Bronze-Age Myths

Religion poisons everything, Ctd:

13-year old with Hodgkin's Lymphoma ordered by court to see oncologist abducted by fundie mom.
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EDIT, correction: Bad headline writing Fundie mom abducted her son, not the oncologist.
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SLEEPY EYE, MINN. -- The father of Daniel Hauser said today he believes his son and his wife have left the country, but won't say where he thinks they have gone to keep out of reach of authorities.
"I have an opinion where they are, but I can't say I know," said Anthony Hauser, adding that he has placed a call to a telephone where he believes he can reach them.
Hauser specifically said he does not believe Daniel and Colleen Hauser have fled to Canada rather than subject their 13-year-old son to the chemotherapy that doctors believe is his only hope to survive cancer.

Daniel btw, is a product of homeschooling and is so completely illiterate, he couldn't identify the word "THE".

In NY, the Catholic Archdiocese isn't spending a lot of money lobbying legislators on the fight against gay marriage because they're using their political capital tring to kill a bill extending the statute of limitations on prosecutions for sexual abuse. From the NYTimes:

In New York, the National Organization for Marriage, whose resources have been stretched thin from other campaigns in the Northeast, began making phone calls to recruit supporters only late last week.
The state’s Roman Catholic bishops have been somewhat distracted, too, having focused their lobbying energies this session on defeating a bill that would extend the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse to bring civil claims, and have appeared unprepared for the battle over marriage.

You stay classy, bishops.

UPDATE: PZ has it cold:

These are cases of religion gone pathological, of belief so absurd and so deep that it denies truth and has overt negative consequences. Moderate Christian believers will read about this and dismiss it as irrelevant to their faith; sure, they'd pray, but they'd also get their children in to legitimate doctors who would give them effective treatment.
I have to say something that is heartfelt, and is also meant to offend. I do not absolve you mealy-mouthed moderates, I do not regard your beliefs as harmless. If Colleen Hauser or Leilani Neumann were in your church, you'd tell them to get medical care, but you'd also validate their belief in prayers. You would provide the soothing background muzak that says prayer is good, prayer is virtuous, prayer will connect you to the great lord who can do anything, prayer will give you solace in your time of worry. You would not raise your voice to say that prayer is useless, prayer is self-defeating, that while prayer might make you feel better while your child is suffering, that is no virtue. You pray yourselves. You think it is a noble and generous act for your representatives to prowl the corridors of hospitals, preying on the desperation of the sick. You abase yourselves before false hopes, and sacrifice human dignity on an altar built from the bones of the dead. You would spread the poison, piously excusing yourselves because you only want to administer sub-lethal doses.
You are Abraham's enablers. I hope you all feel a small tremor of guilt when you sit your own children down at bedtime to beg a nonexistent being for aid, when you plant the seed of futile supplication and surrender to delusions in their trusting minds. Damn you all.

Also:

Having read the bible, it seems as if when Yahweh really wanted people to have their prayers noticed or answered, he'd require/request that the prayer be supplemented with Animal Sacrifice. Whenever I notice an overt act of prayer, at a family dinner for example, I can't help but think to myself "If they really wanted to make this stick, they'd bleed out a goat on the counter."

UPDATE II: Thousands Beaten, Raped in Irish Reform Schools

"A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys. Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from," the final report of Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse concluded.

More than 30,000 children deemed to be petty thieves, truants or from dysfunctional families _ a category that often included unmarried mothers _ were sent to Ireland's austere network of industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages and hostels from the 1930s until the last church-run facilities shut in the 1990s.

The report, unveiled by High Court Justice Sean Ryan, found that molestation and rape were "endemic" in boys' facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order, and supervisors pursued policies that increased the danger. Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless.

"In some schools a high level of ritualized beating was routine. ... Girls were struck with implements designed to maximize pain and were struck on all parts of the body," the report said. "Personal and family denigration was widespread."

Irish-Catholic Guilt culture of "don't acknowledge anything, keep it in the family, sweep it under the rug."
To requote PZ, Damn you all.