"Begone Godmen! Encounters With Spiritual Frauds" by Dr. Abraham T. Kovoor
Dr. Kovoor was a noted skeptic and an atheist from India and Sri Lanka, although he died almost 50 years ago. He was also a friend of Arthur C. Clarke who sometimes featured him in his books.
Book covers his debunking of holy men and other frauds in India, but also how superstitious people are.
He also had money challenges to godmen to prove the supernatural—a year earlier than James Randi's challenges.
Indeed, the book frequently reads like Monty Python's Life of Brian, like when at one point a certain Swamy proclaimed him in the newspapers to be a god.
He also frequently debunked Sai Baba and you can see the absurd rationalisation his followers used to defend his godly status.
Dr. Kovoor was a noted skeptic and an atheist from India and Sri Lanka, although he died almost 50 years ago. He was also a friend of Arthur C. Clarke who sometimes featured him in his books.
Book covers his debunking of holy men and other frauds in India, but also how superstitious people are.
Quote:Once I lost a good buyer for a property of mine in India as the date I selected for signing the Sale Deed was inauspicious both for the buyer as well as the seller.
My aged mother was in tears for several days because I stepped out on my left foot on my way to wed.
He also had money challenges to godmen to prove the supernatural—a year earlier than James Randi's challenges.
Quote:My first challenge was issued in June 1963. I waged an amount between Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 25,000—against an equal amount—that no person, whatever his mystical powers, could tell correctly the serial number on a currency note sealed up in an envelope. For the benefit of those who claimed to possess telepathic powers, I was prepared to allow one of the judges to see the number on the said note so that the telepathist in another room could read the judge’s mind.
To spiritualists I threw out a challenge that I would pay Rs. 5,000 to any one who could produce a ghost or demon to be photographed.
I offered Rs. 1,000 to each astrologer who could tell correctly the sex and dates of death, if dead, of the ten persons, with a margin of error of 5%. To the palmists I said that I would give the palmprints of the ten persons concerned instead of their dates of birth.
On three occasions I challenged all charmists in this country through the Sinhalese, Tamil and English newspapers to kill me during stipulated periods by their charms or vas kavis. On all the three occasions I have been receiving numerous charms by post. Till today I have received anonymously about 50 charms, some on copper and silver foils and the rest on ola and paper. In spite of all these charms sent by kattadiyas from all parts of the Island, I am still hale and hearty.
One Mr. Nandris de Silva, a kattadiya from Panadura claimed through the columns of Silumina that he could put a ghost into my palm, show a demon in a mirror, get me stuck to the chair on which I was seated, and get all the furniture in my bungalow smashed up with the help of ghosts and demons under his control Though several dates were fixed, both by the editor of Silumina and myself Mr. Nandris de Silva to demonstrate his ’powers’, he never appeared.
Indeed, the book frequently reads like Monty Python's Life of Brian, like when at one point a certain Swamy proclaimed him in the newspapers to be a god.
Quote:This absurd statement of the so-called holy man resulted in many credulous persons coming to my bungalow to have a ’darsan’ and to obtain blessings from me. To undo the great harm done by this bluffer-swami Shantanand, I had to refute it through newspapers. Had I been an imposter like Sai Baba, Neelakanda Babaji and Pandrimalai Swamigal, it would have been, indeed, a grand opportunity for me to hoodwink thousands of gullibles and become fabulously rich!
He also frequently debunked Sai Baba and you can see the absurd rationalisation his followers used to defend his godly status.
Quote:Some of the local devotees of Sathya Sai Baba found fault with me for writing [in the newspapers] about their godman undergoing a surgical operation for appendicitis. One doctor devotee had the audacity and credulity to say at a meeting of devotees, without any feeling of shame that it was not for removing his own appendix that the Bhagawan Sai Baba underwent surgical operation. “Out of compassion for a devotee whose appendix was giving him trouble, the Bhagawan took the diseased appendix into his own body in exchange for his healthy one, and it was that diseased appendix of the devotee that was removed from the Bhagawan’s Body!”
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
