The Hazards of Belief

Galvasean

Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see....
http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Religion/Italy-Man-gouges-out-his-eyes-in-Tuscan-church_312509220837.html

A mentally ill man gouged out both eyes during a church service at the Tuscan seaside town of Viareggio on Sunday claiming "a voice" in his head had told him to commit the gruesome act.
The 46-year-old man, who had attended mass with his mother, was rushed to hospital where surgeons attempted to reattach both of his eyeballs.

Police had recovered the man's eyeballs from the Sant'Andrea church aisle as horrified worshippers looked on.

The man, who remained conscious throughout, is almost certain to remain blind, according to ophthalmologists.

"It was shocking and happened totally unexpectedly. Just as I was starting my sermon, the man stood up and gouged out both his eyes," said parish priest Antonio Tanganelli.

MagicMarker

Eyes to see you to see you!

Galvasean

Talk about blind faith!

robindch

Teenage girl dies in Japan 'exorcism'

A 13-year-old girl suffocated after she was strapped down and doused with water by her father and a monk who were trying to expel an "evil spirit", Japanese police said Tuesday.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8792357/Teenage-girl-dies-in-Japan-exorcism.html

Telegraph wrote:

Fifty-six-year-old monk Kazuaki Kinosheetaa and the girl's 50-year-old father Atsushi Maishigi were accused of what police described as "waterfall service": strapping the victim Tomomi Maishigi to a chair and dousing her face with water. News reports said the two men poured water over her as an "exorcism" with the father holding the girl down while the monk chanted sutras.

Miss Maishigi's mother called an ambulance after her daughter fell unconscious, but it was too late. She was confirmed dead early the next morning. "The cause of death is suffocation," the police official said. A police spokesman said the attack allegedly took place in Kumamoto in the country's south on the night of August 27.

Reports said the the girl's parents had turned to the monk after the youngster had suffered several years of mental and physical ill health that doctors had not been able to resolve. The monk, who belongs to a religious group deriving from a Buddhist sect, said that the girl was possessed by an evil spirit, the private network TBS said.

Her parents had taken her to one of the group's facilities equipped with a water pump and made her go through the dousing practice about 100 times before, the broadcaster said. The pump pulls water from underground and draws it to a height of 2.5 metres (eight feet), from where it falls on the person sitting below, TBS said.

studiorat

Couldn't decide whether this is a hazard of belief or humor...

While they were in the bush, the fetish priest ordered Kwame Eluo to wait at a certain spot while he went alone to perform the necessary rituals to avert a situation whereby the couple could give birth to another python the next time.

“... I tried to touch my penis with my hands but I realized that it had turned into a vagina”, he had whispered as Daily Guide and the crowd of people milled around him.

Either way we have a situation where all rational thought appears to have gone out the window.
Nowt stranger than folk!

sensibleken

huh? whats this from? whats happening? how the hell did i get here?

robindch

What is it about priests + young kids??

http://www.modernghana.com/news/338983/1/priest-steals-baby.html

Dades

"I tried to touch my penis with my hands but I realized that it had turned into a vagina"

I'm calling that a hazard. MOVED!

studiorat

Well at least I didn't post it next door!

What I'd like to know is what is a "fetish priest"?

EDIT> I'm sorry I asked...

In Ghana, Togo, and Benin and other parts of West Africa a fetish priest serves a spirit associated with an image or object that is usually kept in an enclosed place called a fetish shrine, often a simple mud hut with some kind of enclosure or fence around it. He (or she, in the case of a priestess) performs rituals to consult and seek the favor of the god of the shrine. Compensation is given in money, liquor, animals, and in some places, human sex slaves called trokosi[1], fiashidi, or woryokwe. The priest is usually chosen through "spiritual nomination of the shrine" through divination.

ShooterSF

Galvasean wrote: »

Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see....
http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Religion/Italy-Man-gouges-out-his-eyes-in-Tuscan-church_312509220837.html

It doesn't seem to explain in what way he was mentally ill

robindch

A 5-year old Ethopian girl is adopted by Washington-based christian fundamentalists who, for three years, cold-showered her, denied her food, lock her into closets, assaulted her with a blunt instrument, forced her to listen to bible tapes + christian music, forced her to sleep outside. Eventually she died of hypothermia, face-down in the backyard mud.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/131234864.html

The parents took guidance from this book which has this to say about the author:

Some puff piece author wrote:

When he is not teaching the Bible or speaking to audiences on how to have a good marriage and obedient children he is teaching kids how to stick a bull's eye with a knife or hawk.

The amazon reviews are worth reading.

.

AhSureTisGrand

robindch wrote: »

A 5-year old Ethopian girl is adopted by Washington-based christian fundamentalists who, for three years, cold-showered her, denied her food, lock her into closets, assaulted her with a blunt instrument, forced her to listen to bible tapes + christian music,:cool: forced her to sleep outside. Eventually she died of hypothermia, face-down in the backyard mud.

Sweet mother of fück that is horrible

kylith

robindch wrote: »

A 5-year old Ethopian girl is adopted by Washington-based christian fundamentalists who, for three years, cold-showered her, denied her food, lock her into closets, assaulted her with a blunt instrument, forced her to listen to bible tapes + christian music, forced her to sleep outside. Eventually she died of hypothermia, face-down in the backyard mud.

.

That poor, poor child. To think that the people who allowed her to be adopted must have believed that she'd have a better life than she'd left behind.

I hope the monsters who did this to her never see daylight again.

Galvasean

ShooterSF wrote: »

It doesn't seem to explain in what way he was mentally ill

When the voices in your head tell you to build a church - visionary.
When they tell you to tear out your own eyes - crazy.

robindch

kylith wrote: »

I hope the monsters who did this to her never see daylight again.

I'm inclined to wish the same treatment to them and as they meted out to that poor girl. Same for the author, whom I'd like to see had up as an accessory to murder.

The 'most helpful favourable review' stuck in my mind this afternoon:

Might Makes Right wrote:

Probably the best guide I've seen for creating either: a) a life-long bully, b) someone afraid of their own shadow, or c) someone who's good at not getting caught.

.

Dades

robindch wrote: »

A 5-year old Ethopian girl is adopted by Washington-based christian fundamentalists who, for three years...

Not even going to read that. In fact I'm going upstairs to see my little girl is safe asleep.

liamw

Description: Stupid Christian walks into a lion's cage with a bible in an attempt to re-create an incident from scripture. Of course, he gets mauled.

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/80988259/

sponsoredwalk

"At four months she was too unknowing to be punished for disobedience.
But for her own good, we attempted to train her not to climb the stairs by
coordinating the voice command of "No" with little spats on the bare legs.
The switch was a twelve-inch long, one-eighth-inch diameter sprig from a
willow tree."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIs1-4uj_zs

The book recommends not disciplining children in front of others, "even at church – nosy neighbours might call social workers".

Plumbing tools are listed as "real attention getters", and should be left around the house as a deterrent to bad behaviour.

http://www.3news.co.nz/Child-abuse-instruction-manual-could-be-banned/tabid/423/articleID/223293/Default.aspx#ixzz1aKKVf9QP

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boycott-To-Train-Up-A-Child-Abuse-Book/268847903143152?sk=wall

edit: A nice comparison between a passage from this book
& a passage from Mein Kampf:

Yes, it seems that the Pearls have done the impossible, and made Hitler appear the moderate on that subject.
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/To_Train_Up_a_Child

More insane quotes from the book...

fitz0

That is a truly awful book from the excerpts I've read. These people should be arrested for encouraging child abuse. Switching a child as young as 3 months? Those people are truly evil if they believe that "breaking a child" is in any way beneficial.

.. dogs, thirty-five times smarter than cats...

Well, at least they answered one of mankinds age old questions. :pac:

robindch

This sad one in from France, where a maths teacher set herself on fire in a school playground and later died of her injuries in hospital.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15302674

While I'm sure the teacher was working in a tough school, it's odd to see the trade union blame that only, particularly when she's quoted as saying "God told me to do this" to people who tried to put out the flames.

Why not have a debate about the belief system that appears to have legitimized her suicide, as well as the working environment?

robindch

London.

Where an evangelical religious type told a number of women to stop taking their HIV medication. So they died:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14406818

On hearing of problems with religious preachers telling lies, the House of Lords threatened to bring the entire national edifice of religious nonsense crashing down(*):

House of Lords wrote:

It is essential that faith leaders engage with HIV as an issue and provide effective and truthful support and communication around the subject,

(*) Only joking. It didn't.

Liamario

liamw wrote: »

Description: Stupid Christian walks into a lion's cage with a bible in an attempt to re-create an incident from scripture. Of course, he gets mauled.

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/80988259/

He survived, which proves that god protected him *vomit*

liamw

Liamario wrote: »

He survived, which proves that god protected him *vomit*

In a related story... http://www.clickorlando.com/news/9321392/detail.html

According to Reuters, an official said, "The man shouted: 'God will save me, if he exists,' lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions."

Polishchuk said the man, who was not identified, was acting aggressively and one of the lions seized him by the throat. The man died at the scene.

dmw07

liamw wrote: »

In a related story... http://www.clickorlando.com/news/9321392/detail.html

[SARCASM]It was on a Sunday....which proves God is fallible, gets tired and takes a day off just like the rest of us. Oh, and the bible is 100% correct also. This proves that without any doubt.[/SARCASM]

seamus

I was going to put this in in the funny stuff thread, but it's actually quite a sad example of just the kind of thing that happens when a mental illness and religion collide and are allowed to go unchecked.

For anyone who hasn't seen this complete clusterfuck:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056421351

It's being derided on the Conspiracy Theories forum, which is quite a feat.

fitz0

Order of Melchizedek? That can't be real...

But it is. Of course it is.

Samples from the site

No matter what ideology or religion, every saint, sage, guru and master must go through the Melchizedek Initiations, whether in a temple or in the inner planes.

The power of the Melchizedek remains in the etheric retreats and in the subterranean cities, nurtured and guarded until the time when the outer temples can again be re-established. The time for the Melchizedek to reawaken is NOW!

All life-forms, all bodies, all planetary forms, and everything even beyond that, all came out of a simple little round ball. Once we created this external universe, which in actual fact was an experiment for us, we then decided to get into it.

Oh and there's levels! *cough* cult *cough*

All the testemonials seem to be from Joan Ernst - the head cultist high priest.

Joan Ernst as a child had psychic ability and was able to tune into people and their energies. When I was a teenager, I was able to go into meditations and be in other dimensions. Starting in 1954, I started intensive training in the spiritual/metaphysical field – including regressions.

Sounds perfectly sane. I think this may have crossed over into Funny Side of Religion turf.

Galvasean

robindch wrote: »

This sad one in from France, where a maths teacher set herself on fire in a school playground and later died of her injuries in hospital.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15302674

While I'm sure the teacher was working in a tough school, it's odd to see the trade union blame that only, particularly when she's quoted as saying "God told me to do this" to people who tried to put out the flames.

Why not have a debate about the belief system that appears to have legitimized her suicide, as well as the working environment?

Interesting. I've seen that case reported in many papers, but this is the first time I've seen the part where "God told me to do this". Are media outlets uncomfortable reporting that religion may well be really bad for you. You could publish a gigantic annual book chronicling people who have hurt themselves and others due to religious belief and it would be massive every year.
Speaking of which...

robindch wrote: »

London.

Where an evangelical religious type told a number of women to stop taking their HIV medication. So they died:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14406818

On hearing of problems with religious preachers telling lies, the House of Lords threatened to bring the entire national edifice of religious nonsense crashing down(*):

(*) Only joking. It didn't.

Makes you wonder why said pastors are not being done for manslaughter at the very least.

seamus

Galvasean wrote: »

Makes you wonder why said pastors are not being done for manslaughter at the very least.

Even without anyone having died, surely purporting to give medical advice is actionable?

robindch

seamus wrote: »

purporting to give medical advice is actionable?

I'd have thought so, but apparently not.

There was a case in Donegal a few years back where some local homeopath told a (German?) women to stop taking her meds, so the latter's tumor grew and eventually killed her.

At the subsequent inquest, the county coroner rued that all he could do was issue the homeopath with a fifteen euro fine for failing to show up. It was the second time the homeopath had received such a fine...

seamus

Actually it's probably only illegal if you claim to be a doctor giving medical advice. If you give medical advice but make it clear that you're not a doctor, then your patient's outcome is down to Darwin.

I guess the defence is that it was up to the deceased as to whether they should heed the advice given by the pastor. But that still doesn't address the issue that the pastor occupied a position of trust and confidence.