Priorities

Dale and Leilani Neumann, have just been convicted or reckless homicide, because they put their religion before medicine, when their 11 year old daughter became ill. Choosing prayer rather than medical intervention, led to the unnecessary death of a young innocent girl and now both parents face a 25 year jail sentence. This is such a sad story and yet there is nothing unusual about it. The same things happen over an over again with so many people believing that prayer actually works.

One can almost imagine that in Bible belt USA, that these two would have got off, but no, a jury was found even there, that established their guilt. There are those that believe that Dale and Leilani must be mentally ill and should be hospitalised rather than incarcerated, but there is a dangerous precedent. If these two are found to be mentally ill, then the same diagnosis could be applied to 70% of the world's population on the grounds that they talk to invisible friends on a regular basis, and that many people have spent their lives in institutions for far less.

Those who think that religion is wonderful, or even a benign part of our lives, might like to think again. It is all very well to say that such extremists are rare but they are not, and what is more the evidence suggests that it is the extremists who tend to dominate in the end. The real criminals here are not the parents who I am sure loved their child, but those misguided and ignorant individuals who brainwashed them into believing that to love a fantasy is more important than to love one's children.