A "Beware of Dogma" sign in Texas
Although religion is often benign, it is dangerous when dogma harms children. Recently, Ava Worthington, the girl whose parents rejected conventional medicine on religious grounds, died at just fifteen months of pneumonia and a blood infection. A course of antibiotics could have cured her.
While Worthington’s parents have been charged with manslaughter, several readers of The Oregonian have sounded off about the case. R. Curtis Bosworth, for instance, stated that religious dogma was to blame for the neglect of Worthington. Many others have concurred.
Although writers have understood the dangers of religious faith, Charles Hunter of Northwest Portland would prefer to side with dogma. “I’d rather align with the religious thought that says ‘love thy neighbor,’ than with the ‘rational’ thought of [Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and Mao], who firmly rejected religion.”
Since Leslie Zukor knows that rational thought does not lead to genocide, the Reed Secular Alliance President spoke up. “[T]he atheists I know rebuild houses in New Orleans, give food to the hungry, and donate books to prisoners,” Zukor explained in a Letter to the Editor of The Oregonian.
Putting one’s faith in an invisible entity, instead of in demonstrable science, is a recipe for disaster.
I’m shocked that this hasn’t been inundated by hyper-religious nuts.
You should expand on exactly why those people did not represent atheism though.
Though it is true that being an atheist does not lead to genocide, it is also true that being religious does not mean denying science (including modern medicine) or taking an extreme view on life. Majority of believers use modern medicine. Many even accept science in all forms. Science can not disprove or prove that a God exists. People choose to believe, or they don’t. Both choices should be accepted, even if one disagrees with them.
In this case the parents are hopefully facing consequences as they should. It is a tragedy on what happened to this little girl, but as it does not represent religious people as a whole, it should not be used as a piece to oppose religion as a whole.
rsasecular said, “I’d rather align with the religious thought that says ‘love thy neighbor,’ than with the ‘rational’ thought of [Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and Mao], who firmly rejected religion.” Interesting that rsasecular neglected to say Hitler was a ROMAN CATHOLIC who more than once said that he believed he was doing god’s will(how is that rejecting religion?)in doing away with the jews. Also, rsasecular didn’t mention that Stalin attended seminary and pol pot demanded that his people worship him! Even though he’s dead, his people are under the impression that he’s divine and he’s STILL prayed to! SOUNDS VERY RELIGIOUS TO ME! How convenient to not mention any of this totalitarian belief system which parallels religion to it’s core!