Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Snake: 1, Prayer: 0

Some dumb bitch played with a rattlesnake, got bit, and died. Now the dumb bitch's dumb friends are suing the hospital where she died. Why? Because they made fun of her, which her dumb friends allege impaired the effective delivery of medical care:

People bitten by poisonous snakes during religious services sometimes refuse medical treatment. But others at that service quickly took Long to Marymount Medical Center in London.

After being taken into the hospital at 8:09 p.m., Long said she was having trouble breathing, and asked for oxygen. Hospital employees gave her a portable, oscillating fan as they allegedly "snickered and made derogatory comments" to employees -- and Long's family -- about the religious beliefs and circumstances under which she was bitten.

At 8:28 p.m., hospital personnel contacted the air ambulance service. When the helicopter arrived 12 minutes later, the crew asked the doctor to put in a tube to help Long breathe, but the doctor said her airway was not the problem and told the flight crew to get her to Lexington quickly, the suit says.

Long's heart stopped on the way. She was pronounced dead at 10:50 p.m. at the University of Kentucky Medical Center.

The suit says Howard's failure to quickly and properly treat Long contributed to her death, and that Wilson's failure to give proper treatment contributed to the severity of her condition and "resulted in her ultimate demise." The hospital failed to adhere to proper standards of care, the lawsuit says.


I don't know enough about the case to say whether the medical staff provided inferior care or not. It's definitely possible that the medical staff's surprise at the stupidity of these serpentphiliacs inhibited the timely delivery of care, but it's also possible that these snake-molesters are just assholes who don't like being told, "I told you so."

Anyway, the point I want to make here is that the lowly serpent is more powerful than your God, and your prayers, and especially your faith:

Snake-handlers believe the practice shows faith and God's power. The text for the belief is Mark 16:17-18: "And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Your byline:

The concept of an afterlife is inhumane and immoral. Belief in the continuation of your "soul" or consciousness after death is wishful thinking. Belief in an afterlife devalues the one life that actually exists: this one.

Misses one very important point: belief in an afterlife is exploited by organized religion to subjugate the believer.

Jim Jordan said...

I can feel the compassion....

The Mark 16 passage is about having the strength to face evil. Anyone with two cents of Bible knowledge knows that. These snake-o-phile groups are cults. Clearly the girl was misguided, but her health care practitioners were also incompetent. I don't believe the fact that the lady brought on her own crisis discouraged others from doing their job. They will lose the law suit for incompetence.


I commend your longevity BTW. I would have expected you to realize the futility of your "kill the afterlife" goal.

I have one question: If my belief in rewards for being good in the here-after compels me to be a nicer person here on earth, what is the harm in that?

Anonymous said...

"I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection."

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22722786-5001021,00.html

Perhaps I should start a blog called "Killing THIS life."

Aaron Kinney said...

Re: Jim Jordan,

The Mark 16 passage is about having the strength to face evil. Anyone with two cents of Bible knowledge knows that.

Tell that to those guys.

These snake-o-phile groups are cults.

As are all groups that follow these silly ancient books.

I commend your longevity BTW. I would have expected you to realize the futility of your "kill the afterlife" goal.

Thank you, but arent you begging the question? I dont see atheism as futile. Indeed, it is exploding in popularity. Actually, if you look on my sidebar, you will see a number of crossed out Christian blogs. Those guys didnt hvae the longevity to last. I guess they experienced the futility of their goals firsthand.

I have one question: If my belief in rewards for being good in the here-after compels me to be a nicer person here on earth, what is the harm in that?

It is harmful to you, first of all, because you assign this existence a second place priority compared to the nonexistant existence that you expect to come upon your death., The more you have of something, the less its worth. So eternity makes your life and time worth less than if it was finite.

And secondly, it is harmful to those around you because you will not value your loved ones as much as you will value your imaginary cosmic master. Jesus said himself that if you dont hate your family in comparison to your love for him, then you arent worthy of him.

Ever visit Rapture Ready forums? All those people can do is talk about how they want this world to end, how they pray for armageddon, and how they cant wait to die and get out of this life so that they can experience a (nonexistant) afterlife. That doesnt do much honor to this existence, nor is it conductive to living a fulfilling and happy life in this existence.

Aaron Kinney said...

Re: Anonymous,

"I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection."

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22722786-5001021,00.html

Perhaps I should start a blog called "Killing THIS life."


Yea I know about that guy. But despite his lip service, he was not practicing natural selection. He clearly has no idea what natural selection even is. It is God who runs around determining, consciously, who will live or die. This guy was trying to be his own god.

Natural Selection is a system where no conscious entity goes around killing other entities for ANY reason. Natural Selection is when you have an even playing field of the same rules for all, and the entities in it compete with eachother for resources.

Killing other people is ANTI-competitive, in the same way that cheating in a football game or using steroids is anti-competitive. To kill a fellow human being is to eliminate your competitor; it is the opposite of actually competing with him.

So if you want to start a blog called "Killing THIS life," then go right ahead. But, since you are (apparently) a theist, it would be a theistic blog. And thats fine, cause killing this life is exactly what theism does. It places this existence in second place compared to the afterlife. Theism causes people to short change this existence in favor of the next. Thats about as "Killing THIS life" as you can get.

vjack said...

Obviously, this woman wasn't a real Christian.

Anonymous said...

That's right, she just didn't have enough faith.

breakerslion said...

Too bad for her it was a real snake.

The thing that kills me about this insanity is, that no one would even think to sue the whackjob preacher that condoned and promoted this brain-dead and irresponsible practice.