The Flim-Flam Man

Rita Braver interviewed Pat Robertson on the CBS News Sunday Morning, broadcast April 9, 2006, where Robertson was plugging his new book. Robertson is a flim-flam artist. What is dispiriting is that there are millions of people who actually believe him and help enrich him. Anyone who believes what Robertson says is an idiot and beyond help:

"Well the basic thesis is that there's a god in heaven who is all powerful who wants to help people. And that-- he will answer prayer, and does miraculous things in people's lives. And so I've documented some of these wonderful things.

I've-- I've had one woman-- African-American woman raised from the dead. She was stone cold dead, and her prayers of her church brought her back to life."

No further comment needed.

Prayer Heals No One

“Prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery, a large and long-awaited study has found.

And patients who knew they were being prayed for had a higher rate of post-operative complications like abnormal heart rhythms, perhaps because of the expectations the prayers created, the researchers suggested.”