A revelation in the shower

[Cyberman]

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Thank you for the kind words. The actual cause of death was never established; one or two possibilities were raised but they are impossible to prove and frankly too horrible to contemplate. It went down on the certificate as "unexpected death due to epilepsy" despite there being absolutely no evidence to support that conclusion, simply because the coroner's inquest had to put something. The treatment may indirectly have been a contributory factor, nothing to do with the actual treatment itself. It's all rather involved and I'd need a whole new thread to cover it all.

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None of this is the reason why I am an atheist, I identified as such long before this happened. So I'm not 'angry at god' or anything so silly. I was never taken in by that stuff before, and I'm certainly not falling for it now.

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I actually am more surprised you are an atheist after something like that, really. After traumatic events such as that, religion starts to look really good. In a weakened state is where most people find themselves as they are converting. I think this makes you one of, like...three people I know of who did not let emotionally blistering events induce a conversion.

Funny you should say that. I spoke about this very thing on another forum I was haunting at the time, shortly after... it happened. I can appreciate, perhaps much more than I used to, how temptingly comforting a religious blanket might look in times of profound trauma. I wasn't actually tempted to take the plunge myself, in fact it never really crossed my mind. Naturally I would like more than anything the reassurance of an eternal afterlife and a huge wrap party in the clouds with all my loved ones around me. That's one of the insiduous things about religion. It's basically an ambulance chaser at heart, preying on the weak, the sick and the disenfranchised. The sooner we're rid of it, the sooner our world can start to recuperate. Just my two penn'orth.

[Creed of Heresy]

I know 5 people who resisted the sweet seduction now; this number might grow much faster than I first though it would...

I agree that religion is like treating a symptom rather than the cause of a disease. You can put a bandage on the bullet hole but all that does is stop the bleeding. You have to remove the bullet, disinfect the wound, and stitch it up properly. Otherwise it cripples you, or even kills you. Same thing with emotional bandages.