Religion kills 32 at Virginia Tech
Okay, so it’s not entirely religion’s fault, but religion definitely did have something to do with it. New details are emerging about Seung Hui Cho from his family. They knew he was in a bad place and that being away at college was isolating him even further from the only real people he ever got along with, his family. In the summer before his fatal Senior year, his family went around to various churches seeking help for Cho. That’s right, rather than going to a real psychologist who can, you know, actually do something, they went around to a bunch of fakers who said Cho’s problem was demonic possession and that his mental illness could be cured by “spiritual power”. I so wish I was kidding about this.
I really wish religions would keep their noses out of places they don’t belong. Mental health situations are clearly not places where religions belong. Every time a religious person says that religion can cure real illnesses, we need to laugh at them and point them to the error of their ways. Exorcisms and “spiritual healing” never cure anything. Instead, they prevent people from seeking the real medical treatment that they so desperately need. In most cases the only person affected is the gullible one who believes in the religion’s non-existent healing powers, but Virginia Tech is proof that sometimes, tragically, other people are affected as well. So the onus is on all of us to stop this religious hocus-pocus, because it’s good for us as well as for them.
