Rev. Pat Robertson appears to have isolated the reason for the decline in miracles and faith in general — education. In a recent answer to why there are more miracles in places like Africa, Robertson explained that in places like Africa people are “simple, humble” and just accept what you tell them.
A viewer named Ken asked Robertson about the miracle gap with Africa and other parts of the world:
Why do amazing miracles (people raised from the dead, blind eyes open, lame people walking) happen with great frequency in places like Africa, and not here in the USA? What can we do to encourage those things to happen here? Is America too far gone for miracles like this? — KEN
Pat Robertson explained that people are ruined by over-education:
“Those people overseas didn’t go to Ivy League schools. Well, we’re so sophisticated, we think we’ve got everything figured out, we know about evolution, we know about Darwin, we know about all these things that says God isn’t real, we know about all this stuff. And if we’d be in many schools, the more advanced schools, we have been inundated with skepticism and secularism. Overseas they’re simple, humble. You tell them God loves them, and they say ‘ok, he loves me’. You say ‘God will do miracles’ and they say ‘okay, we believe him.’ And that’s what God’s looking for, that’s why they have miracles.”
It is a truly embarrassing suggestion that education undermines religion. According to Robertson, religion needs less educated people who simply believe what they are told by people like Robertson.
I also like Spirit in the Sky
rafflaw,
Congratulations! You must have been the one person who bought the record.
Your taste is obviously confined to your mouth.
“When I die and they lay me to rest, gonna go to the place that’s the best.”
I do admire the careful evaluation that the lyricist performed to find just the perfect subtle balance of one-syllable words to complete the rhyme.
Quite esoteric, actually.
Nothing done since quite measures up. Tom Jones’ “What’s New Pussycat?” deserves honorable mention.
Bob K.,
I like Spirit in the sky!
Dredd,
“Spirit in The Sky” was execrable when it first came out.
It’s only gotten worse.
There was a recent Miracle at Macy’s Dept store on West 34th Street in New York. They had hired a drunken Santa who cut a big fart which made the parrot who was assisting Santa that day pass out. A kid ran up and gave the parrot CPR and the parrot came back to life. A guy who ran a chinese owned store up the street heard about it and hired the kid and the parrot and left the drunk Santa with Macy’s. True story. The parrot relates the story in short sentences. The store is called Miracle on 32nd Street. They sell womens underwear and what not. The parrot insists on going into the fitting room with the customers but wont let the kid in. He comes out and gives a full report. Ya gotta see it to beleive it.
An Ivy League education (Yale Law school) didn’t enlighten Robertson and make HIM too sophisticated to believe in miracles.
Miracle Whip has much better sales in the Southern States, the Red States, than real mayonaise. It is not just the dumbed down taste. It is the name.
We got a postulate in our neighborhood and her downfall is that she gives on credit. But this Pat Robertson guy does well in the South. The southern flock likes the southern accent. And when Pat squints at the camera he is trying to see past the lens to see if he can see dollar signs out there amongst the flock. The prime reason for religion is so that mankind can better itself by fleecing a flock. The other night the Fox News genuine dumbell lady was calling Cesar Chavez a Communist and then by implication Googel was Communist because it put up Chavez’ photo on his birthday which happened t fall on Easter Sunday. One of the dumb itchinBay commenter was saying that Google was wrong to put up someone else’s photo on Christ’s BD. I emailed em and told em that he was born on some day called Christmas Day and died on Good Friday and went to heaven on Easter Sunday. McCarthy is back. JoeMcCarthy, not Paul McCartney. Not Eugene McCarthy. Fox News is going full tilt McCarthy Era tactics. You women readers out there ought to be offended by these so called adult female news announcers who fabricate a teenage voice and adopt stage names like Poppy. I guess if the McCarthy Era is back we can forget about women’s liberation too. Joe McCarthyism coming to your home by babygirltalk. .
This is interesting. It holds both as truth & lie. You could easily say that Robertson is proving he & religion are conning the people, but you wouldn’t have it more than half right & you’d definitely be half wrong, perhaps a lot more than half wrong. The universe operates off of postulates. A postulate is a decision made with conviction. Nothing in the physical universe has been made any other way. You say it & mean it & it happens. If you’re in good shape & if you’re sure of it. It may have nothing to do with a capital G God. That’s never been proven, but postulates have. You do it, or say God did it. What’s the difference. Not much. Most people are too self demeaning to think they could make a major change. They blame or praise ‘God’ instead. I believe that Robertson is more right than wrong in this case. By the way, practically every one of you is senior to the physical universe. You don’t believe it when you scrape your shin, but did that rock you scraped your shin on ever make a postulate or decision that actually happened? (without going back 50 bilion years before it became a rock, of course)
Perhaps the most honest statement Robertson has ever made.
Duh on me —
http://assets.baptiststandard.com/archived/1999/12_1/pages/age14.html
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Ron/My%20Documents/CHRISTIAN/Probability%20of%20professing%20Christ%20drops%20after%2014.htm
Like, when the Mets won the World Series. That was a miracle. Or when that second plane went into the towers and then the third tower fell too. Or when the TSA decided to let you carry pocket knives and box cutters on planes again. Or when a news network decided to get rid of Jay Leno. Or when Mitt Romney thought that he could win with the 47 percenters and that the voters were all dumb as folks in the Congo. Pat Robertson was a Mitt consultant. Did you all know that?
“Everything should be as simple as it can be, but not simpler.”
The dumber the flock the greater the fleecing.
Believe and multiply Ye Sheep. PaPa Pat needs more wool.
Yes Sir Yes Sir Tea Bags full.
I work as a guide dog for a guy in the old folks home here next door to the marina. The old farts watch Pat Robertson and Fox News. The senile ones confuse Pat with some news schmuck on Fox News. I think he has a Mick name like O’Malley. When I go to the doctors office his reception area has Fox News on. Same thing at the ER at the hosptial, Fox News blaring at ya while you wonder if the kidney has failed. Both Pat Robertson and Fox News are aimed at a target audience of those who need to believe in phony things like the holy ghost and weapons of mass destruction in iraq. Pat is busy amassing a huge futune. He needs dumbos. He should not have let the cat out of the bag.
I think that it was Miracle on 32nds Street. The higher one goes on the street grid in NYC the more intelligent they get. If you are down there by say 1st Street and First Ave in the Great Depression, that is where they were dumbest, near Wall Street. When the market crashed they were jumping out of windows because they thought they lived on air.