Religious right to refuse treatment vs. Religious opposition to euthanasia
So, my first thought when reading this article (in which it is reported that a young man dies refusing medical treatment due to religious beliefs) was “what terrible, terrible self-serving hypocrisy”.
Also, “why have you never thought of this before, dumbass”?
As usual, religion gets its cake and eats it too. Religious groups routinely support the right of the individual to refuse treatment based on their beliefs, even when it means they will die. They also thoroughly oppose euthanasia in any form. How does this make any kind of sense?
If you are choosing to die because of your faith, it’s fine — but if you are choosing to die as comfortably as possible, to avoid a drawn out, torturous death, then it is sin?
HYPOCRISY.
But it wouldn’t be make believe if you believed in me…
Last night I rewatched the classic 1973 movie Paper Moon in which Ryan O’Neal plays a con man travelling across the southern United States during the Depression defrauding suckers.
The most common con that he runs is to get into a new town, and check the obituaries for the names and addresses of recent widows. He then pays them a visit, asks to speak to the deceased, and upon being told that they have died, offers to return the 1 dollar deposit the deceased put down on a bible. The new widow invariably inquires further about the order for the bible, and is then told that the deceased ordered the deluxe women’s version, imprinted with her name.
The widow of course is overcome with emotion and purchases the bible, and the con man walks away with a tidy profit.
My question to the religious is: So what?
In discussing the validity (or rather lack thereof) of religion, one of the points that is always made in its defense is the amount of comfort that it brings to its adherents. It does not matter, we are told, if in fact there is no god, if the beliefs bring comfort to the living (read more about the backward Pascal’s Wager at Wikipedia).
So what harm then comes from con men like O’Neal’s character in Paper Moon or any of the evangelical preachers who sell prayer cloths and the like to the unwitting and uneducated? By this line of thinking, there is no harm done. What I find so intriguing is that an individual taking these actions would most certainly be considered criminal, while an organization doing so is considered somehow exempt from being charged with fraud.
It’s ridiculous, of course, and does not cease in astonishing me.
Protect yourself from fraud, both religious and otherwise. This website has some excellent antifraud resources that you may wish to investigate:
So, why all the fuss?
I get asked very often what`s the big deal with letting people believe in god, homeopathy, bigfoot and the rest of the mumbo jumbo that`s out there.
The problem is that the belief in such nonsense does have a significant impact on the rest of society, whether it be by politicians forwarding faith-based agendas (such as George W. Bush or Ayatollah Khomeini), the common practice to seek out so-called alternative medicine, which may thereby prevent the truly ill from seeking proper medical attention, or the resources wasted having to constantly refute the bogus claims of pseudo scientists like cryptologists.
The impact of lies is always harmful, so I seek the truth.
I should also mention that I am human, and due to the way that the human brain gets its work done, I am also very credulous. I have in the past self-identified as a christian, a tarot card reader and a possible UFO abductee. My first inclination is to believe in whatever I am told, especially when coming from a trusted source or when the idea is very interesting or imaginative.
Then I read Carl Sagan`s A Demon Haunted World and started really thinking about things. This led me to Skeptic and Skeptical Inquirer magazines, which are exceptional publications that help to impart the tools for critical thinking I was never taught in school. Soon enough I was on to James Randi, Richard Dawkins, Eugenie Scott and Penn & Teller.
Who knew there was such a community of like-minded individuals out there?
With this web page, I am trying to do my part as well. I have an 8 month old daughter, and intend to do everything in my power to ensure that she is not polluted by nonsense and lies. I hope that I can instill in her an appreciation of the natural universe that does not depend on the collected rantings of nomads from over 2000 years ago or the profiteering quackery of the so-called new age movement.
That is why all the fuss.
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Welcome to Ubi Dubium
A blog dedicated to the advancement and popularization of rational humanism, in the face of a growing tide of religion, pseudoscience and quackery.
