Too bad Oliver Sacks is not alive anymore. He could have written one of his monumental books on mental illness using Little Rick as his patient. The book would have probably surpassed his book "Awakenings" in fame and portrayal of shocking reality. They probably would have also made a movie based on a book and the actor portraying Little Rick would kill himself after the move is made because of the mental scars he had being the character of Little Rick.
I already see the story: In the poorest streets of the poorest town in a crack house a child is born by a crack whore because she didn't have money for abortion. From there on child is raised by rats who breast feed him and to other chores for the baby. Since Little Rick is unwanted child his mom beats him every day to the point that he loses ear-sight in one ear and eyesight in one eye. He builds his world view on the stories he hears around him from drug addicts and he starts believeing that he has a dad in the sky that loves him. After few more years Little Rick becomes angry that no one listens or let alone believes in the primitive world view he has built in his puny mind so he turns to the internet to yell at the whole world for not being fucked up like he is.
I already see the story: In the poorest streets of the poorest town in a crack house a child is born by a crack whore because she didn't have money for abortion. From there on child is raised by rats who breast feed him and to other chores for the baby. Since Little Rick is unwanted child his mom beats him every day to the point that he loses ear-sight in one ear and eyesight in one eye. He builds his world view on the stories he hears around him from drug addicts and he starts believeing that he has a dad in the sky that loves him. After few more years Little Rick becomes angry that no one listens or let alone believes in the primitive world view he has built in his puny mind so he turns to the internet to yell at the whole world for not being fucked up like he is.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"