A Critical Mass

I haven’t posted for a while, having been quite interested in the US Presidential process of late and not really having much to say, but this story made me cringe.

Apparently an eleven year old girl has died in Wisconsin, USA, after her parents neglected to call the doctor in favour of praying. The article on FOXnews.com says:

“Her mother, Leilani Neumann, told The Associated Press that she never expected her daughter, whom she called Kara, to die. The family believes in the Bible, and it says healing comes from God, but they are not crazy, religious people, she said.”

I’ll have to disagree. This is the definition of crazy, religious people. How stupid do you have to be to expect a prayer to an imaginary being that has declined to present any evidence of its existence (that would be because it’s imaginary!) to be more effective than calling a doctor? The article continues:

“The girl’s father, Dale Neumann, a former police officer, said he has friends who are doctors. He started CPR “as soon as the breath of life left” his daughter’s body, he said.Other family members called 911 to seek emergency help, Leilani Neumann said.

“We are remaining strong for our children,” she said. “Only our faith in God is giving us strength at this time.”"

So, the father finally figured out that the prayer wasn’t working and that he ought to intervene when she died but it still took other family members to call the emergency services! He then says that the same faith in his god that just allowed his daughter to die is giving him strength?? No, it’s keeping him ignorant and criminally negligent! I fear for the other children.

Atheist Revolution recently wrote about prayer as an individual’s means to soothe oneself in difficult times, and I think this viewpoint is correct and obvious.

I would like to offer the opinion that prayer is useful to governments to keep the population docile and submissive. I think it’s fair to note that all governments seek to maintain power for themselves, whether it’s a dictatorship or a democracy, and it seems to me that some governments have latched on to the idea that a credulous population is a trouble-free population. What better method to prevent the threat of revolution or an unfavourable election result than to keep the population voluntarily on it’s knees, wishing for an alternative outcome but taking no action?

Furthermore, if the head of state purports to engage in the same activity, praying to and receiving instructions from an unseen deity, all the better to reinforce the idea that Average Joe is doing the right thing by staying indoors and fervently hoping that the laws of the universe will be changed to suit this individual’s wishes, or that world events will be influenced by an inactive and unseen being (I refer to both the prayer and the prayee here - both are highly ineffective).

The believer soothes himself by believing his prayer will be answered - but not yet - and that he is doing his part in doing good, never stopping to consider that evil is allowed to prosper by good people that do nothing, and that praying is exactly equivalent to inaction, for all the results it achieves.