Captain Oblivious

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Now somebody please tell me, what kind of low-grade idiot thinks autism can be explained by demonic possession?!? Oh, right, religious fanatics. Of course.

As you may know, I'm not usually very religious. I was raised to be a Christian, Roman Catholic specifically, but when I grew up and started thinking for myself (instead of taking the authority figures' - parents, priests - word for it), I realized I didn't actually believe what Christians believe. At that point, I took the radical step of leaving the Catholic Church. I call it a radical step because there is actually a very large number of Catholics who don't believe most of what their leaders say they should, yet they continue to call themselves Catholics. To maintain personal integrity, these people should find a religion that they can believe in or they should form their own. But standing in the pews and reciting the Creed when you believe in perhaps 50% of it would be incredibly hypocritical if any of these individuals considered the question. Since, in my extremely scientific sample (not) composed solely of people I've spoken to, none of them have done so, I've concluded that it's more accurate to label it intellectual laziness.

Note: I'm not saying there are no Catholics that agree with the Church; I'm not saying Catholics who disagree with the Church are bad people; and I'm not saying all religious people are hypocrites or intellectually lazy. Flame on if you like, but be accurate, k? Ta...

You may have noticed that I referred to religious 'fanatics' above. When I refer to fanatics, I'm talking about extremists or cultists. I'm not talking about devout people. Devout people have a strong belief in one deity or another, and they most likely live their lives in very close accordance with that faith. What is the difference between religious devotion and religious fanaticism, and what does religious fanaticism have to do with intellectual laziness? Stupidity.

Yeah, I'm serious. Fanatics believe their faith overrides all other possibilities, including science, medicine, and most especially logic. Devout people, when faced with a contradiction between their faith and the real world, will adjust. They will maintain the core of their belief system, but allow that certain details can be explained in other ways. Do they give up their faith? Absolutely not. Do they use their brains? Absolutely.

In this way, many devout Christians who believe that God created the world have adjusted from the literal Genesis story of Adam and Eve and seven days of magic to a philosophy known as Intelligent Design. This allows for the scientific evidence that the world is significantly older than the Bible would have us believe, and also for the scientific evidence of evolution, without losing track of the more important core belief that the initiator of all of these processes was the Creator. This is smart. When faced with the same evidence about the age of the world and the evolution of species, fanatics insist the science is an error, or a conspiracy, or a trick (of the Devil, sometimes). This is not smart. These people are intellectually lazy and willfully ignorant.

Oh, and back to the article? That moron shouldn't be getting 5 years for 'bodily harm to a child' - he should be charged with manslaughter, or as close as they can get to murder. I'll grant it wasn't premeditated, but the kid died of suffocation (per the medical examiner) after being pinned underneath a grown man, struggling wildly, for an hour or more. That jerk should be removed from the gene pool, one way or the other. The religious ignorance, and the intellectual laziness behind it, is only mildly irritating and ultimately none of my business. But the death of a child because of it is inexcusable.

As Dogbert has said, "Out Out!! You demons of stupidity!!"