people spend eternity hovering around the heads of mediums just on the slim chance that a loved one will pop in for a reading? When mediums describe dead people they're always just standing there as though they have nothing better to do, and their clothes and surroundings are seemingly so boring and nondescript that the medium never comments on them. They never say, 'Wow, you should see the big TVs they have in heaven!'. Regarding the caller's mother, Thomas John asked, 'Did she stop eating?' Imagine that, you haven't communicated with your daughter since your death and the first thing you want to say is to remind her how you stopped eating before you died! Note that it's a question to the caller, whereas if he was really communicating with her mother then the mother would have already told him that information. The caller hesitantly replied, 'To some degree... a loss of appetite!', but clearly Thomas John was wrong, she didn't stop eating. This was just a fishing expedition by Thomas John since many people that are ill and near death lose their appetite and even stop eating. Thomas John then asked, 'Did you have to bring her into a hospice or hospital?', and the caller replied, 'She died in a hospital'. Again Thomas John isn't telling the caller what happened to her mother, he's asking questions and getting the caller to provide the answer. And Thomas John's first guess was hospice, so again he was wrong. And Thomas John saying hospice or hospital doesn't require psychic abilities since most people that die from an illness die in one or the other, and the caller had already revealed that her mother was ill when she said she had a loss of appetite before death. Thomas John says that her mum's mum is also there in spirit, and he then asks, 'Did she or someone live in Florida?' Again note that Thomas John has no idea who lives or did live in Florida, he wants the caller to think of someone, someone that could be dead or alive and that could be a family member or even someone they went to school with. Hell, I live in NZ and even I know someone that lives in Florida. The caller replies, 'My grandparents did'. But let's remember that everyone has two sets of grandparents, and the caller went from talking about her mum's mum to talking about her grandparents, which suggests that she's now talking about her father's parents, otherwise why didn't she just say her mum's mum lived in Florida? Quickly changing the subject and asking a vague question like, 'Did she or someone live in Florida?', forces the caller to search for someone, dead or alive, that lives in Florida (or California or Mississippi or wherever). And most Americans would know someone in Florida, or if not, might reply, 'We once went on vacation to Florida'. Whatever reply the caller makes, the psychic will reply based on that comment, 'Yes, your mum is saying that Florida vacation was great!' But again the medium shouldn't be asking about Florida, if communication with her dead mum was really happening then he should know exactly what the connection with Florida is, he shouldn't need to ask.

     Thomas John then starts talking about a man with her dead mum, 'Whoever that man is... the other guy that's there...', but the caller says nothing so Thomas John flounders, and is forced to ask, 'So her husband went before her?', to which the caller replies, 'Yes'. With this new information Thomas John then confidently states, 'Yeah, they're together'. But why didn't the caller's dead mum or father tell Thomas John that the man was the caller's father? Just because the caller's father was dead doesn't mean that 'the other guy that's there' must be her father. It could have been her grandfather or great uncle or her mum's new boyfriend or any one of billions of dead men. Thomas John went from having no idea who the guy was to suddenly knowing that he was her father. Clearly he was just guessing and thought that if he says he sees her mum then he better say the guy with her mum is her father.

     Next Thomas John asked (again with the questions!), 'Did you ever sew anything for her?', to which the caller replied, 'No!' Thomas John pauses then came back with the claim that his mum is saying that, 'She's in a good place'. How is her mum perfectly able to say that she's in a good place and yet not able to say that her daughter can't sew?

     In the next reading Thomas John mentions the caller's mum and then her mum's mother, and asks, 'I don't know if you knew her?', to which the caller volunteers the information, 'I did'. Surely if Thomas John was chatting with her mother and grandmother then they would tell him this and he wouldn't need to ask the daughter? He then asks the caller, rather than tell the caller, 'Did she (the grandmother) die of stomach cancer?' The caller replies, 'My grandfather did'. The caller should have replied, 'No', as this would have signalled to listeners that the medium was quite wrong again, but by saying that, 'My grandfather did', this gives listeners the false impression that she was agreeing with what Thomas John had said. Also, since we all have two grandfathers we don't know whether it was the husband of the woman Thomas John was in contact with or not. And like asking about Florida, asking about stomach cancer will likely see a response in most people, that while the person Thomas John asked about didn't die of cancer, they likely do know someone that did.

     Using a ploy common to all mediums, Thomas John then says that he's, 'Getting the name Patrick?', and the caller replies, 'My husband's father'. Note that he didn't say who Patrick was, even though he goes on to claim that he's in communication with him. He asks the caller to think of someone called Patrick, and again most people can think of a Patrick, whether it be a family member or a friend or the actor Patrick Swayse. Regarding Patrick, Thomas John asks, 'He was difficult to deal with?', but the caller doesn't agree or disagree, which would lead listeners to think that Thomas John was right, when he probably wasn't. People getting a reading from a medium enthusiastically agree when the medium gets something right but are quite reluctant to tell the medium when they're wrong.

     Thomas John then said, 'Someone is showing me death by a heart attack and it's a woman and she's coming right through with your mum's mum? Do you have someone that died with a heart attack or that you suspect was a heart attack?' Thomas John is clearly saying that it concerns some unknown woman that is with her mum and grandmother, so neither of them, but the caller ignores this and replies, 'We think so yes, my mother!' The caller didn't understand that Thomas John said it was someone other than her mother or grandmother, she merely hunted for a woman who died with a heart attack and settled on her mother. And of course Thomas John didn't correct her. Once again, who couldn't think of some woman who died of a heart attack! It's a question that every medium can ask and expect a positive answer.

     Our bogus medium continues with another random question, 'Was someone shot but didn't die?', but the caller has no idea, so Thomas John simply says, 'You'll have to ask the family'. If the caller can't think of what the medium is asking, Thomas John like all mediums uses another ploy that turns up numerous times in his readings when a question fails, and he says while it might not mean anything to you now, ask the family about it and it will make sense later on. He puts the fault on the caller's memory. He's not wrong, they are.

     Then Thomas John asks the caller, 'Your father's gone?' The caller says yes, so then Thomas John implies that he already knew that because he's actually talking to him now, and 'He's talking about going on a cruise together'. The caller makes no comments, so clearly wrong again, so Thomas John quickly wraps up the reading, saying that regarding her mother and father, 'They're around you'. The only bright side of these silly readings is that the callers aren't paying good money for them.

     His next caller wants to ask him about what path she should take in her medical career, but as she is asking her question he talks over her and asks, 'Do have a connection with medicine?' She does. This sounds like a genuine hit, but since medicine was mentioned in the reason for her call, he could easily have read it or been advised of it before he took the call, eg the next caller is Diane from NY who wants to ask about her future in medicine. Apart from that apparent hit, he got everything else wrong in her reading, so he either cheated or it was a complete fluke. Mediums occasionally ask rather concise claims or ask obscure questions because if on the rare chance they guess right then it will seem very, very impressive, that they've revealed something that surely must be a result of talking to the dead. Most of the time their detailed guesses will be wrong, but then nearly all of their guesses are wrong, and they will immediately move to a new question and their failure will quickly be forgotten. One hit will be remembered and a hundred failures will fade into oblivion.

     As to what career path our caller should take, Thomas John helpfully says, 'I see you working with children'. I mean, who doesn't like working with children, that should be a safe guess, right? But unfortunately the caller replied, 'I tried that and didn't like it!' Clearly Thomas John couldn't think of any other work that medical training is involved in, so he said, 'I don't feel you're always going to do medicine'. But I thought he could predict her future? One minute he sees her using her medical training in working with children, then the next he says she should give up medicine, with no helpful suggestion of what she should try next? He then asks, 'Do you have another school to apply to?', to which she replies, 'No'. She informs him that she is just about to graduate from her medical training, she's not looking for a school. So he then asks, 'Are you applying for places outside of NY? There are other places besides the NY area'. Shouldn't he know the answers already, isn't that why she called, and surely she knows that medical training is useful outside the NY area. Since she said she was calling from NY, he then asks another question, and gets it wrong too. 'So you live in NY?', to which she replies, 'No, I'm just staying with my aunt'.

     But again, with all these reading, why is he continually asking questions? People that go to mediums have untold questions of their own, and they want answers not more questions. Like all mediums, these readings are just full of the medium probing the caller for information from which they can then make educated guesses. Even then many of their guesses are wrong, but luckily the caller quickly forgets the failures and pushes on in the hope that the medium will say something that resonates with them. What did these callers learn from their readings? Nothing whatsoever! They already knew that their mother had died in a hospital or of a heart attack, or that their grandparents lived in Florida, or that they knew someone called Patrick, or that they were confused about their career in medicine. Mediums never reveal anything that their client didn't already know. They are charging people exorbitant amounts to access their own boring memories.

     Sometimes psychic mediums will make truthful claims that confound skeptics, but we shouldn't for a moment waver and think that maybe they got their information from chatting with dead people. Most things they get right will be the result of cold reading, ie asking questions and making educated guesses, and if they reveal things that seem impossible then that will likely be due to hot reading, ie outright cheating by doing prior research on the client. If a medium does ten readings and nine are lacklustre and one is full of amazing hit after hit then it's clear they cheated on that one good reading. If their abilities were real then they should perform equally well over all their readings. I didn't listen to all of Thomas John's radio readings, or even most, since you only need to hear a few to realise that he's an obvious fake and using the same old cold reading tricks that all mediums use.

     Just because we can't explain every outburst a psychic makes, doesn't mean we should give them the benefit of the doubt. The world would be a completely different place if their claims were valid. Think about this analogy. Do I know exactly how stage magicians do all their tricks? No, but I know that they are tricks, because magic isn't real. If magic was real do you think magicians would be wasting their time performing silly tricks in cheap clubs for a measly wage? Of course not, they would be putting their skills to real use, and a very profitable use, anything from criminal use, such as stealing billions and attacking their enemies, to altruistic use, working for organisations and governments to save lives, and there's a million other uses of real magic in between being a villain or a superhero. If magic were real and you didn't use it beyond silly stage tricks, that would be like having a cure for cancer and not telling anyone.

     And exactly the same can be said of psychic powers as for magic. If it were real then the things you could achieve, for good or bad, would be phenomenal. If psychic mediums could chat with the dead and predict the future, then untold mysteries would be solved and untold lives saved, through mediums revealing who committed various crimes and where missing children are, to warning us of devastating natural disasters and when not to hop on a doomed plane.

     Why would a psychic medium waste time on a pathetic little two-bit radio show drumming up business when they could hire themselves out to governments and global organisations for billions? Talented sports stars and actors sign contracts for hundreds of millions of dollars, all in the name of mere entertainment. Not a single life is saved or a mystery solved by their involvement. If this is what people are prepared to pay for fun, just imagine the obscene money a psychic medium could demand to reveal whether North Korea was planning a nuclear strike or if a major earthquake was going to strike or whether climate change was a real threat? If people are prepared to pay a fortune for a fictional movie about some historical character and event, what would they pay to hear the actual views of the real person, albeit dead, but relayed by a medium? If we were able to put questions to the dead, from our own recent ancestors to famous people from history such as Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, the money and fame that these mediums could accrue would be astronomical. All the questions that we have about mysteries from our ancient past could be answered, from why did ancient man paint animals on cave walls to how exactly did they build the pyramids.

     And yet no psychic medium can be bothered to pass on answers to these mysteries, or predict events that could save untold lives. Instead wankers like Thomas John pass on nothing but bland, worthless bullshit like, 'Your dead mum says she's in a good place'. That's as pathetic as telling gullible children that Santa says, 'He's watching you, so be good'. Eventually most children realise that the Santa talk is all nonsense, so why is it that so many adults can't see that the expensive talk of psychic mediums is equally nonsensical? When will they grow up?

377. Comment by Peter, 17 Jan, 2018

     Hi John, thank You very much for taking the time & effort to answer in such great detail!

     I will read it many times to understand it all well.

     Wow, I did not know you are in New Zealand... really on the other side of the globe for me! (...in Switzerland).

378. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 17 Jan, 2018

     You're welcome, Peter.

379. Comment by Patrick, 17 Jan, 2018

     Hi John. I hope that you enjoyed a happy festive season and that 2018 will be a fertile year for your website. Here's an interesting link for you.

     Orthodox publications won't show Hillary Clinton's photo

     "Some Jewish newspapers can't picture Hillary Rodham Clinton as president... because ultra-Orthodox religious culture bans photos of women from publications for the most devout Jewish people, who view such images as immodest and unseemly."

     Religious people often find arguments in their religious books to justify things like banning photos of women, slavery (it's much less common nowadays to justify slavery, at least in public, but don't worry, if the need arises they'll tell you what passage in their religious book justifies it), capital punishment (this one is awfully easy as violence is omnipresent in religious books), UFO (Jesus was obviously an alien...), and so on. Think of anything objectionable that comes to your mind and a group of folks concerned with it will tell you that their religious book justifies/permits it.

     Is there any religion that says that it (the religion) is a load of rubbish and that you need to be dumb to believe in it?

380. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 18 Jan, 2018

     Hi Patrick. Thanks for your comments. I wasn't aware that the ultra-Orthodox Jewish press in the USA and Israel won't publish the image or even the first name of any woman, due to primitive religious views of modesty and tradition. Not that it surprises me, since the reality is that true believers do many seriously screwed up things in service of their religion.

     In addition to the things you mention, the deeply religious justify or permit the oppression of women, the prohibition against eating certain foods, the banning of sex if not for procreation, the execution of people that give up their religion, the persecution of homosexuals, witches and non-believers, the barbaric act of circumcision, the banning of work on the Sabbath, the inhumane slaughter of animals, the unnecessary deaths of women in childbirth, the ban on condoms to prevent AIDS and contraception in general to prevent overpopulation, the waging of war to destroy non-believers, the extreme covering of women to hide their form, the childish belief in talking snakes and other fairy stories, the creation of unjust social systems with castes, the rejection of blood transfusions and modern medicine in general, the irrational belief in ghosts and psychic mediums, the prohibition against cremation, abortion, divorce, euthanasia, masturbation, stem cell research... and the list goes on and on.

     That ignorant, primitive peoples effectively saw the world through a child's eyes thousands of years ago and thought that they could justify such unjust and barbaric behaviour is depressing but not surprising, but that today's religious believers can still follow such bullshit with the benefit of modern knowledge is truly astounding. The mental gymnastics that true believers must perform every minute of the day, the lies they must force themselves to believe in order to function in a world that has outgrown them, it's a level of denial and suppression of reality that I have difficulty comprehending.

     I guess that's why people today, especially young people, that are continually exposed to free and independent life in a secular society, to scientific ideas and discussions about ethics and justice, and that are encouraged to think for themselves, struggle to keep their faith and often end up rejecting the beliefs and demands of the religion they were raised in. In the dim past the various religions were often quite well isolated from alternative viewpoints, and their religious beliefs and rituals dominated their society, meaning that skepticism of religious claims wasn't encouraged, indeed it was often punished. The strict dietary and marriage requirements of the Jews for example, was designed to stop them from marrying or even eating with non-Jews, male circumcision was so that Jews could identify each other, and transgressions carried death sentences. Likewise, Muslims are commanded to kill non-Muslims and even Muslims that question their religion. So in the past I think it was much easier for the religious to justify the objectionable actions and commandments found in their holy books, because most knew no better and their society blindly believed that anything their God does or demands must be right and proper, and if some doubt did creep in, threats of torture and death kept them silent. But that was then, now people do know better, well at least in educated societies, and are free to act on their newfound views, so it still confounds me when some still elect to live under a veil of ignorance and submission and continue to justify objectionable, unjust, barbaric and just downright silly beliefs found in their old holy books.

     Today we rightly punish people that hold others in physical slavery, shouldn't we also punish those that hold others in mental slavery?

381. Comment by Stuart, 18 Jan, 2018

     Hello John, Stuart Landsborough here from Puzzling World. As you are aware, I have a $100,000 psychic challenge that has been on-going since 1997 with the potential of achieving $100,000 NZ dollars. I receive a number of comments from 'believers' from all around the world but the one below is a real winner — I am sure you will find it interesting.

     Now, I have not asked permission from this guy to send it to you but I feel that apart from the fact that he is unlikely to ever see it on your site, it seems that he is quite proud of his abilities so should not get offended.

     The first bit below is his very interesting e-mail to me and below that is my reply to him.

     Best wishes and thanks for all the effort you and your team put-in to keep Silly Beliefs 'out-front'.

     =====Original Message=====
     Sent: Monday, January 15, 2018 8:50 AM
     To: stuart@psychicchallenge.co.nz
     Subject: Psychic Challenge feedback from website
     ===========================================================================

     name: Justin Darkson

     message: Hello Stuart,

     My name is Justin Darkson,
     i'm the most exposed human being in the world to the Amazonian Sacrament called Ayahuasca.
     The Sacred Brew for ages has been claimed to produce Psychic Abilities, and honestly i can attest that this is true.

     i've been looking around for awhile now how i could prove my ability to see the future to scientific researchers.
     This has happened to me thousands of times already, the implications are mindblowing on how humanity perceives the concept of Time.
     Basically the way my ability works is i will dream of a Symbol, then that Symbol appears in reality after i wake up.
     A good example of this is i can dream of a actor, then later on i unexpectedly get invited to go to the Movies that stars that specific actor. That isn't the only way my ability manifest though. i wrote a article on my website about this phenomenon where i just started keeping a list of these happenings.
     i know it can be hard to simply take my word for it, so i'd like to state that i believe i can prove that i can see the future under scientific supervision.

     Here is the link to the article on my website:
     http://mysticalheaven1.com/ta-stf

     i'm also a writer, my book is currently twice the size of the bible, all events composed completely of my time spent in the Spirit Realm. This is only after two years of writing, my book will continue to grow at that rate.

     One way to prove my ability to see the future is to use the Blank Box test: Provided a stack of 50 or a million DVDs with no labels/coverart on it. i will record my dream before one of the movies are blindly picked. The dream will tell either a specific actor, describe a specific scene or the story overview.

     Let me know your thoughts on my supernatural experiences.

     i appreciate your time,

     Justin

     x: 122

     y: 4

     =====Original Message=====
     Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2018 4:25 PM
     To: infinitysolcontact@gmail.com
     Subject: Re: Psychic Challenge feedback from website
     ===========================================================================

     Hello Justin,

     Thank you for your interesting e-mail. I am sure you realise that I am very sceptical of anyone who claims to have any 'extra' powers — in all my 71 years I have heard many claims of supernatural abilities but I have never seen anyone prove them.
     Since 1997 I have had a significant amount of money as a prize to anyone who can show me they have any psychic powers; to do this the person has to come to me here in Wanaka, New Zealand and accept my challenge. In all that time I have had seven people accept my challenge and all seven failed. I have had many thousands of people wanting to try the challenge but when they hear that they have to pay me $1,000 New Zealand dollars up-front their enthusiasm wanes fast! The prize for succeeding is $100,000 so $1,000 up-front to someone who 'knows' they can win is no big deal.
     Have a happy life,
     Stuart Landsborough

382. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 19 Jan, 2018

     Hi Stuart. You're right, it's an interesting email, and clearly he'd have no problem with you sharing his story. Everything he says to you can be found on his website, where he expands greatly on his psychic experiences. My view is that he's a right nutcase, and that his delusions arise from two main causes. One, being raised by parents who he describes as 'Christians who operated their own congregation and would do missionary work in the South American countries', and two, regularly consuming a powerful drug known for producing hallucinations.

     Most children raised in such devout households naturally have their heads filled with stories about God, and usually accept his existence without question, the way I accept that countries on the other side of the world are real. And so, just as I felt the need to visit those other countries when I grew up, our devout Christian Justin Darkson writes that,

     'After my graduation, i felt the call to find God. For me, this wasn't about going into ministry to preach to people, rather to actually know the Almighty on a personal basis as a friend.
     Exodus 33:11 "The LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend."
     This is what drove my passion.
     If God was real and someone else in History was allowed to meet Him, i was devoted to the Truth that i could meet Him too. i would read the Bible 100 chapters a day for months at a time without ever skipping out. i read the entirety of the Old Testament in one single week...'

     And if Darkson can be believed (he can't), here's some of his rambling comments describing how he eventually met up with God:

     'i was sitting at the feet of the Creator of the Universe... i had been preparing myself for years for this exact moment, contemplating what He'd be like. i peered into the eyes of God, completely astonished... Encountering the God, who must be at least 26 billion years old, i shouldn't have been surprised that all the core values of what i grew up believing were about to be crushed... This is the beginning of my very active relationship with a very real God... i have had the privilege to continue the conversation with Omniscience via dreaming. i have also met Him in person again several times after this initial divine appointment. He has literally shook my hand, given me a hug, and told me that i taught Him new things about love.'

     Even with a Christian education, if that's not an oxymoron, note how Darkson has changed some elements concerning God. He says he 'must be at least 26 billion years old', meaning that God isn't eternal, raising the old question of who or what created God? Darkson also says he taught God 'new things about love', meaning that God is not all-knowing, even though Darkson confusingly also refers to God as 'Omniscience', meaning all-knowing. And while the Bible does indeed say that, 'The LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend', the Bible also says that God said, 'you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live', Exodus 33:11. How many friends speak with their friends face to face and yet never see their face? And in John 1:18 it claims that, 'No one has ever seen God'. So if Darkson had truly read and understood the Bible, he must have realised that parts of the Bible were clearly contradicting other parts. How can he believe the Bible is the word of God and speaks the truth when clearly some of it must be lies?

     But putting these problems aside, since childhood Darkson has had the basics of the Christian fantasy nicely mapped out in his mind, so when he then moved on to using the psychedelic drug found in the brew known as Ayahuasca, then naturally the hallucinations he had would feature the Christian God, rather than say the Hindu god Shiva. I've read that 'Ayahuasca is an Amazonian plant mixture that is capable of inducing altered states of consciousness... Ranging from mildly stimulating to extremely visionary', and that, 'People who have consumed ayahuasca report having spiritual revelations regarding their purpose on earth, the true nature of the universe... In addition, it is often reported that individuals feel they gain access to higher spiritual dimensions and make contact with various spiritual or extra-dimensional beings who can act as guides or healers'. The ayahuasca brew contains N,N-Dimethyltryptamine or DMT, which is a molecule that 'can be consumed as a powerful psychedelic drug... [and] can produce vivid mystical experiences involving euphoria and dynamic hallucinations of geometric forms, higher intelligences, extraterrestrials, elves, and God'.

     In his email Darkson introduces himself as being 'the most exposed human being in the world to the Amazonian Sacrament called Ayahuasca', and on his website he also mentions DMT: 'i am the most exposed human to Ayahuasca & Dimethyltryptamine in the World'. How he would actually know that he has consumed more than anyone else is beyond me, but assuming he is a high user of the drug, all Darkson is acknowledging is that he has set himself up to have a hell of a lot of hallucinations. And let's remember that an hallucination is defined as, 'False or distorted perception of objects or events with a compelling sense of their reality, usually resulting from a mental disorder or as a response to a drug'. There is no good reason whatsoever to believe fanciful stories about gods and psychic experiences from someone who boasts of regularly taking a drug known for producing just these sorts of hallucinations.

     And why has Darkson contacted you Stuart regarding your psychic challenge? He says that, 'i've been looking around for awhile now how i could prove my ability to see the future to scientific researchers', but surely he can see that you're not a scientific researcher, but a skeptic offering a psychic challenge? If he passed your psychic challenge it wouldn't convince the scientific world that his psychic powers were real in the slightest. The most it could do is potentially convince a scientist to run further experiments. No doubt the $100,000 prize is what really interests Darkson, not proving to the scientific world that psychic powers are real. But then why doesn't he try for the James Randi psychic challenge that has a $1 million prize? Why would a genuine American psychic pass up a $1 million psychic challenge that's held in his own country and spend money travelling to NZ to win a psychic challenge with a $100,000 prize? Better still, why wouldn't he win the $1 million prize and then spend some of his winnings on coming to NZ to then take your $100,000, and while he's in the region, go to the skeptics in Australia and take their psychic challenge prize money too?

     It's quite telling that thousands of people around the world claim to have genuine psychic powers, claiming as they take money from gullible people that they're the real deal, and yet are too scared to demonstrate their powers in front of skeptical people, not even for $100,000 and more. They're more than willing to prove their powers for a meagre $100 taken from a little old lady off the street, but not interested in the slightest to prove their powers for $1 million. Of course we skeptics know that this legitimate fear is due to them being frauds, and that testing would quickly reveal that. What I really don't know is why their multitude of believers won't question this terrified reluctance to prove their powers to a skeptical world. Surely they must think, 'Well, if you're genuine, and you say you are and I believe you are, then why won't you take the psychic challenge... and prove those annoying skeptics wrong?' Why indeed.

383. Comment by Patrick, 19 Feb, 2018

     Hi John. I enjoy watching debates on sites like youtube and I noticed that for some intellectuals, usually from the right side of the political spectrum, the reality of things is a secondary or even irrelevant matter, what's important is the civilizational identity. For example, whether or not Jesus really existed is actually not important or beside the point, what's important is that we have a civilization based on a christian concept and this should continue. For these people the silly beliefs website would mostly be irrelevant to their politics. I don't agree with this. For me this is a caveman mentality. Let's stay in our caves where we are so well off!

     I don't see why we should systematically take for granted what we have been told and do the same. That doesn't mean that I reject everything. When I was a young boy, for example, I was taught how to use a folk and knife to eat. I am now nearly 48 years old and still happily use these hand implements with pleasure. It's hygienic, clean, stylish... yes, I love it. But I also reject things like religions, conspiracy theories, and so on. There's a bloke who writes about the shroud of Turin on a daily basis on his blog and who proclaims that "those who disagree with what I write don't have to write against me, they just have to stop reading me!". I couldn't disagree more. So you write all kind of bullshit and we should keep silent?

384. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 19 Feb, 2018

     Like you Patrick, I have no time for people that insist some belief system should be followed even as they admit that the very foundation of that belief might be false. If someone is arguing, for example, that civilisation should rest on Christian concepts, then it's utterly vital that Jesus not only existed, but that the claims he made about God and the afterlife are absolutely true. If Jesus didn't exist then the Christian worldview is a fantasy, and any system of morality derived from the imaginary demands made by imaginary beings is based on ignorance, not reality.

     I think if anyone writes or speaks publicly promoting belief in the shroud of Turin, or in other Christian nonsense, then they must surely expect people to critique their outlandish claims. Rather than tearfully bleating on that critics should stop reading what they write, they should be asking themselves why they can't muster cogent arguments that will convince a world of nonbelievers. But if Christian apologists insist that their critics should ignore their proselytising, is that much different to Catholics saying we should ignore their priests sexually abusing choir boys? Many Christians would no doubt argue that there is a difference, since ignoring the abuse would harm innocent choir boys. But the same argument applies to Christian apologists, since ignoring their proselytising harms innocent children and adults by filling their heads with lies, by teaching them to fear a demon waiting for them in Hell, and tricking them into thinking that they live in a world where they are being watched and controlled by that demon. It also teaches them that if they can rape a small boy and not get punished by God's divine wrath, then God must approve of their behaviour. Would we allow teachers to instruct children that the world was flat and babies are delivered by storks? No, so why should we allow Christians to instruct children and gullible adults that Eve chatted with a talking snake and Jesus walked on water?

     These Christians are perfectly happy living a lie as long as it's a lie that suits them. What they would like to be true, what they desperately want to be true, is far more important to them than what is actually true. They're nothing but snivelling cowards too afraid to come out into the light. They plead with nonbelievers to ignore them because they're terrified that someone will say something so insightful or reveal contradictory evidence so compelling that they'll no longer be able to maintain a shaky belief in their childish worldview. At present they exist on a knife edge, by force of will still able to convince themselves that their fairy tales might be true, but they live in constant fear that what the majority of the world says might be true instead, that their beliefs are nothing but the ignorant and superstitious rambling of Bronze Age goat herders.

     Personally I can't understand how some Christians can insist that it's important to acknowledge a Christian basis for society when at the same time they say that it's irrelevant whether Jesus actually existed. If there was no Jesus, and by extension no God, then surely they are admitting that a workable code of behaviour and morals was likely invented by ordinary men and women, and therefore there is no need to continue to tie this code to belief in an ancient sky fairy. By merely thinking about it, people can accept the idea that we should not kill and steal, there is no need to say that some imaginary and invisible God demands we don't kill, it's as silly and superfluous as insisting that Superman says we shouldn't kill each other. The reality is that mankind can devise a workable moral code, and has done untold times throughout history, without any help from God. It's just childish for some Christians to argue that it's not really important whether Jesus actually existed or not, since their moral code is still very good regardless, because of course it's impossible to get moral advice, good or bad, from an imaginary person. You'd think they'd be very willing to strip the silly, superstitious elements from their moral code and just promote the values that modern civilisation has come to embrace. Their reluctance to do so demonstrates that while they may say to nonbelievers that the actual existence of Jesus is irrelevant, they clearly believe, albeit it quietly, that his existence is crucial to their worldview. They merely sideline the debate about the existence of Jesus or the evidence for miracles and talking snakes because they know it seriously harms their argument that Christians should be running the world. Refusing to debate crucial elements of your worldview is a clear sign that you know it's built on something as solid as jelly and as real as ghosts.

385. Comment by Stuart, 20 Feb, 2018

     Hi team. Do you know what really annoys me on the TV news? It is when there is an earthquake somewhere in the Muslim world and the picture shows some poor person — often a child being dug out alive from under the rubble and one can hear shouting from the diggers or spectators: Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar! Can't these stupid people ask themselves why Allah either caused or allowed the earthquake in the first place?

386. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 20 Feb, 2018

     To answer your question Stuart, yes, it certainly appears that Muslims are too stupid to see the futility in pleading with their god. And it's not just Muslims either, Christians with arms raised to the sky shout variants of, 'Thank you Jesus' and 'Praise the Lord' as their houses are being demolished in tornadoes or washed away in floods. Even if their entire family has been killed, they still manage to huddle with other surviving Christians and tearfully thank God for sparing them. What arrogance, that they think themselves so important that God would go out of his way to save them and don't for a moment question why their innocent children had to be drowned in a flood, suffocated in a landslide, burnt to death in a fire or thrown with deadly force against a tree in a hurricane. Even in a more mundane sense, in NZ we recently had Christians protesting outside Parliament over the fact that the reference to Jesus has been removed from Parliament's opening prayer. Couldn't they grasp that if God is real then it's removal must be part of his plan, and who are they to question God's reasoning?

     As you say Stuart, Muslims, and Jews and Christians, all hold the firm belief that everything that happens in the world is either caused or allowed to happen by their version of God. Nothing happens by chance, or without God wanting it to happen. God knows how the future will unfold, and not only that, it will unfold exactly as he has planned it to, as part of his divine plan for humanity. It's also believed that God knows everything and is perfect, meaning God can't make mistakes or have errors in judgment. It's simply inconceivable that during some disaster a pleading Muslim, Jew or Christian could pray to God and convince him to change his plan and spare a loved one from a horrible death. God changing his mind would mean that there was a flaw in God's plan, that a mere human could devise a better outcome than could God, that God's plan would work better if a certain baby survived a tornado or barrage of bombs. If God started answering prayers and was continually changing his plan on the advice and pleading of humans, then clearly he's not qualified to be in charge of the plan. If humans are dictating to God, via prayers, as to how the future should unfold and who will live and die, down to even who will win various sports events, since why do sports teams pray if it's not thought that God won't interfere on their behalf?, then clearly God is doing our bidding, we aren't doing his. God should be worshiping us.

     Of course some argue that God isn't deliberately causing all the disasters and loss of life in the world, but if that were true then the holy books such as the Koran and Bible were just spinning lies about him. And why should anyone put their faith in a book of lies? If God isn't causing all the wars, earthquakes and cancers etc, and it's all natural rather than 'Acts of God', then it's still an embarrassing and inconvenient fact that God isn't doing anything to prevent them happening or even warn us in some way. This would mean either that God can't prevent disasters and deaths, meaning he's not all-powerful as his followers claim, or that he doesn't want to prevent them, meaning that he's doesn't care about human suffering, or actually quite enjoys it, which would make him more of a demon than a benevolent god. These religious fuckwits can't seem to grasp that whenever disaster hits, it hits everyone equally — Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and atheists — no one group is immune. There is no advantage to belonging to a specific religion, when clearly there would be if a specific god was actually real and looking out for his followers. Having a Muslim majority isn't helping Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria, and a Jewish majority hasn't made Israel a safe place. A Christian majority didn't help Christchurch when it's earthquake struck, or the USA on Sept 11, and a Hindu majority hasn't made India a paradise on Earth.

     Of course with the TV news we really have two problems to fix. One is to open the eyes of the religious morons worldwide and bring them to realise that the way they describe their god and the way they behave in their day-to-day life is quite contradictory and silly, and two, somehow convince TV reporters and producers to ask inquiring questions when they encounter these religious morons, instead of treating them the way adults treat gullible young children when they don't want to reveal that Santa Claus isn't real. It's bad enough when religious morons spout their nonsense on the TV news, it's worse when the TV reporters who know it's all nonsense decide to play along and not say anything. If someone was interviewed and claimed that the world was flat or that fairies lived at the bottom of his garden, the reporters would quickly explain how wrong those claims were, but when it comes to religion, reporters are subdued and display a reverence that no silly god belief deserves. This is the 21st century, not the Middle Ages, and we no longer have to fear the Inquisition. It's not possible to stop people publicly pleading with their God, but at least on the TV news we can stop pretending that it makes sense.

387. Comment by Patrick, 21 Mar, 2018

     Hi John. The JFK assassination is one of the most talked about conspiracy theories. You briefly mentioned it on your website if I remember well. In fact a majority of people think that Oswald never killed John Kennedy. I disagree because I consider that an organization capable of mounting such a huge operation had much simpler ways of achieving it's target. Why take so many risks (it was not even certain that he would be killed to start with), why kill this man openly in front of so many people when you can do it discreetly? According to conspiracy partisans the all-powerful organization had to kill witnesses afterwards, so once again why all this mess when they could kill him with much simpler ways?

     I notice that whilst everything concerning the Warren commission is criticized by conspiracy blokes, they at the same time believe Oswald when he said that he was a patsy. Having read Oswald's biography I can say that he was a disturbed man and many of those who knew him well say that he could very possibly have done it. Furthermore guilty people instinctively lie to protect themselves so why should we trust this "I am a patsy" phrase??

     "Ruby was instructed to Kill Oswald so as to silence him". Once again nonsense. Did the average person want to shake hands with Oswald or did the average person want to kick his ass? I enjoy watching crime documentaries and see that suspects always wear bullet-proof vests during criminal reconstitution, and that's because the general public want to harm the suspect. So there's nothing strange than an average guy in possession of a pistol would shot at the suspect. During these extremely unusual and exciting moments the Dallas police forgot to give the suspect a bullet-proof vest and that proved to be a fatal mistake. The Oswald killing is possibly the most important element that started all these JFK assassination conspiracy theories. Mr. Ruby didn't just avenge his beloved president, he also ignited a very juicy business...

     In conclusion conspiracy partisans are unable to propose anything substantial regarding JFK's assassination. They talk about single bullet impossibility, but this has been credibly debunked by several experts. Their claims are vague and unsubstantial. They are only good at denigrating the Warren commission (which I think did a competent job) and nothing else.

388. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 23 Mar, 2018

     Hi Patrick. I haven't spent a lot of time on the JFK assassination, but I agree with you that the simplest explanation is that Oswald alone killed Kennedy. Conspiracies that involve the Mafia, the CIA, the Cubans or some drive-by aliens just complicate the story and fall apart when looked at in any detail. Of course some nefarious group could have been responsible, but if so, then those versions must explain why Oswald, if he wasn't involved, hid from the police after the assassination and then killed a policeman when challenged. If Oswald only discovered after the fact that he had been set up as a patsy, why did he run before most people even knew Kennedy had been shot?

     And if some secret organisation was so keen on removing witnesses to their machinations, and sent Ruby to kill Oswald to prevent him from spilling the beans, then they would have killed Oswald before the police arrested him and interrogated him, not afterwards. And of course they would have then had to have killed Ruby to prevent him from revealing who hired him to kill Oswald. Why kill Oswald and not worry about what Ruby might reveal?

     I've seen video of police suspects wearing bullet-proof vests at the crime scene, but I'm unsure whether this would have been police policy at the time of the Kennedy shooting. Indeed, the Oswald shooting may well have been the impetus for better protection of suspects.

     Like most conspiracies, the JFK assassination only seems worrying if you focus solely on the silly nonsense put out by the conspiracy theorists, and you refuse to read and consider the rational explanations.

389. Comment by Phillip, 08 Apr, 2018

     Hi John. For all those interested the best book on the whole assassination saga is 'Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy', by retired attorney Vincent Bugliosi (famed as the DA who prosecuted the Manson Family). It is a rather long read (a couple of thousand pages or more) but contains within its covers a comprehensive account from the Thursday evening prior the assassination, to the burials of both Kennedy and Oswald on the following Monday. Plus biographies of Oswald and Ruby.

     Bugliosi also tackles some of the more prominent conspiracy theories. Unlike virtually every other book on the assassination Bugliosi deals with facts and real evidence as opposed to the standard conspiracy based work. The only mystery is how he managed to get his book published when publishing houses only seem to be interested in the more outlandish and fantastical conspiracy books.

     Spoiler alert: Bugliosi provides a pretty solid case that Oswald acted alone and without any assistance from any other organisation or person.

390. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 08 Apr, 2018

     Hi Phillip. Thanks for your comments on Vincent Bugliosi's book, 'Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy'. I was actually given the ebook some time ago but unfortunatley I haven't got around to reading it yet. So many books and so little time. And no one in my social circle has brought up any of the JFK conspiracies and so motivated me to start reading.

391. Comment by Anonymous-17, 05 May, 2018

     Dear John, after unintentionally stumbling across your website I read quite a bit from you and your team. And of course somethings I didn't agree with, some things you said were accurate. But this actually is a question more about you and your viewpoints. You have a right to say whatever you want to say! But when anybody else voice his opinion that is different than years you chew them up and spit them out like a bully.
     And I'm sure that you're gonna use those words on me and that's fine.

     But honestly here's my question, is there anything in this world that you believe in? Do you have hope in anything? Do you love anything? Does a positive thought enter into your mind?
     If everything is wrong then you must know the right answer what's right?
     You Like to debate and chew people up with your fancy manipulative blows.. where does all this anger and hatred come from??
     I mean you go as far as to correct their grammar, anything you can do to make them feel stupid.
     Maybe you could spend some time and explain that? But I know you won't you'll either erase this email or you come back with a twist intern of the conversation never directly answered any of these questions. Because wow you want to be in control and put people in the hot seat.... let's just say bullies can dish it but they can't take it!

     I am genuinely sad for you. I hope that you don't have any children because the negativity that you put off is downright depressing. And for what all this wasted energy... if you channel your energy to do something positive whatever it is whatever you believe it that something you could be proud of!! All I see is a sad/mad person and I truly feel sorry for you!

     Don't hold back anything you say to me will not hurt my feelings I promise
     Have a wonderful day

     Ps.... you seem to use as a defense when someone comments you that they're not specifically telling you what they don't agree with and bringing new evidence of the contrary. You're using that as proof that you're right because someone has not taken the time to write a five page essay to dispute you.
     That must mean you're right about everything.

     But unlike yourself most people enjoy peace and unity and they don't like to argue viciously with negative toxic people. To illustrate - I have a 16-year-old son who has all the energy and wits to challenge everything I say with a drawnout argument. When I walk the other way and ignore him, that does not mean that he's right. When people comment on your website and they're obviously not supporting you why do you get so mad and attack them, isn't it just the kind of publicity or attention you want? And I mean just like I should not even be replying to you because it's a waste of time and energy... I really hope something I say makes you examine yourself and not everybody else in the world! You are nothing more than a hater! And that's your right to be a hater I just think it's a miserable existence
     Hey whatcha think about.....

392. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 05 May, 2018

     Hi. You may be annoyed that I'm only really going to answer one question and look at your accusation of bullying, but you really mentioned little else. By hiding your silly beliefs, and apparently you have one or more, you conveniently prevented any risk of us shaking your opposing view of... well, you didn't say. Luckily I know you won't be offended by my frank response since you implore me, 'Don't hold back anything you say to me will not hurt my feelings I promise'.

     Let's start with the only question you ask, although it's a childish question, as silly as you asking me if I have feelings or if I'm alive. I truly don't understand what answer you're expecting, beyond the obvious Yes!

     'But honestly here's my question, is there anything in this world that you believe in? Do you have hope in anything? Do you love anything? Does a positive thought enter into your mind?'

     You say that you've 'read quite a bit' of what I've written, but clearly you've reached the wrong conclusion, that just because I don't believe in gods or visiting aliens or talking to the dead, that I therefore don't believe in anything, hope for anything, love anything and never have positive thoughts. I suspect what you mean is that I don't appear to believe in or love the things that you do, and not believing in or loving the things you do is in your view apparently no different to believing in nothing. You must know that I will answer Yes, that I do believe in things and love things, so the only logical conclusion is that you will respond by arguing that the things I believe in and love are illusions, that I am living a fantasy.

     In my experience when people ask incredulously, 'is there anything in this world that you believe in? Do you have hope in anything? Do you love anything?', it's nearly always been because I've said I don't believe their God exists. (Of course this may not be true in your case, but you refuse to reveal the relevance of your question, so I'm forced to make an educated guess.) Somehow these people make the ridiculous leap from me not believing in their God to me not believing in anything, or to put it another way, that I believe in nothing. If I don't believe their God created the universe then they argue that I must believe that nothing created the universe from nothing, that my belief system rests on belief in nothing. If I don't believe in God then Christians argue that I can't know love, since love only comes from knowing God. If I don't love their God then clearly I must not be capable of loving anything. If I don't hope that their God is real then my life must be devoid of hope for anything. I've never understood how people with this view could think it makes any sense, since even though I think belief in any god, from God to Zeus to Allah, is a primitive, ignorant, superstitious view, even if I had never heard of any of these gods, as a human being it's quite obvious that I would still believe in things, would still love things, and would still have hope that some things would happen. For you to ask, 'is there anything in this world that you believe in?' etc, just seems like such a silly question to ask. I could write pages on what I believe in. For example, I believe the Earth is spherical and orbits the Sun. I believe the universe is around 14 billion years old, and that evolution explains how humans arose. I believe that bacteria and cancer are real, that President Donald Trump is a moron, that homeopathy is a scam, that ghosts and chemtrails aren't real, that aliens are not abducting us from our beds, that reality TV is utter crap, that Star Trek is better than Star Wars, and that cheesecake is delicious. And of course, I believe that all gods are childish fantasies. As for hope, again I could write pages on what I hope for. I hope that President Trump doesn't get re-elected, that no more wars will occur, that I don't contract some nasty disease, that poverty will be eradicated, that Adam Sandler will stop making movies, and of course, I hope that the places called Heaven and Hell that Christians and Muslims go on about don't exist. Ditto with love. There are naturally many people that I love, I love good health and financial independence, I love that the world is slowly ditching religion, and I love intelligent conversation, pizza and a good movie. Needless to say, I also love sex.

     Reading what we've written on our website, surely it is blatantly obvious that there's a lot I believe in, from science and evidence to justice, secular ethics and sexual equality. Since clearly I do have beliefs, hopes and loves, again it seems that you're blindly dismissing them all as worthless if they don't match your beliefs, hopes and loves. If this is not the case, then perhaps you could explain what you meant by your question, a question that implies that you think that we are devoid of beliefs, hopes and loves.

     You also ask, 'Does a positive thought enter into your mind?' Of course I have positive thoughts, such as it's a good thing that people around me are rejecting belief in gods and magic healing potions and that the Church is being investigated and prosecuted for child sex abuse. I think positively in that people of all cultures should love each other rather than hate or distrust each other because they believe in different imaginary gods, which is surely a negative way of thinking that has plagued mankind for millennia. I think that scientific explanations replacing religious explanations is a positive thing, and I think that if our website makes people question the nonsense concerning the likes of gods, ghosts, aliens and natural healing then that is a positive thing. Again, it seems that in your view any attitude that is different from yours is defined by you as a negative thought. I don't think that's how it really works.

     You imply that we hold a high-handed view, and you ask, 'If everything is wrong then you must know the right answer what's right?' Again you don't reveal what specific view of ours it is that has upset you. But like your silly refusal to acknowledge that we believe in anything, it is equally silly to claim that we insist 'everything is wrong'. Isn't it clear — of course it is — that we don't think science is wrong, or that atheism is wrong, or that sexual equality is wrong, or that going naked on the beach is wrong, or that the germ theory of disease is wrong? How could you think that we insist 'everything is wrong', or that we claim to know the right answer to everything that we discuss? We don't claim omnipotence like some gods or utter certainty like many religious fanatics. We have certainly argued that certain claims that people make are wrong, eg God exists, magnetic therapy works, chemtrails are killing us, but you can't go from us saying a handful of claims are wrong to implying that we say everything is wrong! And importantly, unlike you, we have provided reasoned arguments and evidence to support our view that some claim is wrong. If you are upset with our stance then you need to explain why our arguments fail, simply accusing us of arrogance doesn't work as an argument.

     It's true that I do feel anger, and sometimes even hatred, towards priests that rape little boys and the church hierarchy that hides and defends them, and anger towards scam healers that cause ill people to suffer physically and financially by selling them useless products. I feel anger towards morons that terrify naïve children and adults with bogus stories of demons who will torture them in Hell, of aliens who will abduct them and experiment on them, and of fluffy clouds called chemtrails that will rain toxic chemicals upon them and kill them. I feel anger towards groups that demonise and harm other groups that they believe are offending their silly beliefs, eg Muslims against Christians and vice versa, Christians against homosexuals and atheists, Creationists against scientists, Catholics against Protestants and vice versa, natural healers against doctors, prudes against nudists, racists against anyone that looks different, etc. You may feel you sense a level of anger and hate directed towards some comments we disagree with, but I feel I am generally quite reserved in my replies, and I respond with reason and evidence. And on the odd occasion I have criticised someone's grammar, from memory it has always been to demonstrate their hypocrisy, them unwittingly using bad grammar to condemn my grammar. I usually don't comment on grammar or spelling errors if they're irrelevant, just as I haven't highlighted yours. The reality is that if you think our replies are angry, hate-filled, abusive, bullying tirades, then clearly you've led a very sheltered life.

     But yes, of course we have some anger directed at certain people in the world, and you ask, 'where does all this anger and hatred come from?', well, that's where it comes from, from observing ignorant people that are determined to do harm to others and drag the world back to the Dark Ages. Of course anyone that knows me personally, would attest that I'm not an angry or hateful person, and even though they might disagree with my worldview, I've never had anyone accuse me of being a bully, not even close. They might be very peeved that they can't refute my argument, one that I've stated politely and calmly, but the accusation of bullying has never come up.

     You asked if, 'there anything in this world that you believe in?' etc, and then you made the request, 'Maybe you could spend some time and explain that? But I know you won't you'll either erase this email or... let's just say bullies can dish it but they can't take it!'

     You seem to be confused, believing that the person who wins an argument must have won because he's a bully, whereas I generally win my arguments because I deliver reasons and evidence that my opponents have no answer for. They normally reveal their defeat by never replying to my comments, even though I always take the time to respond to theirs. You have no reason to accuse us of erasing negative comments, and your anger at our response to negative comments on our website would indicate that it never happens, their presence proves that. Likewise when we give a detailed response, you fool yourself into believing we have won through bullying tactics, that our opponent doesn't reply because, as you say, 'it's a waste of time and energy', not because they can't think of an answer that our readers won't laugh at.

     Again, you say to us, 'Maybe you could spend some time and explain that? You expect us to make an effort, but then argue that we shouldn't take the lack of reply as a win, since people, including you, won't take 'the time to write a five page essay to dispute you'. So if I personally disagree with a comment, no matter what I do, the way you view these debates I can never actually win. If I erase the negative comment, I lose, since you'll think I'm too scared to publish it. If I publish it, but refuse, out of politeness, to consider and comment on the claims made in the email, then I lose, since you'll believe I'm unable to muster a believable argument. If I do 'spend some time' on considering and commenting on the claims, then I still lose, since in your view I'm now being nothing but a bully, using anger and hatred and intimidation (or is that reason and evidence?) to silence opponents. You've deluded yourself into thinking that no matter what response I make to negative comments, it's all a sign that I believe in nothing, and I don't want people to know it.

     And if you're right that I'm a bully, and that, 'bullies can dish it but they can't take it!', then I honestly don't know if I can't take it, because people like yourself almost never respond to allow me to find out if I can handle an ongoing debate. In my view a bully is one who victimises a much weaker opponent, knowing that they don't have the skills or strength or intellect to fight back. Is that how you see yourself, as a weak victim unable to muster a defence? Time will tell I guess.

     Clearly you are offended by some particular view of mine, and it's frustrating that people like yourself, while willing to say you disagree, are too timid to say about what! You say you feel sad and sorry for me, that I'm wasting my energy, and yet you feel no compulsion to enlighten me concerning my mistaken views, no desire to help reveal the errors in my worldview, you merely hint that some of my views, but not all, are wrong. Can't you see that if you would but convince me that I'm promoting a false dogma, I would erase those claims from our website and start believing in... what was it again? You forgot to say.

     You did say, apparently with some sincerity, that, 'I really hope something I say makes you examine yourself and not everybody else in the world! You are nothing more than a hater! And that's your right to be a hater I just think it's a miserable existence'. As I've said, yes, I do hate seeing deluded or devious people harm other innocent people either through ignorance or deliberately, and if I were to dwell on it, the realisation that the world is awash with intolerance, persecution and ignorant beliefs in invisible gods can be miserable and depressing, but I don't dwell on it. What's more, I try and do something positive, I try to make a difference for the betterment of the world. Admittedly by a small amount, but through our website we try to reduce the ignorance in the world, and by doing so, lessen the suffering and misery to a few.

     So I'm sorry, but you have failed, since I have examined myself, that's why I'm able and willing to explain my views about the world, so someone simply calling me a bully and a hater is not sufficient to make me reconsider. I will not be intimidated or silenced by your name calling. Like everyone on the planet, I will continue to examine the beliefs and actions of others and judge them based on my philosophy of life. If you really hope something you could say might cause me to view the world differently, then raise a topic we disagree on and produce a cogent argument. Refusing to debate with me (on who knows what topic) because you mistakenly characterise me as a bully and a hater seems like nothing more than a childish excuse for you to hide from views that you might find confronting and difficult to challenge.

     So after criticising me, are you now going to treat me the way you treat your son, by walking away and ignoring me? Or are you going to do the good and decent thing and try and help a misguided soul see the light?

393. Comment by Rene, 08 Jun, 2018

     The rest are funny too (psychic vampires for example) but this one I thought would speak to you (Scroll down):

     #3 Dinosaurs And The Bible

394. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 08 Jun, 2018

     Thanks for the link Rene. I can't understand how reasonably intelligent people can be so stupid when it comes to desperately clinging to their silly beliefs. I was again watching Simon Pegg's and Nick Frost's comedy sci-fi movie 'Paul' last night, and at the end when a fundamentalist Christian refuses to accept that his beliefs are mistaken, Kristen Wiig's character laments, 'You can't win with these people'. That's so true, you're wasting your time thinking that you might make them see reason. You'd have more success explaining quantum mechanics to your cat. It can be fun debating these morons and watching them squirm when their childish mistakes are exposed, but no way are you going to win if winning means having them honestly reconsider their views. Even if you make an utter fool of them, they just convince themselves that they're debating Satan or someone being helped by Satan, and losing to Satan isn't embarrassing in their view, since being willing to at least confront Satan and his lies will only elevate them in God's eyes.

395. Comment by Kim, 08 Jun, 2018

     You make some good points [regarding Magnetic Therapy] and yes I am double checking your facts too.
     I would make one argument to you though.
     I believe you said no evidence of ghosts or ufos exists
     I have no personal proof or evidence of ufos
     However as someone who has seen and interacted with "ghosts", I have to take issue with that sweeping statement.
     They do exist.
     And as a scientist you should keep an open mind
     "A closed mind is the weakest defence"

396. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 09 Jun, 2018

     Hi Kim. You're correct that we've said that there is no good evidence that ghosts exist, and (not surprisingly) you don't reveal any evidence or argument that might make us reconsider that stance. Simply saying that you've 'seen and interacted with "ghosts"' is frankly as silly and unconvincing as me saying I've seen and interacted with "fairies" at the bottom of my garden. I may be sincere in my belief, but you'd be a fool to believe me until I'd provided some extraordinary evidence that has been verified and replicated by independent scientists. And I'd be a fool to believe you on your sincere claim alone.

     Regarding magnetic therapy you say you're going to double check our facts before you decide if our claims are true, and so you should, but then you expect us to just blindly accept your simple claim that ghosts do exist. You provide no "facts" whatsoever for us to double check, no evidence for us to examine, not even a ghost story for us to consider, we are apparently expected to just believe you. For us to possibly sway your view on magnetic therapy you expect us to present our arguments and evidence, which you will then double check, so why doesn't the same apply when you try to sway our view on ghosts? Where are your arguments and evidence for us to double check?

     You say that we should keep an open mind concerning ghosts, implying that we haven't by your quote, "A closed mind is the weakest defence". It amazes me that people with wacky beliefs often accuse disbelievers as being close-minded, when in truth what they mean is that they're very annoyed that disbelievers won't believe their nonsense. To be close-minded means to be 'stubbornly unreceptive to new ideas', but before any reasonable person should accept a new idea it must be demonstrated that the new idea makes sense and is a good idea. You can easily accuse someone of being close-minded if they don't believe the Earth is flat, that storks deliver babies, that unicorns are real, that reptilian aliens have bases on the Moon, or that praying can cure Ebola. But in reality they are not being close-minded, they are simply being unreceptive to fringe ideas that have no credible support. Likewise, scientists and other intelligent, informed people don't accept some claim about the world because they are open-minded, they accept it because the evidence supporting that claim is convincing and the counter-arguments are found wanting.

     If you want to convince someone that something is real, ghosts in this case, then provide them with evidence and arguments, don't simply say that, 'They do exist', and then walk away with a 'close-minded' insult ringing in their ears. You said you wanted to make an argument supporting the existence of ghosts, but you made nothing of the sort.

     Clearly you believe you have had substantial interactions with "ghosts", so surely you must have amassed some evidence that argues for their existence. If it was robust enough to convince you, might it not also convince us? If we don't hear back from you, we'll have to assume that there is no such evidence and we'll continue to maintain that ghosts don't exist.

397. Comment by Rene, 28 Aug, 2018

     'I will not say one word on this': Pope on his alleged knowledge of abuse by cardinal

     Yeah, he sends a letter acting like he's owning up to the abuses, then immediately backs off of anything tangible when it comes to those coverup crimes.

     Yup, sounds about right...

398. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 28 Aug, 2018

     You're right Rene. It's all just spin, empty promises designed to mollify the gullible Catholic flock so that past crimes can remain hidden and present crimes can remain ongoing. It disgusts me to watch the pope speak of his shame regarding the sexual attraction his priests and bishops have towards young children, and yet every chance he gets he is grabbing, hugging and slobbering over young children! Do they not realise that it's not a good look to have elderly old men from the Church kissing and fondling children when they are supposed to be pushing the view that strange old men should not be getting their disgusting thrills by groping young children? I guess that's why they all wear those silly effeminate frocks... to hide their erections!

     

399. Comment by Anonymous-18, 22 Nov, 2018

     Good day to you. I really love your site and the help that you provide people. But as you already know despite the work that you and other rational and skeptic minded people like James Randi try to do for the world, there is always those unusual experiences that happen to many of us that we can't explain. I'm specifically speaking of esp and synchronicity experiences. For many of us these type of experiences make us question our sanity and causes depression because the experience doesnt line up with what we want to believe which is material science.

     What i have for you today is a story from the glitch in the matrix subreddit that I want your expert opinion on. For years I've been experiencing similar things as the person in this story and I'm really concerned right now and need a rational perspective. Your help will truly be appreciated, thanks.

     Here's the link: I keep seeing things right before they happen.

     I want to add that lately I've been reading about the meaning of synchronicity from the perspective of a psychologist by the name of Kirby surprise. Reading his explanation of this phenomenon has helped me cope a little better. The reason it helps me is because he says that his interpretation of this phenomenon still allows it to be explained within the current materialistic scientific view.

     I want to accept his explanation for my piece of mind, but before I accept his explanation as fact, I will like a skeptical expert like you to hear his explanation and let me know how you feel about it.

     In your opinion Is his explanation moving too far away from the current materialistic view? Or can his explanation be possible with our current materialistic view?

     Here's a link to his YouTube video where he explains it in full: Kirby Surprise - Synchronicity: Part One

     Please get back in touch as soon as possible with your opinion, thanks.

     One thing he does say that I'm having a little trouble agreeing on is that we cause the synchronicity because we control 3-5% of our environment with our thoughts. He says that it has been known for years that we can do that. But being a person thats trying to think rational and materialistic, that scares me, because it borders on the possibility of the new age concept of the law of attraction being real, and that's the type of woo woo stuff that im trying to get away from. But I'm really interested to hear what you think of this.

     If it turns out from your observation that this is more likely the way our minds scientifically work, and that theres nothing strange about it in a materialistic sense, then I can find a way to live with that.

     As long as the other supernatural stuff is not real then I can find a way to live with that.

     P.S. Since you're deep in the science/skeptic community then I'm sure youve probably already heard of dr Kirby surprise and have learned about his research. So definitely looking forward to what you have to say.

     Ok as I listened to the full video he explained that it doesn't have anything to do with supernatural beliefs, he says it's all scientific. So he kind of answered my last question his self but im still interested in hearing your opinion. This stuff really interests me.

400. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 22 Nov, 2018

     Hi there. You start by mentioning 'those unusual experiences that happen to many of us that we can't explain. I'm specifically speaking of esp and synchronicity experiences'. I'm assuming that when you say, 'we can't explain', that you're talking about the people having these experiences, because the scientific and skeptical world can explain them, at least in a general sense. Talk of ESP and synchronicity are simply false explanations that uninformed people use to label unexpected events and strange coincidences.

     Just because something weird or unexplained happens doesn't mean that it was caused by something supernatural or paranormal. The only reason people don't claim something weird is happening when their cell phone rings and their auntie who lives on the other side of the world is talking, is because they've grown up with the development of phones and have a basic idea of the science that makes them work. But if a person from the Middle Ages saw a cell phone, or a hundred other things we take as perfectly explainable, they would argue it was black magic. They're not stupid, simply uninformed about how things work in our world, and so jump for the supernatural explanation.

     I read the post in the Reddit 'Glitch in the Matrix' community, and she starts with a comment that shows she knows nothing about coincidence and probability: 'So a little over a week ago I had a dream about people from my past who all contacted me within a couple of days'.

     People occasionally have these dreams and understanding little about random chance attribute them to the universe somehow communicating with them about future events. We experience a huge amount of data from dreams, so we should expect some to occasionally suggest precognition, but we'd be foolish to believe it. As I've mentioned elsewhere, Georges Charpak and Henri Broch in their book 'Debunked! ~ ESP, Telekinesis and other Pseudoscience' (2004) looked at something similar to precognitive dreams. They looked at the claim of people who say they've suddenly thought of someone and then they almost immediately discover, by a phone call or on the TV news perhaps, that they've recently died. They asked, 'What is the probability that, having thought about a person, we will somehow learn in the next five minutes, purely by coincidence and without any paranormal influence, that the person has died?' They based their calculation on the USA and revealed that about 23,782 people in the US will have this "spooky" experience every year. That's around 65 people a day!! That means that for every day of the year, 65 people in the US might exclaim, 'Wow, I had this strange experience last night. I thought of my cousin and then I got a phone call telling me they had just died. How weird is that? What's going on here? Do I have psychic powers?'. But that's a delusion, they don't have special powers and the universe is not communicating with them. It's just a fluke. A coincidence. Just like the spooky dreams.

     Then the writer continues and says, 'A few times a day I will have something kind of like a vision. I will be doing something and then get this overwhelming sense of déjà vu'. What she describes is precognition, not déjà vu. My dictionary defines déjà vu as, 'Psychology. The illusion of having already experienced something actually being experienced for the first time', whereas her visions are precognition, 'Knowledge of something in advance of its occurrence, especially by extrasensory perception'.

     That said, I suspect that what she sees as a vision possibly has a similar explanation to that of déjà vu. It is simply the brain sending out erroneous signals, and leading the mind to generate an illusion, that it knew that something was going to happen, or that something had happened before. The brain is a phenomenally complex organ, and the mind it creates even more so, so we shouldn't be surprised when it occasionally develops a glitch and gives us false information.

     And no, we hadn't heard of psychologist Kirby Surprise, probably because he's a promoter of synchronicity, an idea that we view as misguided as belief in gods, ESP and talking to the dead. However, after listening to that interview, his explanation of synchronicity, while still false, doesn't sound as outlandish as explanations most believers give. Like you I can't agree that, 'we control 3-5% of our environment with our thoughts'. That's utter bullshit. But even Kirby Surprise dismisses the silly claim by some in the paranormal world that our thoughts create our reality in its entirety. What I took from Surprise is that as a practicing psychologist he realistically explains most psychotic and schizophrenic behaviour as arising from a malfunctioning brain, not from the universe trying to communicate with people. Describing one of his patients who saw synchronicity everywhere, who refused to accept coincidence as an explanation, and consequently saw messages in everything, and was even convinced that the people on TV were talking to him directly, Surprise said, 'He dreamt something and took that dream to be real!'.

     Surprise seems to have a foot in both the scientific and paranormal camps. He relates several stories of people performing paranormal and ESP feats, but I don't believe any of them, as the people trying to prove ESP have never been able to produce strong evidence of a single case of ESP at work, and that's looking back over more than a century of trying. Why wouldn't the ESP believers promote the cases Surprise talks about if they were real? But Surprise also attributes brain disorders to many cases of claimed synchronicity, and that in the simplest of cases that you and I might experience, it's simply the brain malfunctioning and the mind, working on limited or erroneous information, jumps to the wrong conclusion. That's where ideally reason takes over and asks if the conclusion is rational and supported by the evidence of what we know about the world, or irrational, and supported by nothing more than a weird feeling. Unfortunately, some people find the weird feeling overpowering and convince themselves, contrary to all the evidence, that strange forces are at work, forces trying to tell them something important about the future of the universe.

     What I'm trying to say is that you can accept some of Surprise's explanations where he essentially agrees that much of this is just tricks of the mind, and thus will have a materialistic explanation, even if we don't know it in detail yet, but I believe you can confidently dismiss any talk of his regarding ESP and synchronicity being real. The reality is if it were real, and after decades if not centuries of looking for it, we would see clear evidence for it. Instead it just remains as something a few people talk about, even when we've found other things that people thought likely didn't exist, like quarks and black holes. Stick with what we know is real, not with what we would like to be real.

401. Comment by Ted, 24 Nov, 2018

     I have always had many of these so called mystical experiences, dreams and visions. I enjoy them, use them as tools for self-analysis or as raw material for my own artistic creations, without feeling any compulsion to suppose anything outside my brain is generating them. It is still a puzzle to me, this widespread desire to impose huge, ordered structures of nonsense on them. Perhaps this was actually how religions began, although it couldn't be proved. Sometimes the life of the mind can be mapped on external reality and sometimes not. The dilemma as I see it lies in how to determine which is which, a task some people seem much better equipped to carry out than others. An important property of the rational and scientific approach is that it is invariant over all human minds, in other words its truth is external to what might be called internal or subjective truth. Is that not the fundamental difference between art and science? A mathematical proof or a chemical reaction means the same thing to anyone anywhere. Elgar's first symphony means very different things to different minds, as does a painting by Colin McCahon or a novel by James Joyce. That is one criterion which springs to mind but there are probably others.

     I have just had a mild deja-vu that I have already written this somewhere here. Oh well, never mind.

402. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 25 Nov, 2018

     Hi Ted. Thanks for your comments, and like you I've had what some would call mystical experiences, dreams and visions, but as real and/or enjoyable as some seemed, reason has always allowed me to dismiss them as mere mental fantasies. The puzzle, as you say, is why when there is no evidence whatsoever that they are meaningful in any real sense, that so many people opt to believe that they are spooky messages to be deciphered. Perhaps this would be understandable in centuries past when illiteracy, ignorance and superstition reigned supreme for much of the world's population, but it's no excuse today when the truth of how the world and the mind works is readily available to anyone who can be bothered to look. But I guess that would mean reading something other than Facebook posts and Twitter tweets, like maybe a real book that Oprah Winfrey or Donald Trump hasn't recommended and that has more than 280 characters.

403. Comment by Patrick, 03 Jan, 2019

     Hi John. Here's an interesting article for you. This article is causing controversies among scientists and observers but even its detractors admit that it is written with a great deal of research and care. Although this does not belong to silly beliefs category, it's not the Shroud of Turin farce, I personally consider it a 50/50 case. It's good to remember that skepticism should be encouraged.

     J'Accuse...! Why Jeanne Calment's 122-year old longevity record may be fake

     I remember that when I was in Japan I was having a chat with my tour guide and was telling her that I was impressed with the fact that so many Japanese people lived well over 100. She was honest enough to tell me to be cautious about this as many of these people were in fact already dead but that their families concealed this so as to continue to receive the monthly old age pension.

     When there's money you can expect anything.

404. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 04 Jan, 2019

     Hi Patrick. Thanks for the article. Like you I think it could go either way. Although very, very unlikely, scientifically it seems there is no reason why someone couldn't live to 122. That said, there appears on the surface to be several suspicious elements in the case of Jeanne Calment. For example, her daughter's 'death certificate was issued on the basis of testimony of a sole witness, a 71-year-old unemployed woman (i.e. not a doctor or nurse) who "saw her dead"'. Did this woman know the daughter? Why didn't a family member at least identify the body?

     As you say, when money is involved, you can't just take someone's word for it. I've seen TV news reports of the huge amount of pension fraud uncovered in Japan, and of course I'm aware of the considerable amount of money funnelled into towns such as Roswell, New Mexico and Loch Ness, Scotland by tourists visiting to see if they can catch sight of aliens and monsters respectively. Even locals and authorities who privately dismiss the claims of aliens and monsters as nonsense do nothing to harm the tourist trade to their region and keep their little town famous worldwide. If the Jeanne Calment case is fraudulent, no doubt protecting the family finances was the likely motivation, but like Roswell and Loch Ness, the deception is now continued by certain French locals and authorities. With Jeanne Calment, the French hold the record for the person with the longest life span, and this gives them something to be known worldwide for. If they lost that record, to someone in another country that lived slightly longer, then it would be disappointing but not an embarrassing loss. However, if they lost that record by it being shown that the Jeanne Calment claim was a case of fraud, then that would be a shameful loss, since they were fooled by the fraudulent claim in the first place, and they weren't the ones to uncover the scam years later. So even if they suspect foul play, and since the record is inconsequential in the scheme of things, the French will have no desire to seriously look into the Jeanne Calment claim to longevity.

405. Comment by Patrick, 26 Feb, 2019

     Hi John, have you noticed that no political parties or politicians have made any public condemnation regarding the numerous sexual scandals that have plagued the Vatican and the Catholic church in general? We are in 2019 but there's still taboos out there that politicians will never deal with in public, I guess that the reason behind this silence is that they are afraid to lose votes from some hardcore religious blocks during elections.

406. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 26 Feb, 2019

     Hey Patrick. You're right, politicians worldwide are far too silent on the Catholic Church sex scandals, and it's shameful. Normally you can't shut them up, but now suddenly they feel no need to comment on an important issue affecting some of the most vulnerable people they represent — children. I guess they'll argue that it's a matter for the law and they can't interfere, but if our law as it stands allows sick religious deviants to abuse children and then escape justice, then it's time we got some politicians that will argue for a change in the law.

     But the real reason, as you say, is that they're too afraid to offend the voters, the people that keep them in power. And it's not just the Catholics that they need to keep on their good side, it's all the religious nutters, no matter what imaginary gods they believe in. I can't tell a Catholic that they're silly to believe in God without offending a nearby Protestant. It's a real minefield when you start questioning the beliefs or actions of a particular religion or denomination, since sooner or later you're going to say something that other religions or denominations will realise also applies to them. If you can question whether we should obey what one god says on a certain topic, then you can question what all gods say on all topics. Look at what happened when the media started to question the right of certain Muslims to publicly push for the beheading of all infidels and blasphemers. Rather than condemn them outright, many Christians and Jews sided with the Muslims. Bishops and rabbis joined with imams, they argued for religious freedom, for the right to proclaim what your religion believes. They were fearful that if secular governments restricted what Islam could say in public, then next these secular governments would come after them.

     So spineless politicians, ever fearful about not getting re-elected, are careful to remain silent on topics that could alienate a large voting block, and if there's one topic that most voters decide on without using any reasoning or thought at all, it's religion. A politician expressing a reasonable but unpopular view with the god botherers could see the end of their political career. Of course some politicians don't say anything about certain issues confronting society, eg child sex abuse or voluntary euthanasia, because their religious beliefs are at odds with the concerns of society. They won't criticise the Catholic Church for hiding abusive priests if it would mean them having to beg forgiveness from a priest in confession on Sunday. They won't discuss voluntary euthanasia if they see it as a sin before their God. Regardless of what they say, most politicians are not doing the things that will see society benefit, they're doing whatever will see them re-elected, and if they're also religious, keeping on the right side of their god.

     The abuse summit that has just been held at the Vatican and overseen by Pope Francis has, not surprisingly, turned out to be a complete failure, with the Catholic Church still unwilling to hand suspected perpetrators and records of abuse over to secular authorities for investigation and trial. The Catholic Church still refuses to put in place a zero tolerance rule for those committing child abuse or covering it up. It's not that the deviant fuckwits don't understand hard and fast rules, since they rabbit on and on about how we must all obey their Biblical commandments. They tell us that if we murder or steal or even masturbate, then we're going to suffer God's justice (ie, hell), since there is nothing we can say to excuse our sinful actions. But that's part of the problem for Christians I guess, since while there are clear commandments in the Bible prohibiting having sex with goats (for example), there are none that prohibit sex with children. The popes and bishops and priests can honestly claim that they have broken no child sex commandment, and since they obey God's laws over secular laws, the slimy bastards argue that even if a sin has been committed, then they will answer to God's justice, not to some secular justice. These popes, bishops, priests and nuns disgust me, as does the typical Catholic man and woman on the street, all eager to condemn the abuse publicly, but then they all retreat into their churches and either forget about it or drop to their knees and beg Jesus to protect the children. Begging Jesus to help is as useless as begging Santa Claus to bring you a bike at Xmas. Imaginary beings cannot do your work for you. Stop being so lazy and gutless. If you want child sex abuse to stop, then you need to do something real and positive, like walking away from the Church and refusing to give any support to the world's largest pedophile ring. It astounds me the sheer number of Catholics that condemn the abuse but still steadfastly support the people and organisation that commits the abuse. That's like condemning the atrocities committed by Hitler and the Nazis but still continuing to pay your Neo-Nazi membership and showing up for the rallies. It's not just the Vatican and the bishops and priests that we should be challenging, but also that much larger group, their supporters, the millions of Catholics on the street that give their moral support and donations to keep the Catholic Church an entity that even politicians are too afraid to challenge or criticise. Would the Vatican be such a powerful body if not for its millions of mindless believers? It even has permanent observer status with the United Nations with all the rights of a full member except for a vote in the UN General Assembly. No other church has a place in the UN (nor should they).

     Don't just condemn the moronic bishops and priests and nuns for continuing to stick with an organisation that is still abusing children worldwide, challenge and condemn the gutless Catholic next door and at work and at the gym that won't wakeup and walk away from the monsters, that won't stop putting money in the plate on Sunday and praying, "Please Lord, could you rein in some of your priests. I'd do it myself but... as you know... I'm off on vacation next week. So... before you look at the priest thing, maybe you could arrange for some good weather in Tahiti?"

     And if you want a question to start with, why do people (Catholics and atheists alike) accept the blatantly false claim from the Vatican that they're trying their best but they just don't know who the offenders are? Setting aside the fact that many victims have told them exactly who many of the offenders are, these are people that are on a first name basis with Jesus, a god who loves them and wants only what is best for them, who sides with them in war, who cures their cancers, so why can't he help them root out the child rapists among their group? Couldn't he just send the pope a text with a list of names? OK, several texts (there might be a limit to how much you can put in a single text). God knows who they are, right? God knows everything, so why won't God tell Jesus (or himself, it gets confusing) to pass the information onto the pope, his chosen representative on Earth? If God is real there can be only one answer for his reluctance to blow the whistle on his priests... God gets off on watching child sex abuse. How can religious morons believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-benevolent God that can't, or won't, stop his priests raping children? That people willingly worship that monster is something I can't comprehend. Respectful atheists often state that rational, educated adults who believe in gods aren't stupid, they're merely mistaken in their views. No, no, no. They're stupid. Not to mention immoral, more concerned with the welfare of their church than their children. If they sincerely believed in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy and made important life choices based on that silly belief you'd call them stupid, this is no different. If they were more concerned with the rights and welfare of a rapist than his victim, you'd call them immoral, this is no different. Stop lying to them and yourself just to protect their feelings. It's high time they grew up and you have a duty to help introduce them to the real world, one without gods, demons and talking snakes. They've taken the training wheels off their bike, now it's time to take the training wheels off their brain. Trust me, you'll be doing them a favour.

407. Comment by Owen, 01 May, 2019

     John, I have observed with derision the attempts of the god-botherers to inflict their "knowledge" on the rest of us and followed your blogs for a long time.

     I was not really interested in the background to the Three books until I tripped over this disturbing lecture by a scholar who seems to know what he talking about.

     Worth a look before some activist gets it deleted:

     The Islamic Doctrine of Migration — Dr. Bill Warner Ph.D

     All the best.
408. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 01 May, 2019

     Hi Owen. Thanks for the link, I wasn't familiar with Dr. Bill Warner. It was indeed an informative lecture, especially if you weren't aware of Islam's history. My wish would be that more people understood what Islam really stands for and what true Muslims are expected to believe, and that includes untold Muslims that are as ignorant of their Koran as most Christians are of their Bible and its message. Warner is correct when he says that what we view as offensive statements made by Muslim fundamentalists, eg Islamic State terrorists, are not stuff that they've made up to suit their purpose, it's all in the Muslim holy books. Mohammed was not a nice guy.

     Religiously motivated terrorist attacks are still happening worldwide, the overwhelming majority by Muslim fundamentalists, and there'll be no letup while fanatics believe that it is Allah's will that they wage a bloody war on all non-believers. True believers will never seek a peaceful compromise when they believe that doing so would be a sign of blasphemous disobedience and an unforgivable insult towards their god. And let's remember that Jews and Christians used to think and behave in the exact same manner in centuries past. The Jews were told they were God's chosen people and were destined to rule the world, and they committed untold acts of genocide to try and make that a reality. Then the Christians had their run at world domination through religious wars and barbaric attempts to control the beliefs of men, women and children. Historically, it wasn't that long ago that even in places like England, atheism was illegal and punishable by death. While both Jews and Christians still have dreams of being in charge, and still wish that people would see the light, in general they have mellowed and have given up converting people by force. This meant accepting that some commandments in their holy book, eg atheists must be killed, had to be ignored for the greater good. It took them centuries to come to terms with living peacefully alongside non-believers, and while compliant, many still aren't happy about the new arrangement. The worrying question today is how long will it take Muslims to reach a similar understanding?

     You might like to read a short post I wrote on this topic over 10 years ago — 'Islam means peace — or does it?'

409. Comment by Jaclyn, 19 Jul, 2019

     Dear John

     (A 'dear john' letter, oh my)

     Awesome website, amazing articles, more please!

     Enjoying this far too much for my own good.

     Well written and logical.

     Please cover more topics, new ages philosophies debunked, the health industry, anti-vaxxers, etc

410. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 19 Jul, 2019

     Hi Jaclyn. Thanks for your comments. It's always nice to know that others can also see through all the nonsense the world throws at us. I'm a little busy with other projects at the moment, but I'll try and write more when I can.

411. Comment by Patrick, 23 Aug, 2019

     Hi John, I am relieved that the Victorian Court of Appeal upheld George Pell's historical child abuse convictions on Wednesday. I am both saddened and angry that despite all the evidence, some folks, including two previous Australian Prime ministers, still continue to defend this bloke despite all the evidence! Dozens of people say that they have been molested by this man or have witnessed his wrongdoings. It would suffice that just one of his accusers said the truth to make Pell a guilty man. I have watched documentaries about Pell's sordid case and you can easily say that his accusers are just telling what really happened.

412. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 24 Aug, 2019

     Hi Patrick. I too was happy to see George Pell leaving the court the same way he arrived, in a prison van. I see that the gutless Vatican still refuses to strip Pell of his cardinal title for his crime of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys. No doubt they are waiting on an official request from God, which I suspect could be quite some time away.

     It's understandable (but deplorable) that like-minded popes, bishops and priests support their associates like Pell and their right to fuck children in some back room of their church. They've had decades of Church-enforced celibacy and religious brainwashing, told repeatedly that normal heterosexual sex between adults is evil, shameful, dirty, ugly, sick, depraved, corrupted and a sin in the eyes of God. But while in the Bible God does prohibit sex with animals, nowhere does he prohibit sex with children. And over the years, centuries even, whenever some brave and angry parents have complained that some priest raped their child, not once has God thought it necessary to provide an addendum to his Bible: It's not just sheep and goats, thou shalt not have sex with children. I thought that would have been obvious!

     But while it's understandable why the likes of the Vatican embraces the 'sex with children' loophole, it's bloody disgusting that many ordinary Catholics on the street, who haven't had the same degree of brainwashing, who haven't had celibacy forced on them, and who should risk their very lives to protect their children from sexual predators, end up condemning the children who dare sully the reputation of one of God's servants. I can accept that many Catholics were deceived by their priests and their Church, but when the truth of these heinous crimes was revealed, most sided with the deviant priests rather than the innocent children, the victims in all this. This makes them more than just ignorant fools, it makes them monsters.

     I've read some accounts of the abuse committed over recent decades by priests, and it is quite harrowing, made far worse when parents, lawyers, judges, police, newspaper editors and reporters etc all refused to believe the children's accounts, and punished them for lying, or if they did believe the abuse occurred, conspired with the Church to hide it and protect the Church's reputation, rather than expose it and prevent future harm to children. Whether they believed the abuse occurred or not, their goal was to protect the Church, not the children. And for far too many Catholics, it still is. Personally I don't know of a single Catholic who has left the Church since the sex abuse and the ongoing coverups were revealed as shameful facts. They're still taking their children to the priests, hoping no doubt that if he's one of the sexual deviants, that he'll be gentle with them.

     I find it reprehensible that crimes of such magnitude against children have been revealed and an embarrassing number of Catholics are still rallying around, not just the Catholic Church, but the very priests and bishops guilty of the abuse and it's coverup. Society at large condemns people that support groups like the Klu Klux Klan and neo-Nazis, it's time the Catholic Church was added to that list.

413. Comment by Clare, 07 Oct, 2019

     Hi John. I'd love to hear what you think about Anthony William — Medical Medium. I can't see anything on your site regarding him.

414. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 08 Oct, 2019

     Hi Clare. No, we haven't written anything concerning the wacko that calls himself the Medical Medium. For readers that aren't up to speed with all the scammers out there, Wikipedia tells us that, 'Anthony William or the Medical Medium, is a medium who offers medical and health advice based on alleged communication with a spirit from the future'. But as the RationalWiki website says, 'The problem is, there's no evidence for anything he says, and he has no medical or scientific qualifications or training'.

     Of course believers will argue that William can be an unqualified moron and still heal people because he's merely a medium, the medical knowledge is coming from his invisible friend from the future. William has stated that this spirit has told him, 'I am the Spirit of the Most High. There is no spirit above me but God.... At the fingertip of God sits a word, and that word is compassion. I am that word. A living word. The closest word to God'. The Wikipedia page notes that, 'William claims that "Spirit" gives him the ability to "scan" bodies in a way that can diagnose "all blockages, infections, trouble areas, past problems, and even soul fractures" with knowledge that comes from the future'. In one of his books William says, 'he believes in the existence of twelve different angels, with names such as the "Angel of Abundance" and the "Angel of Addiction". He encourages his followers to invoke the names of specific angels to ask for help in various circumstances'.

     But seriously, believing he's talking to a ghost from the future that can heal any illness is no different to believing that Santa puts those toys under the Xmas tree. Anyone claiming that any of these things are real — spirits, souls, angels, God, mediums, visitors from the future — immediately reveals that they are either deluded or lying, and if they then ask for lots of money before revealing more health secrets, as William does (his fee was $500 for 30 minutes), then clearly their concern is with making money and not your health.

     There are major problems with William's claims. For example, if he has been diagnosing and healing people since the age of four, as he claims, then the world would have noticed. Don't you think a four-year-old diagnosing cancer would have made the TV News, plus another 40+ years of miraculous healing on top of that? And yet, no one thought it unusual or worthy of mention! A member of the Royal family gets a haircut and it makes the news, a guy called Anthony William Coviello (that's his real name) cures untold people of nasty diseases and no one cares. If there was evidence of William curing just one person of cancer then medical experts would be investigating, but there isn't and they're not, and since William claims untold people have benefited from his healing advice, the reality of his success would be impossible to ignore, and yet the evidence of his success is impossible to find. Apparently the people that can prove they had cancer etc and that William cured them, don't want to talk about it. They're not interested in the slightest of promoting a cure that could alleviate untold suffering worldwide. They have no compassion or empathy, they're cured and they just want to be left alone, if others are sick then they can find their own cure. Just where are the people William has cured and why won't they speak out and prove their case?

     Then we have the whole God problem. Supposedly a loving God thinks the best way to rid the world of disease and suffering is to have one of his angels whisper medical advice to a four-year-old, rather than hold a conference with all the world's doctors and medical experts. And the best way an all-powerful and all-knowing god can think of curing cancer is to have people drink celery juice every morning. What happened to miracles? Worse still, 99.9% of the world's population have never even heard of William, so God's chosen method of getting crucial medical advice to the world — whisper it to a nobody — is childishly pathetic. He might as well have told a rock for all the good it's doing. It's truly astounding how stupid God must be, at least according to people like William who apparently know him best. Furthermore, the medical knowledge cannot be from the future as William claims if it's coming from one of God's angels or spirits. If God knows that celery juice cures cancer then he knows it now, and he also knew it 10,000 years ago. The question is therefore why has God hidden this knowledge from us, and why if in the future he has suddenly decided to reveal it, why has he only sent this amazing medical breakthrough back to the 21st century? Why not send the advice about celery juice back to the peasants in the Middle Ages or to the ancient Greeks, weren't they deserving of a cure for cancer? And why isn't God's angel whispering to William on how to fix our problems with energy and pollution and climate change and overpopulation etc. What good is being cured of cancer if you just die of something else?

     It's quite obvious that the world would be a radically different place if one of God's minions was talking to Anthony William. Miraculous cures would be turning up everywhere, confounding medical knowledge, at a rate too extraordinary to ignore, even for the most skeptical. Of course if God had decided to heal the human race, with something as simple as celery juice, then it would have happened millennia ago, and we in the 21st century wouldn't even be concerned with illness, as it would have vanished ages ago. We are focused on the present because we can't help those long dead, but God is not so constrained (except in the minds of those like William and his supporters), God could give every human who ever lived excellent health. But he hasn't. He won't even give it to those currently alive. It's quite ridiculous when people like William claim that God has finally decided to act and alleviate suffering, and yet apparently God is focusing mainly on a handful of rich half-wit celebrities in America, like Gwyneth Paltrow. He hasn't even told the Pope or any of the world's religious leaders. And yet even those few fortunate enough to hear his message are strangely still suffering the same woes as those utterly ignorant of the good news about celery juice. It seems the miracle juice is just a scam from on high, since even after drinking it every morning Gwyneth Paltrow feels she still needs to promote vaginal steaming and vaginal jade eggs. Clearly the juice doesn't reach everywhere.

     It's the same whether we're talking about deluded mediums that insist they're conversing with invisible spirits that know the future or devious charlatans who claim to have miraculous cures, everything from magnets and homeopathy to crystals and celery juice, the world just ignores them, by which I mean it carries on as if their miraculous knowledge and cures didn't exist, or should I say, didn't work. Imagine a world where Superman really was real, flying around in his fancy cape, stopping bullets and super villains, and yet no one notices, not the media nor the people on the street, and even the people he saves either quickly forget about him or don't think it's important enough to mention. Wouldn't you think that was weird, that a superhero could exist but everyone ignored him? That's what our world is like, with these mediums and alternative healers claiming to perform daily miracles, and yet no one notices. Are we truly that ignorant of all the miraculous cures happening around us, or are they just lying?

     The jury is in. They're lying.

415. Comment by Patrick, 09 Jan, 2020

     Hi John. Does God hold a grudge against Australia? So many prayers addressed to him by your Aussie neighbors since the beginning of this gigantic ecological tragedy to no avail. Considering the fact that God caused water to fall for forty days and forty nights I guess that we have the right to ask ourselves why despite all these prayers, God has not moved one finger and make rain fall in Australia so as to extinguish these huge fires that have been ravaging this country (more than one million animal casualties, territory larger than Belgium completely left to ashes) since several weeks. Apparently you can rely on God to cause massive destruction with uninterrupted rainfall for several weeks because of too much violence and corruption, but don't rely on him to save your ass.

     So why is God remaining desperately inactive? Is He enraged that one of his most faithful servants, Cardinal George Pell, is current in an Australian prison? Was He busy creating all kind of universes and is He now having a much needed rest? (Remember that the Holy Bible tells us that God rested on the 7th day of creation.)

     But maybe that God finally actually took pity of Australia and some rain have started to fall there since a few days. Strangely, this rainfall coincides with the start of the monsoon. Business as usual or belated divine intervention? You decide.

416. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 10 Jan, 2020

     Hi Patrick. You ask why God isn't helping the Aussies in their time of need. Wait... is this a trick question, you know, like how does a fat guy like Santa squeeze down those chimneys, or how does the Tooth Fairy know that your child has lost a tooth?

     Of course we both know the answers to these sorts of questions, as do all intelligent, informed people, questions that probe the why and how of magical beings. One simple answer covers them all. Santa, the Tooth Fairy, God and [Insert your favourite magical being here] aren't real. No need to lie awake at night tormented by silly questions. Why won't God respond to my desperate prayers? I really want that new video game. Are the Muslims right, and my god is a false god? My house doesn't have a chimney, but toys still appeared under the tree, so did Santa jimmy the back door? Has the Tooth Fairy hacked in to my WiFi and my kid's baby monitor? Is she watching us by using my laptop camera?

     If God were real then his followers wouldn't need to pray to God to stop the fires, since God, knowing the real harm they would cause to his innocent followers, wouldn't let them start in the first place. Christians seem utterly unable to grasp what their god is capable of, even though they know what amazing powers their god has. Even the Greek gods could apparently toss a lightning bolt from Mt Olympus and strike the person who had angered them, and yet the Christian god flounders about in the dark, killing innocent people and wildlife and destroying the environment in the vain hope that some guilty party that God has a beef with will be caught up in the slaughter and mayhem. Sorry about the collateral damage, says God. Well, no, he doesn't even apologise for that.

     Christians just fail to think deeply about what certain events and how they interpret them say about who their god is and what he should be able to do, they instead treat his actions, and his failure to act, as if they were describing a fellow human, not an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-benevolent god. Even in ancient times intelligent people could point out the flaws in the views some people had about their gods. I recently read of this story that comes to us from ancient Greece: 'When one man asked a Greek philosopher to go with him to a shrine to pray, the friend replied that he must think the god is very deaf if he couldn't hear them from where they were' (Lucian, Life of Demonax).

     Why aren't Christians (and Muslims and Jews etc) worried in the slightest that their god ignores them, and not just occasionally, but continually ignores them? Why don't they have a level of anxiety that goes through the roof, why aren't they troubled that he has apparently set the universe on autopilot so that things just play out according to the natural laws he embedded into nature, leaving time for God to go off to a parallel universe of his making to sip exotic cocktails and play strip poker with the Tooth Fairy, Aphrodite and Venus? Events in the universe unfold as if gods don't exist, that much is obvious to all, believer and non-believer alike, so the religious believer should be an emotional mess, terrified that perhaps we atheists are right, and the reason God has deserted them is the same reason that they have to buy Xmas presents for their kids, the magical being their parents told them about as children isn't actually real.

     But true believers show no such turmoil, not a glimmer of doubt slips through, no matter how much they pray for help from their god and he ignores them, utterly, time after time, their faith remains unshakeable that he will help them next time. And that he had good reasons for not helping in the past. He's just not prepared to divulge those reasons.

     So yes, true believers are stupid. No matter how much science seems to accurately describe a world without gods and no matter that the claims of their holy book seem to be utterly foolish and wrong, true believers will drop to their knees and pray that God brings them a unicorn.

     Speaking of the stupidity of the masses, I noticed that a fair gaggle of evangelical Christians were roaming my street the other day, knocking on doors and handing out pamphlets on their fairy tales. Being busy and in no mood for their fantasies, I ignored them. Isn't it strange that apparently the only way that God has of reaching me is to turn some easily manipulated fool into a sort of zombie and send them to my door. And not directly to my door, since seemingly he's not quite sure where I live, he just has his zombies knock on random doors hoping they'll get lucky. If I'm not at home or I don't answer, they leave not even realising they were close. And some months later God will try again. He really is a pathetic god. Google knows where I live and what my interests are, even the tax department knows where I live, but God doesn't. And even in the past when I have conversed with some of God's zombies, being zombies they were far too stupid to challenge any of my views, or even explain their own in a way that made sense. Even though they're there on God's bidding, God refuses to help them, not once whispering some killer retort in their ear to demolish my arguments. So they always leave confused and likely depressed, meaning God's numerous attempts at making me see the light have always failed, and clearly God doesn't have the foggiest idea why they failed, as he keeps repeating his futile actions. It's a nice day. Send out the zombies for Jesus.

     People keep saying that they've met some really intelligent Christians, some very well educated, and that they're not stupid. And I'd agree, to a point. You can discuss many topics with them and get intelligent, well-informed responses, even on religion, as long as it's not their religion, but try and discuss their religion with them, and a veil drops, the drawbridge goes up and the eyes glaze over. The rational part of their brain goes out for a coffee and hands the reins to the village idiot. Books on science, history and philosophy are swept from the table and a tatty old holy book takes their place. The resources of the Internet and centuries of research are ignored and evidence is replaced with anecdotes, testimonials and ghost stories. Reason is swapped out for blind faith. Just as Hitler could be both good and evil, be kind to dogs and not so kind to humans, a Christian can be both bright and stupid, brilliant with maths, the law or medicine, and really stupid when it comes to talking snakes and people walking on water.

     If an otherwise normal adult sincerely argued that Santa was real, or that the Easter Bunny was the true source of Easter eggs, we'd all agree that they were being stupid, and that they should seek psychological help. It should be no different when adults drop to their knees and beg an invisible friend to magically stop a forest fire.

417. Comment by David, 11 Mar, 2020

     Hello John

     I was curious I didnt see any articles on EMF and was wondering what your view is on that?

     Thank You

418. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 11 Mar, 2020

     Hi David. By EMF I assume you are referring to electromagnetic fields and their effect on human health. We have made occasional comments in passing on topics such as the danger from cell phone use or living under high voltage power lines but no main articles. Of course there is the potential of real harm from electromagnetic fields depending on their frequency, power levels, duration and proximity to the body. That's why dentists and technicians hide behind lead shields to avoid x-rays, why sunscreen lotions are used to protect from the sun's ultraviolet rays, and why microwave ovens are designed to stop if the door is opened. If a nearby gamma ray burst from outer space ever hit Earth then it could damage ecosystems worldwide. Recall that accidental exposure to gamma rays turned Bruce Banner into the Incredible Hulk.

     Precautions are in place to limit and protect us from EMFs that are known to be harmful, like x-rays, microwaves and UV, and currently my view is that our risk of harm is very low. You're more likely to get hit by a bus being driven by a shark texting on his cell phone than get cancer from your neighbour's Wi-Fi.

     The World Health Organisation has an article that is well worth reading — Electromagnetic fields (EMF): Summary of health effects — and one of its concluding 'Key Points' sum up our current view of EMF:

     'Despite extensive research, to date there is no evidence to conclude that exposure to low level electromagnetic fields is harmful to human health.'

     That said, I don't tempt fate, and I personally don't go out of my way to needlessly increase my exposure to EMFs. I avoid too much of the sun's UV, I don't talk aimlessly for hours with my cell phone to my ear and I don't sleep next to my microwave while it is slowly defrosting a turkey. Of course some EMFs are zipping through your house and your body no matter what precautions you might take, so I just try to avoid the stuff we know are dangerous, and ignore the alarmist claims made by those that are worried unnecessarily. Unless they can produce evidence that contradicts current scientific research, I'll take no notice of them. Especially when we have companies taking advantage of people's fears and ignorance and gullibility and making bogus claims to sell them crap that doesn't work, such as this $29.95 item:

     'The SafeSpace Smart Patch attaches directly to your cell phone or other EMF-generating devices. You carry it with you wherever you go to help clear away and protect against the health hazards of electromagnetic radiation.'

     You might as well strap a rabbit's foot to your cell phone, it would work just as well to 'help clear away and protect'.
419. Comment by Patrick, 18 Mar, 2020

     Hi John, last year I recently attended to two church funerals where there were no priests because of a lack of priests. The funerals were therefore performed by ordinary parishioners.

     Attending these ceremonies is an unbearably dreary experience for me, in fact I never respond positively to my relatives religious celebrations invitations and stay home, but death is something different and I want to show affection and solidarity towards grieving people. Loosing someone that we loved is a very painful experience indeed.

     We all die and it appears that last month an ex chief judge passed away. I was reading a newspaper that wrote about the religious funeral, illustrated with two or three photos. To my surprise on one of the photos you could see four priests surrounding the coffin. This meant that at least four priests were present at the ceremony.

     So, when a ordinary person dies priests are too busy to perform religious celebration or even to assist, but when an important person dies they suddenly find sufficient time.

     If you open the bible and read Matthew 20:16 you'll see this "So the last shall be first, and the first last". But from my real life observations of religious folks attitude the first is always first and the last always last!

420. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 19 Mar, 2020

     Hi Patrick. I'd agree with your observation. People that many in society view as important, or often not even important, just well known, be they judges, politicians, business owners or celebrity sports people, their funerals are carried out with far more pomp and ceremony by the church than is the funeral for the common man or woman. But is a celebrity any more important to God than a beggar? Along with the likes of Matthew 20:16, Jesus said it would be difficult for a rich man to enter Heaven, and yet if you look at funerals the churches give the impression that it is the rich and famous that God is really catering for, as if Heaven is like an exclusive country club where your earthly status is what will get you through the pearly gates.

     But as we know, there is no god vetting people at Heaven's gate. From the very beginning, when Christians got into bed with the Roman emperors, they quickly realised that getting cosy with the rich and powerful was actually what brought them into a position of control over the population. God wasn't providing any assistance, in fact he was embarrassingly absent. Throughout Christian history the church can be seen making devious deals with emperors, kings and dictators to maintain control of their followers' souls and access to their wealth. The church saw no material advantage in wooing a penniless beggar, but saw great gains in winning the patronage of a powerful dictator, aristocrat or judge. Splendid funerals for those that supported and protected them is just the Church's way of rewarding a generous benefactor. And nothing has changed today, the Church is still sucking up to the rich and famous and influential, anyone that will help support and protect their silly belief. And when those benefactors die, the Church goes all out with their send-off, conveying a message to the living, that if you give generously with your money and your influence, then you too can receive one hell of a funeral, one befitting a king.

     As many people have pointed out, when you look at the indecent opulence of the Vatican and many other churches, Jesus would be appalled that such obscene wealth has been amassed by the Church while untold Christians live and die in abject poverty. That the Church cosies up with the rich and influential while sending nothing more than worthless prayers to the less fortunate. I shouldn't be surprised, but every other day some new revelation about religion and those that practice it disgusts and offends me.

421. Comment by Patrick, 20 Jun, 2020

     Hi John. I was browsing on the web and came across this article. I think that you will find it most compelling.

     'Anthony Fauci warns of 'anti-science bias' being a problem in US'

422. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 20 Jun, 2020

     Hi Patrick. Ah yes, the 'anti-science bias' of many Americans. This is something that has amazed and annoyed me for many years, and this pandemic has just served to highlight the problem. Considering that the US is a world leader in science and technology, and many of my favourite science authors are American, along with skeptics and atheists, it's astounding that so many Americans are so anti-science and so ignorant of how the world works. They are a paradox, probably the only country in the world that is so scientifically advanced and yet at the same time the great majority of their population are devout believers in a sky fairy. In nearly all other countries, religious belief goes down as education and the standard of living increases, and vice versa. But it's not just poorly educated hicks living in the backwoods of southern US states that think the world is only 10,000 years old, or that vaccines are dangerous, that homeopathy works and psychics can talk with dead people. Highly educated people in the US holding positions of power and authority are often just as superstitious and ignorant about science as those country hicks. I was aware of a handful of scientists with degrees in evolutionary biology or cosmology that were arguing that evolution and the Big Bang were false, and that religious universities were actively teaching such nonsense. Also that religious judges sitting in federal courts and even the US Supreme Court were making judgements based on their religious beliefs rather than secular laws and ethics. But I was still surprised when President George W. Bush (2001-2009) started implementing religious and clearly anti-science policies. I was stunned that a president, clearly backed by many in government departments, could disregard the scientific advice he was getting and retreat back down a path of superstition and religious nonsense. But when some 75% of American citizens naively believe God is actually running the world, it's easy to see why the president was confident the people would support his actions. If you believe God is the answer to everything, then clearly you are going to be dismissive of any endeavour that puts forward explanations that ignores God. When looking for answers, religious Americans exhibit an anti-science attitude in the same way that I come across as anti-religion. I scoff when the pope or some pastor waffles about the origin of the universe or how we should behave to please their sky fairy, and I expect their derision is similar when they hear scientists speak. The mystery is why a population with easy access to new found knowledge of how the world works, knowledge that can be demonstrated to be factual, continues to wallow in ancient superstition that has no evidential support whatsoever. Barack Obama tried to reverse some of the damage Bush caused and restore confidence in secular and scientific outlooks, but then the impossible happened. As silly and as harmful as many of Bush's statements and policies were, America then elected a president that made Bush look like a respected and intelligent statesman. Why didn't America learn it's lesson, why turn around and elect someone that on every level is far worse? Why elect Donald Trump; a sexist, racist, failed ex-Reality TV star and businessmen who has filed for business bankruptcies six times? Trump is clearly scientifically illiterate and largely ignorant of world affairs. He spends time cuddling up with Russia and North Korea, America's enemies, while ignoring the advice of his own intelligence agencies, and it was revealed yesterday that he didn't even know Britain was a nuclear power. And as that article notes, his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has been utterly incompetent, and some of the flippant advice he has offered has been downright dangerous, like injecting disinfectant.

     I have some American friends and they are appalled and embarrassed by Trump's behaviour, as are many others throughout the US, but even though his incompetence and anti-science, sexist and racist views are on clear display, many Americans are still fully behind him, such as flocking to a Trump election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma this weekend even though medical experts argue that it is foolhardy during a pandemic. These fuckwits believe God will protect them and that scientists know nothing, and Trump encourages that view. I don't know if Trump believes in God, probably not, or at least not seriously, but he pretends to in order to get the religious vote. Unlike NZ, you can't get elected in the US if you don't pretend to believe in the sky fairy, and anti-science views go hand-in-hand with the fundamentalist views of many Americans. Of course I don't think Trump is faking his anti-science views, as he probably is regarding his view on God, I suspect he is truly ignorant about science and its complexity leads him to opt instead for simplistic views that he reads on Twitter, views on Youtube or watches in Hollywood movies. And unfortunately Trump is too stupid, too lazy and too arrogant to realise that ridiculous conspiracies and impossible superheroes are there to entertain moviegoers, not to educate them.

     The truly scary thing is that despite Trump's blatant failures and obvious shortcomings, there is still the frightful possibility that he will be re-elected and America will continue its backward slide, fighting to hold on to its anti-science and racist attitudes and wondering why their standing in the world is decreasing by the day.

423. Comment by Rene, 16 Jul, 2020

     Saw this article and thought of you. It's poking fun of the fact that Godly religious people were attacking everything blindly and still are.

     5 Techniques Fearmongers Use To Create Moral Panics

     Some of the more funny choice quotes:

     'I read over a dozen books about Christianity's war on rock, and I've realized that even though they lost that war, and badly, their impotent witch hunt is the perfect template for modern lunatics to manufacture outrage. In fact, some of you might be doing it already. So let's look back on how an entire religion lost its mind fighting a make-believe enemy, and how you can do it too!'

     'The Peters brothers' core belief is that if a band did it, then it must be bad. Success, drugs, rhythm guitar -- all are presented as evidence for moral crimes. Try to imagine 500 biographies authored by a bad writer who hated all 500 people for every single thing they ever did, take away the fun, and that's the message The Actual God needed Dan and Steve to share. I know one of the perks of Christianity is the complete lack of internal logic, but if any of this book is true, then God is a basic, jealous bitch.'

     'When you're trying to hate something, it's really easy to lose focus with understanding, empathy, or simple learning. For instance: Woman-haters, did you know there are more than three types of girls? Bikini, fat, and crazy, sure, but they can also be business or SCUBA! We'll be here for six more words if I sit here listing types of girls all day, so let me get to the point. Learning is the enemy of self-righteous rage. Try to be more like Pastor Gary Greenwald, who managed to write an entire book on the dangers of punk rock without knowing or learning anything about punk rock, danger, or books.'

     'Page 52 of Bob Larson's book asks, "Who was the first dancer? It may have been Satan. After Satan fell, perhaps he determined his 'talent' for dancing would be a major means of corrupting mankind." Can you, any part of you, believe that's a non-insane thing worth typing? You gaping-assed cow. How is that incurious mind going to navigate a world evolved to turn your every weakness into a profit stream?'

     'The very first line of Dancing With Demons shrieks, "Who is that grotesque creature on the cover of this book? If you are an avid fan of Heavy Metal, 'Christian' Rock, rap, or several other forms of today's supposedly 'safe' popular music, he is the god YOU worship." It's the fundamentalist author equivalent of going to a singles barbecue with your dick in a hot dog bun and shouting, "Soup's on, titties!"'

424. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 17 Jul, 2020

     Thanks for the link Rene. The opening paragraph of that article begins:

     'In the days before the Information Age, it was perfectly ordinary for huge groups of people to believe wrong, deranged things. For example, for most of the '80s, many Christians believed Satan was hiding in the salacious lyrics and beats of popular music'.

     They're right, it's just so stupid that Christians childishly believed (and some still do) that Satan was using popular music, especially rock music, to corrupt the minds of the young, and thus causing them to do evil things and destining them for Hell. Remember the movie 'Footloose' starring Kevin Bacon, about a small town where rock music and dancing had been banned by the local pastor? Or the TV censors who refused to film Elvis Presley below the waist as they argued his hip gyrations were obscene?

     But this is Satan we're talking about, a being so powerful that even God can't defeat him, and yet the most devious plan Satan can devise is to subtly chip away at the morals of the handful of teenagers that don't just enjoy music and dance, but actually think long and hard about song lyrics or certain dance moves?! You can't sugarcoat it, Christians really are stupid. They insist God is all-powerful and all-knowing and yet he apparently can't stop Satan screwing with song lyrics and/or doesn't even know Satan is doing it.

     A book I'm reading noted that the ancient Hebrews created no artwork — no paintings, no carvings, no statues, no decorated pottery — unlike their neighbours the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans (below). This got me thinking, that apart from their religious scrolls, they likewise left us no poetry (except the erotic poem in the Bible, the Song of Songs, which is a huge embarrassment to Christians), no literature in the form of novels or stories, no music and no dance.

     

     Other than their fixation on their barbaric god, and staying alive, the Hebrews apparently had no interest in other cultural pursuits; they made no contribution to literature, philosophy, medicine, science or music (Thankfully in recent times many Jews, but not the fundamentalists, have made valuable contributions to all these fields). Even in the matter of food and the enjoyment of a good meal, the ancient Hebrews actually went out of their way to make the dining experience worse by banning certain foods. They risked the health of male children by circumcising them for no good reason beyond superstitious ignorance. Living back in ancient times would have often been difficult and unpleasant, but due to their irrational fear of their imaginary god the Hebrews made their life worse than it needed to be. And throughout history, clearly many Christians have taken on the austerity of the Hebrew life, fearful that enjoying things like music, dance, food, literature and sex would divert them from praising God. Worse still, Satan is deliberately tempting them with these diversions so that they'll neglect God. It's a battle of good versus evil. These fanatical Christians see any activity whose purpose is not worship as a harmful distraction, and are convinced that Satan has deliberately created or altered these activities in order to seduce people to sin. Of course it's all bullshit, like saying chimneys were created so that Santa Claus has easy access to our houses.

     As you say Rene, religious nutters are still blindly attacking everything that they feel diverts the attention of followers away from prostrating themselves in front of their god. Today that includes things like education curriculums, movies and free speech, anything that creates radical and blasphemous thoughts that challenge the silly belief in gods and demons. You don't hear much talk about devilish song lyrics these days, apparently that's because Satan is spending more time writing screen plays for movies, eg 'The Da Vinci Code' and 'Harry Potter', and sponsoring people like me to write atheistic Internet blogs. Satan has moved into the 21st century, whereas God by his absence is still trying to come to terms with the printing press and the telegraph.

     So the only thing I'd challenge in that article is their claim that, 'In the days before the Information Age, it was perfectly ordinary for huge groups of people to believe wrong, deranged things'. The depressing fact is that, even with easy access to information, huge groups of people STILL believe wrong, deranged things. Huge groups like Christians, Muslims and Hindus. There's most of the world right there, and what could be more wrong and deranged than to still believe that gods are real? Seriously, we have more evidence for Santa Claus than any god (like those toys under the Xmas tree). Then we have huge groups that believe in wrong things like homeopathy, psychics, alien abduction, sexism and racism. The Information Age is a great tool in the fight against ignorance, and battles and converts are being won, but the end of the war is nowhere in sight.

425. Comment by Patrick, 19 Nov, 2020

     Hi John. I was browsing on the internet and came across an article where Brandolini's law was mentioned. I never heard of this law before and went on Wikipedia to have some further info.

     John, if you click on this link you will see that Brandolini's law is completely-absolutely-entirely related to your website.

426. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 19 Nov, 2020

     I'd never heard of it either Patrick, and I see that it's 'an internet adage which emphasizes the difficulty of debunking bullshit', in the sense that, 'The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it'.

     Although they may not realise it's been given a name, I think anyone that tries to debunk a silly belief quickly discovers that it takes a lot of work, usually far in excess of what the person stating some silly belief is willing to listen to. It's child's play to simply state some bullshit, like COVID-19 is a hoax, vaccines cause autism, aliens built the pyramids, my granny can talk to dead people and homeopathy can cure Ebola. In just one sentence I've concisely made several claims that are all pure nonsense, and yet if I was to try and debunk just one of those false claims with a believer, the arguments and evidence I would be required to produce and explain would be lengthy and complicated compared to the claim itself.

     I have been continually frustrated over the years by people that want to convince me that some nonsense is true, but they are almost never prepared to consider an argument against their view if it's more involved than their initial statement of belief. Because they can make their claim in a few words, they expect me to make my counterclaim also in a few words. For example, some gullible moron might say, 'The world is only 6,000 years old'. If I ask how they know that, they reply, 'Because that's when God created it'. If I again ask how they know that, they reply, 'The Bible says so'. And that's where their argument ends. Any request for further clarification just leads to them repeating themselves, 'The Bible says so'. Of course I can provide an equally simple counterargument, 'The world is really old, God didn't create it, and the Bible is wrong'. But as truthful as that answer is, I think we all know that it won't have any effect on our deluded Christian/Muslim/Jew. For me to shake the belief of a true believer would require discussions on the likes of radioactive dating, geology, fossils, evolution, ancient history, cosmology, Biblical criticism, critical thinking and a host of other topics. The same goes with alien abductions or homeopathy or chemtrails. It's so quick and easy to make some claim, but it's almost always much harder to discount it. And the sad reality is that most people are all too happy to make bullshit claims but are far too dim intellectually and far too lazy to spend the time considering whether their claims are actually true.

     So why bother if you as the debunker will have to do all the work, and those you challenge will likely ignore your response anyway? I do it because I'm curious as to why people believe what seems like bullshit, and I'd like to be sure it actually is bullshit. That it is they who are mistaken and not me. While it takes some effort, I guess I'm making my arguments as much for myself as for those that believe differently. I want to have the confidence that my worldview is likely correct, and that I have the arguments to support it, not just a strong feeling that I'm right. And if my arguments help clarify my thoughts, and maybe the thinking of others, then the effort is worth it.

     I think we skeptics just have to accept that we expend a lot more energy in understanding the universe than do those simple-minded folk who happily take it on face value, with its gods, fairies and magical cures. I'm happy to do a little extra work for the truth.

427. Comment by Patrick, 19 Nov, 2020

     Thanks for your reply John... and people must always keep in mind that you do all this (and it's not a small task) without requesting a single cent from anyone, and that your website is 100% advertisement free.

     That's a truly far cry from Donald Trump's lawyers who are being paid big dollars from money donated by naive Republicans, and who are unable to demonstrate any proof of fraud in the dozens of lawsuits filed in U.S. courts concerning the U.S. presidential elections!

428. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 19 Nov, 2020

     Thanks Patrick. You're right, no donations and no ads on our website, but it is surprising the people that regularly ask to place advertisements or provide articles. And the weird thing is they're always ads and articles that have nothing to do with our skeptical theme, and sometimes they even want to promote a view that I'd label a silly belief. It's laughable. Clearly they haven't read a thing we've written, even though they always start with something like, 'Just found your website. Love it. I was wondering... '

     And don't get me started on Donald 'Grab 'em by the pussy' Trump. I'm simply astounded that back in 2016 there were enough low IQ Americans willing to give a deranged orangutan control of their nuclear launch codes, when even control of the TV remote in the spare bedroom would be a step too far. Worse still, after four years of showing himself to be racist, sexist, xenophobic, narcissistic, anti-science and incompetent, the morons nearly succeeded in electing him to a second term. There are a lot of Americans I have huge respect for, and a lot of things American that I love, but I must admit my view of the country as a whole has taken a real hit over recent years. I thought they would have learnt their lesson with that warmongering buffoon George W. Bush, but Trump makes Bush look like a real statesman. Americans have easy access to great knowledge, and yet while half of them make progress as a society, the other half are still mired in the dark ages and are dragging the rest backwards.

429. Comment by Anonymous-19, 16 Jan, 2021

     I have only recently started to read your material. Great stuff!

     Maybe you should look, if you haven't already, at Manley P. Halls, The Secret Teachings of all Ages. Written in 1928, what a load of nonsense, but it describes the idiocy that people have believed since the beginning of written history. Gods, gnomes, angels — crap! Anyway, keep up the good work. I am too old to keep up the dialogue, but after forty years of reading, probably 500 plus books about religion and mysticism, I hope that younger people will start to ask "Who said?", "Where is the evidence?" and "Why do we believe these silly old (mostly) men?"

430. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 17 Jan, 2021

     Thanks for your comments. I hadn't heard of The Secret Teachings of all Ages, which now having found a copy on the Internet and had a quick perusal, I'm glad I hadn't, since as you say, it's crap. Like you apparently, what concerns me is why, when we now have so much factual information debunking all those old beliefs, so many people still embrace many of them as if they're true. Nonsense like gods, ghosts, chakras, crystal healing, water divining, psychics and the lost city of Atlantis. I do think that younger people, by which I mean those in their 20s and younger, are starting to question many of their parents' silly beliefs, for example many are becoming atheists, but I suspect we still have a long way to go before our society fully becomes guided by reason and evidence. Unfortunately what people desire to be true is often more alluring than what is true.

431. Comment by Patrick, 22 Mar, 2022

     Hi John, I saw the underneath article on BBC website and thought that it will interest you:

     'The hunt for Nigerians who can change into cats'

     One man is challenging Nigerians' belief in magic after a wave of killings that has gripped the country.

     I note that at the beginning of the article BBC states the following: "Warning: This article contains details that might be offensive to some readers". They don't often write these kind of warnings, I see two possible reasons for this warning, either BBC is wary of idiots or wary that some gory details in this article may upset some readers.

     Here's a video on youtube of Mr. Adewoyin 'offering 2.5 million to anyone... who could provide any evidence for Juju [magic]'

     All this bears an interesting analogy to a discussion that we had back in September 2017 on your website.

     Bookies would be enthused to create religious bets but you must first of all have customers agreeing to participate in the process...

432. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 22 Mar, 2022

     Hi Patrick. Thanks for the link. I have to admire Gbenga Adewoyin's bravery in challenging the silly beliefs in his country, for as the article states, to do so in Nigeria (and many other countries) is very risky. Unfortunately I fear that his efforts will fall on deaf ears since belief in this traditional magic or juju is just too ingrained in Nigerian society, with the article noting that these ridiculous 'beliefs are not just held by the uneducated, they exist even at the highest level of Nigeria's academia'. Plus even the existence of Christianity and Islam, with most Nigerians belonging to one or the other, helps keeps the belief in magic alive, because both Christianity and Islam are essentially belief systems that are based on magic, the difference being that they both claim that their form of magic is more powerful than the old traditional magic or juju. It's simply not in the interest of either Christianity or Islam to debunk magic since they would effectively be debunking themselves as well.

     As for the BBC warning that some details in their article 'might be offensive to some readers', I'd like to argue that there is no 'might' about it, they definitely should be offensive to ALL readers, not just some, especially readers with any empathy. My dictionary defines 'offensive' as something 'causing anger, displeasure, resentment, or affront', and the details I find offensive are that innocent people, often single young women, are being murdered, their bodies hacked up and specific body parts placed in a pot to be used in a magic ritual to try and make money appear out of thin air. How could any reader not be angered that this is happening, not feel resentment and ill will towards the murderers, not feel displeasure that heinous acts like this are occurring in the world right now? How can the BBC think that these gruesome murders that are being committed for such a futile reason 'might' only upset 'some' people? Have most of us become so callous and uncaring? Of course some might argue that the BBC likely meant that some readers will be shocked by details of such callous behaviour, and the warning was just to prepare them, but all too often these warnings are given so that readers (or TV news viewers) can quickly skip over the news item and go on to the next one, which might be a nice story about fluffy kittens. They are a form of censorship, advising readers that if they don't want their joyful mood ruined, and don't want to learn about what is actually happening in the world, warts and all, then look away now. Many people are being shielded from atrocities, disasters and death and therefore fail to comprehend the depth of suffering the people that experienced these events have endured. Consequently they have no compassion for them or will to prevent future atrocities, since they have chosen to be shielded from the very information about them that would have provoked a reaction. Why would people try to right wrongs in the world when those wrongs were never explicitly revealed for fear that readers or viewers might be upset by the details? In my view things only change for the better when people realise how bad things are and they do get upset. We need to be shocked and appalled and prompted to take action, not shielded from unpleasant events like we are little children. The print and broadcast media shouldn't be offering us a censored version of the news, we need to know what really happened so we can respond appropriately, whether it's about senseless murders in Nigeria, the COVID pandemic or Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

     Sadly there are still many countries in the world where education is just for the kids of the rich and powerful, or just for boys and not girls, or where "education" is simply hours and hours of religious indoctrination, and not what informed people would call education at all. Even in places where some basic education is available, often parents, with the help of their kids, are struggling endlessly to just earn enough money to feed, clothe and house their family, and thoughts of sending their kids to school is an impossible luxury, like me thinking of buying my own island in the Caribbean, complete with a staff of beautiful naked women to cater for my every whim. Of course this isn't going to happen, so if impoverished children spend every waking minute in survival mode, never being exposed to the findings of science or the problems with religion, where the only movies they might catch a glimpse of reinforce the belief in magic, where their parents and neighbours fill their heads with superstitious nonsense because it's all they know, having got it from their parents, then of course the vicious cycle will continue, children will become adults who believe in bullshit. We can't blame these people for holding such silly beliefs, because the religions that they trust and the authorities that they see as better educated are both lying to them. Day-to-day life in many countries like Nigeria can be likened to life in the Middle Ages, where an impoverished, uneducated and illiterate underclass focused solely on survival and were lorded over by a powerful and educated elite using force and the fear of religion to maintain order.

     I doubt if simply challenging uneducated people whose lives are immersed in superstition will have any effect. For them mere survival will be a more pressing concern than some philosophical debate, even when money is up for grabs. Although most people will be utterly convinced that magic is real, their experience with magic would be with rituals and spells performed by others, meaning they can't personally demonstrate magic and claim the prize. And the handful of people that claim they can perform magic rituals and spells will be just like the psychics and priests that I encounter in NZ, meaning that they know full well that their silly tricks can only fool the gullible believers, not a curious skeptic, and so they keep quiet and slink into the shadows. Many skeptics around the world have over the years offered considerable prizes for anyone demonstrating supernatural abilities, including James Randi and even a friend in NZ, but the untold people claiming supernatural abilities have stayed away in their droves, and the mere handful that have tried have all failed miserably. While these embarrassing failures say a lot to us skeptics, unfortunately they don't seem to convince many believers to question their beliefs. In fact most are probably not even aware that such challenges even exist.

     So in cases like Nigeria where there is widespread belief in not just the nonsense of Christianity and Islam, but also in the magic of traditional African religions, how can the ordinary man and woman on the street be shown that devious and despicable people are lying to them? There is no quick fix. First they must be lifted out of poverty and their children educated. It must be a generational thing, people must have the freedom to learn about the world, the liberty and safety to question old beliefs, and easy access to books and the Internet to learn of opposing viewpoints. None of this will happen if you're starving or freezing or hiding from a rapist, only after your society has improved your standard of living and given you the luxury of free time will you start to question and debate the validity of religion and magic. It's a question of priority, where mere survival trumps the time wasted holding a skeptical debate. Think of the current pandemic. If you tried to convince someone living in poverty in Nigeria that they should wear a mask or isolate at home, they would likely wonder why they should waste time worrying about catching COVID-19 when they're already far closer to death from starvation or a nasty cut that has become infected?

     Education is the key, but even that is no guarantee. In NZ education is compulsory and free for kids from age 5 to 16, and yet we still have a worryingly high number of morons. We have millions who believe in gods, untold others who believe in the likes of psychics, ghosts, homeopathy, chemtrails, a flat Earth, and that coronavirus is a hoax. They have all been exposed to the basics of science, maths and language, and to some knowledge in the likes of geography, history and social issues. And yet still they are morons, apparently incapable of applying reason to important issues and more often than not, quite unwilling to even try.

433. Comment by Patrick, 13 Dec, 2022

     Hi John.

     

     The above photo looks banal but the circumstances surrounding it are not. It was shot back in 1951, in Sweden. The person on the left is a police officer named Tore Hedin. You can see him with his official uniform. The other person is Olof Jonsson. There's nothing special with Mr. Jonson except that he proclaimed to be a medium, a person who, amongst other things, could touch an object and identify who touched the said object before him. He also asserted to be able to tell the life story, the likes, and dislikes of any person near him, and even their thoughts. Great stuff indeed.

     So what led to Jonson handling a gun under the close supervision of Tore Hedin? Well some time before someone called John Allan Nilsson was severely beaten and died afterwards. Killing Mr. Nilsson was apparently not enough for the killer(s) and his house was also burned. There was no suspect linked to this horrendous crime, and the fact that this sordid affair occurred in an otherwise peaceful town put enormous pressure on the Swedish police. With no clues the authorities decided to resort to have recourse to Olof Jonsson to help them to resolve this sordid affair.

     It was the first time that the Swedish police used a psychic medium to assist with an investigation. This attracted much attention and controversies emerged amongst the Swedish population. Some approved the idea, others opposed it. So, who were right, the skeptics or the believers? To know the answer, you have to send money to the Silly Beliefs website via a trusted certified application. Only joking of course, Silly Beliefs is 100% free.

     Jonsson would eventually work on the case for more than a year with zero results, but on August 22, 1952 something very unexpected happened, and this event would lead to the solving of the case. This would tragically come at an incredibly high cost.

     Now let's return back to the photo and to police officer Tore Hedin.Some time back in 1952 Tore Hedin's fiancee, Ulla Östberg, decided to break off their engagement. This decision would infuriate him to the point that he assaulted her with handcuffs (something which must have been very painful), and he also threatened to kill her. When they learned about this serious incident the Swedish authorities reacted swiftly and Hedin was immediately dismissed. From that moment the ex police officer lost ground completely and on the 22nd August 1952 he kick-started a murderous spree, first going to his parents' house and killing them both, after the murders he decided to burn the house. A house which he would have inherited by the way.

     This would be only the beginning, as a few moments later he drove to his ex-girlfriend's workplace, which was a retirement home, and killed her as well as the owner of the retirement home with an axe. This also was not enough to appease him and Hedin would finally block the door of the building to be sure that nobody could escape and put it on fire. Five more people would eventually die in this fire.

     After this, Hedin went to nearby Lake Bosarp. He paddled to the middle of the lake, tied weights to his body, and jumped into the water. Police discovered his car on the shoreline. His body was found the next day. Inside the car was a suicide note in which he confessed to be the John Allan Nilsson murderer and explained that he had killed him after a poker game to rob him of his winnings. In this bizarre turn of events, Hedin solved his own murder case, and a prominent Swedish psychic was outed as a fraud.

     Without the tragic circumstances surrounding this case, the photo of Olof Johnsson handling the gun under the supervision of Tore Hedin could easily be classified amongst the top 10 incidentally laughable photos ever shot.

     When dealing with the paranormal, what would be more useful, a box of Tictac or a psychic medium? Well, Tictac is available in several flavours, a psychic medium comes in only one flavour, bullshit.

434. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 13 Dec, 2022

     Not surprisingly Patrick, I wasn't aware of that murder case or of the exposure of yet another fraudulent psychic medium. As you say, if it wasn't for policeman Tore Hedin going off the rails and committing more murders, the bogus medium Olof Johnsson wouldn't have been exposed as such, and no doubt untold believers would be using Johnsson's involvement as evidence that police regularly bring in mediums to help with tough cases. It would have been irrelevant that Johnsson didn't solve the case, they would say, since mediums (supposedly) have little control over what information they receive via their spooky senses, the important thing to accept is that police believe mediums have the potential to help.

     Assuming that it was his superiors that authorised the use of a medium, it makes you wonder whether policeman Tore Hedin initially believed that the medium might have been able to sense his involvement in the murder, and was terrified that Johnsson was going to suddenly blurt out, 'Oh my god, it was you that killed him!'. I'm guessing the more time Johnsson spent with him, and still sensed nothing, the more Hedin came to realise that he was a fraud. Or of course, Hedin never believed in the paranormal and was more than happy to have the police investigation waste time and go nowhere by playing along with the medium's silly antics.

     Even though that case happened 70 years ago, believers in this nonsense are still claiming that police regularly use psychics, which I'm sure is true to a degree, but what needs to be highlighted is that even when psychics have been engaged, their spooky assistance has never been verified as solving a single case worldwide. Not one! Everyone needs to say to psychic mediums, 'Stop talking about the police cases you've worked on, tell us about the ones you solved!'

435. Comment by Patrick, 12 Aug, 2023

     Hi John,

     As you most probably know, religious folks like to say that religions, especially their religion, prevent people from doing evil things. It's one of their strongest supportive arguments — 'religion will shield you from doing evil things', but the fact is that the percentage of atheists is 10 times smaller in prisons than outside prisons:

     'almost 1 in every 1,000 prisoners will identify as atheist compared to 1 in every 100 Americans'.

     as detailed in this article by Hemant Mehta — In 2021, atheists made up only 0.1% of the federal prison population.

     It should also be noted that some of the studies that confirmed the 0.1% figure were done "blind", meaning that prisoners had nothing to gain or to be afraid of in their responses.

     Now that's what I would call a powerful debunking of a tenacious myth, the truth is that religions never deterred people from doing bad things!

436. Comment by the 'Silly Beliefs' Team, 12 Aug, 2023

     Thanks for that new info Patrick. When Christians argue that accepting God's moral code makes them good people and keeps them on the path to salvation, I have often reminded these ignorant evangelists that our prisons are full of 'good' Christians and not 'evil' atheists. And of course in the USA, Australia, Britain and many European countries that describe themselves as Christian countries, the situation is no different, it is overwhelmingly Christians committing criminal acts and ending up in prison. It has always been apparent that atheists make up a very small proportion of prison inmates, but until now I hadn't seen any figures on the actual Christian to atheist prison ratio, so thanks for that. The above figure is from the US federal prisons, but there is no good reason to think that the ratio would be radically different in countries like NZ that have similar societies. Without this new data one might have assumed that at the very least criminally-minded atheists and Christians would be represented in prison at a similar ratio to their presence in society, meaning 95% plus inmates would still be Christians with just a handful of atheists. So even if the Christian to atheist prison ratio mirrored the society ratio it would still mean that being Christian obviously doesn't give you a moral code that keeps you out of prison. It would show that a certain proportion of every group, regardless of whether they believe in a god or not, commits crimes equally. This shows that simply being religious won't stop you from killing, raping and stealing, that something else other than a fear of God is stopping the majority of believers and non-believers alike from harming others and going to prison. But this US data shows that per population Christians commit ten times more crimes than atheists. Committing the same number would be embarrassing enough and difficult to explain, but ten times worse? Christians, based on their strong moral stance, shouldn't be committing any crimes at all, let alone ten times as many. But they are, which makes their talk of how following God's commandments makes one a good person rather hypocritical when it comes from behind prison bars.

     Of course it could be argued that atheists that have a criminal bent are just way more intelligent than Christians and avoid stupid actions that would lead to their arrest, but I doubt many Christians would admit to ending up in prison by being dumb. There is in fact evidence that as a group atheists are on average more intelligent (better educated with better jobs) than your average Christian, but there is no evidence that atheists use this advantage to become super villains, just the opposite in fact. As the above article notes: 'The most secular Americans exhibit the most care for the suffering of others, while the most religious exhibit the highest levels of indifference'.

     Of course it's not just Christians that fail badly when claiming that belief in an invisible god is necessary to lead a moral life. Whether it's a Muslim country, or Hindu, Jewish or Buddhist, the prisons of these countries are overflowing with Muslims, Hindus, Jews and Buddhists respectively. And the second largest group represented in these various prisons still won't be atheists, it will likely be Christians, along with smaller numbers of other religious believers. Atheists will be such a small number that they'll often go unnoticed. All this goes to prove that almost all the people committing crimes worldwide are people that claim to be following a god with a strict moral code.

     You're quite right Patrick that 'religions never deterred people from doing bad things!', history shows us that over and over again. Atheists are mostly missing from history, and the odd one that we know of never had the power to challenge the power of religious belief, and were often condemning injustices, not committing them. Everything from slaughtering the innocent in wars of conquest and raping the downstairs maid, owning slaves and burning witches, to circumcising baby boys and torturing heretics, these very real crimes were committed by people who called themselves good Christians, and yet as atrocious as these acts were, no one ever went to prison because of them. It's just astounding that Christians, even in the modern era of priests abusing children, the banning of contraception, the persecution of homosexuals, and their ongoing animosity towards Jews and Muslims, that they still argue that to be a Christian is to be a good person, when they've pretty much always been the villain. Even when a few have done some good, like opposing slavery or supporting women's suffrage, it's nearly always been in opposition to what their god demanded, when they have in effect played the role of the token atheist.

     Clearly the moral to this story is that if you want to be a good, decent person that does no harm, then you have a much greater chance at success as an atheist than someone blindly following commandments in some ancient holy book.

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