This is why islam is vomitously evil.

[Brian37]

And here's an example why anything resembling a religion is bad: http://m.timesofindia.com/city/bengaluru...512644.cms

In short, a guy chopped off his finger to show gratitude to god for helping some politician stay out of jail.

Sometimes I have to wonder why religion isn't being treated as a mental illness yet, despite all these cases of self-harm being directly caused by religion.

Thank you. There is no such thing as a perfect religion or unifying religion. People get stuck on a moment in time and that is the mistake of selection bias and sample rate error. Every religion has flaws in logic and bad claims that lead humans to do stupid shit. And I cant state this enough, while religion should be considered a poison to logic, we still live in an imperfect messy world, so the only pragmatic thing we can do, without becoming monsters ourselves, is use debate and education and secular law to manage delusions to a civil degree.

[Cyberman]

What a lovely story. I can't believe the parents are defending that guy.

It's encouraging that most people outside of the family and the religiously motivated recognise it as a crime, including the authorities.

[Faith No More]

Very true.

[drfuzzy]

Matthew 5:29-30

29"If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30"If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.

There are Christians who have taken this literally as well.  It's thankfully not as common anymore.  Islam is now known for the hideous acts of brutality that are required by both "holy books".   Religion is vomitously evil.

[God of Mr. Hanky]

Sometimes I have to wonder why religion isn't being treated as a mental illness yet, despite all these cases of self-harm being directly caused by religion.

Religion is surely insanity, but it's popular insanity. Half the world's population is crazy enough with it that they need to be locked up and restrained - or just sent to Mars.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

imam Shabir Ahmad looked up from prayers at his mosque to see a 15-year-old boy approaching with a plate in his outstretched left hand. On it was the boy’s freshly severed right hand.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/19/world/asia/boys-response-to-blasphemy-charge-unnerves-many-in-pakistan.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=3&utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link

The boy, Anwar Ali, the son of a poor laborer, had been attending an evening prayer gathering at the mosque in the village, Khanqah, when Mr. Ahmad asked for a show of hands of those who did not love the Prophet Muhammad. Thinking the cleric had asked for those who did love the prophet, Anwar’s hand shot up, according to witnesses and the boy’s family.
He realized his mistake when he saw that his was the only hand up, and he quickly put it down. But by then Mr. Ahmad was screaming “Blasphemer!” at him, along with many others in the crowd. “Don’t you love your prophet?” they called, as the boy fled in disgrace.
Anwar went home, found a sharp scythe and chopped off his right hand that same night. When he showed it to the cleric, he made clear it was an offering to absolve his perceived sin.

This is absolutely sick but to make it worse ..

The boy’s family, however, argues that the cleric did nothing wrong and should not be punished.

“We are lucky that we have this son who loves Prophet Muhammad that much,” Muhammad Ghafoor, Anwar’s father, said in a telephone interview. “We will be rewarded by God for this in the eternal world.”

The reality is that a bullshitter made a joke to brainwashed kids and embarrassed one enough to make him cut off his own hand. Over something that is not true..

This is why religion deserves no respect.

Jesus told his followers to cut off their offensive body parts.  None of them love Jesus enough to do as he commanded them to do.  So Mohammed's followers must love Mohammed more than Jesus' followers love Jesus, even if they are both imaginary.  If either one was real they would do their own punishing.  Instead bat shit crazy people take it upon themselves to act on their behalf.  They have to because they their gods aren't real.

[ApeNotKillApe]

Sometimes I have to wonder why religion isn't being treated as a mental illness yet, despite all these cases of self-harm being directly caused by religion.

Religion is surely insanity, but it's popular insanity. Half the world's population is crazy enough with it that they need to be locked up and restrained - or just sent to Mars.

Why ruin a perfectly good Mars?

[Wyrd of Gawd]

What a lovely story.  I can't believe the parents are defending that guy.

If the kid becomes a jihadi and gets killed then he can intercede for seventy of his relatives on Judgment Day.  So it's in the parents' best interests to do everything they can to support the idea that the kid should become a martyr.

[Brian37]

Sometimes I have to wonder why religion isn't being treated as a mental illness yet, despite all these cases of self-harm being directly caused by religion.

Religion is surely insanity, but it's popular insanity. Half the world's population is crazy enough with it that they need to be locked up and restrained - or just sent to Mars.

Well there is no way to get rid of religion by force without becoming monsters ourselves. Our evolution produces delusional gap filling and it always will. The best we can do is insist on non violence in political discourse and protect free speech.

[God of Mr. Hanky]

Religion is surely insanity, but it's popular insanity. Half the world's population is crazy enough with it that they need to be locked up and restrained - or just sent to Mars.

Well there is no way to get rid of religion by force without becoming monsters ourselves. Our evolution produces delusional gap filling and it always will. The best we can do is insist on non violence in political discourse and protect free speech.

Oh, I'm just saying the religious fundies really are that crazy in their own shit, not that we should become as evil as they are or worse, which we likely would become even if we tried to forcibly "help" them instead of go genocidal on them, given that we could do either, which won't ever be. It won't ever be, not because we are so few, but specifically because we insist on being so good. We are such unnaturally better people that we put the process of natural selection on hold by not helping it remove those who are driven by fantasy from the gene pool, and they are so much better than we are at breeding! %&$#ing conundrums of nature, cans of worms that should never be opened, Pandora and her cute little box...