Mark Erickson has a series of videos online where he gives you some helpful tips on a variety of subjects. His show, Infinite Solutions, is a bit cheesy graphics-wise, but you’ll be amazed after you see them.
For example, here’s one where he teaches you how to get your YouTube video subscriptions sent directly to your iPod as a podcast:
And here’s an even better one where he teaches you how to speed up your regular mail delivery without any increase in postage:
Impressive, no?
Just one thing.
He made it all up.
It’s all bullshit. Without any hint of satire, though, it’s easy to think he’s serious.
If you fell for it (even if just for a split second), did you ever consider what his background was? Did you question whether these seemingly unbelievable things might be untrue?
Or did you just accept it at face value because he looked like he knew what he was talking about?
At what point do you question what someone who sounds authoritative says?
And how do you distinguish someone who is telling the truth from someone who is trying to fool you? How do you distinguish those people from someone who is just honestly mistaken about what the truth really is?
(via Mental Floss)
[tags]atheist, atheism, gullible[/tags]