Priest at the hospital

[Rhondazvous]

No.  They are pretending they can help.  A witch doctor would do as much good and probably put on a better show.

Witch Doctor? I think the PC term is shaman or homeopath.

Well, I guess that depends on which doctor you're talking about.

[TheRocketSurgeon]

Witch Doctor? I think the PC term is shaman or homeopath.

Well, I guess that depends on which doctor you're talking about.

[Randy Carson]

Religion is a crutch, it's logical that they offer it when you are at your most vulnerable.

To which Humphrys responds:

“Some use booze rather than the Bible. It doesn’t prove anything about either.”

Source.

[TheRocketSurgeon]

Religion is a crutch, it's logical that they offer it when you are at your most vulnerable.

To which Humphrys responds:

“Some use booze rather than the Bible. It doesn’t prove anything about either.”

Source.

Yeah, I saw that. I actually really liked that quotation.

On the other hand, there's this:

"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." - George Bernard Shaw

[I_am_not_mafia]

They're ordinary people, who may be wrong/misguided....but they are often just trying to help.

No.  They are pretending they can help.  A witch doctor would do as much good and probably put on a better show.

They think that they are helping.

[Regina]

It's fairly normal that priests come to the hospitals and go to people, who want their services. It's not normal that they pull their woodoo unsolicited.

Exactly. I think there's nothing wrong with the first situation in my opinion, in fact we had one in when my Dad was dying. The latter is wrong though and you'd think the nurses would step in remove them.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I've had several surgeries over the years (mainly for wounds and injuries), and I was always asked during the admitting procedure if I wanted the hospital chaplain to show up.  I politely turn down the offer and this has always been respected.

Now, had I been offered a full fledged witch doctor, I'd have jumped at that with both feet. Except, I mean, for the time I had the pins put in my ankle. But enthusiastically nevertheless. Might have livened up the ward.

Boru

[MTL]

So I was very sick this month and I had surgery last monday. On the first night a priest came into the room to try to bless me and I stopped him and said: "No thanks, good night". I was awake from pain all night so I had time to think about this mechanisms religion institutions use to spread themselves by using the pain and suffering of people.

Several questions came to mind:

Why do we ought respect to people who do such an immoral thing?
How can they look in the eye to someone and tell him: "God is with you" even when God let you get sick in the first place?
Isn't it spiteful that these people wonder around hospitals, stealing the credit from people who actually contribute to well being of humanity when their institution is responsable for the greatest retardation of science?

I posted this on Facebook and got such a negative response from friends and family... I mean, I am the only one that sees the sadism in those acts? Or am I wrong?
Do I lose my time trying to expose the fraud?

Sorry to hear you are unwell.  I hope you are already feeling a little better, by now.

I agree with all your points.

This is yet another instance of the entitlement and privilege of a religion
that has become too accustomed to having free rein in society.

Religion is so duplicitous for so many reasons,
and one stellar example of this
is how Theists are led to believe
that ostensibly selfless acts done in the name of religious values
are not in fact serving the Religion, itself, more than anyone else,
by simply drugging the Theist with a dopamine rush of self-satisfaction.

Plus, they are so lost in their haze of self-congratulation on their acts done with good intentions,
that it is always a bucket of cold water to the face when someone illustrates to them
that what they think was a harmless, charitable act on their part,
could actually be taken
not only as NOT charitable,
but even as presumptuous, encroaching, and actively self-serving.

They get downright angry.

As if you are being gratuitously disrespectful.

It is not your problem that they need a wake up call,
or that they find the wake up call rather jarring.

You made your points extremely succinctly.

I personally feel that the wake up call is badly needed
and that we as Agnostics or Atheists are not obliged to soften it too much;
all we need do, is deliver it firmly and politely...which it sounds like you did.

If subsequently challenged,

I personally always acknowledge that they THINK they are doing good,
or that they think their actions are, at worst, harmless.

Then I cannot be accused of being obtuse to their point of view:

Yes, I see it, I get it.

but then I am equally inexorable about pointing out that the road to hell was paved with good intentions.

and then...

(purely in the hopes that lubricating my harsh pill of reality, with some diplomacy,
will help it to go down, easier)

...I ALSO acknowledge that my wake-up call, itself, is jarring:  Yes, I do realize that.

It's a bucket of cold water, I know.

But, having acknowledged their good intentions,
and having empathized with the fact that my wake up call is unpleasant for them,

the time has then come for them to open their eyes to just how much it is NOT OKAY it is for them to presume.

Period.

Regardless of how much balm they thought they were pouring.

[Rhondazvous]

It's fairly normal that priests come to the hospitals and go to people, who want their services. It's not normal that they pull their woodoo unsolicited.

Exactly. I think there's nothing wrong with the first situation in my opinion, in fact we had one in when my Dad was dying. The latter is wrong though and you'd think the nurses would step in remove them.

Not if it's a religious hospital. They follow their own protocol. Good thing this was a priest and not one of those Word of Faith idiots who want to lay hands on the sick. I used to live near a Church like that. Those people will actually grab you even after you tell them no.

[Athene]

Exactly. I think there's nothing wrong with the first situation in my opinion, in fact we had one in when my Dad was dying. The latter is wrong though and you'd think the nurses would step in remove them.

Not if it's a religious hospital. They follow their own protocol. Good thing this was a priest and not one of those Word of Faith idiots who want to lay hands on the sick. I used to live near a Church like that. Those people will actually grab you even after you tell them no.

That seems like a great way to get your ass kicked.