In the name of God

[NMMNG]

I saw this amazing article posted over on Editorials and Other Articles. I wanted to make sure you all got a chance to see it:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=141487&mesg_id=141487

[trotsky]

1. Whoa, very good. Thanks for the link!

Best line from the editorial:

Enlightenment values are in peril not because these mad beliefs are really growing but because too many rational people seek to appease and understand unreason.

Boy oh boy I don't know if I could agree with that any more than I do.

[GOPFighter]

4. Exactly!

"...because too many rational people seek to appease and understand unreason."

Americans are rightly proud of our tradition of tolerating different beliefs and religions (though we aren't very consistent in that tradition). Unfortunately Americans have let xtians bully us into believing that criticism of their efforts to impose their lunacy onto society is a form of intolerance.

[NMMNG]

10. Indeed

I'm so tired of people like ourselves having to pander to those who insist on believing in the equivalent of Santa just because they are the majority. I don't give a damn what your scriptures say, it doesn't make it so.

[Beetwasher]

2. There's Also This Today, Just As A Further Case in Point

'I had to kill' boys, mom tells police ("Better off in heaven")

DYER, Ind. -- Magdalena Lopez, a Dyer mother who told police she "had to kill" her children, was charged Thursday with two counts of murder.

Lopez, 30, has been in custody since Tuesday night, when police found the bloody bodies of Erik, 2, and Antonio Lopez, 9, in their home on Dyer's north side. snip

"I had to kill them," she is quoted as telling Cinko. "They're in a much better place now." snip

She could not take care of them any more and believed they would be better off in heaven, she told police.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-kidsdead22.html

[BiggJawn]

5. That's stretching it it bit...

Didn't read anything in this story to lead me to believe that she killed her kids in a re-enactment of Abraham and his son Issac.

She killed them and thinks they're in heaven. that's a FAR way from "Gawd told me to kill my babies, He said He wanted 'em".

[beam me up scottie]

6. I agree.

The woman is very ill and obviously psychotic if she killed her kids because she believed that they would be better off.

Although, it may be that people who believe in fundamentalist religions are more susceptible to giving in to the voices because they think it is god talking to them.

[Jokerman]

7. Religion may not have been the cause but

it certainly appears that her belief in a better life after death made it easier for her to do.

Or maybe this didn't enter into her mind at the time and it is just a way of dealing with the guilt. A sad story either way.

[beam me up scottie]

8. In cases like this, if she was

ill and was unable to stop herself from killing them, I think that a lifetime of the realization of what she did is a punishment ten thousand times worse than being executed.

It would be for me.

[NMMNG]

9. Sad

But I'm not sure how much her religious beliefs played into her decision to kill them. She obviously had severely impaired decision making skills--killing her children because she couldn't take care of them anymore. A rational mother in this position would turn over care to another family member or the state, not kill the children. The article did mention that she had been depressed for a while so this can't be ruled out as a contributing factor.

While I like to roll my eyes at the religious whackjobs as much as many non-believers, this may be a case where mental illness played a bigger (if not the sole) role.

[GOPFighter]

3. Sadly, no one in the MSM could get away with writing this

Criticism of religion is taboo in America. You can get away with just about anything if you do it in the name of God.

[NMMNG]

11. I wonder how long it will be

Before the US enacts a law similar to that of the UK, which forbids criticizing religion. In fact, I'm surprised the American Taliban hasn't thought of it yet...