As a reply to the previous blogging:
Torontosta: Yes, they are. They claim that until 18 or so the child can choose for themselves but how does one choose if they've only ever been given but one option. Plus they must be very aware of the fact that if one doesn't play by the Jehova's rules, they're so out of it, excommunicated from their community, alone since most of their contacts are other Jehovas. Not everyone love life enough to take the chance of being thrown out of their family, no matter how bad it may be.
Rokkihomo: I know someone who said something like that once. The as-if-caring smile soon turned into shouting that the person they were trying to convert was himself Satan's disciples. The same thing also happened when their argumentationg was rather circlish: they claimed that the loss of faith is one of god's most common methods to have you believe even more but alas, when the mister in question was asked if he himself as a Jehova had ever had loss of faith he found it extremely offending, as if it would make him somehow less than a good god-fearing Jehova. As the convertee walked away, there were again shouts of Satan's disciples (they really love this phrase apparently).
But let's see one thing: what is the reason for the stupidity? It may be that a person may not be the brightest person on the planet (as most of us are not) but the whole point is to challenge the brain, to force it to make new connection between neurons. This happens at school and at the university and so on. But which kids tend to be homeschooled at USA; those that have religious backgrounds. It's the same thing as with founding Christian schools and daycare centres: to gather likeminded kids together so that they don't have to tolerate anything new or *gasps* learn new ways of thinking. Furthermore, religion and other religion-like forms of belief, though not religions per se, are the reason for the stupidity when it comes to health issues. Of course this can be for not knowing things as one's been lazy at school and hasn't learned biological basics. But do you think this person would start disagreeing with the doctor? No. A person who *would* must have an authority behind him, and religion is a very good tool for this. And the whole basis of religion is not to learn anything new because, as we all know, religios teachings are ambiguous and self-contradictory! Therefore, if a person was to learn the feared new ways of thinking, the likelihood that the religious teachings remain intact after those new ways of thinking have been planted in people's heads, are falling. And that, my dear Watson, is why all religions shy away from high education. An example of this is the Jehova's Witnesses who have "a recommendation" (read: one tiny bit below a command) to get a profession as soon as possible, that is "ammattikoulu". Polytechnic too lasts too long and universities most certainly are on the forbidden list. Because the longer you stay in the educational system, and the higher you go, the more likely you are, again, to learn new ways of thinking that are likely to challenge the religious teachings built on sand by the sea.
I mentioned the religious-like forms of belief because they too can harm. At Age of Autism blog (www.ageofautism.com) a guy has an autistic daughter, Jacqueline. The father, instead of listening to the doctors, has spent years dragging her daughter from one alternative care form to another with no results. The caretakers have the most amazing excus.. erm, explanations to this and it's of course not their fault that magic water did not help. These alternatives that MEP candidate Liisa Sulkakoski so hard tries to defend (you might have seen her at A-talk some time ago talking for this), especially now that the Finnish parliament has legalised the "Puoskarilaki" (which was much needed though I don't like the condescending attitude of "women are baby factories"). Some say these don't do any harm, I say they are potentially very harmful and their ads are unethical. There has been examples of this already: there are estimated 750-1500 deaths caused by alternative medicine in Finland annually. As with other, more personal examples:
Gabriela Ascarrunz had a "suolentukkeuma". In addition to the usual boring safe medical care, she tried an alternative method. Urine therapy. Yes, you read correctly, "virtsaterapiaa". The person who "advised" Gabriela to try this had the police on them at the time already. Well, two days after intensive care unit, Gabriela died. Of drinking her own urine.
Russell Jenkins, a diabetic. Had a broken foot but his inner voice told him to seek help from another source than medical doctors. He went to a homeopath who advised him to drink lots and lots of honey. To a diabetic. Probably goes without saying that the guy, being diabetic, had complications: his toe was very infected and eventually developed a gangrene (“kuolio”). The toe rotted and smelled for two days until Jenkins went to see the homeopath again. She could see and smell the toe but did not take him to a doctor. The guy died.
Gloria Thomas, 9 months old. Had an eczema (“ekseema”), a form of skin disease. The baby’s father was a homeopath who decided to ignore the doctors and instead tortured the baby for five months by only giving her “special” water drops and sugar. Surprisingly enough, it did not work. For five months the baby’s skin had numerous painful wounds and the skin peeled of when changing clothes as it stuck with the clothes. If anyone’s ever had a wound in your foot but have not bee able to take off the sock until the blood’s glotted… well, you know what I mean. Doesn’t feel nice. Gloria died, and parents are on trial for manslaughter.
For more information, see www.whatstheharm.net.
