But first, an entirely unprovoked attack on religion!
My New Year’s resolutions for 2007 are on their way, simmering delightfully in the backburner of my subconscious, but in the meantime, I thought I’d bring up, apropos of nothing, a couple of things that warmed the cold, unfeeling, relentlessly rational lump of flesh I call my heart: TV preacher sued over bogus cancer cure claim.
Oh, how I have waited for this day, the day someone would finally gather up the cojones to take one of those snake-oil peddling, sleazy televangelist scumbags to task for taking advantage of those who are gullible and desperate, those who are losing hope and don’t know where else to turn, in short, taking advantage of some of the most helpless members of society (and the fact that the people suing the televangelist are her own family only adds to the deliciousness of the whole affair). The sheer disgust I feel every time one of those bastards tells someone with a terminal disease that they are ‘cured’, is equaled only by my joy in seeing a lawsuit like this put in place. Wrongful death. Suck it, Trebek.
“Oh, but Katsu!,” I hear you thinking already, “What’s wrong with giving these people, people who are dying of cancer and other incurable diseases, some hope? When they go to a Televangelist or a church seeking a cure, and they are told that God loves them and Jesus has cured them, that fills them with hope and strenght to live! Surely you can’t be against that?” Well, folks, I can be, and I am. I’ve got nothing against keeping a positive outlook on our life expectancy even if you’re diagnosed with something terminal. Hell, I think a bit of faith in ‘the doctors will work hard and maybe a cure can be found’ can be quite healthy in keeping your spirits up, as it were, and the will to live and to fight a disease has been shown to provide a clear benefit to many patients. But the problem is that these assholes aren’t simply telling people ‘Have faith and God will give you the strength to see this through.,’ or even ‘Pray and God will surely give the doctors the guidance they need to cure you.’ No, they tell these poor people ‘You’re cured!’ And far, far too many of these people believe it, and stop going to the doctor, stop receiving proper medical attention, and end up worsening their conditions or even shortening their lifespan, for no reason.
And when God inevitably fails to actually provide these so-called cures? It’s never God’s fault, or even the televangelist’s fault, no, it’s always the person’s fault, for not believing enough, for not praying enough, for not being pure enough, for not having pleased God, for not having given enough to the church… the list of excuses is endless, and nauseating. And before you start going on about “Oh, but God does perform miracles and cure all sorts of diseases all the time!,” answer me this: Why are the diseases ‘cured’ always those that aren’t really visible, and are open to interpretation? Why are so many of them ‘pain’ diseases, which have been shown to respond to one’s state of mind or placebo effects? Why are so many those that could have simply been originally misdiagnosed? Why has God never, even once, cured someone with a disfigurement? In short: Why does God hate amputees? He’s never, even once, cured one.
If God wanted to provide some solid proof of his existence, then, damn, growing back a severed limb overnight would be a pretty powerful sign of his power wouldn’t it? Even I would have to step back and go ‘Whoah!’. But, no, not a single recorded case in all of medical history of a human limb spontaneously regenerating, no matter how much prayer, faith, or money the person has given to their God. Is it pure coincidence that every single amputee who’s ever spent night after night praying to God to have their arm/leg/foot/hand/finger/whatever back has never, ever been good enough to receive one of God’s many miracles? Or is it just maybe possible that there are no actual miracles? That every televangelist out there claiming all those cures is simply a liar, a thief, and a parasite upon the suffering of so many people who flock to them out of desperation? Can you think of a single thing more despicable than someone who knowingly lies to people who have lost all hope, not only lies, but takes their money, their faith, their adoration? And then, when the things he or she has promised don’t come to pass, blames the whole damn thing on the other person?
Yeah, I have some pretty strong feelings about those bastards. Fuck ‘em.
Oh, and on a lighter note, I’m at least very, very glad that those of us who are holding out for rationality are at least mostly battling christians, who are, as a whole, generally non-violent. Imagine the battle against Creationism if our opponents were, say, Valhallans (go ahead, click on it to see the whole thing):
