Tele-evangelist sued over ‘God can heal’ claim
Darlene Bishop, a tele-evangelist with a nationwide following, does not do things by half. When she and her husband Lawrence erected a statue of Jesus on the grounds of their mega church in Monroe, Ohio, they made it 18m high.
No less gargantuan are her claims about the power of prayer to overcome illness. Through a series of sermons, books and a television show, Sisters, broadcast on religious satellite channels throughout the United States and abroad, she preaches that God has the power to heal even the most deadly diseases, including cancer.
But the contention is now the subject of a court action. Four of Bishop’s relatives are suing her over her claim that God cured their father — her brother — of throat cancer. He died of the disease 18 months ago.
In other religious news, some scientists see an end to religion within the next few decades.
Philosopher Daniel Denett believes that within 25 years religion will command little of the awe it seems to instil today. The spread of information through the internet and mobile phones will “gently, irresistibly, undermine the mindsets requisite for religious fanaticism and intolerance”.
That is awesome.
Cool.
That’s great news!
It will be good to finally get rid of Gods moral law because we know people are much more apt to obey the laws of man rather than the laws of God. Just look at history. All great civilizations that have done away with God have thrived.
And how can anyone really believe that people are healed by prayer? That’s just too much for people to take on faith. You can’t touch it of feel it or see it. Technology can do a lot more for people than prayer can. It’s a lot easier to have faith and believe in technology than God. After all, man can develop technology to deal with anything, even death. We control our own destiny. Maybe one day no one will have to die at all. Good thing we have all of those scientists and leading thinkers to get us closer to discovering a final theory of everything. Maybe we can even be our own gods! That’s what our goal is, isn’t it?
Yeah that’ll be great!
PcMonster,
I wanted to personally thank you for the excellent lynch mob footage your little destroyed and dissolving political movement provided for us last week. Sort of like, one last reminder of how bad it was with you guys in charge. Wow, imagine that, president monkey fucker even managed to screw up a lynching, er I mean execution.
Heh, hours after the second tape was released, Pelosi and Reid agreed that Republican concerns would have no say in their first 100 hours.
I have hope for the future now that being idiotic and bellicose is no longer trendy.
Man, its gonna feel like the tanks are rolling in on you the next two years, and today is just the first day.
Regards.
4. I sense sarcasm.
#3 – A far larger percentage of Americans deny evolution today than in 1900.
Wow. I hadn’t heard that but your analysis of it makes sense.
Daniel Denett is interesting, a self-proclaimed “Darwin fundamentalist.” Not often you see a scientist copping to the religious overtones of science. He’s been writing books on it since the mid-90s, mostly with an underlying theme that religion transmits like a disease, religious memes as direct analogues of viruses or maybe mad-cow prions. That interpretation of religion also fits with your analysis of how fundamentalism has grown.
What Denett and other science evangelists forget is that religion is such a universal human phenomenon there is probably a physiological basis for it. That thought triggered a vague memory and I went looking. Found this at the Guardian newspaper: http://tinyurl.com/yhp5gk
Pertinent quote: “Brain scans of nuns have revealed intricate neural circuits that flicker into life when they feel the presence of God.”
Speculating here that it’s the same rush Denett felt when he discovered Darwin. Some sort of profoundly integrative experience. I haven’t had that particular pleasure myself, at least not since I lost my virginity going on 50 years ago.
Its about damn time
Humans are still more primate than intelligent being. I don’t hold out much hope for us. Just picture a committee of chimps and I think you’ll get the idea.
Next thing you know, God will be able to fetch.
I love it whenever these phony televangelists are outed as the fakes they are. While true that her followers should know better, I’m hoping this suit will demonstrate the charlatan Bishop is.
A far larger percentage of Americans deny evolution today than in 1900.
I haven’t heard that and would call bull on it. 100 years ago there was far higher church attendance, much lower education and far greater reliance on learned professionals such as church leaders to teach us.
I can only pray that they are right about the end of religion. I’m sick of religious war.
God save me from those who say they believe in you.
I talk to myself all the time.
Even though I’m a Christian, I applaud lawsuits against these charlatans. A few years ago, I was watching Bob Larson and it occurred to me that some of the “healed” people could sue the pants off of him. Not only could they … they should.
My wife is a clinical social worker and if she did what Larson does she’s be seriously liable for malpractice suits.
I’m guessing that Larson probably gets his subjects to sign away their rights like Ricky Lake and the other trashy talk shows do.
BTW, if you like freak shows, I definitely recommend Bob Larson if you can catch him on late night cable. He’s wild.