Category Archives: Videos

Love can be dangerous

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This video, from Crooks and Liars, sums up nicely what kind of man Rick Warren is. At first you might be outraged that he is inspired by Nazi Germany to get his followers to be as dedicated as they were. He defends this statement only by saying Hitler is the personification of evil, and to him, it’s enough. No further discussion needed.

What Rick doesn’t realize, and what most people seem to forget, is the people they call monsters were as fanatically devoted to their ideals as most Evangelicals are. This devotion felt no doubt as important, special, and as good as Warren’s feelings about Christianity. You cannot measure the moral superiority of something by the level of devotion with which it is followed. It is in fact this very devotion that allows murderous ideologies to take such a powerful hold of people. We tend to have the foolish idea that our love for something is always pure and good. It has never occurred to most of us this feeling is just as corruptible as anything else. Men like Hitler and Stalin were deeply in love with the vision of the world they had pictured. Totalitarianism is what results from men and women wanting the whole world to live their own private visions.

Warren wants an expanded Kingdom of God, and for his congregation to do “Whatever it takes”. How frightening is this statement? This Orwellian slogan exemplifies everything that is wrong about religious belief. No, please do not do everything in your power to expand your Christianity in the world. Do not subjugate others, do not try forced conversions, do not deny men and women in Africa access to condoms, and keep your own insane ideas to yourself.

It may seem impossible for you to believe Rick, but it is your love for God that scares me. Love is not a ubiquitous good. Simply because you have love in your heart does not mean you do not have hate there too. In fact, it is this unquestioning love and devotion that often makes your actions so despicable and evil, Mr. Warren. I do not doubt your conviction sir; I am scared to death of it.

The controversial thing here is you may not fully realize it, but it is love that makes men do atrocious things. Love for God will convince a man to strap a bomb to himself and jump in front of a bus full of kids, just as love for an ideology will make people force innocent men, women, and children into gas chambers. Love itself can be a good thing, but it is no guarantee that what we love is itself good. We must abandon the idea of using love as a universal good, and begin to realize it can be manipulated for all kinds of nefarious purposes.

Feel da holy rhythm

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If you’ve ever wondered why some people get hard core into their church weirdness, witness if you will how eerily similar these services are to raves, complete with the few guys who just take that shit too far.

Why psychics hate Derren Brown

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There’s a long stranding belief that astrologers, psychics, and Tarot readers generally do no harm. Most people who read their horoscope do so out of sheer curiosity, and because they enjoy being surprised by the occasional reading that seems genuine. Of course, this belief often disregards the giant disfavor done to individuals who often rely on such quacks to tell them what do with their lives.

The technique every psychic relies on is called ‘cold reading’. There’s nothing too difficult about it. First, you start off with a rather general statement about a person based only on their appearance and demeanor. You can then proceed by making educated guesses on what might be bothering someone. Human beings are generally very similar, and we all share the same fears that others would in our situation. In fact, a psychic could simply be reading the same generic profile and have every single client believe it was an extremely accurate representation of their personality.

Enter Derren Brown. Derren is a performance artist who doubles as a debunker of psychics. He puts on shows to demonstrate to others how easily they can be fooled. In this particular video, he exposes just how easy it is for someone to fill in the gaps in their personality, by simply applying the most basic cold reading. Derren does not even need to be one on one with the person. A prewritten ‘assessment’ and the victim’s imagination are all he needs to have them completely under his spell.

It’s interesting to note after the initial embarrassment and subsequent enjoyment of the performance, many of the participants left feeling more confident in their ability to apply rigorous skepticism to claims of paranormal talents. Some no doubt left with a distaste for the relatively cheap parlor trick being played on their friends and loved ones. Many probably left the studio wanting to warn them of just how easy it is to be fooled.

It takes professional entertainers to be able to fully awaken the rest of us to the dangers psychics can represent. An illusionist is aware that the same ability to fool people can be used to entertain as it can be to control, confuse, and abuse. They can appreciate the vulnerabilities of the human mind because it is their job to exploit them for our entertainment. No doubt they must look upon their counterparts, who claim supernatural powers while simultaneously bilking their fellow human beings of their hard earned money, with a great deal of contempt and anger. Mr. Brown has found an avid new fan with his obvious display of compassion. Keep up the good work!

How big is heaven anyway?

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There are some people who behave in such a strange manner, and believe in such terrifyingly silly things, that you have to take a moment in your day to see for yourself the depth of man’s delusions. This week, an interesting video was presented to me, where a supposed expert makes his predictions as to the relative size of heaven. His conclusion: heaven is about 7,000,000 times bigger than New York. At first I wasn’t sure if this was some silly prank or hoax, considering not only the strange production value and the robotic movements of the host, but also the rather bold conjectures he makes. Did you know everyone gets a mansion in Heaven? It’s a good thing to; where else are you supposed to sleep and have breakfast? The special effects are so ludicrous, I’m still not sure whether this isn’t an elaborate prank pulled on everyone. Nothing this bad can be real, right? Each minute is stranger than the next, as a 32 inch little person trolleys forward on her miniscule wheelchair, declaring that in heaven, her body will allow her to walk. She then proceeds to sing a rather creepy little jig in a voice reminiscent of Alvin the Chipmunk.

The crescendo of silliness is finally ended with a plea to consider our plans for eternity. What are you going to do if you’re crushed in an earthquake by the merciful hands of the Almighty? Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m barely able to plan a weekend, let alone an eternity of stuff to do. Such a long period of time to fill with activity would undoubtedly require a significant portion of my life to arrange, and at best, I could hope to account for only a few thousand years of fun. I certainly hope heaven has an activity planner, or else things might get boring pretty damn quick!