Paul Harvey Riddle

Paul Harvey lost credibility with me when during the first Gulf War he advocated dropping a neutron bomb on Iraq as a humane thing to do since it would kill everyone quickly (then segued into a pitch for whatever crap he was shilling for at the time).

Before then I just thought of him as some guy on the radio station my mother listened to who told harmless little stories. Now I can't think of him as anything other than a monster.

I'm a college grad, not from Stanford though. Totally whiffed on the answer! I was thinking money as well, but after seeing the answer I had one of them forehead smacking reactions of Duh!

I despise Paul Harvey. Good day.

I saw this for the first time in a slide-show presentation that was on one of those free greeting card sites, about six months ago. You could address & send the riddle to anyone's email you knew. But it was prefaced by more of the riddle, or maybe the original was added to. It started with 'What is it?..... This word has seven letters..... Preceded God.....'-then the rest was as stated. When the riddle was done, they only gave you about 15 seconds to answer it. No, I didn't get it the first time, even with a couple more clues than stated above. Guess I'll see you in the afterlife, Paul in Holland.

I don't agree that you would need to believe in God (or the Devil) to figure out this riddle; you would only need to have heard of God and the Devil.

Anyhow, it looks like only about one out of three readers guessed the riddle, so, Alex, I apologize for my earlier comment that 95% of dogs would be able to figure it out.

That still leaves us with the question of whether there really is a higher percentage of kindergarteners than Stanford students who can get the right answer. Until somebody tells me who tested this and when, and lets me see their data, I think I'll assume that that claim was just made up out of thin air.

I had it but wasn't sure! :down:

I don't think you need to believe in God to figure out this puzzle, you only have to understand the popular concept of God. I'm an athiest and I think it's a cop out (of course, I didn't figure it out, but I blame that on my being an intellectual light weight)

If the question was "What's North of Santa's workshop", I don't think people who didn't get it would be apt to say "Oh, well I don't believe in Santa, so naturally I wouldn't have figured it out".

Joe Sixpack said:

"I don't think you need to believe in God to figure out this puzzle, you only have to understand the popular concept of God. I'm an athiest and I think it's a cop out (of course, I didn't figure it out, but I blame that on my being an intellectual light weight)"

OK, point well-taken, but I DO think that the thrust of the "riddle" implies a belief in God--kind of like "Well, EVERYONE believes in God and everyone knows that NOTHING is greater than God so you should be able to figure this out immediately."

As for Paul Harvey, he's been caught numerous times airing stories that had NO basis in fact. Check out snopes.com; I believe there's a few examples of him doing that there. He's hardly a credible source of information.

Since there is no such thing as 'God', everything is greater than or equal to 'God'.

87.52% of all statistics are made up on the spot!

Took about 10 minutes, though I must admit that the note about the higher result for children led me to think along the lines of a _really_ simple answer. After years of schooling to learn to do things like solve the equation or answer the test question it's a little hard to let go of the assumption that there IS an answer if you work hard enough. Yes, I do understand that it is the valid answer, it sure felt like giving up.

C-M-G said
"OK, point well-taken, but I DO think that the thrust of the "riddle" implies a belief in God--kind of like "Well, EVERYONE believes in God and everyone knows that NOTHING is greater than God so you should be able to figure this out immediately.""

Yeah, I'd have to agree with that. I could see kindergardeners (who spent lots of time in sunday school) getting it without much thought.

"As for Paul Harvey, he's been caught numerous times airing stories that had NO basis in fact. "

Paul Harvey is the radio equivilant of the Weekly World News, only people take him seriously. Sad, isn't it?

Joe Sixpack said:

"Paul Harvey is the radio equivilant of the Weekly World News, only people take him seriously. Sad, isn't it?"

Well, there's a tendency for people to think that if something is big or has been around for a while that it MUST be legitimate. I confess to falling into that logical trap at times myself.

When I catch myself thinking like that, I remind myself that Enron was the sixth-largest company in America at one point. It doesn't really follow logically, but we all tend to think that an entity that large just COULDN'T be fraudulent. Uh, guess again. Paul Harvey is the Enron of radio commentators (with Limbaugh right behind him). Big does not automatically equal legit.

I got it after a bit, but I was trying to work it out as, y'know, 'evil' is 'devil' without the D, so if that was a 'D', what could all the other bits be?

Then I just got it. I think I might have heard it before, although I don't remember, because I'm not a religious person, and it seems to be an illogical answer.

Ah well, there ya go.

I starterd just like Boo and Alex, counting letters. Then I passed to "what do poors have that rich don't" and I was running around "humbleness", "dignity", that sort of things. But it was the P.S. that "gave" me the answer. I know almost nothing about computers, but I assumed that it was a trick. I thought what might happen when clicking SHIFT, would the computer shut down? Probably nothing would happen... Aha!!! So I got the answer, but I'm not sure I'd figured out the riddle without that "extra" help.
So I don't think you have to believe in God or have been brought up as a catholic to get the answer. I think you only need to know what God and the Devil mean to catholics. But I can see how children get it, just like others have mentioned it, they don't get past the God sentence. So I would say the statistic is not valid because they don't solve the riddle, they give an answer to a question (that is only the begining of the riddle)

A riddle only really makes perfect sense to the person who thought it up. I have a hard time believing this was thought up by Paul Harvey & the stats seem even less authentic...this is probably just one of those things that people use to go "See, I told you it was REAL." Because it can't easily be proven 'wrong'.

Think about it like this. In "The Hobbit", Bilbo Baggins asks the riddle "What do I have in my pocket?" to the gollum. The answer could only be one thing for Bilbo. The Ring. If I asked that question, the answer would be something like a tissue, a tube of Carmex, & a nickel. It doesn't quite have the same affect. The original riddle only meant something to the one who thought it up.

The answer is the Doctor is the boys mother 😊

Who told you the Answer? Was it The Council? Was it... "Raoul"? Tell me. I must know.

The real answer is my cat, at least in it's own mind.

"Nothing is greater than God, More evil than the devil, The poor have nothing, The rich need nothing, And if you eat nothing, you'll die?"

Not a single sentence (phrase) is correct:

* Greater in what sense?
* What is God?
* What is devil?
* The poor have something (just not enough).
* The rich need a lot of stuff.
* You may not die if you are on a life support and don't eat (like many vegetative stage people in comas)

my answer was dirt....

I heard this joke before and got it immediately, but this time I got hung up trying to think of something simple and just got frustrated and clicked the link, about 20 clicks later it hits me and I remember the first time I heard it, just to make myself feel good I said I got it.

People get stupider with age.

On the whole god thing . . . many atheists are frustrated with the whole idea of religion and would simply skip that part of the riddle, which is probably the easiest.

hmmmm....Being a die hard athiest...I could only come up with oxygen or air....but since that didn't quite fit...I had to go look. bahhhhh

I'm going to get needlessly annoyed about the rooster riddle because it's always ticked me off.

The thing about riddles is what they tell you is then assume to be true. Somebody tells you "a rooster lays an egg", making it true in the little universe of riddles. Then for them to say "the rooster DIDN'T lay the egg!" is to completely do a 180.

For example, when somebody asks you "What did the chewing gum say to the shoe?", the hilarious and very clever answer will be "I'm stuck on you." Not, "AHA! Shoes and bubblegum don't converse! Idiot."

Heh Criq, that made me laugh...

Anyways, I got the answer pretty quickly, but I highly highly doubt that 80% of Kindergartners got it.

The part about "eat it and you'll die" tipped me off. I started thinking it was air and went on from there.

As to the religious sections, those really threw me off. I happen to be an Athiest Jew (yah, it sounds contradictory, but I swear it isn't), and I just saw the word "God" and "Devil" and automatically assumed I wouldn't get it, so I just kind of ignored those sections.

I got it before finishing reading it, even if I'm not for sure a theist, and even not an english native speaker. This because, being a roleplayer, I know the "tricking" way of thinking that lies behind riddles... a way of thinking that would almost never work in a scientific/technical environment where problems are real ones.
As an hilarious example of that way of thinking, to people that knows Terry Pratchett, think in "Pyramids" the encounter with the Sphinx... 😛

This is the first time I've seen this riddle. I must say it's pretty good. It took me a couple of minutes but I figured it out (thanks to my Christian upbringing I guess). Oh, and I'm neither in kindergarten nor university right now.

Being very boring but - if you take the answer (which I failed to get) logically - its wrong.

midlandsea said;

"if you take the answer ... logically - its wrong."

AAB had the same "insight"

It's a riddle, git. The riddle of the sphinx is "logically" wrong too, but everyone gets it.

Aren't most grads pretty washed out once they've finished uni and aren't young kids just learning basic morals? It's a bit of an unusual stat to claim however completely possible if the sample numbers in each catagory are not relative.
For me the answer was obvious, however I dont think that was the point!!

OK, I've got to come out and say that this "I couldn't get it because I'm not religious" excuse is a big cop-out. I don't believe in Odin, but I can answer quite a few questions about him. I also know quite a bit about Oliver Twist and Huckleberry Finn, although I'm pretty sure they didn't exist in real life.
The "this isn't literally true" complaints don't cut it either. It's a riddle, not a PhD dissertation! Get over it!

Big Gary C said:

"OK, I've got to come out and say that this "I couldn't get it because I'm not religious" excuse is a big cop-out. I don't believe in Odin, but I can answer quite a few questions about him."

I can't speak for anyone else, but I didn't mean to imply that an agnostic or atheist COULDN'T get this riddle, but that it seemed to me to have an attitude of "Well, EVERYONE believes in God, so you should get this with no problem" behind it.

Having had 12 years of Catholic school, I too know a wee bit about the Big G, but I don't automatically "go there" (as the kids say) when confronted with something like this.

No wonder you're cranky, 12 years of parochial school did it to you.

Something I just remembered about this after working it around in my mind. I knew I had heard this before but I didn't remember the answer, and I didn't get it here, and it finally came to me. This riddle startedin the 50's sometime. Instead of working on it with today's cultural references, try it from the culture of the 50's it might be easier to understand and get.

Cultural references?
Let's see, we have God, the Devil, the poor, the rich, eating, and death.
Which of those references seem dated to you, Christopher?

Ok, so granted, I wasn't alive in the 50's, but it seems to me that what Christopher is saying is that things like God and the Devil were much more prominent in every day life in the 50s than they are now. Also, the societal differences between the rich and the poor were more pronounced in the 50's and more of a cultural issue then they are now. I can't really see a difference between the eating and death though.

Maybe I'm way off, but I think that's what Chris is getting at.

I meant from the reference point of the 50's. OK, so I ain't perfect and I do go so fast that I don't write exactly what I mean sometimes. I normally work something over for three weeks or so before I think it's done in my normal writing. I should have looked the comment over and thought about it before submitting it. Proof-reading isn't exactly the most fun part of writing, necessary though it is.

I figured this one out pretty quick from the second part. being a non-religious person, the first part of the riddle can be confusing until you think a little differently.

bloody hell, talk about some people getting a tad touchy about the whole thing. It's supposed to be a bit of fun, something to exercise your brain. It's not supposed to start world war three! Debating is all well and good but there's no reason to get personal and start insulting each other. That's just acting like a kindergartener!

I think this is a useful riddle in reminding people of the unreality of nothing--people too often confuse nothing with something, as though it were a real thing or force--nothing is not real! everything is! by definition! Although I do believe in God, or an infinite creative force, it is a different awareness than than the image put forth by modern religion. Since God existed before anything else, he/she/it could only have made everything else out of itself... there was nothing else around, and to suggest God created everything out of nothing would be to say that God has power over nothing, and that would mean God had no power at all. Read it over. So, since God can't stop being God (this truth is inherent in the definition of God) then everything around us, inclusing us, is God. Everywhere. This makes the possibility of satan and hell impossible. God would not make himself into a place of eternal torment. Nor would God force the truth of this on a piece of himself/herself/itself--it is anathema to the truth--truth can only be offered, once it is forced it ceases to be the truth, and there is no rush--God will be God forever. So people are allowed to believe in hell, or do anything for that matter--another thing about being God is being at choice. The power is yours. It always has been and always will be. God isn't some guy in the sky, but you are free to believe that--God is all there is, and inherent in that isness is the infinite potential of all that could be. Find this in yourself--trust me, it is there.

Very Descartian...

i still don't know the answer i'm sorry but i was never good at riddles can someone please tell me the answer

Kelli, press the shift key and see what happens. That's your answer! 😊

never mind i figured it out as soon as i submitted my ? thanks and duh

Well the first time I got this was about a year ago, I was 13. I always got it in an e-mail from my friends. Well I tried it and just got frustrated. I kept pushing shift over and over again, and nothing happened! I was so angry. I thought something was wrong with my computer lol! I thought in my head as I read it over and over again, NOTHING, but I never thought that 'nothing' was the actual answer. One of my friends e-mailed me back, and said a dollar? And the funny thing is that he is one of the smartest ppl I know (he was 14 @ the time). Once I saw the answer I just felt dumb. every answer I could think of didn't work because say I thought is was love, you can't eat love, and sure anough you wouldn't DIE! and how would love be even more evil than the devil? The devil is a D infront of evil (which I just noticed) so what could be even more evil? Then I thought hate, but once again, you can't EAT hate...One other reason I couldn't believe anything was greater than God, or more evil than the Devil, is that I'm a Trinitarian...although I might not be a strong christian, I still believe in god as my savour, and yes I believe in the Devil just as much as God. Don't get me wrong, I'm not perfect, I don't try to be, don't think I am, and I know I never will be; but yes, *I* believe everything in the whole bible, and in Jehovah (Yahweh), Jesus, and the holy spirit, and that each is equal to another, and if one were not there, everything would fall apart as *I* know it.

Criss, Althought I do agree with most of what you say, there is one thing I would like to point out to you, as you say that everyone has a choice of what they do, and all, and that there might not be a satan or hell because god is everything and he wouldn't be something evil, or something like that, that god created satan....Well not exactly satan. He created angels, Satan was an angel that *chose* to backstab god, and try to be greater than him. So he had the choice as you say we do, to change his future. True god is everything, because he made everything, like when you have a child, you are part of them (more along the line of they are part of you), and you are with them because of that (sorta). Well my point is, that god created an angel that *chose* to go bad, and with the newly created "bad angel" was his new identity: Satan, who took with him all of the bad angels who *chose* to not follow god, but an other angel who they thought was greater, and that even though god may have created them, and is parshally with them, that it was *their* choice, not his...so in a way since he was still a part of them, he in tern, create hell....I might have some flaws in what I'm saying...but I am still in middle school, and @ the age of 14, but Criss, I'd love to share our beliefs sometime or another! Thanx for giving ur comment, and I indeed learned from it.

Heather, I only have this to say...

In relation to religion, GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN.

I know you're gonna think I'm picking on you or your religion, or trying to "convert you to being an atheist", but no, I'm not. My basic mission when I talk about religion is to try and make people actually think about what they are blindly believing in.

I'm not going to go into it here, (I can hear the sighs of relief from the regulars 😊 ) and it's pretty hard to make people see reason through the internet, anyway.

But one glaring thing that stuck out from your posts was that you believe in equality because the Bible teaches it. Where? From what I understood when I read it, God has his chosen people, and everyone else is below them. Not to mention the many references to slavery (never a bad one) and to male over female domination. If you don't see what I mean, read the book again, and tell me exactly where it teaches equality.

Rod said:

"Heather, I only have this to say...

In relation to religion, GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN."

Gotta agree with you there, Rod. Heather, you're young, you still have time to realize what a scam organized religion is.

Just for starters, why are you expected to pay someone (priest, rabbi, guru, etc.) to talk to God for you? Can't you do that without the middle man (not that I believe in God)?

Why don't you try this little experiment: visit one of the atheist web sites that quote some of the more, shall we say, "unusual" passages from the Bible and question their meaning and logic and see if you can come up with good, logical answers to the questions they pose about them.

If you find you can't, the next question you should be asking yourself if why you want to believe in something that simply makes no sense.

Honey, I know I'm young, anyone can see that...(although I do often get mistaken for an other age). I not only pay for someone to explain the bible to me (lol like I have enough money to do that, they only get a tenth of my allowence! ...Only I haven't been going to church for awhile, so I hardly ever give money), but I also give to misionaries and the expensises for the church.... But like I've said in my first post, I'm not a very strong christian, although I believe it all. Infact I'm one of Eminem's biggest fans. I understand what he's talking about, and I relate to him because he's been threw a lot in his life. He also seems to have this love/hate thing going on for women... I have that for men. I need them, and yet I push them away. I love them, but when I think they're going to hurt me, boom, I hurt them and hate them. But I'm getting better @ this. One day @ a time...just like how my dad gets through not having alcohol, one day at a time. Anyways, back to your comment; you say that I should look @ a website and find some answers to some of the things that the bible is saying... I do that at church events, like cell group, and Wednesdays. Our I ask some of my cell group leaders, one of them Danny, is like a big brother to me....infact in some ways he was more of a brother to me than my own brother. But that's an other story, and I'd rather you find that out from my novels...when I write them, and get them published. You might find some explainations to why I believe what I believe and why I have an ambivalent sort of realationship with men.