WARNING! I'm an atheist, and some of what I write here might, well most likely will, offend a religious person, a person of faith, if you will. It's not done with intent, that's just the way it is.


For some reason, religion is generally treated in a special way. Yes, for some reason, folks think that no one should make fun of religion or say anything negative about religion. I see no logic to this. We can say what we want about your favorite football team, the person who you voted for, and so on, but we're supposed to hold our tongue about your faith. Folks, that just doesn't make any sense. Anyway, I felt I would at least warn you. If you are a religious person I would encourage you to read my posts; with an open mind, please. If I say things that aren't true about your religion, please let me know. Leave a comment or send me an email. Would most likely be willing to discuss it with you. Hey, I'm up for learning something new.

Also, keep in mind, that if you are a Christian, my understanding is that you're saying that your god is the only god. Now, if that's true, which I understand it to be, then that of course is a direct insult to every other religion out there. You've said their god isn't the real deal; I'd call that an insult...


Sunday, January 1, 2012

What's the Harm? Possibly Death!

November 19, 2011, Yavapai County, Ariz., Judge Warren Darrow sentenced James Arthur Ray for the deaths of Kirby Brown, 38; James Shore, 40; and Liz Neuman, 49 who all died after participating in a sweat lodge ceremony. The sweat lodge was the closing event of a five-day seminar, or retreat, I guess you could say. Ray, who charged $10,000 to participate, billed it as a Spiritual Warrior event. Yes, and of course he talked about making spiritual breakthroughs and all of the other New Age stuff.
The jury convicted Ray of three counts of
negligent homicide. The judge sentenced him to two years on each count, to be served concurrently.
Ray's rise to well-known
self-help guru and motivational speaker was helped along, by, yes, good old Oprah. Also, it didn't hurt that he had a part in the movie, The Secret. You guys remember the Secret. Yes, the law of attraction. Think it and it's yours.
Folks, no I'm not saying that we shouldn't try to improve ourselves, improve our lives, but there's no quick way to anything in life, and though most of us will never achieve
greatness, we all have the ability to have decent lives, and that's what we should work on; fine tuning what we have, maybe learning to be better people. There are few of us who are going to breakout of our lives, if you will, and achieve overnight wealth and success: And, for those of us who do, it's not going to be because of the Rays of the world. It's all hard work and for most of us it takes time. Though I didn't spend much time in looking into Ray's background, I'd be willing to bet that he never made any money other than the money given to him by a whole host of gullible people who attended his seminars and bought his stuff. David McCall, a Texas trucking business owner who said he spent $125,000 to attend Ray's seminars in 2008 was at Ray's sentencing hearing to ask the judge for leniency.
As I type this, his Website is still up and running selling books, CDs, DVDs, yes and all of the words are there for you: Harmonic Wealth, Science, and Spiritual this that and the other and so on.
Who are these people who go to these seminars and spend their money on most-likely worthless CDs, books, and such. I would imagine that most are bright intelligent people with a sincere desire to improve their lives.  The problem is, that they put the Rays of the world up on a pedestal and shut off all of their logical thinking. It would seem that Ray was considered god-like and no one questioned him or closely evaluated what he was selling. Several people ended-up with broken hands at another of his seminars when he told them they could break cinder blocks. The followers of the Rays of the world shut down any critical thinking that they have and seem to buy into whatever they are told. 
Ray, like others of his ilk, is nothing more than a New Age shyster. Instead of peddling snake oil, Ray peddled his DVDs. Instead of saying his potions and elixirs would cure your physical ills, Ray promised spiritual happiness and wealth. It would seem, that for most of those who bought into his scam, he delivered neither.



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