Just read the synopsis for bestseller "Heaven Is For Real." What a freaking' crock!

[Atman]

OMG! Recently I heard a story on NPR about this great new book which was taking the country by storm. Purportedly "written" by a young boy who died from a ruptured appendix at the age of four, but was revived on the operating table, the book is said to pretty much prove the existence of heaven. They couldn't heap enough praise on this book, pun intended.

So, preparing for some travel, I'm checking out iBooks for something to pass the time. There it is, #4..."Heaven is For Real." Just as one is drawn to look at a traffic accident, I had to read the synopsis...and it was every bit as "uplifting" and "inspiring" as the NPR review painted it to be; my dinner began to uplift from my stomach and I was inspired to question the health of our nation.

You see, this book is being heavily promoted as being the words/expriences of a young boy, now roughly eight years old, I believe. But the synopsis alone raised every red flag any critical thinker would laugh at. First of all, right in the opening 'graph the iBooks synopsis mentions something I never heard in the radio review, and it's not an unimportant issue: the young "author" calling St. Peter and John the Baptist his new BFFs is the son of a small town Nebraska preacher.

Further, unlike the way NPR described it, the story was actually written by Preacher Dad and merely includes passages of the boy's own words.

My WTF?! B.S. meter instantly went off the charts. Kid raised by a Nebraska preacher claims to visit with God and shares his story. But Preacher Dad wrote the book, not the kid, as all the marketing hype claims. No wonder he saw a perfect fairy tale ghost in the sky! It was obviously Preacher Dad's vision, repackaged for maximum marketing hype value. I mean, a preacher saying heaven is real is old news, but a four year old who says he actually met God and St. Peter and the sister he never knew he had, well NOW you have a story.

But a crock of shit by any other name is still a crock of shit. Happy Easter!

[RandomThoughts]

1. Happy Easter to you also.

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCQTr8ZYdhg


And I am due beer and travel money, and many experiences.

[RandomThoughts]

14. That is an Easter Morning song if you couldn't tell.

I would guess most see that.

Guess I got to explain my view on the song.

"And they ran into the tomb and saw Jesus not there."

Same old fears.

In my belief he is here, and always has been.

[ejpoeta]

2. would have been nice if it had actually been written by the boy. yes, his dad being a preacher

is going to muddy things, but a child can have good stories on their own. i used to write them.... but they were stories about lands through my closet door. granted, they were not worthy of being published. but they were my own. it's a shame the father did that and used the kid like that.

[RainDog]

3. I know. it's sad, isn't it?

we have a nation that is so willing to believe this tripe - no wonder we have a nation that cannot deal with real issues like climate change - too many people are too willing to believe lies from the right wingers.

even if the kid had written the book, his experience would've been no indication of any "reality" because his brain was undergoing changes with oxygen deprivation and, considering his entire life had been spent hearing the myths his father teaches as reality, any vision he might have had would've been most likely mediated by the things he had been taught to believe.

but people are so afraid of the unknown that they'll grasp at any straw that lets them believe in their own immortality.

[Buzz Clik]

4. Do you recall the program on which you heard this review? Or have a link?

The reason I ask is because the NPR website does not list a review of the book among their original material.

If you'd have read the New York Times review of the book, you would have been far less surprised:

Celestial Sales for Boy’s Tale of Heaven

By JULIE BOSMAN
Published: March 11, 2011

Colton Burpo and his father Todd Burpo sign copies of “Heaven Is for Real” in their Imperial, Neb., home.

He woke up with an astonishing story: He had died and gone to heaven, where he met his great-grandfather; the biblical figure Samson; John the Baptist; and Jesus, who had eyes that “were just sort of a sea-blue and they seemed to sparkle,” Colton, now 11 years old, recalled.

Colton’s father, Todd, has turned the boy’s experience into a 163-page book, “Heaven Is for Real,” which has become a sleeper paperback hit of the winter, dominating best-seller lists and selling hundreds of thousands of copies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/books/heaven-is-for-real-is-publishing-phenomenon.html

So, if your objection was to the misconception that an eight-year-old wrote the book or not knowing that his dad is a preacher, you would have been prepared for these revelations after reading less than 100 words of the review.

[Atman]

5. I obviously did not read the NYT book review. And I am not sure what radio station.

I was in a rental car in Florida. It might have been American Public Radio. I wish I could provide a link, but it was an unfamiliar station, so I don't recall exactly.

[Buzz Clik]

10. I understand.

I recently spent a week in Florida, and I notice that they like their old time religion. I was in an area with no public radio at all, and over half the broadcast channels were dedicated to the celebration of Jeebus 24/7.

If you picked up a local story on an NPR station, that could explain it.

[RainDog]

6. "blue-eyed Jesus" should've been a tell

LOL.

it's ridiculous that people think a Jewish man whose family lived all their lives in the med. region had blue eyes - I read that review a while back and laughed out loud about the blue-eyed Jesus.

too many people are stupid when it comes to religion.

[MorningGlow]

11. Or

He did visit the Other Side and saw what he expected to see. From what I've learned, when a person first dies, they're met by whomever they expect to meet--family members, or angels, or a deity as s/he expects them to look (in this case, a Jesus with blue eyes). Then later, when they're past the "oh cripes I'm dead" shock phase, they're eased into the reality of what the Other Side entails.

[DBoon]

15. so I will be met by my favorite old dog..

... wagging his tail like when he was alive


greeted by dog instead of god

[MorningGlow]

16. Yep.

:)

[Atman]

27. Kid was only 4yo...the only images in his precious little head were planted by Preacher Dad

I spent the weekend extricating my son from his college apartment, with the help of his best friend, and anthropology student. We actually discussed this, the phenomenon of visions while dying. My wife is also an APRN, and has been with many people during their final hours. This stuff is very common. All sorts of chemical shit is swirling in your head at this time. In fact, how many of us have had terrible fevers, serious flu, etc? I've hallucinated during bouts of high fever, but I had a lifetime of experiences for my brain to call upon. This poor kid was only four...four years of hearing nothing but his daddy's hokum. Nothing else. So when his body went into this shutdown, of course his brain would call up that hokum. There was nothing else in there!

[MorningGlow]

28. Um...that's what I mean

The boy was taught that a blonde, blue-eyed Jesus would meet him on the Other Side, so that's what he saw. :shrug:

[Atman]

31. Wasn't disputing...I just thought I was reinforcing the point.

No :shrug: intended.

[greenbird]

30. Seriously.

He must be thinking of Jeffrey Hunter in "King of Kings."

[Fuzz]

7. I made these points to a right wing cousin who posted about this on facebook and was chastized by

his friends. Doesn't matter what the facts are, they want to believe, no matter how preposterous the story.

[Brickbat]

8. The dad wrote it with a little help from Lynn Vincent. You know, the one who spelled all the hard

words for Sarah Palin on “Going Rogue.”

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. and she wrote 9 other books, for people.

Turns out...no great surprise here....Wiki tells us:

She is a member of the Republican Party.

feature writer for WORLD magazine, a conservative Christian newsweekly with a paid subscribership of more than 120,000,

[Motown_Johnny]

9. Most likely the kid was told what he must have seen after the fact

while recovering and while still on narcotics.

[notadmblnd]

12. I had a visit with God once.

Of course I was stoned on Acid at the time.

[RagAss]

17. A crock of shit by any other name.......

still stinks to high heaven.

[Cheap_Trick]

18. I didn't even go so far as to read the synopsis.

The nauseating cover set of my bullshit detector right away. "A little boy's astounding story of his trip to heaven."

Of course he'll say that's what he saw....he's been brainwashed from birth to believe it.

[alphafemale]

19. Half recollected fantasies of a 4 yr old in delirium?

Or rather, half recollected fantasies of a 4 yr old in delirium...deliberately enhanced by his profiteering father.

This is the best to offer for proof that heaven exists.

I suppose we can expect the masses to also accept as factual, the soon to be released memoirs of a four-yr-old this holiday season. They will prove that Santa is real.

A four year old dreamed it.

That makes it real.

[Zorra]

20. Conservatives will do absolutely anything to make more money. nt

[Shandris]

21. So they're making 'heavenly' money on sales, eh?

Interesting. I was technically dead for about 35 seconds in the back of an ambulance on the way to the hospital back in early '05. All I remember was a bunch of spinning silver 3-dimensional numbers and mathematical signs.

I guess "Heaven is an Abstract Algorithm" probably wouldn't sell as well, though.

[MatthewStLouis]

22. I saved my wife from reading this...

Her Mom read it and had her brother read it... I glanced at it for 30 seconds and could tell it was pure baloney, no matter the author's intentions. My mother in law likes to read 'inspirational' books like this one, but I can't stomach fiction pawned off as something real. And often, there are hidden political messages embedded in this stuff that makes me recoil. Kinda like when I glimpse the 700 Club on TV.

[provis99]

23. so his preacher father lies to children, and lies to the world.

And preachers are supposed to be role models?

[Keith Bee]

24. Don't read the book

Read the following:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/opinion/25douthat.html?hp

[Atman]

25. +1...had to Facebook that one after a few days in Central Florida.

What a f*d up mess that place has become. Pay-Me Preachers on every TV channel. As I said up-thread, I originally heart of this book on a public radio station, but it was apparently a local feed. But WTF? I grew up on "the Space Coast," in Cocoa Beach. A community of scientists and educated people. It was an island in every way. I had no idea of how bad it was on the mainland. And now, nearly 30 years later, it's HORRIBLE. It seems as if every religious kook in the nation retired to Florida and has nothing left to do but tell everyone else how to live their lives.

I'm finally back home in New England. Very ironic. The roots of our country are right here...but now the right-wing thinks of New England as just a bunch of crazy lib'ruls. What happened?

[devils chaplain]

26. The "unbiased" media...

Is always tripping over itself to respect and excuse all things religious.

[hifiguy]

29. This has the unmistakeable whiff of

the purest BS jacked up on stilts and steroids. Every bit as credible as Bat Boy.

And the yokels fall for this crap. :eyes:

The kid's name wasn't Eric Cartman by chance, was it?