Okay, seriously - why should we question everything?
If you believe whatever people tell you (or if you believe what you read in your email inbox), you will believe many foolish things and, as an unfortunate result, you may make decisions based on lies which might ruin your health or cause you to lose money. For instance, astonishingly, not only have people fallen for the famed "Nigerian scam," it has a long and successful history predating the advent of email, and it is rumored that some people have even died in pathetic attempts to recover their savings.
- Snopes debunks the Nigerian Scam
- Annals of Crime - The Perfect Mark: How a Massachesetts psychotherapist fell for a Nigerian e-mail
- The Nigerian Scam on the Crimes of Persuasion website
(Note: I cannot find a reference to the supposed murder of an American in Nigeria in June of 1995 on any reputable news web site, nor can I find the actual name of the individual supposedly murdered. So, have people actually died? I don't really know.)
On a more spiritual plane, history is littered with sad examples of people who blindly trusted charismatic leaders. In my lifetime alone, I can remember the 1978 Jonestown massacre in Guyana. In the 1990s, national news reported that dozens died in the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, TX. More recently, polygamist sects and child brides were the scandal of the Southwest.
For me, these real-life tragedies raise two questions: "Who you gonna listen to?" and more importantly, "Why should you believe them?"
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