Hey ever see people get "Angel readings?" Well now you can say you have.

Seriously what in the hell is wrong with people?

And don't forget these people raise children, and vote in elections.

Mother whose daughter died of cancer while she was attempting to save her by using faith healing, wants her child neglect charges thrown out. I agree, instead she should be convicted of manslaughter at the very least.

Courtesy of The Tennessean: 

An East Tennessee woman convicted of child neglect in her teenage daughter’s cancer death is asking the state Supreme Court to declare that she is innocent because she relied on prayer to heal the girl. 

Jacqueline Crank was sentenced to unsupervised probation after her 15-year-old daughter died of Ewing’s sarcoma in 2002. 

Despite the light sentence, Crank has continued to pursue the case, arguing that faith-healing should be legal for everyone. 

The Tennessee Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case in Knoxville on Thursday. 

State law makes it a crime to fail to provide medical care to children, but there is an exception for those who rely on prayer alone for healing. However, the Spiritual Treatment Exemption Act applies only to faith healing performed by an accredited practitioner of a recognized church or religious denomination. 

In turning to prayer for her daughter’s healing, Crank relied on the advice of Ariel Ben Sherman, who called himself the girl’s “spiritual father.” 

Testimony showed Sherman was accredited by the Universal Life Church, which will accredit anyone who fills out an application.

Damn this shit infuriates me!

And what the fuck is an "accredited practitioner" of fucking faith healing?

This is 2014 you superstitious inbred assholes!

You know if Tennessee would stop fearing religious people, and grow a pair, they could start charging these frauds with murder and believe you me suddenly all kinds of people would start receiving legitimate medical service for their health problems.

I swear the next person who dares to ask me what harm religion has done, is going to get hit so hard it will put bruises on their ancestors.

Driving evil out by hitting parishioners with your coat, you know because religion makes so much sense.

That's Benny Hinn, and that is only one of the absolutely ridiculous things he does not stage to convince ignorant people that he is channeling God's power.

Here is the video just in case you think this is made up.

Charlatans come in many different forms, and use numerous tricks to fleece their marks, but religion provides perhaps the best tool for taking money from the simple that was ever invented.

Evangelical group claims to have brought 11 people back from the dead. Apparently the zombie apocalypse is real.

Courtesy of The Freethinker:  

Tyler Johnson runs a ministry called the Dead Raising Team in the US. He claims to have brought 11 people back to life. He says he even persuaded the authorities in his state to issue him with an official photocard which lets him through police lines at car accident sites. 

Johnson, according to this BBC report, appears in a new documentary film called Deadraisers, which follows enthusiasts as they trail round hospitals and mortuaries trying to bring people back to life. 

Sadly, those they pray for in the film remain resolutely dead.

Johnson is unwilling to provide successful case studies. And in general, the proof that believers cite is a bit unconvincing ­– for example, there is an American heart surgeon who allegedly brought a heart attack patient back from the dead with prayer … oh, and a defibrillator. 

Other doctors find the story entirely unremarkable. One wonders why. 

Well I have seen faith healers at work, and kind of know how they pull that flim flam off, but bringing people back from the dead? Who is ignorant to believe that?

And the fact that this Tyler Johnson fellow's state supposedly lets him enter crime scenes so that he can resurrect corpses is incredibly troubling.

I can only imagine the anguish that a loved one would go through after losing a loved one to be told that they would be brought back to life, only to have those hopes dashed against the rocks of reality.

I went on the internet to look for this so-called documentary and I found the trailer with little trouble.

) On the Kickstarter page started back in 2013, the film was described in this way: 

DEADRAISER, a pivotal new documentary film, explores resurrection stories from around the world and offers an exciting view into the authentic Christian culture of miracles. This cutting-edge film follows a lively group of supernaturally empowered men from different backgrounds, theologies and geographic locations as they release kingdom power in love and live out the words of Jesus Christ from Matthew 10:8.

As many of you may, or may not know, certain Evangelical Christians do not believe that death was not in the original plan and that it was created by God in response to the sin that took place in the Garden of Eden.  Apparently due to that frame of mind an even smaller minority also believe that with enough prayer they can override that fate and bring people back from the dead. Literally.

You know it is one thing to delude yourself, but to attempt this horseshit to grieving relatives is indefensible. Especially if you have no data to support your claims.

When will people learn to stop being so fucking gullible?

Teenage karate kicking demon fighters? This is just chock full of WTF?

This is absolutely sickening on a number of different levels.

Clearly these people asking for exorcisms are mentally ill. ("I have welts on my legs where they held me down and raped me." Those are not the words of a sane person.)

But instead of receiving the kind of help that they obviously need they allow their superstitions to convince them to spend their money on these charlatans.

Part me wants to laugh at the image of this girl band of demon hunters being taken seriously by ANYONE. But another part of me just feels sad that there are still so many people so easily manipulated by this kind of superstitious nonsense.

One of my personal heroes.

An Honest Liar - Work-in-Progress trailer from Justin Weinstein on Vimeo.

When I was in my early twenties I found this book, and read it cover to cover.

This was during a time when I was spending a lot of time researching religions and philosophy, and was looking at the world with renewed skepticism. For critical thinkers and skeptics Randi was an absolute MUST read.

Though somewhat dated now, at the time Flim-Flam was a groundbreaking book that helped to set me on a truth seeking path, and helped to instill in me the necessity of always questioning the reality of what I was told, or even witnessed, and to NEVER accept the supernatural, or fantastical, explanation often provided without studying the evidence provided thoroughly.

If the purpose of having this outsized brain, and ability to reason, is to better understand the world around us, then we could have few better role models than James Randi.

Just my opinion.

You can visit the website to learn more about this documentary here. They are seeking investors, so if you are a mind....