An Atheist Woman's Point Of View

A tragic example of how religion harms the people closest to it's most ardent followers has been brought to light recently.  A couple in Wisconsin decided to pray to god when their 11 year old daughter started showing signs of a physical illness.  They believed that physical illness is caused by sin and the cure was to pray and repent to god.  Friends and family members pleaded with the couple to seek medical attention, and instead the father sent out an email plea begging everyone to help pray for this child.

The parents do not belong to a organized religion and instead lead their own bible study.  They have no problem with medical attention, they just didn't feel it was warranted and that it was a test from god.  The bible teaches that prayer can heal, and these parents believed that.  They were horribly mistaken.

Easter Sunday the girl's grandmother contacted a daughter in law in California about the situation when she learned that the child could no longer walk or talk and it was this daughter in law who had the mindset to call the police and get someone out to this child.  Unfortunately it was too late and the girl was dead before they arrived.

When the parents were told that the child's body was going to be transported for autopsy to be performed the next day, the parents told them that the child would be alive before then.  The autopsy showed the girl died of diabetes.  Can you believe that a child here in America could die from undiagnosed diabetes? 

The bible encourages this type of behavior with it's dangerous teachings.  By claiming that god will test your faith, or will heal you with prayer, or even that the possibility of resurrection being real all can contribute to people's delusions that in the end it will all turn out alright.  These parents were actually shocked that their child died.  I'm shocked no one called the police prior to Easter Sunday. 

Thankfully charges have been filed against these people.  Their faith can't save them from the justice department.  What they did was criminal child abuse and should be treated as such.  They face 25 years in prison for this and I feel that's a justifiable sentence.

But punishing these people isn't enough.  This ignores the underlying problem here.  The real problem is there are thousands of buildings around the country that teach this type of mindset.  This type of thing actually should be expected from these theists, as this is exactly what the bible teaches them.  If one believes in the literal interpretation of the bible than of course they're going to believe that simply closing your eyes and imagining yourself asking for help is all that needs to be done.  Since before the advent of modern science and medical care people died from just about everything and infant mortality rate was up to 50%, I'd say that is clearly not the case. 

A doctor can cure, talking to yourself can't.  Learn it before you kill someone.

A few days ago I received an email from the Hillary Clinton campaign inviting me to a Hillary for president rally with Bill Clinton.  I rsvp'd within five minutes of opening the email.  As excited as I will be to see Hillary when she comes into town, I'm just as excited to see Bill.  Bill is my favorite former president, without a doubt.  My young adult years were under his presidency and I definitely believe a lot of the happy memories I have are partially thanks to that man.  The economy was good, all the countries loved us (except for the French, they always hate us because they think they're better than we are :), religion wasn't in politics, and America was one hell of a country to be proud of.  So the idea of seeing this man speak live was too great of a chance to pass up.

The rally was yesterday at Lincoln High School and I took my boyfriend Bob with me.  My daughter really wanted to go, but I told her I would take her to see Hillary instead.  The event was scheduled to begin at 5:30 so we got there about 5:00.  Already the line stretched from the school entrance, down the parking and down to the street, around the corner for about a block and a half.  We got in line and talked to a few people in line around us.  A little girl and her grandparents, a mother and adult daughter, and a single woman who was a recent transplant from California.  We got to spend a lot of time talking with them as we stood in line for a very long time.  Unfortunately the former president was running a bit late as this was his 8th event that day.  We finally started moving forward about seven.  As we moved forward we noticed a man across the street holding two Obama signs.  Some people were indignant that he was doing that but it didn't bother me.  Being passionate and involved is a noble thing, no matter which candidate they chose.  That's what makes this country great. 

As we entered the parking lot the entire line had to walk next to another line, this one of people standing silently holding signs showing Iranian girls and with sayings on them like "This is the kind of villagers Hillary Clinton wants to annihilate".  I haven't ever heard her talking about that myself, but ok.  I continued down the line.  When we got close to the entrance there was a man standing on a high curb yelling at all of us.  Asking us how could we possibly be for Hillary, we should be ashamed of ourselves, that sort of thing.  Besides the guy yelling, all the others were very polite and quiet.  I never heard a single one of them speak, they were very courteous.  I respected that a lot.

When we entered the gym, the first thing I noticed was the bleachers on the left side were all full, yet the stage in front of the podium was a bit empty.  Apparently all those people in front of us chose to sit instead of stand up close.  Since we had already been standing for 2 hours, the people in the front must have been standing for 3 or more.  I didn't' mind at all as I wanted to be up close, and we were.  There were just a few people between us and the podium, I was ecstatic.  I couldn't believe I was going to be this close to a man who once ruled the free world, and who's wife just might do the same.

We continued to wait till finally a campaign staffer entered the stage.  She gave a pep talk, threw out a few t-shits (I caught one), then asked us to text "win" to 442008.  Then they would call one of the numbers and that person would get to go back and meet President Clinton.  They ended up picking two numbers and both of them got to meet him (I wasn't one of them).  This was followed by a member of the Portland School Board who talked about how Hillary was committed to our schools.  Finally President Clinton arrived on stage.

He gave a great speech.  Due to my horrible memory I won't try to go into detail about the speech itself, but a lot of what he said really hit home with most of us.  We were all tired after waiting for hours for him to arrive, but he still managed to energize us.  He's always been an eloquent speaker and he didn't disappoint.

About halfway thru I could no longer stand on my feet.  I sat down on the floor and a campaign staffer noticed me right away and escorted us to the press box were we could sit.  I was a little further away but at least I wasn't concentrating on my feet anymore.  At the end he was shaking hands with the audience and as much as I wanted to shake his hand to and say what I really wanted to say to him, I was exhausted, my kids were at my mothers house, and I really wanted to go home.  All in all though we had a great time and I'm really glad I went.

Later Bob and I discussed it and found that both of us had walked away with different perceptions about President Clinton.  Prior to attending the event Bob had seen Bill Clinton as basically a talking head on a TV screen just like any other president, but afterwards Bob saw him as something larger than life.  On the other hand prior to Saturday he had always seemed like something larger than life to me, but seeing and listening to him brought him down to a more normal level for me.  For the first time I saw him not as a leader of the country, but as an average guy who accomplished something amazing.  He seemed more human, if that makes any sense.  Both of us saw our new perceptions of him as something better than before.  I guess that just goes to show how different, yet the same we all are.