A sad story

[Ian]

News of the subject of the first entry in this vitriolic blog post has crossed the Atlantic:

http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swi ... 08.html#i1

I`ll have to go through Steve`s verse-by-verse lectures on the quoted Scriptures. In the meantime any other people`s thoughts on the matter would be welcomed. Thanks

[Singalphile]

It is sad that she suffered needlessly. I assume that she's happy with God now. If not, may she rest in peace until that day. Just from the brief wikipedia article, which is all I know about the situation, I have no problem with her parents' criminal conviction.

[Ian]

I have no problem with her parents' criminal conviction.

To a degree I do Singalphile. Those parents were showing faith. Yes, misguided faith, but faith nonetheless. And their teachers, though also misguided, have an excuse too. Not everyone knows there are often three contexts to a Bible text: the immediate, the wider (probably the writer`s) and the whole Bible context. That is a lot to digest for people who are not the intellectual and academic equal of people like Steve (most of us). The blogger passed the blame on to the teachers of the parents, but I imagine they were simply taking certain Scriptures at face value (I remember reading that one of Steve`s heroes, George Müller, was himself determined to take God`s word at face value, though clearly he was astuter about it).

I have some degree of sympathy for the vitriolic blogger. Intelligent though he might be, he might have stumbled over some puzzling sentences and not have a clue that they are meant as "limited negatives" for example! (I`m not referring to the ones he quoted).

I could never be a true fundamentalist for such reasons as this. In that sense, I have a lot of empathy for Paidion and Steve 7150 on this forum, but for their frequent opponents, Homer and JCR for example, not quite so.

[Singalphile]

Ian wrote:
To a degree I do Singalphile. Those parents were showing faith. Yes, misguided faith, but faith nonetheless. And their teachers, though also misguided, have an excuse too.

Hi Ian,

That all may be. Nonetheless, to let another person - a child, no less - suffer when a drive down to the local pharmacy or emergency room would easily clear things up is inexcusable, I think. There's no end to the law breaking that would have to be excused if someone could just claim that they were holding out for a miracle. That's why I don't have a problem with the conviction.