The Problem With Faith
Posted by
tgirsch
Stories like this one always make me sick:
An 11-year-old girl died after her parents prayed for healing rather than seek medical help for a treatable form of diabetes, police said Tuesday.
Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin said Madeline Neumann died Sunday.
“She got sicker and sicker until she was dead,” he said.
Vergin said an autopsy determined the girl died from diabetic ketoacidosis, an ailment that left her with too little insulin in her body, and she had probably been ill for about 30 days, suffering symptoms like nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness.
The girl’s parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, attributed the death to “apparently they didn’t have enough faith,” the police chief said.
They believed the key to healing “was it was better to keep praying. Call more people to help pray,” he said.
The mother believes the girl could still be resurrected, the police chief said.
Now most people would look at a family like this and think that they’re nuts, and that their daughter was a victim of their insanity. And frankly, they’d be right. But deep down, if one truly believes in a “hands-on” God that really does involve Himself in our day-to-day affairs, doesn’t the belief of this family logically follow? When science and rationality are constantly under attack from religious circles, it’s only a matter of time before some people start taking that worldview seriously, and abandon both in favor of superstition and rationality. It’s criminal that a child has to be the victim of such poor thinking.
I’ve heard it argued that there can be no such thing as “too much” faith. Madeline Neumann is strong evidence to the contrary.
My condolences to those friends and family who weren’t responsible for this tragedy.
