Aa
Continued from a 15year old boy.
The world is built on deception. Everywhere you go you are being deceived. The drug store, furniture store, car lot, grocery store, on and on and on. The so called, "SALES EVENT," is a tip off as to the kind of mark up these stores have on their goods. "All goods well below inventory price." They are willing to take a hit, a loss of revenue in order to get your business. B__S__, is the only way to describe it. They want you to think that they are losing money by giving you bargains etc. The philosophy of the majority of conglomerates and the like is,"Do unto others." Oil, for instance is being pushed to higher levels by Wall street traders who are trying to squeeze every last dollar out of John Q.Public and the oil producers along with the oil companies are rubbing their hands in glee as the money rolls in. A perfect example of being used is the pharmaceutical companies is this. A pill which costs approximately two dollars and up has the same thing in a placebo for about 10 to fifteen cents. The pills do the same thing yet have trouble getting the Government "Watchdogs? " to give it authentication for public consumption. I know I am straying but what is here is the cousin to the previous posts we sent back and forth. It is about things that will ever remain the same due to the underhanded, under the table, wink, wink deals that are going on in most beaureaucratic back rooms as wel as the government agencies that are supposed to be monitoring them. Lobbyists who fight , not for the common man, but for the wealthy and the wealthier are ever demanding,more. It is not however, in any way shape nor form similar to Charles Dickens ,"Oliver," who wanted more because of hunger. The hunger for a lobbyist and his clients is to fatten the already obscene, bulging bank account. To the,"Fat Cat," the word "Enough,"doesn't exist. We are broadening our horizons with these posts because as we all know, one thing leads to another and one word can change the post from hither to thither, yon and beyond.
P.T. Barnum said "There's a sucker born every minute." As long as there are suckers being born, there will always be those to take advantage of them.
One of Barnum's favorite attractions was a highly decorated door which said;
"This way to the Egress!!! Free!!!"
Patrons of his carnival would go eagerly through the door, only to find that "Egress" means "Exit". They had to pay to get back inside the carnival, of course.
The only real way to battle the "Barnum's" of the world is to be educated. I've long said that there are fundamental things we should be learning in early schooling to prepare kids for the world and how to deal with the Barnum's. it's no surprise to me our government doesn't offer such classes. After all, an educated public can't be fooled easily.
One of Barnum's favorite attractions was a highly decorated door which said;
"This way to the Egress!!! Free!!!"
Patrons of his carnival would go eagerly through the door, only to find that "Egress" means "Exit". They had to pay to get back inside the carnival, of course.
The only real way to battle the "Barnum's" of the world is to be educated. I've long said that there are fundamental things we should be learning in early schooling to prepare kids for the world and how to deal with the Barnum's. it's no surprise to me our government doesn't offer such classes. After all, an educated public can't be fooled easily.
I watched Peter Popoff on the Vsion channel last night. There was an African American man with a bd back that had been bothering him for many years. He was unable lo walk, lie or sit comfortably due to the pain. He walked with a cane. Peter popoff placed his hand on the man's chest and then forehead, at no time letting go of the microphone. Then the miracle happened . The man went into a slight swoon walked forward and they took away his cane and wonder of wonders the man not only could walk without pain or the cane but did a back flip before returning to the audience. The he cured a woman with breast cancer. Two other women testified that they each received a check in excess of 1600 dollars on the exact day he predicted. Peter Popoff then looked into the TV camera and cured several people who had problems that he named.. Of course we don't know if the cure worked but Popoff said it did. God even told his wife when she and Peter Popoff got married, that miracles wll happen. Seems that she and Peter Popoff have a direct line to God. Also God showed them how to make manna that would cure just about everything and all you had to do was phone in for a free sample. Before the manna he had a prayer cloth no bigger than a hanky that also did wonders. Must have been weaved in heaven an delivered right to his door. Wonder if they used UPS. I remember when he told peple to put their hands on the television screen and they would feel a warmth emenating from the screen that would help to cure them. You have to watch this man on the Vision Channel usually late at night. It is amazing what he can do, with God's help of course. This is one of the great comedy shows of all time. If you need a laugh this is the place to watch.
Heh heh...this reminds me of the old joke;
I was watching Billy Graham preach one day on television. He was right up at the edge of the stage, preaching to these two little old ladies who were looking up at him adoringly.
During his sermon he leaned forward a bit to much and almost tumbled off the stage.
The little old ladies were shocked and horrified, their hero almost hurt!
But Graham said; "Don't worry ladies, God is protecting me."
I laughed and said to my wife "Who does he think pushed him in the first place?!?!"
I was watching Billy Graham preach one day on television. He was right up at the edge of the stage, preaching to these two little old ladies who were looking up at him adoringly.
During his sermon he leaned forward a bit to much and almost tumbled off the stage.
The little old ladies were shocked and horrified, their hero almost hurt!
But Graham said; "Don't worry ladies, God is protecting me."
I laughed and said to my wife "Who does he think pushed him in the first place?!?!"
I just turned on my boiler plate and let it run for a while. When I took a look at what was left, I found money. It all boils down to the almighty (maybe not so much right now) dollar. Funny how we love to say "the root of all evil is money" yet we see so many of the pretentious, self righteous elites asking us for money so they can continue to tell us what they want us to know.
Oscar Wilde said: Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
An informed consumer is a dangerous consumer.
Oscar Wilde said: Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
An informed consumer is a dangerous consumer.
"the root of all evil is money"
___________
Ah, but you see, that's where intellectual laziness in a society gets us. By the time you and I hear it, so much has been dropped for so long that we never do get it straight.
This, though, is in a book. "The lust for money is the root of all evil." The corollary, imho, is, "But money itself is GREAT!"
___________
Ah, but you see, that's where intellectual laziness in a society gets us. By the time you and I hear it, so much has been dropped for so long that we never do get it straight.
This, though, is in a book. "The lust for money is the root of all evil." The corollary, imho, is, "But money itself is GREAT!"
6 of 1, half a dozen of another . . . however comma touché
btw, I love your writing style . . . you come across as very intelligent :)
btw, I love your writing style . . . you come across as very intelligent :)
"you come across as very intelligent"
____________
Don't be impressed. It's a trick, done with mirrors. I can't tell you any more, or I'd have to kill you...as they say.
____________
Don't be impressed. It's a trick, done with mirrors. I can't tell you any more, or I'd have to kill you...as they say.
One of Barnum's favorite attractions was a highly decorated door which said;
"This way to the Egress!!! Free!!!"
___
Those must have been good times. Else, why have the American schools given up the teaching of grammar and spelling?
"This way to the Egress!!! Free!!!"
___
Those must have been good times. Else, why have the American schools given up the teaching of grammar and spelling?
The uninformed are better left uniformed lest they become informed thereby creating a monster which could topple those who would keep them uninformed. When a politician says," I will not have the populace unaware of what is going on,I therefore say that there must be some visibility of the invisible that is not visible to all, Only by revealing the unrevealed, can we show that we are willing to undo that which has been done by those who did it in the first place. Only on these terms will I be willing to bow to the will of the people who are asking questions which are either answerable or unanswerable." "I will not give in to those who want me to give in ,in order to have my giving in give that which I cannot give." " I will negate the negative thereby informing the uninformed of what they were unaware of by revealing the invisibility so that it becomes visible and thereby revealing all the unrevealed and unanswerable that may not be answerable." This is what it sounds like when I hear the political mumbo-jumbo that makes as much sense as a flea floating down the river with a ,"Woody," shouting,"lift the bridge, lift the bridge!" Yet every one applauds the politician and nod their heads as if they knew what he said. Double-speak is the official language of all who are running for office.
Where do you buy those boiler plates? I'd like to get about a gross to give to people who don't seem to have the gift of boiling down B.S. to its fundamental elements.
Since it doesn't look like the schools are going to bother with analytical thinking/reading in our lifetime, we're going to need a LOT of boiler plates.
Since it doesn't look like the schools are going to bother with analytical thinking/reading in our lifetime, we're going to need a LOT of boiler plates.
Can't remember where I found the one I have. I think I got it way back when I went to school; you know when kids were held accountable for their behavior and grades.
There is still some hope left in the world, albeit a small amount. There are days when I've given a drug presentation and one-or-two of the kids start to debate some issues, when I thank God that not all hope is lost . . . at least not yet.
There is still some hope left in the world, albeit a small amount. There are days when I've given a drug presentation and one-or-two of the kids start to debate some issues, when I thank God that not all hope is lost . . . at least not yet.
AH such is free enterprise. LOL! I know the medicine field has to pay for the years of actually researching the med although they sure stretch that out the time that they allow not have have generic and the price the generic manufacturers is unbelievable to me as it is so much cheaper than the namebrand. It all madness isn't it. the all mighty dollar whether it be canandian us or eauro it is nuts....
Peter popoff isn't he the preacher thats ells a small patch of pryare close oh my mistake not sell but ask for donations? I saw a special as they were investigating the ministers like him maybe him too but they showed what was happening off screen as the guys that wrk with the ministers deacons?? at the foot of the stage choosing who and who not to send up there to "share their miracles" and some of these people trying to walk was sad they were actually falling on their faces trying to be "healed" I believein god so please don't mistake me for one of the religious bashers but this is really nutty and God wants us to use wisdom and if it seems to good it must be heck I want to believe wish they could bring my sister back but all of that is not reality to me. Faith is what they say I need? Where and how much dot ehy sell that for? I'll have an extra portion! One of the people in an african revival wa chasing the minister that preached that "show" as his daughter was trampled to death during the entrance of the services and the minister arrived at his "Mercedes" and found the girl stretched out of his hood wanting her to be revived the father had placed the girl there and the mininster had the girl removed by his "body guards" I try not to be to hard and closed mind when it comes to this but as I am sure you guys know I just buried to members of my family and three years ago buried my sister one of the closest peope in this world to me hence me wondering whee is the "miracle".
They acually went back to visit the people who were cured of cancer I think maybe a year or two later and surprise they had passed on... i amn ot saying god is fiction i am saying those people are fiction..........
oh but who am I to judge? byt eh look at some of the mail I pick up from my po box I am a potential "partner of the ministry". LOL
This is a very hot subject to discuss sometimes. There is almost no empirical data to support religion. We have to go solely on what has been written and passed down through many edits. The language was different when the bible was written. How it’s been transcribed, translated, deduced, interpreted, and so on, has possibly changed what the initial intent of the word was. The New King James Bible Edition . . . HELLO people!!!! We are a people who like . . . nay, need sensory input to be able to accept things. It is a stretch, a HUGE stretch for us to believe. I am religious; I believe in God; I believe in Jesus Christ; I believe in the Holy Ghost; I even believe in miracles. I do not begrudge anyone for their beliefs or non-beliefs.
I do, however, have a problem when people use religion for the sole purpose of lining their own pockets, especially when they are driving around in $150k cars and living phat off of the ignorant many (yes, there are a lot). I have a problem when preachers claim to heal people. And I have a problem when people are so quick to believe these charlatans. But I digress.
The bottom line, IMHO, is that we all should strive to be better (for what that’s worth) people. If we help others, do good deeds, and try to live good moral lives, then we are not wrong; whether we do it in the name of religion or not.
I do, however, have a problem when people use religion for the sole purpose of lining their own pockets, especially when they are driving around in $150k cars and living phat off of the ignorant many (yes, there are a lot). I have a problem when preachers claim to heal people. And I have a problem when people are so quick to believe these charlatans. But I digress.
The bottom line, IMHO, is that we all should strive to be better (for what that’s worth) people. If we help others, do good deeds, and try to live good moral lives, then we are not wrong; whether we do it in the name of religion or not.
Sorry I just noticed the mistake I made as I was trying to type on the laptop. Peter Popoff the one selling the small patch of prayer cloth
I agree whole heartidly VOR. I did not want to come off as one of the many people who like to bash this sort of thing and i sure sounded that way as I reread my post. Well what you could understand as I was trying to type on the laptop and it has a small keyboard which I do not like in the least. Well I could be just hot headed as like I said buried two members of my immediate family this past week and I guess I don't really care for people who try to gain on other's misfortunes as I have gotten that same opinion from what I have seen via television read in mail etc.... Pay your bills and be blessed to full capacity just send us this and that. I undertsand corporations need revenue to operate but being as they are non profit and standing behind the screen of religious and out to help than do that and don't take advantage of the lil old ladies on their pension checks. U no????
Y'know what, Mike? You have every right to be p*ssed. And this is an okay place to do it. You are further entitled at any time or any place to think whatever you please and feel whatever you feel. In fact, the only suggestion I would make is, stop apologizing!
One of the great achievements of the church is that, at the same time you were indoctrinated to believe a lot of magical things of which there is no evidence, you were also inculcated with fear and guilt if you ever questioned any of them. Further, if you begin to doubt your faith it is YOUR responsibility to RECONVERT yourself. See what a clever labor-saving device that is?
Trust your mind. Be true to yourself. Reason may require courage, but it will never require self-deceit.
One of the great achievements of the church is that, at the same time you were indoctrinated to believe a lot of magical things of which there is no evidence, you were also inculcated with fear and guilt if you ever questioned any of them. Further, if you begin to doubt your faith it is YOUR responsibility to RECONVERT yourself. See what a clever labor-saving device that is?
Trust your mind. Be true to yourself. Reason may require courage, but it will never require self-deceit.
Yes, Peter Popoff is the one that was giving away prayer cloths. However you had to phone for the cloth and of course you know what happens once they get you on the line. They make you feel guilty for not contributing to their church. According to Poppoff the prayer cloth and the manna were sanctified by God. He took the time to tell them how to weave the cloth and what ingredients went into the baking of the manna. The healing is done by the power of the almighty that flows through the body of Peter Popoff. Don't believe me? just ask Peter Popoff. I recall one occasion when this great healer took a woman who was paralyzed in the lower half of her body, shouted a mighty,"HEAL!." They then pulled this woman, who weighed in, I would believe, at somewhere around 4oo pounds plus out of the wheelchair and miracle of miracles, she then walked, ran and followed it up by doing a soft shoe dance and the audience shouted,"HALLELUJA!?" Imagine, paralyzed frm the waist down and with one word, Peter Popoff healed her. Now if, as Popoff said, that it was God who was doing the actual healing, why was he doing it one person at a time when, with one wave of his hand he could heal thousands, millions ? Why just one at a time? Peter Popoff's answer would probably be,"God is testing to see how we react to it and sometime in the future, if God is satisfied that we are worthy, he will bring healing to all those who have shown the Peter Popoff Ministry their full support." Many out there would believe just as they believed when Oral Roberts said that if he didn't get seven million dollars by the month of June God would take him home and they would pour their rent and food money into the ministry coffers in the hopes that God would see their generosity and heal them, through Peter popoff of course.
Ok...I just wanted to mention the word Benny Hinn...I too believe in a creator.God,Jesus Christ ,and the holy spirit..but as has been stated..the so called "miracles" that these people supposedly perform in the name of Jesus are phoney as a $3 bill..and I do believe that precisely demonstrates why the "love of money is the root of all evil"..i do notice that people often leave the most important word/s out..Just like "an eye for an eye,a tooth for a tooth"..what was said prior? that is the important part..
"You have heard it said, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you...."
Yes. Whether in real life or in the bible, god seems so capricious, so inconsistent, so whimsical, so inexplicable. In fact, if you didn't know better, you might think events attributed to god are--well--random.
The picture I can't get out of my mind is a news clip in which a school was destroyed, with fatalities and survivors. A mother whose little girl was with her grasped the shoulders of a mother whose child was dead and shouting into her face, over and over to get her attention (she was a little distracted), "Look! Look! God spared my little [whoever]! She's alive! She's alive!"
I don't know the principals, of course, but I couldn't help thinking that in addition to her grief, the bereaved mother is going to live with these other creepy mothers who will, who must because of just that kind of behavior, push on her the idea that her child died for a reason, like something the mother did wrong.
The picture I can't get out of my mind is a news clip in which a school was destroyed, with fatalities and survivors. A mother whose little girl was with her grasped the shoulders of a mother whose child was dead and shouting into her face, over and over to get her attention (she was a little distracted), "Look! Look! God spared my little [whoever]! She's alive! She's alive!"
I don't know the principals, of course, but I couldn't help thinking that in addition to her grief, the bereaved mother is going to live with these other creepy mothers who will, who must because of just that kind of behavior, push on her the idea that her child died for a reason, like something the mother did wrong.
Well, that depends on how you define God. there tends to be an assumption of most belief systems that God is inherently concerned with the fate and actions of humanity.
If you stop assuming that... it makes for a more plausible explanation of how there can be a god and "Why bad things happen."
Of course, you can always say "God set the clockwork universe in motion and placed humanity down at the beginning of its path. What we do from there is our choice, according to free will. He doesn't step in and take action because to do so would be to corrupt the grand experiment".
(one of my favorites, fits in with the story of Adam & Eve... translates the story in a positive light, with the apple as a gift, not a curse).
Hmm...how about... "God is a psychic vampire. He feeds of the emotions of humanity. Happiness is his appetizer, love his desert...and suffering the main course."
Hey, I've got dozens of these, agnostics are good at 'em. :)
If you stop assuming that... it makes for a more plausible explanation of how there can be a god and "Why bad things happen."
Of course, you can always say "God set the clockwork universe in motion and placed humanity down at the beginning of its path. What we do from there is our choice, according to free will. He doesn't step in and take action because to do so would be to corrupt the grand experiment".
(one of my favorites, fits in with the story of Adam & Eve... translates the story in a positive light, with the apple as a gift, not a curse).
Hmm...how about... "God is a psychic vampire. He feeds of the emotions of humanity. Happiness is his appetizer, love his desert...and suffering the main course."
Hey, I've got dozens of these, agnostics are good at 'em. :)
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