God Cloaked as the Reaper (Just my opinion man)

[camstory]

It was with some surprise that I learned of the attempt to break patients out of hospital in Kenema District, the third largest city in Sierra Leone, by a large mob of that city's residences. A rumour had spread that Ebola was a lie, and the health care workers were stealing people's blood. The attempt was unsuccessful, and the mob was turned back, but only after police fired tear gas and live rounds into the charging crowd.

Should I have been surprised? In a culture that has been so completely indoctrinated in god myth; a culture in which a belief in the supernatural has been propagated for centuries, many generations spent teaching the people, that above all else their well being, even their continued existence hinges on a devotion and unwavering belief of some unknowable, yet real, all powerful creator, keeper, and protector of all there is, should I have been surprised? In a culture told the magic stories of seas being parted, food being multiplied, the sick being healed, and a man like them being dead then brought back to life to rise up into the sky, and all taught as if they are fact, in such a culture, should I have been surprised? In a culture that has come to accept all of these things, why would anyone be surprised when some of those people believe that health care workers are killing them and stealing their blood? No one should be surprised – I should not have been surprised!

The continued out of control Ebola crises has given us only the most recent example of the killing power of religion. When people are hiding their sick, and putting their faith in payer and belief in accent myth, rather than modern science, anyone who argues otherwise should stop lying to themselves, and more importantly stop perpetuating the lies told in the name of god.

This sad happening shows no sign of coming to an end any time soon, and we have god to thank for that. god moves through Sierra Leone and West Africa clocked as the reaper!

 

[DDuckworth]

It's terrifying how often the human race seems to try to wipe itself out. I can't imagine how long it will be before we succeed

 

[weirdbr]

The continued out of control Ebola crises has given us only the most recent example of the killing power of religion. When people are hiding their sick, and putting their faith in payer and belief in accent myth, rather than modern science, anyone who argues otherwise should stop lying to themselves, and more importantly stop perpetuating the lies told in the name of god.

The problem is that moving away from religion in a heavily religious place is not easy as it requires a lot of strength to deal with the backlash of renouncing religion.. And also requires critical/rational thinking, which is usually strengthened through education, something that is severely lacking on those countries... Once that issue is fixed, you will see improvements start slowly - if we take Brazil as an example, there has been a reduction in the number of people that identify as catholic, an slight increase in protestantism (specially on more 'hardcore' protestantism that if analysed closely would make John Calvin cry[1]) and a small increase in atheists and agnostics (see this link for details) . And that's mostly due to an increase in access to education (even though educational standards have gone down since the 70s, when they removed a few things like Latin, Music and IIRC philosophy from the curriculum and simplified the requirements on other subjects).


[1] - it includes things like the church/pastors saying that you must give 10% of your salary to the church, or you wont be accepted in Heaven.. Construction of insanely lavish churches... Two things that led John Calvin to start the protestant reformation if my memory of history class is correct.

 

[camstory]

which is usually strengthened through education, something that is severely lacking on those countries... Once that issue is fixed, you will see improvements start slowly

Yes, I had thought of saying something of this. Though, I would have found room in it as well to rant. I was upset knowing that many of the deaths have been unnecessary orphaning children, or causing their death. I feared I would loose the reality of it all if I went to far afield. On education I felt this just another wound that the many missionaries who did such a complete job of teaching fiction had so failed to truly educate. And though that is true, I understood it to be an apples and oranges sort of comparison. I get increasingly intolerant of things that move slowly or backwards, but I aim while spewing my shit to not let that muddy the tapestry of reality. I can not push things forward any faster, but I want not to slow them or even be the quiet passenger.