Benny Hinn and Peter Popoff Faith Healers

Benny Hinn: let the bodies hit the floor



Benny Hinn cures cancer



Exposed




James Randi and Peter Popoff



Class Break

Faith Healing Frauds

This week, we are going to be talking about faith healers, their extraordinary claims, and their utterly unremarkable lack of success.

• Carey has found Benny Hinn, professional dirtbag.
• Peter's found quackbusters.
• Elise has written about Peter Popoff, who Randi debunked big time on the The Tonight Show.
• Vince has found Oral Roberts, whose son is apparently carrying on the family tradition of fraud and impropriety.
• How about Kathryn Kuhlman, a faking fakir of yesteryear, courtesty of Carolyn?
• Chris has gotten the messy practice of psychic surgery all over his hands.
• Michael has an appointment at Dr. Helena Steiner-Hornsteyn's House of Wacky.
• Brian found Aimee McPherson wandering in the desert, looking pretty good.
• Peter found Jose Silva--I think I went to college with him.
  

B

Extra day of apocalyses!

Some Russians have gone down into a cave and aren't going to come up until we are all dead, sometime next year. It's a matter of what lasts longer, the world or their food supply.

HJ

Prophecy...

This week, we are looking at prophesies as well as end of the world myths. You might also, I suppose, choose people who claimed to be prophets (like Nostradamus).

The Oracle at Delphi (actual footage)

• Elliot remembers the time when the world's computers did not all simultaneously crash during the biggest non-event in the history of anything, Y2K.
• Carey has discovered that when you get a Greek high priestess jumped up on wacky tobaccy, she is liable to say all sorts of wacky stuff.
• Catherine Zeta Jones, alien. Caroline shows you how!
• Elise conclusively shows that the world did not end in 1988.
• Michael has a pretty cool post about a pretty nifty clock...I should have known about this one!
• Haley has found a psychic who even puts himself to sleep.
• Peter argues that the world did not end in 1700.
• I would put your money into stocks for canned food and shotguns.
• Brian's got a whole Mayan thing going on.
• Ben ordered a heaping serving of Apocalypse at the International House of Yahweh (warning--moving pictures are not really alive).
• It's the end of the world as Eileen knows it, and she feels fine.
• Vince has discovered what Elise has already done. Oh well.
• Chris found Nostradamus.
  

B

Cryptozoology

As you know, but I will remind you anyway, I would like to get as broad a coverage as possible of the field of cryptozoology. This means, as always, the sooner you do your blog, the more likely you will be to get your first choice of topics.

• Go to cszczes.blogspot.com for all your El Chupacabra-related needs.
• Mothman vs. Chupacabra: A WWF Cage Match! Brought to you by Elise.
• Check out Elliot's personals ad: "Wanted: Winged creature about 50 feet long, with giraffe like neck, six legs, head of a bulldog, and smells like a wet dog." (The Monster of Elizabeth Lake)
• Peter found the mud monster, and it's so close to St. Louis that no local necking teenage couple is safe! (Really, it sounds like a 1950's b-movie plot)
• Michael has a few things to say about the Jersey Devil.
• It's a man. It's a moth. It's...Chris's blog!
• Haley, returning from the innermost reaches of the African badlands, has found a bear/hyena/hallucination thing called Nandi Bear.
• Brain's post will make you believe that the Billiken is sort of normal (the Maryland Goatman).
• Peter will get the Nobel Prize for proving evolution wrong (fur-bearing trout).
• Eileen and the Cryptid Apes (could a be a snappy band name).
  

B

The Supernatural Services Industry

Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed your break and that the very, very few blog entries that have been posted does not mean that you have put off doing your library assignment, because if you all show up on the same day, the librarians are going to have my head in a display case.



ANYWAY, this week's topic is, broadly conceived, the Supernatural Services Industry, which is not a real industry. Basically, people who are turning coin by perpetuating beliefs about the non-religious supernatural.

• Peter, who is pale and wears lots of black, has put us in touch with the goofiest thing that I have ever heard of in the longest time. This is truly a symphony of weird.
• Who is that creeping around your house at night? It's Michael!
• Vince finds that not only are psychics phony, but they are also affordable.
• Carey discovers that if there are not ghost hauntings, there are at least ghost hunter hauntings.
• Elise finds a former cop (I wonder why he is "former") who investigates the paranormal, doubtlessly fingerprinting them and taking them downtown.
• Brian house has a fear-demon who won't stop killing his pets....who can help him?
• Haley found evidence of a haunting...
• Peter--just clear your head...don't think of anything!!!!!
• Eileen learned that if Noreen touches her wallet, the energy tells her that it will get $1000 lighter.
• Elliot be callin' on Mrs. Cleo for help with his reggae groove, mon!

B

Hoaxes

Most of you have not completed your blog assignments on time. Just saying.

• Peter E seems to know a suspicious amount about crop circles.
• Isn't it enough to enjoy the beauty of a garden without having to believe that the Cottingley Fairies are at the bottom of it, Haley?
• I thought that Mountain Dew glowed anyway, Carolyn.
• Caroline exposes the most hilarious threat posed by bananas.
• Carey has been visited by aliens, or weird tornadoes, or something.
• Elise convincingly argues "that Marx uses the term ‘objectivism’ to denote not sublimation, as Sartreist existentialism suggests, but postsublimation." She's doing the Sokal Hoax. For a convincing example of what postmodernism reads like, go to the Postmodern Essay Generator, which is completely random but grammatically correct and amusing.
• Elliot has uncovered the truth about the fire-breathing beaver-people of the moon. There are also unicorns.
• Chris Yay! wonders, "Now, where did I put my kidneys?"
• Ever wonder why Vince's has a kitten shaped like a Coke bottle?
• Peter has unearthed the carefully constructed story of the Cardiff Giant.
• Eileen has the title of the week: Loch Ness...Model?
• Chris finds it really does taste like chicken.
• Ben discusses the first Nazi superweapon: a lung-powered airplane!
• Your instructor has encountered the least convincing hoax ever. Really. Wow. Wow.
• Brian has his own private Idaho.
• Mary limps across the finish line with the very important Piltdown Man Hoax.
  

B

Mass Hysteria Posts...

These are coming along nicely. I will add links as you folks post. Please try not to double-post.

• Carey caught the Y2K bug
• Elliot has discovered the Martian Invasion of 1938.
• Have you met Elise's pet Chupacabra? I encourage you to look at the site she talks about. It has a great summary of mass hysteria! Way to go, Elise!
• Caroline's post about the "Mad Gasser" will knock you out!
• Haley explains why she will never turn on the air conditioner ever again.
• Why does Brian cover his mouth when he coughs?
• Carolyn explains why nobody should ever, ever, EVER go to Nigeria.
• Syed asks, "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?"
  
• Eileen asks, "Have you ever attended a meeting of the Communist Party?"
  
• Chris takes us to the wonderful land of woo, by which I mean Peru. Then Peter shows up a little later and finds Chris passed out from the fumes.
  
• Peter turned me into a newt. I go' better.
• And Chris takes cover in the enchanted land of modern day Lebanon.
• Ben wins the title of the decade award: "Penis-melting Zionist cyborg combs"
• Vince is not afraid (he says) of the Monkey Man of New Delhi.
• Why did it take so long for Michael to write to his blog? He was hiding from the Fairfax Slasher!
  

As more of these come in, I am starting to realize the scope and, really, how many patterns you can find and links you can make between these panics, well, except for the Penis-melting Zionist cyborg combs, which deserves its own place in the Pantheon of Goof. Seriously, when I start my band, that's going to be our name.

B

Conspiracy Theories

She's a witch!!!!



Illuminati and the New World Order



Illuminati Symbolism

A conspiracy theory in our midst.

A James Randi and Warrant Rampage!

A homeopathic response to terrorism.

Little Mermaid Cover

Alladin sound clip

What did Preview Family Movie and TV guide really say about The Lion King?

B

About half of you have been very naughty...

Don't make me send in the nuns! They have rulers and know how to use them...

I just wanted to remind you that you have a blog entry that is already due. I can absolve you this time, but they need to be in by 9:00 at the very latest.

We are looking into Holocaust deniers this week. No more entries on biblebelievers.org, please. Everyone seems to have found them.

I'm serious. Nuns with guns.

B

WebCT is up! Huzzah!

Thank your lucky badgers.

Anyway, the readings are posted in the left sidebar. I will be putting a copy of earlier readings, the syllabus and a message board on the WebCT page.

How to get the readings:

On a fast computer (the files are biggish), go to webct.[ourschoolsinitials].edu
Click on the first tab, which is courses 2007/2008
your login name is the first part of your school email address, ALL IN CAPS
your password is the last four digits of your SSN.

The readings are:
FROM THE TEXTBOOK: EOA Support, EOA Readings
FROM ELSEWHERE: RassinierConcl, Shermer1, Shermer2

When you look at the Holocaust material, I'd like you to do it in the following order:

First, read the Rassinier article
Then watch the following little clip from Iranian television (you can watch all of it if you like):


Then go to the Institute for Historical Review web site and look around (this can't be the site you write up on your blog).
Then do the Shermer stuff.

Meet in the computer lab next week.

B

Readings are up at the email address...

Thought you might want to know.

B

September Schedule (will be updated)

Sept 4— What is an argument?
HW: Read Rottenberg Ch. 4 (104-156; "Claims"); Read Gardner: "Claiborne Pell, Senator From Outer Space" (175-184); Gardner: "Heaven's Gate: The UFO Cult of Bo and Peep" (197-208); On your new blog, make a link to an article/blog entry from someone who believes in UFOs and in your own entry, identify the claims that they are making. Give examples/quotes examples, and be prepared to talk about what you have written in class.

Sept 11— Short paper 1 due

HW: Read Rottenberg Ch. 5 (157-219; "Support"); Read TBA

Sept 18—
HW: Read Rottenberg Ch. 6 (220-268, "Warrants"); Read TBA

Sept 25—
HW: Read Rottenberg Ch. 7 (269-313; "Induction, Deduction, Logical Fallacies"); Read TBA

Short Papers

Short Papers

Paper 1: Know Thyself (Due Sept 11)

Write a short (4-page) paper in which you describe how you came to a strong opinion about a debatable issue. You may select any topic. Very important: DO NOT ARGUE THE CONTROVERSIAL POINT! I want a description of how you CAME to have that opinion. I do NOT want a paper with the thesis: “The death penalty is wrong” or “We should bomb Japan again.” I want to see a thesis that identifies the historical, personal and social influences that helped shape your opinion, no matter what that is. Indeed, two people on opposing sides of the issue could write papers that cited the same influences: parents, church, personal expertise in the area, etc.

Paper 2: Know Thy Enemy (Due Oct 2)

Find a published editorial or opinion piece with which you disagree. Write a short (4-page) critical response to the editorial. Your response should have three components: 1) a brief summary of the article and the argument, 2) an analysis of the author’s rhetorical strategies, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of their case, and 3) your argumentative response. You should also turn in A COPY OF THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE.

Extra credit shall be lavished upon anyone who can get his/her response published in part or in its entirety in the magazine/newspaper! Yay!

Paper 3: Know Thy Stuff

This paper represents a step toward writing your final paper. Compile a “review of research.” This is a paper that surveys the state of the debate of your topic. You may address the following questions or any other aspect that you find relevant to your project. Please do not simply answer the following prompts formulaically, as by themselves they make for extremely dull reading. What is the (relevant) history of the argument? What are the various positions and who holds them? What is at stake? What are the implications of the issue according to the various interested parties? What questions need to be resolved? Attach a full, formal bibliography. Your paper should draw on at least 8 sources, a maximum of two Web sources (articles in Pius’s subscription databases do not count as Web sources, but, boy, it would warm this old instructor’s heart to see some print sources in there). (That bib is not included in the page count, by the way. Sorry. And I am not old.)

Paper 4: Know Thy Weird Stuff

This is intended to be a brief argumentative paper that is not related to the final monster paper. Speaking of monsters, they are one of the possible topics (cryptozoology) for this one. Using the skills developed in the first two papers, I want you to thoroughly evaluate any one of the following movements/topics/practitioners. Be fair and show both sides of the argument. Be ye warned: Some of the practices, like acupuncture, may have some legitimate uses (even if it is perhaps a placebo effect), and pseudohistory may mix fact and fiction. It is your job to differentiate between the hooey and reality, making clear which is which.

• Acupuncture
• Alien abduction
• Ancient astronauts / "Aliens built my pyramids and then sunk my Atlantis"
• Angels (The surge in popularity over recent years, I suspect, does not a reflect a surge in the number of angels.)
• Alchemy
• Alternative medicine
• Astrology
• Area 51
• Atlantis
• Bermuda Triangle
• “Back to Nature” movement (you see this in survivalism or “all natural” foods, especially the organic movement)
• Cattle mutilation
• Channeling
• Chiropractic medicine
• Conspiracy theories (pick one: Kennedy, 9/11, Aliens-government diplomacy, any other one you can conjure.)
• Creation science/Intelligent design
• Crop circles
• Cryptozoology
• Deconstruction (Deconstruction, by definition, cannot be defined. Man, I hate deconstruction.)
• Elvis sightings
• ESP
• Exorcism / The exorcism at SLU!
• Electromagnetic fields and their effects on the body
• Faith healing / psychic surgery
• False memories / past life regressions
• Feng shui / Charms/Crystals
• Glossolalia (“Speaking in tongues”)
• Ghost hunting
• Herbalism
• Hoaxes (scientific and religious—from relics to cold fusion)
• Homeopathy
• Hypnosis / Mind control /Therapeutic Hypnosis
• Mass hysteria (The various War of the World Hoaxes, the Tulip Mania, Crusades…even the War on Terror)
• Mediums/psychics/psychic detectives
• Nostradamus / prophesy
• Numerology
• Ouiji boards
• Out-of-body experiences / Near death experiences / astral projection
• Pseudohistory/Holocaust denial
• Recycling (I strongly suspect that this is more complex than you think.)
• Ritual Satanic abuse
• Signs from God / “Matrixing” (the Virgin appearing on a cheeseburger bun, that sort of thing)
• UFOlogy

Your Online Journal

YOUR ONLINE JOURNAL—We’ll call it a “Blornal”

In the past, I have required students to keep a personal writing journal for the duration of the semester, only to have them ask me at the end of the semester, “So, how many journal entries should I have?” You can tell that they have not been keeping up with the writing requirement, which defeats the purpose of the class. For this reason, I am utilizing the latest in “Big Brother” technology to monitor these journals by requiring students to maintain a blog for the duration of this class. Every week, you are required to post at least one journal entry about the readings or topics that we have discussed in class. These may be reflective or argumentative, but, regardless, they must be substantive and give your subject as full treatment as is possible. I will receive them all automatically and will be able to keep tabs on your work.

The topics are up for you to decide. Blog entries should be several paragraphs long, and may include hyperlinks, photos from the web, or other data. Postings are due by 7:00 on the Monday night before class; this is so I have a chance to read them all before we meet.

You will turn in 5 carefully revised and edited versions of these entries with your final paper. I leave it to you to give me the best version of your best work. The version you turn in will count as 20% of the final paper/project grade.

Go to Blogger.com to set up a new account.

(https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount?sendvemail=true&followup=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Floginz%3Fd%3D%252Fhome&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Floginz%3Fd%3D%252Fcreate-blog.g&service=blogger&naui=8&hl=en)

• Type in your school email address (or another one that you already have) and fill in the blanks to set up your account. WRITE THIS INFORMATION DOWN NOW AND SAVE IT—HECK, WRITE IT IN YOUR BOOK!

• Next you will name your blog. It needs to be simple so I can easily recognize whose blog it is just by looking at the title, so put your first name in it somewhere. Example: Herod’s Blog (If your name is Herod. Or, for that matter, if your name is Blog). You will get to pick the first part of your URL: for instance, WeLoveHerod.blogspot.com

• Then you will choose a template. (You will be able to change this later if you like, so spend almost no time on it.)

• Next you will create a very brief greeting, publish and view your blog.


Adding an RSS feed (this is how I will retrieve your postings without visiting every page—this is soooooo easy.)

1) Go to www.feedburner.com
2) Type in the URL of your new blog and hit enter.
3) On “Identify Feed Source” page, select the RSS option.
4) Create your Feedburner Account (and write down your information, of course) and click “Activate Feed”
5) You will get a message that reads: Congrats! “Your FeedBurner feed is now live. Want to dress it up a little?” I do not care if you want to dress it up or not. I want the URL that appears below the question. I need to type that address into my feed reader in order to retrieve what you have posted. Write it down. Print it up. I do not care, just get it to me. Save a copy of this page for yourself as well.

Blogging and Privacy

There is no privacy. It is a blog.

For your own safety, do not include any personal information (aside from your first name) on your blog or in your posts. (This includes the name of your school and my name, by the way). No personal pictures. No contact info. Nada. For the duration of the semester, this blog will be devoted to this class. Remember, I will be grading whatever you are posting, so if you have pictures of you and your fraternity brothers doing keg-stands, your are going to hear about it. Whatever you want to do with it after the semester ends is your business.

Roderick Spode

HEIL SPODE!!!

Welcome to the Black Shorts Party Headquarters! We follow very much in the tradition of our esteemed leader, Roderick Spode, the Earl of Sithcup. We are a political party determined to bring the world together under a single leader and to achieve progress through the application of science. Remember to bookmark this page for future updates as our firm knees march toward victory!


HEIL SPODE!