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The Danger of Supernatural Beliefs: Tears of Blood, The Murder of a Child Witch & The Mother Who Slit her Child’s Throat

What happens when supernatural beliefs become a hazard to the safety and health of a society?

All over the globe, cases are popping up which demonstrate that supernatural beliefs can be devastating for those that believe in them as well as for others.

In recent news, a very questionable event took place In Egypt. An 18 year old girl named Dawa’a claimed that the tears of blood she cried were a sign of jinn, the spirits or ghosts of Egyptian folklore.

The issue here is that crying tears of blood should cause concern for the health of this teen. Ignoring the condition due to beliefs that the cause was supernatural could be considered a form of neglect.

The teenager became unconscious as the Muslim scholar Amr Al-Laithi recited verses from the Qu’ran over her body. Upon waking, Dawa’a said she could not remember anything except having an extremely painful head-ache. However, when speaking of her experience, the teen claimed that she was touched by a “tribe of about one thousand jinn,”.

Crying tears of blood, also called haemolacria, can be a symptom of serious medical conditions, such as a tumor or an internal injury. The girl received no medical attention to ensure her health or safety.

Near London, England, Kristy Bamu was tortured and killed under the accusation of practicing witchcraft. His sister, Magalie Bamu and her partner Eric Bikubi, claimed that he was practicing spells on a young child.

Magalie Bamu and Eric Bikubi, the murderers of Kristy Bamu.

Both Magalie Bamu and Eric Bikubi were jailed for life. Under no circumstances should a belief in witchcraft be a justification for the murder and sadistic torture of anyone. What is most distressing about the death of Kristy Bamu is that he was killed by his family, by people who he trusted and loved, all due to ignorant beliefs.

Various other children in Britain have been abused and/or killed under similar accusations that the children were practicing witchcraft.

Another terrible example took place in Magnolia, Texas. A mother named Daphne Spurlock stomped on her 5 year old’s chest and slit his throat with a kitchen knife because she heard voices that told her to rid her son of a demonic possession.

A photo of Michael Spurlock, who remains in critical condition after the incident.

Daphne Spurlock was heavily involved in her church, Magnolia Apostolic Tabernacle, and was an extremely religious individual. Take a look at her Facebook profile, where she regularly posts about her religious beliefs.

In each of these cases, the supernatural beliefs of a society caused people to harm (either intentionally or unintentionally) others.

I think that this is an atrocious problem in our world today. We need to step back from our belief in the supernatural and see it for what it really is; potentially dangerous. Reason and skepticism are necessary in our world to have safe and just societies, where it will not be tolerated for people to harm others simply based on their supernatural beliefs.

March 30, 2012

Free[SAY] at The Reason Rally! – Washington D.C. – 2012

Considered the largest secular gathering in all history, the Reason Rally took place at the National Mall in Washington D.C. on March 24th, 2012, and Free[SAY] was there. The overall message of the rally was that atheists do have a strong population and that we, just as any other people, deserve our voices to be heard. It was also a day to celebrate being part of our group, and to celebrate our identity as atheists. We are often misunderstood as a group, and the Reason Rally was an excellent way to show our true faces and what it means to be atheists.

Free[SAY] began travelling from Toronto on the Friday night before the event and arrived in Washington D.C. the next morning. We checked into our hostel which was small and cozy (with bunk beds!) for our group of nine. We were looking forward to this event for months. As soon as we heard the events date announced we instantly began working out how we could bring our campus group of atheists to the rally. We had never attended such a huge, historical event before. So naturally, we were very excited and proud to be a part of it. We were so anxious to find out what it would be like to be a part of the rally.

Even though it was raining lightly, and it was slightly chilly, when we arrived at the event by metro, I was stunned by the crowds that had attended. It was announced that there we were among 20,000 people altogether! What an amazing turn out. Nothing else could describe the emotions I felt being in such a wonderful crowd of people. What especially moved me was knowing that we were all connected by one seemingly simple idea, the idea that we are without a god. It was beautiful and most importantly, powerful.

To know that I was side by side with people who honour reason, rationality, science and knowledge felt amazing. To know that we were not being judged by our rejection of religion but instead we were accepted, understood and celebrated for it. We embraced our atheism will full force.

It was great to hear the speakers messages, not timid or ashamed, speaking about the rejection of superstition, and about the atrocities that religious ideas can bring about. There was also humour, music, and poetry. Most of all there a feeling of respect. Respect for the equality of all people regardless of their race, gender, age, sexual orientation or ability. Everyone was welcome to take part in the rally.

The messages were about the education of people about reason and science, about protecting our governments from fantasies and superstitions. It was about being moral without religion, without a god above us.

In the end, the idea that Free[SAY] took from the Reason Rally was that we as atheists should be proud of ourselves, and that we should stand up against those who bring religious ideas and actions that are harmful to our society. That we should not be afraid to be atheists openly.

The Reason Rally was like the grand coming out party for atheists. At least for myself I can say that it was the first big secular event I had attended, and it will be an important part of my life forever. It was certainly an awesome way to finish Free[SAY]‘s year!

Here is a great photograph of our group with the Washington Monument behind us.

February 8, 2012

Free[SAY]‘s 1st Food Drive, Winter 2012: A Success!

Free[SAY]‘s very own food drive in the winter semester of 2012 was an outstanding success! We surpassed both of our goals, reaching a total of 543 lbs of food and $280.

A wholehearted thanks to all of our supporters for volunteering your time, donations or money. Together we are helping those in need and changing social consciousness.

From left: Robert, Chris and Kevin at our table in Vari Hall Link.

Robert and D’Arcy outside Free[SAY]‘s office with our awesome collection of food.

Great job everyone!

January 19, 2012

Good without God

For some time there has been the misconception that morality is established through religion. This belief has subsequently inferred that those who are without religion are not capable of mortality and thus are deplorable beings. While the average individual, in our modern Western Society, might believe this outdated label no longer holds any clout, this is not the case. The Secular community themselves would like to believe that such a negative stigmatization would not be attached to a group that is heavily composed of and highly progressive and educated community, but a recent study by University of British Columbia suggests the contrary.

Will Gervais of UBC recently published the study Do You Believe in Atheists? Distrust Is Central to Anti-Atheist Prejudice postulating that Atheists are the most distrusted group. The other groups that were represented in this study were Christians, Muslims, gay men, feminists and Jewish people. The only group that received a similar rating of Distrust were rapists. Yes, you heard correctly. Atheists are distrusted as much as rapists?

I myself as an Atheist find this study to be deplorable and highly misguided. This stereotype has been perpetuated by organized religion for far too long and it needs to stop immediately. From Albert Einstein to Noam Chomsky to Freud, secularists have for centuries helped contribute and change society. Fortunately The Centre for Inquiry (CFI) has just launched a campaign to help change this perception. Through their Think Again! TV campaign they plan on collecting videos from the secular community showing/telling what they do and what charitable or generous acts they have done to benefit society.

Are you interested?

As mentioned, CFI is collecting videos from local, national and international voices to defend our stance within the community and demonstrate how we are Good without God. If you are interested in helping with this project, They would be glad to feature you on our video.

Please keep the videos short (less than 1 minute) and keep the format as the following:

1. State your name and where you are from

2. State your occupation

3. What you do for charities, non-profits or society?

4. End with the statement “that is why I am good without god”

You can submit by either uploading the video to YouTube and sending the link to multimedia@cficanada.ca or you can put the video file into CFI’s Drop Box folder linked to socialmedia@cficanada.ca.