If any are willing, share your fact based reasons for viewing faith as dangerous.
Viewing faith as dangerous is the reason for almost all of my posts recently. What seems constant is that theists are too focused on there own little world to realize how and why faith is so damaging to society. The thought occurred to me that it may be helpful to lurkers and frequent visitors to understand why passions against faith are so hot at times. After all, a common facet of being a theist is a closed off world where they are ignorant of the very real harms done by faith.
for any believers who read this thread, please remember that the bible, and the interpretation of it (regardless of if it would be how YOU interpret it) is directly responsible for the things posted in this thread.
I must stress, because of that last remark, that any post in line with this thread be done by citing the source and merely letting the information lay to be read as is.
im going to begin by sharing an example i recently read.
Ashley was the only child of Catherine and John King, prosperous middle-class Christian scientists in Phoenix ( John was a real estate developer ). In 1987, at the age of 12, Ashley developed a lump on her leg. Her parents sought no medical aid, and the lump continued to grow. When it became too large and painful to allow her to go to school, they withdrew her, and although Ashley was supposed to receive in-home instruction by teachers, her parents refused it.
Ashley's lump-a tumor-kept growing, and the Kings continued to ignore it. In May 1988, a detective, alerted by neighbors who hadn't seen the child for months, managed to enter the Kings' home, and saw that the problem was quite serious. Although Ashley tried to cover the tumor with a pillow, the detective immediately realized that she was in fact dying. A court order put her in custody of child protective services, which sent her to Phoenix Children's Hospital. But by the time she got real medical attention, it was far too late. Her tumor was and osteogenic sarcoma - bone cancer- and had metastasized to her lungs. Her heart was dangerously enlarged from trying to pump blood to the growing tumor, and since she couldn't move because of the pain, her genitals and buttocks were covered with bedsores. Her tumor had grown to 13 inches across, larger than a basketball, and stench from her rotting flesh permeated the hospital floor. The doctors recommended amputating the leg-not to save her life, for her condition was terminal-but to ease her pain and give her a bit more time. One doctor said that Ashley was experiencing "one of the worst kind of pain known to mankind."
The Kings refused amputation, and on May 12 moved their daughter to a Christian science sanatorium where there was no medical care, not even pain medication. Instead, there were 71 calls to Christian science practitioners for Ashley's "treatment": prayer alone. When she cried out in agony, she was told that she was disturbing the other patients. Actually died on June 5, 1988, a martyr to her parents and delusions. At the subsequent trial of her parents, a prosecutor described her tumor at death as "about the size of two watermelons. "The doctors believed that had she been diagnosed early, there was a 50 to 60% chance she could have been saved.
- Jerry Coyne, Faith Versus Fact pg 230, 231