Remember, these are the kinds of people who vote for you know who.
Prick. Can you believe this European medieval shit is still going on.
I am sure the Pilgrim Fathers didn’t bring it with them. I thought they were trying to get away from all the prescriptive crap.
The only demonic influence there is the stupid moron that performed the ‘exorcism’
I know someone who had all sorts of mental and physical abuse in childhood from a mentally ill mother, and there wasn't even a religious subtext to it. If you add in the notion that your creator approves of and prompts the behavior, you amplify it tremendously because it leaves the child truly alone in the universe with not even god bearing sympathetic witness to its suffering.
If it would not diminish those who administer the punishment, and ultimately society, I'd have zero problem with this guy dying the way his child did.
Religion and mental illness: a dangerous mix.
Hard to tell if religion causes or exacerbates mental illness in any given context. Probably both.
@mordant Probably exacerbates. Many people suffer mental illness without engagement with religion. I am sure there would be a study somewher.
@Geoffrey51 I have read that most mental health professionals will affirm that the most common psychoses and delusions are religiously inspired and based. The question is what the causality is -- does religion cause the delusions, or are the delusional attracted to religion? Like you, I lean toward religion exacerbating and catalyzing existing mental illness (I can readily envision an epigenetic trigger that's sensitive to religion and to woo generally). But I think it could work in the other direction too sometimes.
Maybe if religion weren't such a ubiquitous influence, psychosis and delusion would take on other themes. I don't pretend to know.
How unfortunate it was for that child ,parents brain washed by religious beliefs and the catholic church are the ones whom I beleive created the devil image to put more power and control over the masses .Personally think the pope should be made to declare that the church was the one who created the devil Image for that reason .
A horrible way to get an entry into the darwin awards
Chances are that some idiot told him to do it as it's in a bible of some kind. When he is in a state of mind that is unstable and dealing with a child that perhaps special needs it leads to a storm of evil acts.
If I didn't have to go out shortly, I'd write at length on how religion affects the unstable mind through socialisation and conformity to a moronic pack mentality.