The Pentecostal Church is Converting 35,000 People Every Day and Taking Over the World (Elle Hardy) 

I had a 35 year drug and alcohol addiction walking into a Pentecostal church was frightening but same day 100% knew it was where I belong I’m still there today I’m 5 and half years clean and sober done the alpha course 3 times in last 15 months been baptised it’s changed my life for the better I said from day one the door on any church swings both ways nobody has pressured me to stay because of that there’s no reason to leave one big thing there I’ve learned is everybody’s journey is different 💕🙏💕

I love listening to Michael Shermer talk. Very down to earth. Before I had internet I would read his articles in Scientific American. The world needs more people like him. He's a good listener.

The reason why religion exists and has in every historical society, is that people can’t cope with the idea of their own mortality. ( Ernst Becker - The Denial of Death). All religions hold out the hope of an afterlife or another life. It also helps people deal with the death of loved ones. It can give meaning to life, a sense of community, and in many cases, it provides believers with a sense of superiority.

Here in Brazil Pentecostals are growing by leaps and bounds. They are are an important economic and political force. They were important in the election of former president Bolsonaro, whose wife was active in the Assembly of God, a traditional Pentecostal denomination. They are winning over congregants of the stodgy Catholic and mainline Protestant churches with lively rock music, charisma and a heightened sense of community. Prosperity gospel, glossolalia, transes and miracles are a part of some of them as well as a large media presence. One group owns a major TV and radio network and has its own political party. They have a significant presence in politics, especially in the lower house of the Brazilian congress, where they fight against socialism, wokism and any proposal of legalizing abortion.

I love an interviewer who asks the question "What's the source of data on that?" right off the bat. You're the best, Michael. Speaking of California churches... my wife and I are a-thesist and live in Redding, CA, home of Bethel Church and a bunch of other near equivalents, at least from the perspective of someone who is without theism:) Wierd wild stuff. Speaking in tongues is on the rise here. Not on the way out. Kids should be learning multiple languages and instead the "adults" around them are teaching them to pretend to speak fake ones.

I am interested to know what caused Michael to turn from the scriptures. The Charismatic / Pentacostal movement caused me to tear up my "bible" . That is because I was listening to the corrupt teachings of men and not focussing on the scriptures, not fully understanding them and not obeying Mat 5:17-20 which my savior the Son of Elohim teaches. I have been a believer for 44 years and am now a true follower of the WAY looking forward to eternal life at the resurrection

As a Pentecostal, I’m glad that the academic world has finally woken up to the incredible impact we are having globally.

I didn't realize this until now but with my studies of religion, particularly Christianity and different doctrine and denominations, along with the study of socio-psychological manipulation, I know more than Mike Shermer does on this topic. I say this from what he was saying about the Pentecostal Church he visited. Also, this lady is about 30 years behind the times as far as non-denominational Christianity and neo-Pentecostalism goes, that has been affecting tradition Evangelicalism and even Catholicism far a very long time. Mike, if you want me to come on as a guess and talk about these things, just let me know!

Having known Pentecostals growing up in my neighborhood, they were always pretty nice. The girls had long hair and they never wore pants

How many people are also leaving the Pentecostal church 'everyday'?

I was raised in an extremely religious Catholic family, unfortunately for them, at 5 years old, I told my parents that I didn’t believe that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and God. When they asked why, I told them because they were all impossible. So..their response was to enrol me into everything possible within the church, the Catholic School and so on that would indoctrinate me into believing in the nonsense of God. They even allowed my crazy Pentecostal aunt to take me to the crazy, singing and wooing, jibberish speaking church thinking that the atmosphere would make me believe. It didn’t. All it taught me was that my aunt went to a crazy church. That was 50 years ago, nothing has ever been able to convince me that it was possible for God to exist. The sheer impossibility for the existence of God is staggering.

I was raised Pentecostal and I felt it's very culty with all the legalistic rules and all rules put on women but basically nothing on the man. Anyways, when my dad passed away me and my husband took over the church and we call ourselves non-denominational now not because everything is accepted. We are called non-denominational because we don't believe in the legalistic rules of the Pentecostal church, but we still hold some of the spiritual theologys we believe in being filled with the Holy spirit. We believe the Bible is true the way it is written. We believe Jesus is our savior. We are saved by grace, not by works and also the early church in the New testament. The very first church they were called Christians called Christians for the very first time in Antioch and they were not called Pentecostals. They were not called any denomination. They actually were just called Christian so when someone asks us our religion we say we don't have religion. We are Christian. We are Christ followers. And that's the way it was intended to be. It wasn't supposed to be divided up into all these different denominations and different beliefs. You were either a Jew, a pagan or a Christian. If you believe Jesus is your savior, you are a Christian so we want to go back to those roots

Oh, Dr. Shermer. Stoicism is on the rise (or at least I hope it is). Thank you for your channel! Through this channel, I have been introduced to a lot of authors and ideas I may never have come across. Keep up the good work.

wow @ 1:03:05 The seven Mountain mandate sounds like the Formation of the Sons of Jakob in the Handmaid's tale. I remember the quote from the series "We all saw the signs they were there we just ignored them".

So Trump's sins and therefore his potential for redemption makes him MORE electable?!!! Religion poisons everything. We need another Hitch urgently.

Sounds like people are joining for the social support. It then becomes a matter of what attracts people, never mind the religious details. But then as far as the religious details go, such a situation is easily hijacked or co-opted into far-right extremism funded by corporations who want removal of environmental and employment laws. Any large gathering of people primed to accept trusted messages from those asserting themselves as authorities is prone to such hijacking.

Another top discussion Michael. It flowed beautifully.

How anyone can believe in a loving all powerful god is beyond me. Why ? Because of the “problem of evil” ( ie suffering). Especially the suffering that occurs without any input from humans, ie in the natural world - horrible illnesses, diseases, viruses, animals preying on each other, suffering caused by volcanos, earthquakes etc etc etc Wikipedia has an excellent article on “the problem of evil”, as do various philosophy sites.

I came out of playing in a rock band, shooting heroin morphine and dilaudid. I wasn’t conscious of seeking God but I’m sure I was looking for something. God found me.

Well we used to be penticostal most of my family more than half of our friends have left the church completely in the last decade many youth are leaving also so I'm not sure where the stats are from Also to note the mega churches swallow the smaller churches in the cities they are in so there's alot of sheep stealing where many are already Christian but go for the big production big music arenas so the mum and dad churches close down that brings its own problems One of many is the more mature Christians prefer to stay in smaller gatherings the youth prefer to go to the mega ones with the gospel music stars and production that means the youth are no longer mixing with the wisdom and guidance of the experienced people Thus the penticostals become very immature and self serving rather than giving out .there are many things to say but one final thing you only need to listen to the lyrics of the songs in the mega churches and it sounds like children's songs .there is no meat on the bone . It all sounds the same it's a emotional drone sound it's odd really .just a few things to consider .

This subject is obviously fascinating to me as someone who was raised in an Assembly of God church. Purely anecdotally I've seen a lot of people I grew up with fall away from the church either because they came out as gay or as they become a bit more socially liberal. The rapid growth in Latin American countries makes sense to me, though. I go down to my girlfriend's hometown on the Texas border and non-mainline "fringe" denominations (particularly the Jehovah's Witness) are spreading like weeds.

Great discussion

They have the most exciting services, I'll give them that.

There are two big schisms in Christianity: Roman Catholic vs Eastern Orthodox. Then Roman Catholic culture spawned the protestant revolution which devolved into ~ 400 sects. I am convinced that if Jesus returned that he would not recognize the resulting pieces.

The 'seven mountains' thing sounds like an updated version of Antonio Gramsci's principle of cultural revolution. I have to say, despite Ms. hardy's scepticism, Gramsci's heirs and successors seem to be making a better job of it than the religious right.

Jerry B Jenkins I don't think he is a Pentecostal. Timothy Francis LaHaye (April 27, 1926 - July 25, 2016) was an American Baptist evangelical Christian minister who wrote more than 85 books, both fiction and non-fiction, including the Left Behind series of apocalyptic fiction, which he co-authored with Jerry B. Jenkins.[1] Jenkins graduated from Moody Bible institute. This is a conservative bible Baptist type school. No Pentecostal there either.

Michael you should have Dr. Kipp Davis on your show.

Please share the names of the academics studying the phenomenon!🙏

Pentecostal trance and getting slayed in the spirit resembles Brazilian Umbanda in its enthusiam also

*Jesus was a pentecostal.* a lot of pl dont know that. _JC

I just recently saw some numbers that indicated that church membership was declining at very large rates, even here in the U.S. so 35K a day? I need to research this more. I mean, there's tons of variables and ways of measuring such things I suppose? Appears to be more HYPE which is what everyone uses these days in order to grift. I hope Mike isn't doing this?

I really wanted to watch this but after about 40 minutes I couldn’t take it anymore. Her say “um” after almost every word was just, Um, too Um, much.

Great interview! Her echo audio made it a little hard to understand. Thx!

We lost our united church minister in this small town of 4500. There was a woman who had a pastors liscence and she decided to take over preaching at our United church and what she was doing was trying to convert everyone over to the Pentacostal church here in town. She was told she was welcome to attend church at the united church but was also told to get off the pulpit...she never returned!! It always seems that there are ulterior motives to all their good works and if you aint a born again christian ...your nothing. I do kindness and good works and ask nothing in return! My motto is ...LET GO LET GOD! HE WILL GUIDE YOUR HEART

Citipointe (formerly Church of Christ) is doing very well in Brisbane.

It's not "a new religion," as the guest said. It's a form of Christianity, after all. It's a new denomination or sect, not a new religion.

Dinesh Desouza wants to make Conservative movies because Hollywood is to Liberal? THE ZEALOTRY!!!! Haha Sometimes the things that come out of Shermers mouth dumbfounds me.

Michael I encourage you to have Curtis Yarvin on your show, very insightful guy, has written a lot on political theory.

I'm 41 minutes in. I'm curious to know if they will eventually get to how many Pentecostal denominations exist. I've read there are 32,000 denominations of Christianity. With such an emphasis on personal revelation and so many church leaders starting their own off shoots I wonder how high the number really is.

Fear of death cults should be illegal.

Earthlings and their little problems.

"How do you know?" my man Shermer wasting no time.

It’s funny how people who realised Santa, Spaghetti Monster and Gods are not factual, think men can become woman

Great guest. and show.

The new multicultural movement. For those who really practice it well, it will be akin to breath work, which is known for releasing small amounts of dimethyltriptaline (DMT). The beltalowda movement that will dampen racism and introduce new possibilities for a more inclusive liberalism. Let's hope. Also the Christian pentecostal adventure interpreted by the individual, and not a large power organization will be refreshing for many. Sounds like hope for the future. Enough of those people will also have unwanted pregnancies and gay children. I predict that some of the harder lines of pentecostalism will be dampened over time. All sounds good to me.

The penecostal church is weird. Speaking in toungues, fake healings and that demand of 10% tithings is wild. If you grew up in that environment you know what I'm talking about.

All denominations are in a rapid decline

Please make animated video on math of quantum phy.

Sad that in response to truth, logic, and science we get bronze age superstition.

The world sucks for a lot of people who are not educated and want hope and that is what this gives them. You have to do better than Pentecostals then.

I grew up pentecostal and I always secretly wanted to be catholic 😂 it's strange to me that catholics would convert.

Kind of got off topic towards the end.

Order YOUR certificate of conversion from WalMart, and get 20% off your next 'Jesus Saves!' LED light-up mug!

But in which countries is this happening? in some countries this type of conversion wouldn't really be able to happen in large numbers, especially amongst younger populations. if a pentacostal tried to convert me i'd just laugh.

1:04:05

Pentecostals can convert all the people they want, but it doesn't change the fact that the christians' "plan of salvation" still doesn't work. Pentecostals accept the traditional christian assumption that god's created beings can rebel against him, even in heaven; that's what the myth of satan is all about. So what if you to heaven, and then rebel against god? What keeps this from happening again and again?

Mary, Joseph and Jesus are not common names in the region. Plus, they're always depicted as very European looking. 🤔

no they aren't

35k a day? LOL. right, and I'm the Pope in Rome. This is sillier than that comment from Wagner Group in Russia saying they've received 10 million American volunteers the other day. Michael you are about one step away from me unsubbing. Find better guests man, one's not peddling BS and lies.

Pentecostal is the church of Sarah Palin. That's all you need to know.

- Bad vibes !!!

Voodoo

Nothing makes Michael angrier than people making new Christians.

Sad, sad, sad

She said all this about Christianity when it could have been summed up in a few words. It’s the TRUTH.

Your in denial if you don't think.your in one of two reformed traditional belief systems The polymics and apologetics I've witnessed from Michael is clearly of the reformed pagan or humanist faith. The one we see in the public schools so much in the last 40 years.

Thanks Elle for all your hard work.