When does blind faith go too far? I read a story this morning about a man in Indonesia whose village rested on the slopes of a volcano. He was the "spiritual caretaker" of the volcano, he made offerings into the volcano to keep the spirits appeased so his village would be kept safe. His dead body was found Wednesday Oct. 27th covered in white ash from the volcano's recent eruption. Right next to his body was the body of a Red Cross worker who had been trying to get him to leave.
I have nothing to say about his beliefs, there were his and I can respect that. Where I stop respecting someones blind faith in any spiritual path and it goes too far is when it impacts other people. Others in his village stayed because they believed that he could keep them safe and when the eruption started they fled in a panic. Now, after all is said and done, some of the other villagers are calling him a "hero". He's a hero who got himself and an innocent Red Cross worker killed because of that blind faith.
In the USA once again coming to the forefront of the news are religious people following blind faith that leads to the death of the innocent. You have parents killing their babies so they can "go to heaven and be with Jesus" and letting their children die without doctor's care because the parents choose to pray instead. Or a religious ceremony inflicts harm on another, babies drowning during baptisms and children dying during 'excorisms'. And let's not even touch on the Catholic Church and its record with keeping innocent children "safe".
If you are an adult, you have the right to live or die in a way you see fit. If you want to pray for yourself instead of seeking a doctor's care that is your right, or kill yourself so you can "go home and be with with god", again that is your right as an adult.
But if you are making that decision for a child, or it effects another innocent life. NO ONE has the right to force their religious beliefs on another person, or allow harm to come to someone else because of what you think is the "truth".
Spiritual Caretaker of Volcano Dies
Friday, October 29, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Apples... who can resist one?
The other day I was having a conversation with a friend who just happens to be a Christian, about why I'm an Atheist. We had a civil, pleasant conversation. I explained how I viewed the Christian god as an abusive parent. "Love me or I'll punish you!"
When I got home that night I thought more about this as I was cutting up an apple. That got me to thinking about apples, well one apple in particular. (Yes I know 'techincally it necessarily wasn't an apple, it was just called a fruit.) Anyway..... Why would a parent give their child such a temptation? If you were a parent would you tell your child "Hey I just put this magic apple on the kitchen table and you can't have it. But I'm going to leave it right here on the kitchen table where you can easily reach it but you can't touch it. Alright I'm leaving now. Leave the magic apple alone."
It doesn't take a genius to figure out what would happen the moment you left and that door closed. Even if you have a perfect child who always does what they are told, lets throw in the kid from across the street who causes trouble and they tell your child, "It would be awesome to eat that magic apple, maybe it will grant you wishes! Go for it!" So they eat the apple and you come home to an obviously eaten apple and a guilty feeling child hiding from you.
So do you then kick them out of your house? Drive them down to the desert and leave them there to fend for themselves? Do you then tell them that they are being punished for eating your apple and not only them, but you'll punish their children and their children's children for all of time because they ate your apple?
On top of that, if you as parent know what will happen if they do eat the apple and know for a fact that they will eat it, why do you leave it out for them to be tempted by it in the first place? No parent I know of would let such a thing happen to their child.
Why then did the Christian god put that fruit tree in the garden of Eden? To my way of thinking, its cruel and abusive. "I'm punishing you for something I knew you would do in the first place. I know that it will bring a lot of pain and misery into the world. But I did it so that you will have free will to choose to love me. But if you don't love me I'm going to punish you some more and for all of eternity. But its free will, its your choice. Just choose wisely or you'll be sorry."
Really? We have to "choose" to "love" him or be punished, but we're being punished anyway with sickness and death because two people ate a fruit left out in the open? Not only that, but god knew they would eat it and the horrible things that would come about from that one act?
Lets say that you the parent know that if your child ate the apple YOU left out in easy reach, it would not grant them wishes but give them terminal cancer, would YOU leave it out for your child to eat?
When I got home that night I thought more about this as I was cutting up an apple. That got me to thinking about apples, well one apple in particular. (Yes I know 'techincally it necessarily wasn't an apple, it was just called a fruit.) Anyway..... Why would a parent give their child such a temptation? If you were a parent would you tell your child "Hey I just put this magic apple on the kitchen table and you can't have it. But I'm going to leave it right here on the kitchen table where you can easily reach it but you can't touch it. Alright I'm leaving now. Leave the magic apple alone."
It doesn't take a genius to figure out what would happen the moment you left and that door closed. Even if you have a perfect child who always does what they are told, lets throw in the kid from across the street who causes trouble and they tell your child, "It would be awesome to eat that magic apple, maybe it will grant you wishes! Go for it!" So they eat the apple and you come home to an obviously eaten apple and a guilty feeling child hiding from you.
So do you then kick them out of your house? Drive them down to the desert and leave them there to fend for themselves? Do you then tell them that they are being punished for eating your apple and not only them, but you'll punish their children and their children's children for all of time because they ate your apple?
On top of that, if you as parent know what will happen if they do eat the apple and know for a fact that they will eat it, why do you leave it out for them to be tempted by it in the first place? No parent I know of would let such a thing happen to their child.
Why then did the Christian god put that fruit tree in the garden of Eden? To my way of thinking, its cruel and abusive. "I'm punishing you for something I knew you would do in the first place. I know that it will bring a lot of pain and misery into the world. But I did it so that you will have free will to choose to love me. But if you don't love me I'm going to punish you some more and for all of eternity. But its free will, its your choice. Just choose wisely or you'll be sorry."
Really? We have to "choose" to "love" him or be punished, but we're being punished anyway with sickness and death because two people ate a fruit left out in the open? Not only that, but god knew they would eat it and the horrible things that would come about from that one act?
Lets say that you the parent know that if your child ate the apple YOU left out in easy reach, it would not grant them wishes but give them terminal cancer, would YOU leave it out for your child to eat?
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