Doctor Smoctor, Take Your Child to an Exorcist!

Reason #147 that religion is generally a bad idea. This story from the associated press. Read the entire story here.

Sunday, in Arizona police responded to a call and found 49 year old Ronald Marquez nearly choking the life out of his 3 year old granddaughter behind a barricaded door. Why, would anyone do something so heinous? Enter religion.

Marquez and his 19 year old daughter-the 3 year olds mother, were performing a ritualistic "exorcism" to release demons from this child. The police reported that upon gaining access to the barricaded room, they encountered the mother covered in blood and "chanting something that was religious in nature". The grandfather was choking the young girl and had to be shot with a Tazer gun, twice, to free the girl and remove her to safety. On the bright side the grandfather promptly dropped dead after being taken into custody and was unable to be revived. Perhaps the exercised demons entered him and killed him;......that.......or the 100,000 volts of electricity that ran through his heart- twice. I guess we will have to wait for the autopsy. By the way they still haven't decided to charge the mother yet. In my opinion, not only should she be charged with accessory to attempted murder, child abuse, and a slew of whatever else the DA can come up with; She should undergo religious deprogramming. There is NO REASON WHATEVER to choke a 3 year old (even if she dumps a bottle of 18 year old single malt down the drain).

You are probably saying to yourself, Vince, this is just some crackpot who has an especially weird and perverted view of religion. Well you'd be wrong. According to a recent Gallup poll 7 out of 10 Americans believe in the devil. The Catholic church still sanctions the practice of exorcism. Among other faiths, many have differing views on demonic possession and exorcism; but it is widely practiced among many fundamentalist and evangelical Christian churches. To read more about what these groups believe in regarding possession et al click here. This is some seriously scary shit! Devils, demons, lions, tigers, and bears, OH MY!

There are many religious that practice exorcisms, but most famous among these is Bob Larson. He is the country's preeminent Protestant Exorcist. He has amassed quite the little empire for himself casting out supposed demons and fronting the DWJD (Do What Jesus Did) movement, whose mission is to: "preach the Gospel, heal the broken hearted, and set the captives free". Captives from demons I assume.

I wonder when we will be able to turn to science and reason to address problems and move away from this superstitiousness. Dum spiro, spero.

Scary times are upon us indeed.
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Programming Note

As you may have gathered from some of my remarks, I have an opinion on the topic of religion. Since it is not my desire to offend readers of this blog ,I will be starting a sister blog to this one. I will post about more controversial topics such as religion, morality, and the viability of Lindsay Lohan's future career on this sister blog.

Stay Tuned!