John Oliver on Televangelists.

[Brian37]

[Fake Messiah]

What?! Religion is a scam!

Too bad that this won't have any influence on anyone.
Atheists already know it, and believers will just delude themselves with tropes like: "This is not my religion. My religion is not a money scam," and then send some money to David Miscavige or the Pope or Dalai Lama or Church of LDS, etc.

[Spongebob]

It's astonishing that Jim Bakker is back to his same old scamming after everything he went through in the 80's. People are so gullible.

[Brian37]

What?! Religion is a scam!

Too bad that this won't have any influence on anyone.
Atheists already know it, and believers will just delude themselves with tropes like: "This is not my religion. My religion is not a money scam," and then send some money to David Miscavige or the Pope or Dalai Lama or Church of LDS, etc.

Um not true. This would assume that everyone born being sold religion is incapable of leaving that religion. I was raised Catholic, and as a kid and teen I really wanted to believe it. But others as I aged raised questions to me that caused me to keep questioning, and eventually I ditched religion and God belief because of the questions posed to me.

There are not only former Christians, but former Muslims, former Jews, former Hindus, and former Buddhists.

Now if you want to argue that it is unlikely that the majority of the world will give up on religion, I would agree with that. But in human history, in general, times always change and people are capable of switching positions. 

I agree that religion is a scam. But that does not mean because I agree, that we should stop trying to lead others to reality. One can value pluralism, and at the same time try to lead the horse to water.

There are countless people if it were not for, who questioned my beliefs, I would still be a Catholic today.

My quote, "If humans never questioned social norms, our species never would have left the caves."

[Spongebob]

This will influence a small percentage, but not the masses. Any and all visibility of religious scams increases the odds of converting someone. Add to that some visibility of a non-religious lifestyle and good role models as such and living without religion becomes more normalized. Look at it this way, just a few hundred years ago, living openly as an atheist was almost impossible. 100 years ago it was possible but with a lot of ostracism and discrimination. Now we are still reviled but mostly live however we want. Perhaps the next hundred years will bring more improvement.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

What?! Religion is a scam!

Too bad that this won't have any influence on anyone.
Atheists already know it, and believers will just delude themselves with tropes like: "This is not my religion. My religion is not a money scam," and then send some money to David Miscavige or the Pope or Dalai Lama or Church of LDS, etc.

Um not true. This would assume that everyone born being sold religion is incapable of leaving that religion. I was raised Catholic, and as a kid and teen I really wanted to believe it. But others as I aged raised questions to me that caused me to keep questioning, and eventually I ditched religion and God belief because of the questions posed to me.

There are not only former Christians, but former Muslims, former Jews, former Hindus, and former Buddhists.

Now if you want to argue that it is unlikely that the majority of the world will give up on religion, I would agree with that. But in human history, in general, times always change and people are capable of switching positions. 

I agree that religion is a scam. But that does not mean because I agree, that we should stop trying to lead others to reality. One can value pluralism, and at the same time try to lead the horse to water.

There are countless people if it were not for, who questioned my beliefs, I would still be a Catholic today.

My quote, "If humans never questioned social norms, our species never would have left the caves."

It’s absolutely true. Religious people who assume their religion is correct will tend to assume that people donating to other religions are being scammed. It’s got nothing to do with changing religions.

Boru

[Fake Messiah]

Um not true. This would assume that everyone born being sold religion is incapable of leaving that religion. I was raised Catholic, and as a kid and teen I really wanted to believe it. But others as I aged raised questions to me that caused me to keep questioning, and eventually I ditched religion and God belief because of the questions posed to me.

I'm not assuming that theists are incapable of leaving their religion, but it seems to me that the greed of clergy is just not the trigger because, when it comes to most religions, theists already see clergy rolling in money so they obviously are already deluding themselves, and it is already part of religious indoctrination in their religious upbringing.

Although, if you read Paul Haggis' Wikipedia biography, you can see that his family left Catholicism because the priest was driving a Cadillac (although they obviously didn't have a problem with the Vatican), but, then again, he did later became a Scientologist...

[Brian37]

Um not true. This would assume that everyone born being sold religion is incapable of leaving that religion. I was raised Catholic, and as a kid and teen I really wanted to believe it. But others as I aged raised questions to me that caused me to keep questioning, and eventually I ditched religion and God belief because of the questions posed to me.

I'm not assuming that theists are incapable of leaving their religion, but it seems to me that the greed of clergy is just not the trigger because, when it comes to most religions, theists already see clergy rolling in money so they obviously are already deluding themselves, and it is already part of religious indoctrination in their religious upbringing.

Although, if you read Paul Haggis' Wikipedia biography, you can see that his family left Catholicism because the priest was driving a Cadillac (although they obviously didn't have a problem with the Vatican), but, then again, he did later became a Scientologist...

It isn't the greed of clergy, but the greed of humans in general. If the world were all atheists there would still be greed. I only hate the fact that superstition is used to justify greed.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I'm not assuming that theists are incapable of leaving their religion, but it seems to me that the greed of clergy is just not the trigger because, when it comes to most religions, theists already see clergy rolling in money so they obviously are already deluding themselves, and it is already part of religious indoctrination in their religious upbringing.

Although, if you read Paul Haggis' Wikipedia biography, you can see that his family left Catholicism because the priest was driving a Cadillac (although they obviously didn't have a problem with the Vatican), but, then again, he did later became a Scientologist...

It isn't the greed of clergy, but the greed of humans in general. If the world were all atheists there would still be greed. I only hate the fact that superstition is used to justify greed.

On this topic, it IS the greed of the clergy.

Boru

[Brian37]

It isn't the greed of clergy, but the greed of humans in general. If the world were all atheists there would still be greed. I only hate the fact that superstition is used to justify greed.

On this topic, it IS the greed of the clergy.

Boru

Religion is simply another form of tribalism. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, ect ect ect, interject their claims to morality and interject that into politics and economics, to justify the same thing. Control over resources.