The end comments on the article are interesting. I wonder if other religion’s believers will see a correlation, say, in this country.
On 3 March 2008, in a popular TV show, Sanal Edamaruku, the president of Rationalist International, challenged India’s most “powerful” tantrik (black magician) to demonstrate his powers on him. That was the beginning of an unprecedented experiment. After all his chanting of mantra (magic words) and ceremonies of tantra failed, the tantrik decided to kill Sanal Edamaruku with the “ultimate destruction ceremony” on live TV. Sanal Edamaruku agreed and sat in the altar of the black magic ritual. India TV observed skyrocketing viewership rates.
[…]
After nearly two hours, the anchor declared the tantrik’s failure. The tantrik, unwilling to admit defeat, tried the excuse that a very strong god whom Sanal might be worshipping obviously protected him. “No, I am an atheist,” said Sanal Edamaruku. Finally, the disgraced tantrik tried to save his face by claiming that there was a never-failing special black magic for ultimate destruction, which could, however, only been done at night. Bad luck again, he did not get away with this, but was challenged to prove his claim this very night in another “breaking news” live program.
Forget India, it’s more fun to sit around here in the USA waiting for the rapture.
Is the real god and creator of the universe behind door number one, door number two, or door number three?
I picked the wrong door, too.
Not to worry. I’m sure the Tantrik lobby will declare that this Tantrik was a fake, an actor hired to make them look foolish. And those who believe such nonsense will believe that too.
It looks like he is trying to kill him with a wii controller…
The key detail in the article is this:
The tantrik, unwilling to admit defeat, tried the excuse that a very strong god whom Sanal might be worshipping obviously protected him.
The whole premise of this “experiment” is flawed. Faith can not be proven or dis-proven.
It’s a world view which, I’m convinced, is wired into our brains.
Our American “faith healers” were definitively disproven decades ago but the phenomenon is bigger than ever. If people need and want to believe, they’re gonna do it.
Before you atheists get all smug, I should remind you that your faith in technology and religionless utopia have been tried and shown to be disastrous folly. Yet, you still believe.
#5: who said anything about Athiests having faith in technology and/or “religionless utopia”?
@5
This experiment wasn’t trying to prove or disprove faith, it was just disproving this tantrik idiot that his voodoo is complete bullshit.
Also I do not have any faith in technology, I don’t see Google, Microsoft and Steve Jobs, or the all mighty microchip as my God. They are no more things of worship and praise than the spaghetti monster. Though Mac Fanboys might differ on that.
Claiming faith in “religionless utopia” is an illogical, and dare say stupid, thing to say. You’re grasping at straws here.
Don’t sit there and assume that just because one doesn’t believe in your faith, that they MUST believe in something else made up. All religions are made up, if you didn’t notice.
Is it at all possible for you to understand that some people actually have NO faith? And are actually more concerned about their life right NOW; dealing with REAL issues we are facing now, RATHER than being paranoid about the afterlife?
Superstitious people believe everyone else must also have a superstition.
#5 gregallen wrote, “Our American ‘faith healers’ were definitively disproven decades ago but the phenomenon is bigger than ever.”
That’s right, and every time someone’s ability to harness the healing power of the Almighty is put to a test, and then fails that test, the response of believers is nearly always the same. They claim that it wasn’t god’s power that has been disproved, only that one charlatan has been exposed. Their faith usually remains safely intact.
However, I can personally attest to the power of faith healing, and experienced it in my own life. My faith in god was totally removed, like a malignant tumor. It didn’t even require anesthesia 😉
Well, when this guy does eventually die in thirty years or so, it will obviously be due to the delayed reaction of this curse.
Total voodoo mumbojumbo.
It’s good to see religion being challenged like this, and I hope we see more and more of it. But not in a mocking, confrontational way – that’s counterproductive. We need to push rationality, not attack people’s beliefs, however foolish they seem.
Religion is something humanity needs to leave behind; but that will take a long time. It needs to be replaced with something better and it’s not yet clear what that will be.
#5 Greg. Us non-believers are called non-believers because, well, we don’t believe. We accept scientific arguments, but they are always open to revision, and we know that. What we have problems with is people believing things with no good evidence. If it makes you feel good, fine, but don’t expect everyone else to believe it too.
Think of a court of law. Only good evidence is allowed and considered. Even then, it is possible that the verdict may be incorrect, such as new techniques like DNA can show. Fortunately for us all of us, faith without evidence is no longer allowed in the courts.
Yeah debunking religious nuts is easy…but
Aim your telescope at a star system 50 light years from here, conjecture there is a planet based on wobble and whatever else effects. Then theorize there is possible life on said planet with self assured assumptions of the size and atmosphere of the planet.
Mystics on both sides I suppose.
Oh, and watch your reactions when people question your lack of scientific evidence. Open to revision my ass.
Hey, #1
This rapture your waiting for, is it going to be available for the PS3?
I’m kidding…
Xbox?
Thou shall not worship gods other than Cthulhu!!!!
I have an atheist friend who insists that we are doomed because of CO2 emissions. He admits that no amount of evidence to the contrary will convince him that Global Warming is caused by man and that it will ultimately lead to the destruction of planet. He simply believes and nothing will sway his opinion.
We are all religious. Whether we choose to admit it or not.
I don’t see what his problem was. I’ve seen plenty of Kung-fu movies with the “touch of death” blow. And he takes two hours? weak
Hey, I was just thinking (yea, it happens sometimes)
Maybe he was expecting the guy to die of boredom?
#13: I would suggest you do a little research on the topics you comment on before doing so. If you read the scientific literature (not TV news condensations) no one is saying there IS life on other planets based on observations, understanding of physics, chemistry, etc. At best, some planets detected around other stars appear to have the conditions needed for life as we know it to arise or exist. BIG difference.
A scientist believing in a theory is far from a religionist believing in a god. The scientist believes a theory may be true (note the word ‘may’) based on current knowledge. He also is willing to modify or even discard his ‘belief’ when additional information becomes available. I don’t think that can be said of the religious.
Once while camping in a state park I was told by a bunch of christian I was gonna die at the lord’s hand.
Two of the sites next to us were bible groups with bibles everywhere. They had asked us to refram from cussing after they had borrowed our hose and some sugar. That fist night I had to use the public crapper and was so drunk I forgot to bring paper. Well someone had left a bible in the crapper and I used some of the pages to wipe. Well all hell broke out the next morning till the park rangers showed up and settled the jesus freaks down until I mentioned that those bible pages didn’t wipe too well. That was a fun trip
The failure to even understand the basic difference between science and religion will cause the failure of the US. This myth that science is taken on faith is being perpetuated by those who want to destroy our democracy and replace it with a theocratic system. They are called Christian Reconstructionists and millions are duped into following these people.
# 5 gregallen said
Before you atheists get all smug, I should remind you that your faith in technology and religionless utopia have been tried and shown to be disastrous folly. Yet, you still believe.
gregallen, you cannot deny the truth as presented by this following image.
http://tinyurl.com/294yek
#13 is an idiot. Like all religious nuts, they think “belief” in magical invisible beings is the SAME as scientific analysis. Dude, you’re stupid. An airplane doesn’t fly just because some scientists have “belief” in aerodynamics, physics and mathematics. These are provable repeatable predictable results. Science DOES have conjecture (like life on other planets) but they pose it as conjecture. It’s insipid 24/7 cable news outlets and the like that report it as ‘fact’ without noting the complicated details of some 25 page research paper. Funny even religious idiots REALLY truly trust science at heart, they just pretend in arguments that they don’t. They all trust how the internal combustion engine works, trust the lights come on when they flick a switch in their house, trust their airplane will fly, trust the geosynchronous orbiting solar powered satellite to beam down a microwave signal of digital compressed video to their computer controlled HD TV so they can watch some idiot televangellist explain how his “belief” is the same as science. ROLFMAO
#21 – “faith in technology and religionless utopia have been tried and shown to be disastrous folly.”
What magical world do you live on? I don’t remember any nation that existed without religion, relying solely on ‘faith’ in technology, which then fell apart. Are you confusing a dream or a book you read with reality? 🙂 Far as I know there has never been a free democratic non-religious nation in the world, basing its laws and traditions solely on reason and science. Now if that DOES ever happen, and it fails, that would be interesting.
#22 LOL you live up to your name!
Good game.
It still shocks me that religionists would have so little dignity as to admit to believing such unknowable things. Have they no shame?
#21 Julieb — good link 🙂
#23 LOL — I’m with you, but I think the religionists are thinking about what a failure communism has been.
#6 – #5: who said anything about Athiests having faith in technology and/or “religionless utopia”?
Who? Theists.
#16 – We are all religious. Whether we choose to admit it or not.
We are all religious if, and only if, you insist on redefining religion to mean whatever you need it to mean to satisfy your ludicrous notion that we are all religious.
This sort of show puts us Christians in a dilemma. Do we let the atheist die and Hinduism get the credit or do we protect the atheist from his own folly and give ammunition to the secularists?
Obviously, a Christian prayed protection for the atheist. Ignorant atheists usually die from demonic attacks like that.
#28 – Wow… I’m glad you are joking because I just don’t have the energy for the sort of flaming a serious guy would deserve…
Oh great–next I’ll find out that cake is a lie…