Hi RFlagg. God has given evidence of His existence through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, by raising Him from the dead. You’re right, you could have a supernatural experience in any religion, because the devil is the god of every false religion and he can give signs too. He has never raised a man from the dead, however, neither did he ever pay for the worlds sins, yours and mine.

God revealed Himself to man from the very beginning. Everyone from the beginning knew who God was, but gradually the knowledge of God faded away as men chose to turn away and follow after their own ways. Therefore, God raised up a people for Himself who would prepare the way for His Messiah.

Darren brown doesn’t know that you have an enemy of your soul who is trying to destroy you. You seem to be saying that supernatural experiences are a phenomena of human consciousness rather than from an external power. But there is an intelligence behind those experiences; they aren't merely delusions in and of themselves. There is also a manipulative hand seeking to influence how you see those experiences.

You mentioned that you were a former Christian, and this is what you listed: you watched TBN, foxnews and voted republican. I hope you know that none of those things makes you a Christian. Jesus talks about true and false Christians; what makes you believe you ever really were a Christian? Going to church? Praying? Reading the bible? None of those things makes you a Christian either. If you never really were a Christian, you should know from the bible that you are unable to tell the difference between Christianity and any other religion without Gods help. He has to open your eyes because right now you are dead in trespasses and sins. Jesus Christ didn't come to make bad people good, He came to make dead people alive.

Yahweh has NEVER given evidence of his existence. No more so than any other god anyhow. They all answer prayer equally and randomly well. They all claim to have made the universe/world, they all claim to be the true one... Near death experiences differ by culture expectations of that culture and don't all conform to the supposed Christian expectation... he has done nothing to make himself stand out from the rest of the gods that Christians dismiss. Heck, I've never seen a Frost Giant or evidence they ever existed, so clearly Odin has one up on Yahweh.

In the 4,000 years or so from Adam and Eve's time in the Garden to Jesus, Yahweh couldn't or wouldn't make himself known to the other races. He didn't reveal himself to those in Africa, Asia, the Americas or Europe, just to one tiny specific group of people in the Middle East. If couldn't then he's not the omnipotent, omnipresent god he claims, if he wouldn't that makes him a racist ass not worthy of following by picking one people to be his chosen people.

The only reason Europe became Christian was forced conversion when the Christian armies of Rome forced them to, which setup a tradition of most Europeans and later Americans being born into a faith. Were the exact same people born in Saudi Arabia they "would know that they know" that Islam is the true religion, or same in India but applying to Hinduism.

And saying that atheists have had supernatural experiences and can change to theism when talking about it, ignores the whole point of the video, especially the part when he talks about the linked Darren Brown video, which demonstrates that it is easy to make a spiritual experience happen that has no basis on any real god.

By way of example: I used to be a heavy evangelical Christian, I watched TBN and Fox News religiously (pun intended, see this old post of mine here on the sift from an old account that I couldn't recover http://videosift.com/usercomments/Charon... heck see my Revelations from the Word posts on my blog, http://www.brianathomas.com/archives/category/religion/revelations-from-the-word/ or more embarrassing my older political posts http://www.brianathomas.com/archives/category/politics/ which while progressive now, go to page 4 or so around June 2008 and back and you see a Libertarian and further back Republican with some crazy anti-vaccine paranoia , climate change denialism, science denaillism and other things I'm deeply ashamed of now)... I've had deep and meaningful spiritual experiences with god. After Republicans ruined Christianity for me (as the Republican party is clearly 100% against every teaching of Jesus... and yeah we can tick that off as being humans, but god does nothing to correct them, he may have spoke to my heart or whatever one wants to say to have more empathy, but over half the Christians in this nation still vote for a party 100% devoid of the teachings of the Jesus of the Bible while claiming to do it for Christian reasons) and I eventually lost faith (while Republicans are the reason I initially lost faith, they aren't the reason I stayed away, god is a dick is why I stayed away). After I lost faith in the Christian god, I gave paganism a try, and I've had just a meaningful spiritual experiences while worshiping at a Druid rite as I have at any Christian church. This is why people pick a religion, first by accident of birth (most people are Christian in the US because their parents were, and back to Europe where going back further they were forced to convert by invading Christian armies), second by choosing one that connects more personally with them... for many they see the hypocrisy of Christianity (and its general lack of empathy) but do connect with some form of paganism, and pagans generally have a patron god they serve above most others, and that god is the one they have a deep connection to, the same deep connection that Christians claim to have with Jesus/Yahweh... One doesn't drive a plane into a building killing 3,000 plus people without a deep and meaningful relationship with their god, and to dismiss t hat relationship as being deceived is naive and demonstrates a lack of empathy.

Now, I will allow the possibility that god does exist, but not in the form Christians propose, but perhaps closer to what the US Founding Fathers believed, but perhaps expanded a bit with more modern knowledge. A Deist like view. That this god somehow this god, created the energy and set into motion the laws of this physical universe that spun out from the big bang, but he's had nothing to do with anything since then. Perhaps all religions actually worship the same god but with their own culture's expectations and interpretations. However this would mean that all religions and lack there of are equally valid, which most faiths (aside from most modern paganism) doesn't allow for as their claim rests on being the true one.

I've rambled on far too long already so I'll leave it at that.

>> ^berticus:

it's DERREN, you insolent whelp! slap
>> ^solecist:
i'm surprised that a sifter with over 500 star points doesn't know who darren brown is.



way to ruin my opportunity for a ninja edit!

it's DERREN, you insolent whelp! *slap*
>> ^solecist:

i'm surprised that a sifter with over 500 star points doesn't know who darren brown is.

i'm surprised that a sifter with over 500 star points doesn't know who darren brown is.

>> ^Bruti79:

Can't upvote this, it is a lot of tin foil hat theory. Like Derren Brown says: "Extra Ordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."


not that it matters , but I don't think Darren brown was the origonater of that saying , probably ritchard Dawkins.

Its mental how people don't require good evidence for manny claims simply becuse the claims are "normal" within there set culture or exposure to a subject.

Training can over come to this. Attention to detail, a paranoid mind, and a lot of training. But even with training it is still difficult. I also think that the natural human reaction to authority has something to do with this. A person who has enough sense to read what they are signing would probably, I think, notice the difference between one guy and the other.

I would wonder why not noticing is a normal thing. It shouldn't be normal. I also think that its normal because there is no danger involved there. No incentive for adaptation. I think if each one of those people who didn't notice got electrocuted when they didn't notice they would notice in a similar experiment.

This reminds me of some of the tricks that Darren Brown does. When he pays with white paper instead of real currency, or when he takes stuff from the Russian guy and walks off.

This is a good book from Oreilly called Mind Hacks. It talks about alot of cool things. From blind spots, to Cognition, Noticing, and Attention Span.

We need Darren Brown to take this guy apart.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'birthday, gift, jedi, mind, trick, shaun of the dead, bmx' to 'birthday, gift, jedi, mind, trick, shaun of the dead, bmx, Darren Brown, Derren Brown' - edited by deedub81

Tags for this video have been changed from 'darren, brown, pub, video, game, real, shit, yourself, how, would, you, react, funny, sick' to 'derren, brown, pub, video, game, real, shit, yourself, how, would, you, react, funny, sick' - edited by Zonbie

Tags for this video have been changed from 'darren, brown, crowds widsom, trick' to 'derren, brown, crowds widsom, trick' - edited by doogle

Tags for this video have been changed from 'derren, brown, crowds widsom, trick' to 'darren, brown, crowds widsom, trick' - edited by doogle

*nochannel
This is *long *nsfw *science *videogames *1sttube *geek *dark

Well worth seeing, if you have not already Darren Brown taked unsuspecting (and suseptible) member of the public, and whilst they play a rigged arcade machine...well, I dont want to ruin it!

NSFW - because the poor sod absolutely shits himself...

I posted this, but I did not it here, so I fix the tags

Tags for this video have been changed from 'funny, comedy, darren brown, hypnosis' to 'darren, brown, pub, video, game, real, shit, yourself, how, would, you, react, funny, sick' - edited by Zonbie

Quite fake.

Power of suggestion and illusion.

Search for anything by Darren Brown (demonstrates both), or skeptic Jack Randi.