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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
 Posted - 12/14/2008 : 01:35:12 [Permalink]
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1) It's really great to read a new Kil article. These should be promoted more. I didn't even know it was up.
2) It was funny as hell. And keenly observant. And engaging. And really, really well-written. Just great skeptical writing.
3) I really have one complaint...
| After more of his mumbo-jumbo Tilton walked to the center of the stage and asked if there was anyone who needed the Lord's help that day, and if so, to please come up front so he could attend to it directly. He looked around the room. Michelle nudged me and suggested I go up and tell him of my sore back. “You're kidding, right?” She just smiled. But one woman did take him up on his offer. |
My lifelong dream is to be on stage with one of these charlatans and partake in a miraculous healing. More than anything than anything I just want to see the look on everyone's face when I don't fall like a felled tree and instead say "I don't feel any different." C'mon, Kil! That was a once in a lifetime opportunity! The small crowd meant that you were guaranteed to get a turn! Ah, well. I know you expected to just blend in as part of the wallpaper anyway. In your place, I might have ended up doing the same.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 12/14/2008 : 02:13:19 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by H. Humbert
1) It's really great to read a new Kil article. These should be promoted more. I didn't even know it was up. |
It only went up about 45 minutes before you commented. It got special mention in the latest Summary, which went up 10 minutes later. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 12/14/2008 : 09:03:18 [Permalink]
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Here's a Wiki on Pastor Gas as Tilton is known by those who are less than reverent of, and niggardly contributory to his calling.
Robert Tilton (born June 7, 1946) is an American televangelist who achieved notoriety in the 1980s and early 1990s through his paid television program Success-N-Life. At its peak it aired in all 235 American TV markets. At the time the first investigations into Tilton's ministry occurred in 1991, his television ministry was airing daily in many of those 235 markets and ABC's Primetime Live described it as "the fastest growing television ministry in America".[1][2] However, within two years after the investigations began, Tilton's program was no longer being broadcast. Tilton has since returned to television via his new version of Success-N-Life airing on BET.
Internationally, he is chiefly known as "Pastor Gas" for the "Farting Preacher" viral video, one of the very earliest viral videos on the Internet (see Satire).
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I too, would love to get on stage with one of these turkeys. I am a walking wreck as well as a hard skeptic, and he'd have his work cut out for him.
O'course, he'd just say I didn't have enough Faith to awaken God from his ambrosia-induced stupor and promise to pray for me.  
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 12/14/2008 : 11:17:07 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by H. Humbert
2) It was funny as hell. And keenly observant. And engaging. And really, really well-written. Just great skeptical writing. |
Thanks!
Humbert:
My lifelong dream is to be on stage with one of these charlatans and partake in a miraculous healing. More than anything than anything I just want to see the look on everyone's face when I don't fall like a felled tree and instead say "I don't feel any different." C'mon, Kil! That was a once in a lifetime opportunity! The small crowd meant that you were guaranteed to get a turn! Ah, well. I know you expected to just blend in as part of the wallpaper anyway. In your place, I might have ended up doing the same.
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For the brief moment that I considered it, even knowing that Michelle was kidding, I knew, given the number of people there, that by going up, I would become the center of attention. I was not there to confront Tilton or put on an act, beyond those things I did to blend, that earned me some sore ribs. I know it would have been funny, but beyond finding out what it feels like to have Tilton pray for me, what would I have gained? I had no intention of confronting Tilton under those circumstances and I certainly wasn't going to drop to the floor for him or try to look "saved" in any way. And again, I didn't want play an active roll in this circus act. I was content to watch and learn.
There is also a giggle factor to be considered. I just don't know how I would have kept a straight face, especially during the "tongues" portion of his spiel.
Had the circumstances been different, I might have done it. I dunno. It really wouldn't have mattered if I just walked away from the "healing" if there were people in front and in back of me waiting for Tilton to do his magic on them. In that case, my reaction would have probably gone mostly unnoticed. Again, no muss, no fuss.
filty:
O'course, he'd just say I didn't have enough Faith to awaken God from his ambrosia-induced stupor and promise to pray for me. |
Exactly.
If and when Benny Hinn rolls into town, and we go to that, I think I would do it...
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Hittman
Skeptic Friend
134 Posts |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9687 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2008 : 01:28:16 [Permalink]
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This is an awesome Kil-report.
Having been to my fair share of revival-meetings in those huge tents, as well as in the church, I do recognise the format pretty well.
The gospel and/or worship-songs vary some among congregations. Especially between denominations.
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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perrodetokio
Skeptic Friend
275 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2008 : 06:05:15 [Permalink]
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Really entertaining! I enjoyed the report very much!
Thank!
By the way, I always wanted to do the same experiment but with the Iglesia Universal, here in Argentina where I´m currently living.
These guys from Iglesia Universal have been caught on camera after one of their performances, counting the money made that evening, laughing and basically commenting how easy it was to rip-off their dumb-ass followers (mostly poor and desperate argentinans and immigrants from even poorer countries in South America).
And even after they were exposed on national TV, people keep showing up by the thousandths!!!
I bet Siberia could tell you a lot about them (they´re supposed to be from Brazil).
Cheers! |
"Yes I have a belief in a creator/God but do not know that he exists." Bill Scott
"They are still mosquitoes! They did not turn into whales or lizards or anything else. They are still mosquitoes!..." Bill Scott
"We should have millions of missing links or transition fossils showing a fish turning into a philosopher..." Bill Scott |
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Come & Receive your Miracle
