Geology or Bible Verses?

[Tharmas]

Somehow it turns out that an understanding of geology works better for finding oil than relying on the Bible as a guide.

This article from the Dallas Morning News describes how faith-based Zion Oil keeps hitting dry wells and is fast running out of money.

Article may be behind a pay wall. Here is the gist:

Zion Oil & Gas, a Dallas company powered by prayer and direct-to-public stock sales, is facing a growing existential threat.

Zion was founded by evangelical Christian John M. Brown after he interpreted Bible passages as saying there were crude oil reserves in Israel. The 18-year-old company's sole mission is to find oil in the Holy Land as a way to "bless" Israel and "share the gospel of Jesus Christ." There is no significant oil production in Israel.

The faith-based company announced just before Thanksgiving that its latest oil well in Israel wasn't commercial viable. Company officials had previously said that Zion had only enough money to operate through the end of January.

Some shareholders are suing, the SEC is investigating, but:

After news broke last week of Zion's latest miss, the stock price plunged. But supporters — often buoyed by Christian faith — rallied on the company's Facebook page.
"We will stand with Zion Oil because standing with them is an act of faith for us," one supporter wrote.
Another said: "My purchase of stock in ZN is based on faith in the Word of God, and not 'sight.' "

 

[Keith&Co.]

I think TalkOrigins has the account of an oil company geologist who graduated from a creationist school. In his work, found thst none of what they taught him worked out...

 

[poster]

That's some funny stuff. And to think that I once thought like that. It's still difficult to empathize.

 

[DBT]

Maybe they could consult a good Geologist and claim that the subsequent success is the work of God, reaping the rewards of faith. Standard practice, I'd imagine.

 

[bilby]

Maybe they could consult a good Geologist and claim that the subsequent success is the work of God, reaping the rewards of faith. Standard practice, I'd imagine.

Even the best geologist in the world can't help you to find oil where there isn't any.

 

[DBT]

True.

 

[skepticalbip]

There is an old Jewish joke that god led Moses and the children of Israel around the desert for forty years until he was finally able to find the only place in the Middle East without oil for them to settle.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Wait, why are stockholders suing? The company advertised itself as something which based its oil exploration practices on Biblical passages and Christian faith and that's exactly what it delivered. That business strategy isn't one which suddenly became dumb after they bought the shares, so this is simply a bad investment on their part and not an example of corporate malfeasance or anything else which would make the company liable for their losses.

 

[steve_bank]

If I had no moral compass and scruples I could make a fortune preying on the religious.

 

[Politesse]

The funniest part of this is that he found investors in the first place. But I suppose it is not too surprising. Investors in this particular industry are well known for believing that there is far more oil under the surface than there actually is, and ignoring scientific testimony to the contrary. Believe me, I know some of these people, and they are not cowed by empirical evidence or academic credentials. Used to run educational tours around the Sonora and the Colorado Plateau on thin summers, and often had some frustrating conversations with entrepreneurial-minded nitwits about the fantastic economic potential they imagined the land to be hiding. There is oil and gas under the Plateau, but nothing like the mythical bottomless cornucopia they seemed to be imagining. Obama, of course, was blamed for all of the wasted revenue. Now that the Escalante has been opened to exploitation, I imagine many of them are sinking money into it, most to their own ruination (and ours).

 

[Worldtraveller]

If I had no moral compass and scruples I could make a fortune preying on the religious.

Yeah, dowsing for Jesus would be a big money maker.

 

[southernhybrid]

When I read things like this, I realize that the people in the crazy evangelical church that I was forced to attend as a child, wasn't nearly as nuts as some of today's fundies. WTF is going on?

 

[Tom Sawyer]

When I read things like this, I realize that the people in the crazy evangelical church that I was forced to attend as a child, wasn't nearly as nuts as some of today's fundies. WTF is going on?

Nothing is going on. These people have always been around, it's just easier to find and focus on them today than it was in the past. They used to literally need to ride around to people's homes and businesses to sell their snake oil and if you weren't given a presentation about it, you likely never heard about it. Now they can reach millions with one ad campaign to find a few suckers and one news story about it forces millions more to question how it is that there are actually people in the world who are this fucking dumb.

 

[DBT]

how it is that there are actually people in the world who are this fucking dumb.

Their mental condition doesn't effect the functionality of their Gonads, apparently.

 

[Opoponax]

If I had no moral compass and scruples I could make a fortune preying on the religious.

I've had the same thought and apply it to hardcore Trump supporters as well. These people are proof that if you tell them something in a certain way, they'll believe it. Trump has even said, "Just tell them, and they'll believe it." And it works.

But as you pretty much said, to do so requires the utter lack of a conscience. Most of us just aren't willing to hurt others for our own gain, which of course precludes the chance of feeling good about it.