(May 20, 2015 at 2:18 pm)cocunningham Wrote:(May 20, 2015 at 2:04 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Yes. It's a lucrative scam and he is a con artist.
I've often wondered how many of those that profit from pandering their religion really believe what they are spewing or if it's just a good business model.
It is often impossible to know. Sometimes, it may be a combination of lying, but believing some of their bullshit. When someone like Peter Popoff is caught in a cheat, one knows that he is a con artist. Of course, that does not prove that he is an atheist, so he might believe some part of the garbage that he has preached.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Randi#Skeptic
I rather prefer the original broadcast on the Tonight Show, but have not found the video of it online. But this will do:
This second one gives one a depressing update:
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
