Money Helps You Have Faith

Benny Hinn is a well-known televangelist who produces the television show “This is Your Day” where he markets and sells his books, videos, CDs, and bibles. Benny Hinn uses ideas based on the “word-faith movement” along with “prosperity gospel”. These two ideas teach that through ones’ faith they can obtain anything they desire such health, wealth, or success. He has even stated that “by sowing a sufficient monetary seed into his ministry—that person will be granted divine physical healing.” Many Christian groups have actually criticized him for preaching the “Prosperity Gospel” and even misinterpreting scriptures multiple times. Hinn refuses to join the “Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability” which is a council that “is the leading accreditation agency that helps Christian ministries earn public’s trust through adherence to seven standards of accountability.” Sounds to me like Benny Hinn is not that credible of a “faith healer”; it sounds more like he is just after money.'


website:
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/h01.html

Oh George.

With regards to the issue on “torture”, your current leader, President George W. Bush, does not seem to make a definite statement. Although while meeting with John McCain and John Warner on the issue, Bush wanted to “make it clear to the world that this government does not torture and that we adhere to the international convention of torture, whether it be here at home or abroad.”
Although Bush’s statement may seem to suggest that he is against torture, his plan regarding interrogation seems to suggest otherwise. When Warner suggested the bill stating that “bars classified evidence if not shared with the defendant, as well as evidence obtained by torture or inhumane treatment; extends constitutional protections against inhumane treatment to terrorism defendants.” Bush says that this bill could shut down many important CIA interrogations. He said “In order to protect this country, we must be able to interrogate people who have information about future attacks. I will resist any bill that does not enable this program to go forward.”
Bush’s plan on the matter “keeps classified evidence from defendants; allows evidence obtained by ‘coercive’ methods; defines inhumane treatment as ‘severe physical or mental pain.’”
This proposal for interrogating suspects would “essentially rewrite the 1949 Geneva Conventions and invite other countries to weaken the treaty's ban on humiliating, cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners.” Thus your President, America, is a man who does not let his country torture; the CIA however, well, they can do what they please, but its all to keep our country safe, right?

sources:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-09-14-bush_x.htm
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/12/20051215-3.html

Pythia: the Oracle at Delphi

In ancient Greece, there was said to be a priestess known as Pythia who was said to be the Oracle of Apollo. Pythia was said to produce prophecies in a "frenzied state induced by vapors rising from the ground, and that she spoke gibberish which priests reshaped into the enigmatic prophecies". Though these "vapors" were actually a drug, many of her prophecies were written down and actually came true.
One example was in 630BC when the King of Thera brought a gift to the oracle. When he did so, she told him "that he should found a city in Libya". The king did not know where Libya was, and so he did nothing. When he returned to Thera, it did not rain for a long time and so he decided to go back to the oracle to ask her what could be done. She told him "if they...would make a settlement at Cyrene in Libya, things would go better with thelm". The king decided to follow this advice and so he sought out Libya with help from the Cretans. When he finally established a city in LIbya, things were still going poorly for the colony. So he went back to the oracle and she said, "know you better than I,fair Libya abounding in fleeces? Better the stranger than he who has trod it? Oh! Clever Therans!" And so the Therans aked to local Libyans where they should establish a city and thus the city prospered.
Another example occured in 401Bc when the oracle told the Spartans that "Sure though thy feet, proud Sparta, have a calre, a lame king's reign may see thee trip--Beware! Troubles unlooked for long shall vex thy shore, and rolling Time his tide of carnage pour" Shortly after this warning, Agesilaus, the king of Sparta at the time who acceeded the Lysander, began taking on too many battles, and inticed teh Thebans to fight. For the first time the Spartans were defeated by the Thebans.

website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famous_Oracular_Statements_from_Delphi

The Devil lives in New Jersey. [no suprise there]

The "Jersey Devil", sometimes referred to as the "Leeds Devil" is a creature described as a "flying biped with hooves" that lives in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey. The legend began in the 18th century when a woman from England moved to New Jeresy to live with her husband, Mr. Leed. She had given birth to 12 of his children and by the time she became pregnant with the 13th, she declared that she would rather give birth to the Devil's children. Apparently her wish was granted and the child was born with hooves, claws, and a tail. This devil child then ate the Leeds, and their children, and escaped through their chimney.
Over the years, several encounters of this creature were claimed. Commodore Stephen Decatur, a naval hero, during the 1800's, was in the Barrens to test cannonballs when he claimed that he hit a "strange, pale white creature winging overhead." The creature, most likely the devil of course, continued flying unfazed.
The devil was also blamed for several livestock killing over the years in which were "accompanied by strange tracks and unearthly screams."
Perhaps the biggest recording of witnessing the Jersey Devil was in 1909 when thousands of people reported to seeing the devil during the week of January 16-23.

website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Devil

Ghost Investigations of the Payne-Gentry Mansion

According to the Missouri Ghost Hunters Society, an official organization mind you, the historical Payne-Gentry Mansion Bridgeton, Missouri is haunted with spirits. The team of ghost hunters had heard claims of people seeing spirits of children playing near a tree in the backyard and front porch of the mansion. Their goal was "to record spirit energy in and around this home." and they were "not disappointed" apparenlty with their findings.
After teaming up with the Ghost Hunters of St. Louis, the two teams decided to both take separate readings and compare. Both teams took measurements of the "Geo and Electromagnetic fields" surrounding the mansion in order to compare. The teams then worked together to search for any nearby cemetaries in order to determine who these children ghosts were. "To their amazement" they discovered a small unmarked cemetary near the tree in the backyard which had several children burried in it.
After they finished the investigation outside, the teams moved to the attic, naturally, since thats where ghosts hang out, right? In the attic they waited for something to happen for about fifteen minutes when a member of the team detected a "cold spot" moving up the stairs accompanied by the sound of "someone unseen" walking up the stairs. One of the team members who was standing on the stairs said he could "feel the vibrations of the footsteps" as they walked on the step he was standing on.
When all was said and done, the teams took out their handy digital cameras to take pictures in and around the mansion, of course, since that is the best way to see a ghost. They came back with about 336 pictures of the mansion, filled with photographs of "orbs", also known as spirits apparently. Looks like any other ghost investigation if you ask me.

website:
http://www.ghosthaunting.com/html/payne-gentry_mansion.html

Crop Circles

Are aliens visiting our planet and landing in our wheat fields? Although many have catagorized these formations from naturalistic to paranormal, it is highly unlikely that these were formed by visitors from another planet. Especially since the majority of "crop circles", as they are called, have been discovered to be man-made hoaxes. In a study done in 2000, it concluded that 80 percent of UK circles were definitely man-made.
Two men from Southampton, England admittedto having created crop circles before and described the tools and techniques that came along with them. Tehy stated that they used a four foot long plank attached to a rope to stomp on the crops and create circles with an eight foot diameter. The two eventually designed more tools to help make more complex designs. They figured out how to create straight lines within the crops as opposed to just simple circles.
Eventually the two men had to turn themselves in when the wife of one of them discovered a high amount of mileage on their car. She accused him of cheating on her, and he eventually had to confess to her what he had been doing.
I suppose this is one more way to prove that aliens do not exhist.

website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_circles#Creators_of_crop_circles

Y2K Bug

The Y2K Bug, also known as the Year 2000 Problem, was due to a computer program that was supposed to operate incorrectly for dates and times after January 1, 2000. Supposedly, the computers would not be able to store data from the date “00”, that being “2000”, because they would think that it was the date “1900”. This scare caused people to fear that huge industries and government functions would not be able to work once the bug was in effect.
The public became almost obsessed with the idea of “Y2K”The problem. Some would stock up on supplies, believing that once the virus took hold of the computers, they would not be able to get their essential every day items.
The bug was eventually put into place when computer programmers realized their mistake. Apparently the “Y2K” bug was not going to crash the computer systems at all. In fact, the whole problem had been blown out of proportion in one epic mass hysteria.


website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y2k