Am I supposed to take this seriously?


Some real estate agent, Bill Wiese, had a bad dream: he thought he was in hell, and that Jesus had put him there so he could see what it was really like, and testify to the people. Alas, some people think this guy’s fantasies are reality. That link is to a painful half-hour interview with Sid Roth, a crazy Jew-for-Jesus kind of guy, and they go on and on together, plugging a video you can buy, all about this guy’s pathetic dream. I skipped most of it, I’m afraid, and got just enough of a taste to feel nausea.

So this is what happens when you mix up stupid people and religion. It’s hell on earth.

Comments

  1. garth says

    sorry, but is there anything mixing other than stupid people and religion? even those bearable religionists have a stupid element in them, sometimes for obvious than others, but invariably there.

  2. says

    I’m a frequent sufferer of sleep paralysis, and I gotta say, I can see how certain kinds of sleep disturbances could cause a person to get religion or sincerely think they were abducted by aliens. But, as always, knowledge and education are the best cure.

  3. says

    This sounds like the same jackass whose book I saw at Wal-Mart, next to Stephen Baldwin’s harrowing tale of moving from one addiction to a more profitable one.

  4. G. Tingey says

    Not quite.
    PZ said: “So this is what happens when you mix up stupid people and religion. It’s hell on earth.”

    Actually, to get hell on Earth you need a LOT of stupid religious people for followers, and some thoroughly manipulative bastards, who are actually quite clever, in charge.

    Arseholes like:
    Saint Cyril of Alexandria,
    Saint Dominic,
    and Jean Calvin…
    Come to mind.

  5. Gene Goldring says

    Check out the YouTube version for the full impact. It’s exactly what you would hope to find. So far a riot..lol
    Demons and Dragon and Goul’s – Oh no!

    I haven’t made it through the opening graphics yet so I don’t know what I’ll find on the other side.

  6. says

    So now it’s Sid Roth’s turn. Earlier this year it was John Hagee, who plugged the “visit to hell” over and over again on his TV program. You could order it directly from Hagee’s ministry, so I guess the evangelical’s cut was the reason he turned his entire program into a commercial for the video. I’m sure it enriched the lives of Hagee’s credulous viewers as well as Hagee’s bank account.

  7. A Teapot says

    Allah must not be pleased: “As Stevens, the singer had several hits in the 1970s, including “Wild World,” “Moonshadow” and “Father and Son.” But early reviews of his new album have not been enthusiastic.”

  8. Mena says

    I once had to suffer through a presentation from former CWA President Sandy Rios. She claimed that the reason that she was doing what she was doing was because one night she was very tired and she told god that if he let her sleep, she would dedicate her life to him. Lo and behold, she was able to get some sleep. It was a miracle apparently!

  9. says

    I heard the residential real estate market was bad, but I didn’t know it was that bad. But for those who wish to save money on the book/video, I suggest you hang around Skid Row until some drunk hands you a Chick tract.

  10. colin says

    The blipvert red filtered scenes are great! You could spend $15 on 23 minutes in hell, or you can probably get Clive Barker’s Hellraiser much cheaper at a used video store.

    This guy doesn’t drink and has never done drugs. Maybe if he did some drugs he’d be a bit more sensible about the reality of his “visions”.

  11. says

    Are you supposed to take this seriously? I should think so. This guy has never done drugs and he’s got a glowing recommendation from a former police chief. So clearly it wasn’t a simple nightmare.

    When are you people going to wake up?

  12. Alex says

    I don’t believe in hell, I believe in heck. If you don’t believe in heck, Gosh will darn you there for eternity.

  13. Azkyroth says

    What I want to know is, are there hundreds of little trinket stores, that all have the same little trinkets in them?

    Or, for that matter, are the cops really German, the cooks really British, the lovers really Swiss, the mechanics really French, and everything really organized by the Italians?

  14. lydia says

    I don’t believe in hell, I believe in heck. If you don’t believe in heck, Gosh will darn you there for eternity.

    Then I guess the answer to that great existential question, “What are we?” is: socks.

  15. says

    Are you supposed to take this seriously? I should think so. This guy has never done drugs and he’s got a glowing recommendation from a former police chief. So clearly it wasn’t a simple nightmare.

    When are you people going to wake up?

    I like your logic:
    P1. Bill had a vision of Hell while sleeping.
    P2. Bill has never done drugs.
    P3. Bill has a glowing recommendation from a former police chief.
    C1. Therefore, the vision could not have been a nightmare.
    C2. Therefore, Hell is real.

    I’ve never done drugs, and I bet I could get police chiefs to say nice things about me. Therefore, I never have bad nightmares, right? And all my dreams, they are of completely real things.

    Bill ate a bad burrito before bedtime and now he’s making money off of it. Should that be taken seriously? Not on your life. I can’t believe anyone is taking this stuff seriously; the man went to bed and had a “vision” at 3:00 in the morning, and we’re to believe that he died, went to Hell, and returned with all this knowledge of its inner workings? Even if we buy his story, that his wife found him in the living room at 3:30 screaming his head off, there’s nothing to suggest that what he experienced is any different from a standard night terror or the well-understood and not-supernatural “out of body experiences” had by others. Perhaps he had a mild stroke, perhaps he had a mild case of gas, but a vision? I think not.

    When are we going to wake up, Max? When our alarms go off, and hopefully no sooner.

  16. Ichthyic says

    hey! I thought we all agreed that Hell was gonna be one hella party!

    heck, I’ve been gettin the bad sci fi reels ready for months now.