Topic Tuesday #143 2015/04/14 "What's The Harm?"

Today my thought train derailed when an article crossed my path. It was one of those "ah ha" style moments. Some of those moments make you jubilant, and sometimes they drive you to drink; this was the latter.

Have you ever excused an action or series of events with the rhetorical question, "What's the harm?" I imagine you have. I have, in the past. I've reached a point in my life that "what's the harm" is a call to action instead of rhetoric. Dear readers, I challenge you to examine those things in your path that could be simple rhetorical questions and find out what the harm really is.

Beware though; the truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.

I don't like to tease too much, so here is the story that jerked me around and made me really consider this topic. http://bit.ly/1FOpyar

Briefly, here is the TL:DR version: Texas, a set of very religious parents starved their two year old boy because their faith leader believe he was possessed by demons. After 25 days without food, the boy died and the couple fled to Mexico with the corpse to attempt to resurrect the boy. It didn't work, much to the grief of the bereaved parents.

So... What's the harm? What could possibly be harmful about religious practice?

They killed their son with the love of their faith. They didn't seek proper treatment for whatever was the root cause of the "demon possession" and rather took it on faith that... what were they hoping for? As a parent, I can understand how terrible it can be to have a child in pain, or in a psychological condition that you do not know how to handle. I can sympathize that they were trying to save him. I can't fathom how difficult it could be to withhold food from their defenseless child who is completely reliant on their parents for their basic needs... The phrases "for your own good," and "this hurts me more than you" come to mind. That tough love... That ended up killing the recipient of their love. This brings another phrase to mind, "With friends like these, who needs enemies?"

And of course, the echo in my mind, "What's the harm?" http://whatstheharm.net/children.html

I think I figured it out, but you tell me. Cheers.

I owe you all a drink after this downer. Sorry everyone, but the world is really screwed up and we need to fix it.