I Told You That You Should Really Avoid Magical Thinking...

Here's a perfect example of what I have been talking about, how accepting one bullshit thing on faith can make you more apt to start accepting other bullshit things too: As part of his campaign to get the same suckers who send him money to buy his energy drink, Pat Robertson -- 76 year old Pat Robertson -- claims that his drink allows him to leg lift two-thousand pounds.

That's right. 2,000. Two, comma, and three zeroes. Two-thousand. A 76-year-old man.

Notwithstanding that the world record is 1,335 pounds, and the guy who did that burst the capillaries in his eyes doing it. But Robertson claims he can beat that record by 665 pounds and not burst a single blood vessel.

Who would possibly believe that? Oh, that's right. The same people who believe he has a direct line to God, that God tells him things like how hurricane Katrina was God's judgment because of "the gays" or how soon the apocalypse is coming, even though he's never right, or that he can heal you by touching you. Once he gets you to believe he has Jesus powers, why not believe he has super-strength too?

And yes, Robertson is a loon and a con-man and would be with or without religion. Christianity didn't make him a loon and a con-man, I'm willing to concede. But it's kind of like the first person to try to open a stubborn jar: It loosens them up. Makes them more credulous, more willing to believe. And also gives a false sense of authority and credibility to someone who shouldn't have any: He's a man of faith, a man of God! He couldn't be lying to me!

Or else Robertson really is a superhero. I can't wait to see him in spandex.