- The WikiPedia article on Prosperity Theology
- The Time article, "Does God Want You to be Rich?"
- Atlantic Monthly: "Did Christianity Cause the Crash?" (A better title would be "The Prosperity Gospel Contributed to the Crash--Should you Pick Up the Pieces?"
- Finally, Senator Grassley has done some investigation into these ministers, but it's not clear what will come of it.
Showing posts with label financial scams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label financial scams. Show all posts
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Today's show: The Prosperity Gospel
Today, on the Atheist Experience, I'll be talking about the Prosperity Gospel. I thought I'd post a couple of interesting links about it, in case people want to explore on their own:
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Christian radio hypes gold. A lot.
I've been listening to Christian radio lately, and I'm hearing a LOT of commercial programs hyping investments in gold. Now, I'm not really up on current prices of precious metals. I did do a show where I mentioned Liberty Dollars, which I consider to be a massive ripoff.
I'm generally interested in scams and ripoffs, and my skepticism sensor get triggered loudly when I hear a program (1) on Christian radio (2) involving pushy marketing hype, that (3) pushes an investment that is perfect for EVERYONE, and (4) predicts financial doom for anyone who does not participate.
This last bit, as I have probably said before, is a hallmark of both sneaky advertising and religion. It short-circuits your ability to think rationally about an idea on its merits, instead cutting straight to emotions and panicking you by making you think that you'll be tortured forever (or whatever) if you dare to even ask questions about the concept.
So in this case, what's at stake is the total meltdown of all world markets, where stocks will be worthless and a dollar in the bank will be about as valuable as a Russian ruble. Only precious metals can save you from a fate of scraping food out of dumpsters for your children. Very, very soon now.
Look. I don't have a problem with gold as an investment. It is indeed the case that as the economy gets worse, the value of gold rises with respect to the dollar; as, indeed, will your pounds, francs, lira, and yen. If the dollar is doing badly, it makes sense to own something that is not a dollar. Simple as that.
Unlike most stock indices, the value of gold has actually increased pretty significantly since the year 2000. With hindsight, it's been a good recent investment.
But watch out, because after a commodity rises in value is not the best time to buy. There was a stock bubble, then a housing bubble, and the fact that gold is not rising doesn't mean that gold is going to do well forever. I'm not saying it's a scam, but the hype currently surrounding gold does set my spidey-sense tingling like crazy. When lots of voices start loudly pitching something, it usually means there's money to be made -- not by you, but from you. They've probably latched on to a pretty good gig in convincing people to shell out their money for something much more expensive than it's worth.
Anyway, the question is, why Christian radio? Is it just because there are so many gullible people there who are already conditioned to respond to threats of impending doom?
I'm generally interested in scams and ripoffs, and my skepticism sensor get triggered loudly when I hear a program (1) on Christian radio (2) involving pushy marketing hype, that (3) pushes an investment that is perfect for EVERYONE, and (4) predicts financial doom for anyone who does not participate.
This last bit, as I have probably said before, is a hallmark of both sneaky advertising and religion. It short-circuits your ability to think rationally about an idea on its merits, instead cutting straight to emotions and panicking you by making you think that you'll be tortured forever (or whatever) if you dare to even ask questions about the concept.
So in this case, what's at stake is the total meltdown of all world markets, where stocks will be worthless and a dollar in the bank will be about as valuable as a Russian ruble. Only precious metals can save you from a fate of scraping food out of dumpsters for your children. Very, very soon now.
Look. I don't have a problem with gold as an investment. It is indeed the case that as the economy gets worse, the value of gold rises with respect to the dollar; as, indeed, will your pounds, francs, lira, and yen. If the dollar is doing badly, it makes sense to own something that is not a dollar. Simple as that.
Unlike most stock indices, the value of gold has actually increased pretty significantly since the year 2000. With hindsight, it's been a good recent investment.
But watch out, because after a commodity rises in value is not the best time to buy. There was a stock bubble, then a housing bubble, and the fact that gold is not rising doesn't mean that gold is going to do well forever. I'm not saying it's a scam, but the hype currently surrounding gold does set my spidey-sense tingling like crazy. When lots of voices start loudly pitching something, it usually means there's money to be made -- not by you, but from you. They've probably latched on to a pretty good gig in convincing people to shell out their money for something much more expensive than it's worth.
Anyway, the question is, why Christian radio? Is it just because there are so many gullible people there who are already conditioned to respond to threats of impending doom?
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