Gary C. sent me this riddle which has been doing the rounds on email for quite a while, though I had never seen it before. As Gary pointed out, the interesting thing about this is not whether it really is a Paul Harvey riddle (I have no clue), or even the riddle itself. It's the claim that 80% of kindergarten kids got the answer while 83% of Stanford graduates were unable to. Instead of trying to track down whether or not a group of Stanford graduates ever has been tested with this riddle, I thought I'd do the next best thing. Take an unscientific poll of Museum of Hoaxes readers to see how many of you are able to figure out the answer right away vs. aren't able to. That'll give a rough approximation of the percentage of (presumably over-kindergarten age) people able to solve the riddle, assuming people answer the poll honestly.
I have to admit that I couldn't get the answer. I finally gave up and googled for the answer.
If you've seen the riddle before and already know the answer, then base your response to the poll on the first time you ever saw the riddle. Did you figure out the answer immediately? If you were in kindergarten when you first were given the riddle, then don't respond to the poll.
I put the answer in a link below for those people, like myself, unable to figure it out.
Paul Harvey RIDDLE:
When asked this riddle, 80% of kindergarten kids got the answer, compared to 17% of Stanford University seniors.
What is greater than God, More evil than the devil, The poor have it, The rich need it, And if you eat it, you'll die?
Send this to 10 people and then press shift and you will get the answer.
P.S. You won't believe this, but this really does give you the answer!!!!
The Answer
Comments
I couldn't get this one when I heard it the first time. I thought for a long time but I was finally told the answer. Its a casket.
:lol:
Anyway, good riddle. Later!
I recieved this in an email along with a nice little poem of sorts that was touching, but not belonging to Mr. Harvey.
I found that while many things that come to us via the internet are attributed to Mr. Harvey, most of them are not his work.
Most run a simliar line to his "Rest of the Story" theme, but this piece did not come from him.
He did read it on his show in 1997 but the original text was written by Lee Pitts and in 2000 it was included in "Chicken Soup for the Golden Soul".
Like the article attached to the riddle, Mr. Harvey did not write that either. He may have featured on it on his show once it crossed his path, but it is not his work.
So since there is no reliable source, the statistics are jaded as well.
Just my 2 cents worth 😊
I have seen Him.
You will ever guess where either!
He was hiding behind the tree the whole time!
Now lighten up guys, its a riddle. Flawed as it may be, it is meant to be fun. 😛
If you can't read, that's what I was trying to avoid. This senseless program keeps sending me chit that says, "Reply to your message" so like a dumbass I keep reading the new posts and keep coming back to a website I was originally trying to do the same thing that you are right now with. It's a lost cause, and no matter what you say, as long as we have conscious minds, (whether made by a God or not,) we have the ability to form opinions, and the constant ability to express those opinions. No matter what you say, when the ability is available, some will use misuse and abuse their ability to do anything in relation with their opinions. This whole thing could be summed up in, "RESISTANCE IS FUTILE" or some other partially naive saying like, "IF YOU TRY YOU WILL FAIL" and stuff of or related to those. Okay, byebye. (With any luck, this won't trick me into coming back.)
We were sitting here really thinking about it, until we all decided to google it. I hated this riddle. I thought it was going to be a good one.
I didn't get the answer... I guess I was thinking inside the box on this one!!
"I'm just shocked that people admit to being athiests"
You say that as if being an atheist is something a person should be ashamed of. Why?
As for praying for me, don't bother. Save your breath.
With this riddle it doesn
A wiser man once asked, "Why should I worship a being who, if He exists, is the most evil tyrant Man has ever known?"
You'd scream all about 'faith' and 'belief' if I pulled that one.
There is no proof to show you that God is evil. God doesn't exist, therefore he's not evil. The point of the matter was that if he did exist, he'd have to be evil. No kind, loving god could commit the evil he's committed against the world and it's inhabitants. Floods, typhoons, tsunamis, droughts, fires, volcanoes, earthquakes... all acts of god, if he existed.
Thank god he's just a myth.
Whose Paradise and Hell? Remember, Christians are a minority on the planet and all religions teach that only theirs is the correct one. Which do I pick out of all the conflicting flavours? And who's to say that any of them are correct?
If there is a God, He created volcanoes to EXPAND. You who says He created them to destroy because He's evil, that's not necessarily true if you know that volcanoes create more earth.
Also, dumb f*ck who says that the USA was created based on Christianity, you're wrong. Puritans and Separatists came over from England when it strayed from Catholicism. While there were Christians, that wasn't the main religion. Christians were even persecuted in some colonies. Except my good ol' state of PA. However, God is a part of all of these religions, and a common misconception is that "In God we trust" is the same as "In Jesus we trust."
The principle of free speech did not DESTROY religion, last time I checked all of our presidents with the exception of 1 have been Christians.
Separation of Church and State has been an amendment since... Well, a REALLY long time ago. The thing is, it was never really enforced completely until all of the political correctness began.
Take God out of schools, because no school has a pledge of alegience that includes the word "Allah," "Shiva," or even "Jesus." It's all about "God," and if you don't believe in God, you don't want your children to go to a school where they will forcefully teach your child principles that they have no right to teach them.
So you see, all of you have good points, but all of those points have counterpoints, or are blatently disregarding complete truth without adaptation. Good day.
"A wise man once said that I would rather go through all my life praising, worshiping, and fearing a god to die and find out there is no god or heaven, then to live my life as there is no god or heaven and to die and find out there is."
What you're referring to is called Pascal's Wager and there are some very good refutations to it. I suspect you can find them on wikipedia.com or via google.com.
First off, completely unrelated to God, believers, nonbelievers, and Agnostics... Like it says in my location this time, Basin City. Since you're pointing out that I misread, blah blah blah, you completely overlooked a major part of Sin City. The city that they are in, unless you are referring to Las Vegas, Nevada, (which, based on how you act, is not what you seem to be referring to...) It's Basin City... If I assume wrong, I apologize. Moving on...
If you believe in God just for the purpose of getting into heaven, you will go to hell. Just so you know. If you have firm disbelief, and yet you fear hell, you are still going to hell. It's all based on what you believe, according to religious freaks, (see earlier pages, that enlightenment girl who had no clue what she was talking about...)
This country was not born from God. Yes, religion had a large part in the creation of this country. It was a strong reason for immigration. But you can't forget all the other religions that came with it. Society today is as biased as it was back then, and saying that Pagans weren't taking a part in the founding of this country is not only a lie, but it is also a mockery of events that occured. Owardy, you believe that separation of church and state, also a large part of the founding of this country, should not take part in schools? What if you can't find a good school for your child that shares your beliefs, and you aren't a very good teacher yourself?
If you didn't know, this country is also based on EQUAL OPPORTUNITY. What if, since you so blatently 'believe' to save your neck, this country was mostly wiccans? Would you start casting spells so that you can get in good with Mother Nature and the core of life itself? What if, say, mostly wiccans lived in this country, and you were Christian. And the whole time in school, instead of learning about your precious God, your child learned about a religion that by your God is considered to be of the Devil?
So before you go throwing around that God should be involved in schools, think about the basis of this country. Maybe read up on your Constitution, Amendments, and all of the history of the founding of this country, before you start saying that God should be involved in schools.
Think about it: similar to how the same people who put God in the Pledge of Allegiance enslaved people, they also enjoyed putting blacks and whites in different schools. So think about the people you're defending. Good night, and have a pleasent tomorrow.
If you didn't realize that I'm agnostic, and I'm just basing everything off of "What if?"s and that I see both sides and the problems with all the arguments, then you are missing my points. See, in my post, I apologized if my assumption was wrong. So if you aren't a complete asshole, then you'd say, "Oh, well, I live in Las Vegas, so yeah."
Anyway, you keep saying that no one is perfect, blah blah blah, and yet, you act as if you are the freaking king of all that exists, and that your belief system, one which is so vast that not even Jesus could go through the whole thing while being tested by the devil and shit.
If you realized that this country is for complete freedom, then you also realize that the freedom to have your children go to a school free of religion should be garaunteed. If you aren't one of those religious asses who think that everyone and everything should be about religion, you'd see where I'm coming from. I'm not an atheist, and I'm not a muslim (if I spelled it wrong, sorry,) but I'm saying if I was, then I would have to send my children to a biased school system, where they will influence my child's beliefs. What if saying that you pledge allegiance to a flag under someone elses God would be against your religion? That is what you would call opression. What did the founding fathers come here to escape? OPRESSION. So dumbass-know-it-all-who-assumes-too-much... Last time I checked, religion is something that the US is one of the only countries that you can have freedom of.
How dare you call me a communist? Do you even know what a fucking communist is? I won't explain it, don't anyone else explain it. I want to see Mr. Owardy explain, in his own words, how I am a communist based on what I have said in the past.
This next part is for the strict religious freaks... According to this "great" God of yours, which contradicts Himself numerous times, humanity has the decision to believe in Him or not. And to those who think that by converting the whole fucking world will get you into heaven, or trying to make some bullshit excuse for why you're spewing your ideas on others, (by the way, that is against the basic idea of our constitution, which is having a free belief system without persecution,) if people are telling others how to live their lives, then where is the freedom in that? How would you feel if you were controlled in that way? How far does freedom of speech go before you are taking away other's rights to believe in what they want to believe? (continued in next comment)
I feel empathy for those who are not given the chance to believe in what they feel is right...
-Moderator.
Kids have simple minds, simple minds have simple belief systems, and simple thought processes. A simple mind with a simple belief in God would realize right away that there is nothing greater than the Almighty One. It doesn't mean they're smarter, and just means, in this situation, the wit of a child is quicker than the wit of an adult.
To Sally:
Yes, but is it really a religion-less answer? Saying that there is nothing greater than "God" and nothing more evil than the "Devil" is based on previous religious belief. Otherwise, there would be no answer, because there would be no standard for the greatness of the God or the evilness of the Devil. So in retrospect, you are blatently, with disregard to your subconscious belief, stating that there IS a God that there is nothing greater than.
I can't argue with you there! 😊
Can't aruge with you there! 😊
It's not a common sense (mind) answer, it's something that has to be taught to you. If you have never received religious teachings about God, or heard others discuss Him, then the riddle has no answer for you. Pantheist, atheists, some Buddhists, some pagans - for them there is no answer, though they may be smart enough to recognize what the answer is intended to be. They just believe the answer is wrong.