Can't believe he's back. I heard on a podcast that Jonny Carson was a true skeptic and helped destroy popoff's career. Too bad Montel Williams can't be like Carson and renounce Sylvia Browne, the Psychic.

By the way, your blog is a treasure trove of information and goodies- thanks for everything!

America is a land of contradictions. A land of brilliant secular humanists and of gullible fools, of true leaders Theocracts.

These people deserve to be taken advantage of.

Looks like he could win the CPAC endorsement for President.

Only thing that I can't believe is -- how come it took him so long to come back?

Einstein said something along the lines of "There are only two things that are infinite -- people's stupidity, and the universe. And I'm not sure about the universe."

The full version of James Randi debunking faith healing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7BQKu0YP8Y

And another great James Randi, debunking James Hydrick (my personal favorite because his tricks are so bad to begin with) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlfMsZwr8rc

Christopher, I feel like that's a little harsh. The fools that give him their money didn't choose to be fools. They didn't choose to be brought up to believe in God and angels and the supernatural.

I don't understand this, how do people fall for it. I could never imagine myself believing that tripe about 'miracle' water etc. I am not overly intelligent or better schooled than others and yet others seem so ready to be fooled.

It can't just be religion that makes you that naive, something has got to be mentally wrong.

What a douche...

On a brighter note...March 3rd...my birthday! Too bad it's the 4th now...

Haha I would love to get mad at this guy but damn hes made 23 million. Can you blame him? I also wanna feel bad for the people who send him all their money until they're bankrupt, wait no I don't, Im just suprised they managed to survive into adulthood. That would be funny if popoff was an atheist the whole time just milking all those religious people.... 23 million worth. We can make some money doing that if we put our heads together.

Hey Brian,

Is there any doubt he is an atheist? His whole scam is built on violating the 8th and 9th commandments (7th and 8th if you are Catholic). I seriously doubt he fears God.

He's been back for a few years now. I was flipping the channels at a friend's house around midnight and there he was...torpedoing himself to hell:) This must have been 4-5 years ago. Why does this make the news now?

"Hey, hey you're squeezin' me!"

Christianity helps people deal with life. Some people will believe just about anything to relieve their worries. And even those who aren't Christians, are Wiccans, or believe in astrology, or any other superstition which makes them feel better about things.

His whole scam is built on violating the 8th and 9th commandments

As if Christians follow all of the commandemnts. (rolls eyes)

Must be a lonely world up there Jo Ann.

If some stranger were to tell me my address and that I had arthritis, I would file a restraining order.

And religious belief does help a lot of people deal with life; but doesn't it also have the potential to cause them to hide from the richness of life and limit their experience of it?

Doug - you can make excuses for everyone and anyone, but we are the only ones responsible for our own actions.
If these people are taken financially advantage of, it is their choice...especially in an era like today where information is at your fingertips. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with sympathizing for them, but in the end, it is their choice to give to ball sacks like this dude and millions of others asking for money in the name of god on television. Speaking of which, whenever I flip through those shows, why are those people always sitting in gaudy, golden, thrones? I was always under the impression that Jesus loved the meek?

'Speaking of which, whenever I flip through those shows, why are those people always sitting in gaudy, golden, thrones?

They are false teachers. 2 Col 11:12

I grew up in a very religious family setting but I never end up being a sucker. Obviously religion plays a part in making people submissive and irrational. But I don’t think even a religious person with some rational thinking left in him would send money to a guy who claims that he have a miracle water and salt. I don’t feel sorry for this people what so ever. What they did has little to do with how they grew up. It has more to do with what they are. They are just plain stupid.

Ya Syngas, it is a bit lonely to be an atheist in the U.S. Perhaps one day the U.S. will catch up with Europe and Canada and participate a bit more in the enlightenment. I have some friends from France who are Catholics, but it doesn't matter because they never preach about it, and have the same progressive ideas as any atheist. In fact I knew them for about five years before I found out that they were Catholics.

"Is there any doubt he is an atheist? His whole scam is built on violating the 8th and 9th commandments . . ."

Nice job of using religious corruption to defend religion and attack the non-religious. Does right-wing projection get any more laughable than this?

I suppose this clown would also argue that when Catholic priests rape young boys, it is really an indictment of atheism, because only an atheist would do such a thing, which means that these priests are really all secretly atheists, and we therefore we should condemn non-believers rather than the religious institution that produces and enables these disgusting predators.

I guess this also means that all the Christianist Republicans who rushed out to vote for Bush and his Iraq slaughter are secretly atheists, too, since mass murder clearly goes against the teachings of Christ. Oh wait, I forgot about Bush's "Justified Murder" Addendum to the New Testament that lets Christers off the hook for this one . . .

Welcome to Logic 101 in the Magical World of Syngas. It'll make your head spin, but it's the price one pays for being a True Believer.

Thanks for posting this, Norm, and the link to the Johnny Carson clip as well. Good times.

It is unfathomable to me how people fall for this shit. Really, I just don't get it. I agree with the poster above that says it has to be more than just religion which renders one completely gullible. PT Barnum said there was a sucker born every minute but these people give an entirely new meaning to the word "sucker." In fact, I'm not sure there IS a word that adequately describes this level of indoctrination.

As a side note, re-watching the Uri Geller on Carson clip reminded me of a pretty funny Fry & Laurie sketch from years back. These are guys who are pretty much clear-headed skeptics themselves and, I believe, spent some time hanging out with Randi working on a television project. Anyway, their Geller-inspired skit is here.

Pretty funny stuff. "'Freak!' They shout at me in the streets!"

Yeah, but where do we send the money?? They didn't even give us an address!!

"It can't just be religion that makes you that naive, something has got to be mentally wrong"

Did you not hear what he was saying? God, God, God, God.... Religion does make people that naïve. If you believe that god performs miracles and the rest of the ridiculous stuff in the bible, then Popoff’s holy water is easily believable.

Can someone please explain to me how Peter Popoff is a shameless con artist, stealing money from people who really can't afford it yet Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell don't seem to have to worry about any investigative journalists turning up to their place of work.

I'm sorry but I find it hard to have any sympathy for anyone stupid enough to be taken in by these scam artists.

Here is the delicious double edged sword he wields in his infomercial.

"You see it's not the water that release the power. It is your obedience to the instructions of the prophet of God."

Ahh. Take it in. You need to be fully obdient, unquestioning even. That is the message of faith and religion. And when one takes on the cloak of the divine or its reps, you get people more than willing to shut up and just send the check. Tithings a bitch, hmm?

And as a con it is a beautiful classic of an expert swindler. You see, you need to be obideient. So what happens when the thing doesn't come to be? Obviously, you were not truly obideient. You dooubted. You questioned. Your fault. Granted, for buying into the con, you are at fault.

It is just like this new Secrets trend. Beleive, hope, and mind waves make dreams come true. What happens when you don't get a million, or a supermodel, or your cancer doesn't disappear? It's your fault, you didn't think hard enough, or in the right way, or order, or...whatever. Shame on you.

I don't know how these comments got so caught up in the anti-religion train of thought. What triggers people wanting to believe is the promises of good health and money!

Religion is the vehicle, but it isn't the only vehicle. Consider the Nigerian email scams. And yes people DO respond to them. What folks should be asking is what commonalities do these things have?

1. they promise material gains in health or finances. and lets face it, folks are pretty desparate to improve their financial situations in the world of debt.

2. they use premises for their sell that are believable who WANT to believe because of 1 (wanting wealth or health).

Religion makes an enticing vehicle because it is based in beliefs, not so much empirical facts, and thereis more difficult to challenge. Empirical information can be challenged through empirical review and tests. Beliefs are immaterial by nature and therefore easier to manipulate for good or bad. But the notion that if we get rid of religion that we'll somehow get rid of immaterial belief systems is absurd. Patriotism or some other breed will take its place and is very scammable.

Mostly, I'm surprised that fewer folks haven't commented on how this is actually a descent piece of investigative journalism. Apparently, Inside Edition is a better journalistic outfit than some rather infamous pretenders.

"Hey, you're squeezing me!" -- The exact moment the journalist lost any credibility in my opinion. Seems like one bottom-feeder exposing another to me.

Jame Randi is great at what he does and will be very difficult to replace. It's too bad there aren't more like him.

atheist isnt the right word for popoff. hes a nihilist. its people like this that almost make me hope the christians are right about divine justice. popoff and another similar one (grey haired, and even more shameless--he just asks for money straight up) are always on BET late at night/early morning.

pat robertson is also a nihilist. i dunno enough about falwell to say confidently whether he is or not. im about 95% sure robertson is though, due to his involvement with charles taylor.

if these people arent nihilists, the only way i can reconcile it in my mind is that they must believe strongly that you can just confess your sins and still get into heaven, no matter how heinous they are. but even then, its an awfully big risk if the christian god is real. they are the ballsiest true-believers ever, or they are nihilists.

Problem is that today talk show hosts don't expose snake oil salesmen. They're either too polite to call them on their baloney (like Larry King with Jon Edwards), or they actively promote the lies--like Oprah. Her recent exploits are really shocking:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/03/05/the_secret/

"Hey, hey you're squeezin' me!"

That was pretty funny.

Seeing this I begin to doubt evolution... Maybe we're just stuck in a 6000-year-loop of stupidity, after all.

In the words of Eric Cartman when he's accused of knowing nothing about Christianity: "I know enough to exploit it."