God Murders 11 Year Old Girl!

Okay I suppose a more accurate headline would be:

Delusional parents allow their innocent daughter to die a very slow and excruciatingly painful death while waiting for an imaginary man in the sky to issue a "healing" instead of seeking medical attention.

but you get the point.

Hat tip to Scott for the story.

In which 3rd-world, provincial backwater did this tragedy occur? Yup, you guessed it; right here in the land of the free and home of the brave. Free to believe in silly invisible men and brave enough to entrust your physical well-being to him.

Thanks to religious belief, Weston, Wisconsin now has 1 less little girl that will ever get to play with her friends again, have her first kiss, or get to fall in love. Her parents decided that, what must have been several weeks of illness, was a matter best left to god; and prayed for a healing rather than take their child to a doctor. Sadly, the child had undiagnosed diabetes and her death could have been avoided by the simple administration of insulin. This little girl needed insulin but got prayer instead. Great.

Read the full story from the Associated Press HERE.

As a father, I can only begin to imagine the crippling grief that comes with the death of your child. But the utter senselessness of this tragedy makes it infuriating.

How many millions more must die in religion's name before we cast off the chains of magical thinking?

Congressional Clownery

A big tip of the hat to Hemant over at FriendlyAtheist.com for breaking this story.
Apparently our beloved Senate has a resolution in committee that would declare the first weekend in May 2008 as... wait for it....

TEN COMMANDMENTS WEEKEND

Unfebuckinglievable!!

Senate resolution 483 is Sponsored by Sam Brownback and co-sponsored by Joe Lieberman.
You can read the resolution for yourself here .

Perhaps the most ridiculous part of the resolution is that it:
"encourages citizens of the United States to reflect on the integral role that the Ten Commandments have played in the life of the Nation"

Integral role in the life of our nation, huh?

I suppose the good lord made an Ethereal Exemption in the case of America, and actually sanctioned stealing of the land from the natives and killing as many of them as we could; after all they worshiped the dirt and not the Big Guy. Maybe this is where god "blessed"America. And, not to split hairs here, but isn't there freedom of religion in this country. Doesn't that mean that you are free to worship whatever god (or none) that you choose? Isn't this in DIRECT opposition of the FIRST commandment? Hmm?

I like George Carlin's take on the Commandments:



This is but another banana peel placed on the slippery slope of our beloved nation becoming a theocracy, where the only 'separation' remaining is the tax exempt status the church enjoys.

Call your senator and tell him that you do not sanction this silliness!

Truly Disturbing Video!

I came across a BBC documentary entitled Baby Bible Bashers. It has to be one of the most disturbing things I have ever watched on the internet.

This documentary, produced by Channel 4 in the UK, originally aired last month. It focuses around 3 "chosen" children that have a "personal relationship" with god, and are: Preachers! The film follows the children around as they preach to the masses. Watching this physically affected me; I felt sick to my stomach and developed a headache. I found myself saddened for these poor kids and on several occasions just sat there mouth agape, shaking my head in disbelief. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit I am a big fat hypocrite. As one who has chosen medicine as my life's work and someone who will be taking the Hippocratic Oath in 2 years, I had several un-Hippocratic ideas waft through my mind as I watched. Most revolved around inflicting blunt force trauma upon some of the parents until the Holy Spirit himself interceded.

One of the most striking scenes involves 7 year-old Samuel. His redneck, inbred, bible thumping parents home school (read: program) young Samuel so that they are free to drive about the country in an RV and pimp out their little boy to stand in public and scream at people not to kill their babies, drink alcohol, and how we are all going to hell yadda yadda yadda. Interestingly enough- at one point mom asks the cameras to be turned off while she "trains" her precocious preacher for not listening- (something 7 year-olds are wont to do) Spare not the rod... and all of that. They are followed as they head to New York city to spew their venom on a street corner. As you can imagine some of the warm-hearted denizens of the city were, shall we say, less than receptive to their message. While dad is in a yelling match with a member of the crowd, the camera pans to young Samuel. Clearly he is terrified. He is, after all, still just a little boy underneath all of the fervor and religious rhetoric. It is quite heartbreaking.

These people are straight-up abusing their children! There is no other way to describe it. None of the 3 kids is old enough to have mastered long division, let along preach religion. Wait, after considering that sentence I admit, you don't have to know anything to preach religion. But I assure you they certainly do not understand what it is that they are saying.

Just as an observation, I get the suspicion that there is something not quite right about the relationship between the girl from Brazil and her father, maybe I'm wrong. Watch it and you tell me.

The video below is in 5 parts and in total is bout 45 minutes. It is well done and very thought provoking. It is definitely worth the time. I hope they show it on American television with the same frequency as some of the garbage reality shows. Perhaps people would ask, "What harm is there in religion?" a lot less.

Oversights Were Made in Original Commandments

Apparently, Big Daddy G's omniscience generator was on the fritz during the first dictation of the Ten Commandments.
He had no idea that only a few thousand years down the road there would be pollution or biotechnology (or rational thought).

Luckily, the Vatican is johnny-on-the-spot to editorialize (again) for the neglectful deity.

Story Here.