Xtian Scumbag Paul Crouch -- Dead as Fried Chicken

[WesOlsen]

I would never rejoice at the death of a prominent atheist.

Why not? If they were a dreadful human being who used donations to fund a lavish lifestyle then I sure as hell would.

Here's the thing, in America (and to a lesser extend Europe) there's this growing fusion of religious zeal and venture capitalism. US tv is already saturated with infomertials pushing all manner of products (some sensible, others completely batshit). The religious (mainly christian) cable channels are quite concerning, their content and number is essentially unregulated and all manner of rubbish is peddled as fact (not just opinion) under the guise of community outreach initiatives. It has allowed christian groups to claim tax breaks and even grants because if they can demonstrate even a tiny shave of a community initiative (say a drugs rehab program for example) then a platter of resources is thrown at them, despite basically no requirement to demonstrate quality or quantity of results. Bush gave a lot of bad people a free ride when he said he wanted to expand the religious community sector. Some churches (businesses) have raked in millions despite highly dubious results. But those swines aside, the real shocker is the cable channels and some of the complete shit that appears on there. It ties in big time with the faith healing movement and other fraudster bullshit.

Basically there's thousands of con-men operating under the veil of religious outreach or faith healing ambasaddors who are appealing for grotesque amounts of donations. Many of these donations do not go to purely charitble causes, but instead to helping the organisation in question grow and expand their initiatives. There are many notorious individuals who have lined their coffers with the money of the poor and wretched. A recent high profile case focussed on a pan-african christian channel operating out of the UK that was claiming a cure for cancer! It wouldn't surprise me at all if some of these individuals actually had no religious belief at all, such is the joyous and unquestionable majesty of venture capitalism in the states (and increasingly in Europe).

If there was an atheist organisation that begged for donations which were destined to line the coffers of an indivdual (or elite innter circle) which relied purely on dogma to peddle lies and deceit, then I would be the first to condemn it. Not that my condemnation equates to jack shit of course, but on principle it demonstrates content of character. As it stand I don't know of any Atheist/Pro-reason movement that encourages dedication to unproven shit, whilst begging for money which makes individuals millionaires and generates dubious to non-existant educational results. Since atheist organisations almost always marry themselves to modern mainstream science I couldn't see how this would work, but i'm sure it's possible.

Either way, in summary, these christian cable channels indoctrinate vulnerable/naive individuals and peddle lies, veiling them as legitimate and mainstream science when they are anything but. Some donations end up being syphoned off for personal gain. Together, this presents a package of gigantic bullshit.