Christians, Police Your Own Ranks: Randy Demain Claims to Have Raised the Dead
What a crackpot, a buffoon. He claims it's easy to raise the dead. He's an idiot.
Watch him calmly describe how easy it is to raise dead people to life. Are you with me so far? I've never heard of him before but let's examine his testimony.
He tells two stories that both took place in Africa when he raised a woman and a baby from the dead. His challenge is to westernized Christians to do likewise because such things don't take place among us.
I'll assume for the sake of argument that he's sincere and honest in his reports, although, given what we know about many evangelists who tell whopping stories in order to raise funds, we have a reason to be suspicious of his stories no matter how sincere he looks.
But is it any wonder why these claims are coming from Africa? They do not have scientifically trained coroners who pronounce people dead. So it stands to reason these people were never dead in the first place, and it best explains why these claims are not being made in scientifically minded westernized countries. GET. THE. POINT.
The woman he claims to have raised from the dead may have been playing dead in order to get away from the two men. We just don't understand how women are treated in these countries, but it is really bad. Since she stole some money later it's pretty clear she's a deceiver, so why wouldn't she attempt to deceive these men about her death to get away from them? Living in such a superstitious world she felt compelled to get up when commanded by this male evangelist and then she just did what she was intent on doing all along, to get away from these two men.
But even if this event happened as Demain claims it did, I still have another objection. I have never personally seen a person whom I knew to be dead who was subsequently raised from the dead. If God does that then why doesn't he do that for me? To me it's like the guy who says he heard his ass talk but cannot make it talk in front of me (think Balaam). It's the same damn thing.
Faith is a cop out and has no place in evidential reasoning.
HT: PZ Myers.
Watch him calmly describe how easy it is to raise dead people to life. Are you with me so far? I've never heard of him before but let's examine his testimony.
He tells two stories that both took place in Africa when he raised a woman and a baby from the dead. His challenge is to westernized Christians to do likewise because such things don't take place among us.
I'll assume for the sake of argument that he's sincere and honest in his reports, although, given what we know about many evangelists who tell whopping stories in order to raise funds, we have a reason to be suspicious of his stories no matter how sincere he looks.
But is it any wonder why these claims are coming from Africa? They do not have scientifically trained coroners who pronounce people dead. So it stands to reason these people were never dead in the first place, and it best explains why these claims are not being made in scientifically minded westernized countries. GET. THE. POINT.
The woman he claims to have raised from the dead may have been playing dead in order to get away from the two men. We just don't understand how women are treated in these countries, but it is really bad. Since she stole some money later it's pretty clear she's a deceiver, so why wouldn't she attempt to deceive these men about her death to get away from them? Living in such a superstitious world she felt compelled to get up when commanded by this male evangelist and then she just did what she was intent on doing all along, to get away from these two men.
But even if this event happened as Demain claims it did, I still have another objection. I have never personally seen a person whom I knew to be dead who was subsequently raised from the dead. If God does that then why doesn't he do that for me? To me it's like the guy who says he heard his ass talk but cannot make it talk in front of me (think Balaam). It's the same damn thing.
Faith is a cop out and has no place in evidential reasoning.
HT: PZ Myers.
12 comments:
Great post.
The story of Daniel Ekechukwu was what finally convinced me the resurrection of Jesus cannot be reliably accepted.
All the reasons I would give for accepting Jesus Christ's resurrection would indicate that I was also supposed to accept the resurrection of Daniel Ekechukwa. Angel visitations, multiple eyewitness reports, being pronounced dead, prophecy beforehand, etc. But their theology differed. And Daniel's story sounded fishy.
But just as fishy as Jesus's story.
Then I tried to imagine how a story like Daniel's would sound after 40-freakin' years in an era where they didn't have any digital recording media or ability to easily copy reports. Suddenly I realized that if Daniel's story had occurred in first century Israel, it could have easily turned into the Jesus story.
In both cases, we have multiple eyewitnesses whose accounts differ on minor details but are the same on the main point. For Jesus, we have the gospels, for Daniel, we have living "eyewitnesses".
I still remember the sinking feeling when I realized that I could not honestly accept the resurrection of Jesus and reject the resurrection of Daniel Ekechukwu.
And then I noticed that Christian apologetics websites would say you should reject the resurrection of Daniel for the EXACT SAME REASONS that skeptics say you should reject the resurrection of Jesus.
The double standard astounded me. They wanted to believe the resurrection of Jesus because it made them feel comfortable in their current beliefs, and they wanted to reject the resurrection of Daniel because Daniel's theology put their theology in question. So they reject the resurrection of people who do not agree with their theology and accept the resurrection of people who fall in line with their theology.
Hmmmm....
Even in countries with modern health care, physicians can mistakenly pronounce death. A lot of unconscious people must have passed for dead in premodern times, like in the story of Er in Plato's Republic.
Very creepy. He sure sounds convincing and talks about how her body was stiff already. I don't know what to think, but it creeps me out. It doesn't feel like a good thing.
I guess you have to remind yourself that if he's lying, that liars are very good at what they do. They are extremely convincing.
I think, from the very start, one thing needs to be understood about Christianity (be it ancient or modern): It’s fine to lie (and encouraged) as long as lying makes converts! (Joseph Smith and the Mormon tradition is great example here too.)
This moral and ethical method of fabricating falsehood is not limited to early Christianity either, but found its birth in Judaism.
Need proof? Just consider the The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Volume 1: Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments And The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Volume 2: Expansions of the "Old Testament" and Legends, Wisdom and Philosophical Literature, Prayers, Psalms and Odes, & Fragments of Lost Judeo-Hellenistic Works by James H. Charlesworth (The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library)
This same tradition of religious lying in the name of God continued in the Early Church (Hey, the apple does not fall too far from the tree!).
And for more religious lies: The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation by M.R. James nor J.K. Elliott with its 6o plus fabricated Gospels, Epistles and Apocalypses (Oxford University Press)
The above is just a few of the many fabricated lies that were not destroyed either indirectly (by neglect) or directly (as heresy).
Except maybe a few minor exaggerations I don't think he's lying, he believed it wholeheartedly and naively. Just when I'm gonna demonstrate how to part the Hudson River, he comes along, raises people from the dead and takes away James Randi's $1M challenge, life just sucks sometimes.
Freakshow! Run for your life!
Why aren't the life insurance companies beating a path to his door? He would do wonders for the share price of the first one to get him under exclusive contract.
Here is a REAL story of someone who was "raised from the dead": I was watching the Science Channel show called "The Science of Cold". It was about hypothermia and its effects on humans. There was a Swedish woman and her partner on there who were telling the story of when she fell through the ice of river she was crossing while cross country skiing. She fell in head first. Her partner couldn't pull her out because the current was too strong. Rt was rushing into her coat, pulling her deeper under the ice. She died. It took a while for help to show up. It took them an hour to get her out of the water. They rushed her to the hospital where the doctors warmed her up by putting her on a heart bypass machine which recirculated her cold blood with warm blood. After 2 hours, her heart started to beat again. She was dead over 3 HOURS!!!! She was paralyzed from the neck down and bleeding internally. She eventually recovered and learned to walk again after a long bout of rehab. She was LITERALLY brought back from the dead. And you know what? She has no memory of her death or the 3 hours after wards. No bright light, no angels, no god. Her consciousness died with her body.
Here is the contradictory thing I can't understand: Why would a christian want to bring back someone who may have made it to their "heaven"? Can you imagine how pissed off the person who was raised from the dead would be when they find themselves taken out of paradise and back to earth! Isn't this messing with their god's plan for the person who died? Hilarious!
Stephanie,
According to the video, the African woman (who had already set up in rigor mortis being advanced in her own death) was not saved. Yet, after being brought back to life, this unsaved woman had no story to tell of the horrors of a burning fierily Hell! To prove of her unsaved state, Randy Demain tells us that when she returned her to life, she stole money from the church before she was finally won to Christ in salvation.
While Rev. Demain tried to prove the Gospel promises miracles are true on one hand, he disprove Hell on the other!
Thanks for this video! Seriously, thanks. It's great evidence of superstitious folly at work!
http://advocatusatheist.blogspot.com/2010/01/christianity-stupid-factory-making.html
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