Miracle cures

[Lord Jim]

Wow Grimmy, that is a great site....The folks who put that together have really done a public service...

I spent a few minutes on it checking out various links...I could easily spend hours perusing it...

I also know a few folks who I'm going to be emailing some links from that site to...

I really wish that website would get some serious publicity; it would do a lot of folks a lot of good...

Thanks for posting that.

[Crackpot]

Alot of the stuff on there is more than a little sloppy. THey list Jonestown under both Cults and religious fundamentalism.

[Scooter]

Can't something be both? Not all fundamentalists are in cults, obviously, nor are all those in cults fundamentalist, but surely there is some overlap between the two.

[Lord Jim]

There certainly can be overlap, but I don't think Jones' People's Temple would qualify. Jones preached a lefty oriented brand of "liberation theology", that became less and less religious and more and more political over a period of time.

[Crackpot]

It could be but many in that list are have much to do with cults and less to do with fundamentalism (though the fundie list is much longer). especially if you use it in the traditional rather then the pejorative sense. As for critical thinking look at the cranial-sacral therapy link and let me know if there is any critical thinking going on there.

[Gob]

Lisanne Manseau

Age: 12
Hull, Quebec, Canada


Died (untreated diabetes)
March 28, 1994
After consulting a crystal ball, a pendulum and an angel, a naturopath replaced Lisanne's insulin with a variety of natural remedies to "detoxify" her. She died only three days after beginning treatment. The naturopath was convicted of manslaughter

That makes me so sad/angry.

The number of mental health clients we get who, either they or their parents; "Don't believe in Western Medicine" or "want to get an alternative perspective", is truly astounding. Of course, when they go off the fucking rails and harm themselves or others, the parents are quick to blame mental health services for; "not looking after them properly."

The sad thing is that our team now works very closely with Child and Adolescent services, as we're developing a bridging service to treat younger people with prodromal psychosis. The number of times I walk through our waiting room and see "Mr & Ms Modern Parent" and their kids, and KNOW that all efforts to get their kids stabilised are going to be undermined, and conflicted with homeopathy or reiki healing, is getting more and more frequent.

[Lord Jim]

Jim Jones claimed that the Peoples Temple had around 20,000 members in the mid 1970s. With this popularity, however, Jones’ message changed significantly during his efforts in California. During this same period, the foci of Jones’s sermons shifted away from religion and towards political theory.
Jim Jones’s “Divine Socialism”

Increasingly, Jones’s sermons became less religious and more political in nature. He began to invoke the philosophies of Karl Marx, and those that would build upon Marx’s theory of inevitable class conflict. Jones’s theology evolved into a strange amalgam of communism with his preexisting millenarian anticipation of nuclear apocalypse, a deep seated fear within the Peoples Temple patriarch, influenced greatly by Cold War political sensibilities.

In Salvation and Suicide, religious scholar, David Chidester provides excellent insight into the theology and worldview of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. Through a thorough examination of Jones's sermons, Chidester identified the elements of Peoples Temple theology:


“The Sky God of religion” – Jones identified the God of the Bible as a “trickster” or false deity.

· "God is Principle, Principle is Love, and Love is Socialism.” Jones preached that the concept of socialism was God. Further, “Jim Jones is God because he is the embodiment of Divine Socialism.”

· Others were capable of attaining divine status, as Jones had, if they were able to embrace, understand, and live Divine Socialism.

The last principle of Jones’s theology was the most important to the group’s members. Referring to the majority of Peoples Temple members, former member, Don Beck commented, “we all had a belief in building a socially just and egalitarian community on earth.” According to Beck, members cared little about religious doctrine. However, they had no doubt that Jones was metaphysically “gifted,” and that he was the man to lead them to their goal.

Jim Jones and the Myth of Creation

Certainly, Jones did not just roll this message out on a random Sunday. He could not simply announce that he was God, and hope that everyone would believe. It was a gradual process, and it began by detaching his followers from the Bible by denouncing the book as one of a deceitful God.

Jim Jones employed the Bible in a selective manor by invoking verses that supported his message. This was particularly useful in supporting his status as a “God.” Jones employed the same strategy in representing socialism as true Christianity. Once he selected the verses that worked for him, Jones would then attack the mythology of the Bible. One example of such an attack is Jones's interpretation of the creation myth.

Jones significantly modified the story of creation, asserting that the "Sky God" created humanity by evacuating them as excrement. The "Sky God" purposely kept humans in an ignorant state so that they would blindly worship him, something that the lonely deity required in order to feed his enormous ego.

Many in the congregation found Jones's rendition to be hilarious. Those that did not find the story humorous usually stormed out of the church. Jones would heckle those that left early, effectively ensuring that they would not return. Jones eliminated his divine competition, so to speak, in order to present himself as the embodiment of the principle of "Divine Socialism."

Interestingly, as Jones indoctrinated the Peoples Temple congregation in Marxist ideology, he was making plans to put his message into practice in the jungles of Guyana, South America. While Jim Jones preached “Divine Socialism” to Californians, some of his most trusted associates were clearing the dense vegetation off land that was to become Jonestown.

Read more at Suite101: The Theology of Jim Jones: Peoples Temple Patriarch Preaches "Divine Socialism" | Suite101.com http://suite101.com/article/the-theolog ... z23CMxNfJm

[Crackpot]

THis guy is a forst class nut.

Kent Hovind
Age: 53
Pensacola, Florida

10 years in prison, $600,000 restitution
January 19, 2007

A noted proponent of Creationism, he also believes many conspiracy theories about the U.S. government. As a result he avoided paying taxes on his considerable income for years. He is now serving 10 years in federal prison. Read more

[Gob]

"Offquack"

Prince Charles’ Foundation for Integrated Health and its new regulatory quango, the Natural Healthcare Council (or Ofquack, as it is bound to become known), is due to launch in April. Ofquack is designed to be an ‘independent self-regulatory body for complementary therapists.

In 2000, the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee looked into the regulation of non-medically trained health workers. It asked the Prince of Wales Foundation to look into setting up a body to mop up all the ‘harmless’ CAM therapies, such as reiki, massage, aromatherapy, yoga and homeopathy. Alternative therapies that have the potential to have real effects on people such as osteopathy, herbalism and acupuncture have already been statutorily regulated or are soon set to be. Ofquack, The Natural Healthcare Council, will not be a statutory body; it will be voluntary (for now) and will involve representatives from each ‘discipline’ and lay people to help self-regulate.

The idea behind setting up this new body is to attempt to provide protection to the public from exploitative or dangerous practices. The Quackometer believes the structure of the body will mean that it will be impotent to carry out this role. For this reason, I am disappointed that Ofquack is being set up in its present from and I would hope Prince Charles team, headed by Professor Dame Joan Higgins, would stop and think again.

However, I need not worry. As is becoming increasingly clear, large swathes of the alternative medicine industry want nothing to do with this initiative. This was totally predictable and the consequences are going to be hilarious.

very funny report, read more here...