http://www.smh.com.au/world/baby-starved...-p4el.html

The AP Wrote:For more than a week, Ria Ramkissoon watched passively as her one-year-old son wasted away, denied food and water because the older woman she lived with said it was God's will.

Javon Thompson was possessed by an evil spirit, Ramkissoon was told, because he didn't say "Amen" during a mealtime prayer. Javon didn't talk much, given his age, but he had said "Amen" before, Ramkissoon testified in a US court in Baltimore.

I think I might cry.

There's always a few of these every year, and they're never no less tragick.

THIS is why I speak out against faith based beliefs. THIS is the harm it can cause.

And ANOTHER person dies because of religion. Just amazes me how a 12th century mindset can still exist in the 21st century.

(February 26, 2010 at 11:56 am)Thor Wrote: And ANOTHER person dies because of religion. Just amazes me how a 12th century mindset can still exist in the 21st century.

Last I checked, religion did not kill that boy. A mother's stupidity and negligence did.

That aside, this is extremely tragic and that poor boy did not deserve what happened to him.

(February 26, 2010 at 1:12 pm)Watson Wrote:

(February 26, 2010 at 11:56 am)Thor Wrote: And ANOTHER person dies because of religion. Just amazes me how a 12th century mindset can still exist in the 21st century.

Last I checked, religion did not kill that boy. A mother's stupidity and negligence did.

That aside, this is extremely tragic and that poor boy did not deserve what happened to him.

Religion ABSOLUTELY killed that boy. If the mother didn't believe the stupidity that was being told to her by religious morons her son would still be alive. And yes, the mother was stupid and negligent. But these things were motivated by religious beliefs.

ITT: A mentally ill person lets someone die through negligence, and it's somehow religion's fault.

Seriously guys, this is stupid. Using your logic I should say "atheism is bad, just look at Joseph Stalin!"

(February 26, 2010 at 1:16 pm)Alex Wrote: ITT: A mentally ill person lets someone die through negligence, and it's somehow religion's fault.

Seriously guys, this is stupid. Using your logic I should say "atheism is bad, just look at Joseph Stalin!"

Nowhere in this article does it say the mother is "mentally ill". How can you make a conclusion like that? This woman behaved the way she did because of her religious beliefs. If she didn't believe the religious bullshit she absolutely would have acted differently. So, yes, this death can be laid right at religion's front door. Think about it... this woman is the poster child for religion! She believes this crap so much that she let her child die!

And the Stalin analogy is a poor one. He did not kill people because of atheism. He was a power mad tyrant, plain and simple.

(February 26, 2010 at 1:31 pm)Thor Wrote: Nowhere in this article does it say the mother is "mentally ill". How can you make a conclusion like that?

Are you suggesting it was a mentally stable woman who allowed someone to starve to death?

Quote:And the Stalin analogy is a poor one. He did not kill people because of atheism. He was a power mad tyrant, plain and simple.

Okay then, in the People's Republic of China thousands of religious buildings were looted and destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. They acted this way because of their atheism.

Of course, I'm not seriously suggesting atheism is inherently bad - that's my point, atheist or theist, douchebags are douchebags and will do crazy shit.

(February 26, 2010 at 1:15 pm)Thor Wrote:

(February 26, 2010 at 1:12 pm)Watson Wrote:

(February 26, 2010 at 11:56 am)Thor Wrote: And ANOTHER person dies because of religion. Just amazes me how a 12th century mindset can still exist in the 21st century.

Last I checked, religion did not kill that boy. A mother's stupidity and negligence did.

That aside, this is extremely tragic and that poor boy did not deserve what happened to him.

Religion ABSOLUTELY killed that boy. If the mother didn't believe the stupidity that was being told to her by religious morons her son would still be alive. And yes, the mother was stupid and negligent. But these things were motivated by religious beliefs.

These things were motivated by her religious belief, not by the belief itself. if she id not hold the belief, she would not have let the child die. That's the point. It was her fault she beleived what she did, not the belief's fault she belied in it.

Quote:This woman behaved the way she did because of her religious beliefs. If she didn't believe the religious bullshit she absolutely would have acted differently. So, yes, this death can be laid right at religion's front door. Think about it... this woman is the poster child for religion! She believes this crap so much that she let her child die!

Again. She believes it, not the other way around. Are you seriously suggesting that the belief holds her, rather than that she holds the belief? That's ridiculous and shows that you can't be bothered to blame people's problems on internal error, but can only see external fault as being what motivates people.

Now, if you can direct me in that article to a group of priests/pastors/rabbi who stood over the woman and told her not to interfere the entire time with her child's illness, then I might say it was religion's fault...and yet, even then, it wasn't religion. It would have been a group of religious men.

(February 26, 2010 at 1:16 pm)Alex Wrote: ITT: A mentally ill person lets someone die through negligence, and it's somehow religion's fault.

Seriously guys, this is stupid. Using your logic I should say "atheism is bad, just look at Joseph Stalin!"

There is a direct connection between what the mother's cult beliefs were, and what she did to her child. You have no evidence to suggest that if she weren't a member of that cult, she would have acted in the same way. The only reason she did this to her child was because the cult leaders told her to, and have still brainwashed her into thinking that it was the right thing to do. This is why the cult are to blame. This is why religious beliefs *can* be dangerous.

Just because a cult causes the death of a child doesn't mean religion is to blame, I'll give you that, but it does mean than a specific religion is to blame, and it demonstrates how religious beliefs have the capacity to be dangerous, given that some of them are based on faith alone.

The logic "atheism is bad, just look at Joseph Stalin" is of the form:

P believes X.
P does bad things.
Therefore P does bad things because of X.

Whereas the logic for my position is:

P believes X.
X tells P to act in a certain way.
P acts in this way and Y is a consequence.
Therefore X is (at least partly) responsible for Y.