Jesus Saves... or does he?

A church in South Africa has been made to withdraw an advert found to be unsubstantiated by the Advertising Standards Authority. Bwaahaahaha! The ASA said that a bunch of crutches in the church's store room was not adequate proof that people had been cured of ailments that necessitated the use of crutches. Also testimonials from people who claim to have been dying of AIDS (their words) were not valid proof as they had not been confirmed by an unbiased third party. Lets face it here guys: 1: there is no cure for AIDS, 2: there probably will never be a cure , once a vaccine is developed there will be no need for a cure, 3: anybody claiming to have a cure for AIDS is probably only interested in your pocket book. I'm sure the ASA would be fine with the ads if the church stuck a little disclaimer at the bottom saying: "Not for sale to under 18s, Only effective in conjunction with a calorie controlled diet, Individual results may vary". On second thought, maybe it should read: "Individual results my vary, Only effective in conjunction with Anti-Retroviral Therapy, Not for sale to persons with IQ over 85".

As those of you who actually read the comments may have noticed I have a reader from Austin Texas. Cool. Maybe he just stumbled across the blog while googling for Scotty but he read and left a comment so that's great. It feels really great to find out that the +- 180 hits I've gotten in the last few months aren't only from my friends constantly checking to find out if I've posted a new blog or answered their SchpatDope questions. If there are any other readers who don't know me personally it would be great to hear from you, especially the aliens!

I reciprocated and read G. Allen's blog, it's well written and insightful. The problem is that I get the idea that he's going to be really pissed as some of the stuff I said in the post above (I make the assumption that he's still reading because I'm an optimist). This is a problem that DJ Coffman over at Yirmumah.net is also having and it's a real toughy. I don't mean to offend anyone, I have no problem if peoples beliefs differ from mine, I don't mind if they state those beliefs in a rational way and I don't think that they should mind if I do the same, even if our beliefs differ. So G. Allen, and anyone else out there, please continue reading and enjoying, unless you find this site totally boring and crap, then do whatever makes you happy.

As I promised I will be posting that answer to SchpatDope question about Mr D. System, maybe even today. I also want to post a counterpoint argument to some of the stuff on G.A.'s blog, not an attack, just a debate, so watch this space.

schpat