Prayers Don't Help Neglected Boy

In Kenya a 15-year-old boy died because his parents refused to take him to a hospital. Instead, they thought it was better to lock him up in the house for several weeks and pray to God for him to be healed. For some strange reason, God had better things to do.

The East African Standard reports (via Pagan Prattle):

The parents belong to the Kavonokia religious sect. Members of the sect do not subscribe to modern medicine but believe in prayers to heal the sick. ... "It was a bad sight and the body bore signs of abuse," the Embu District Children’s Officer Loise Gikuhi, said.

It’s always so sad to see people, especially children, die because of the ignorance and superstitions of parents. If anyone says that religion doesn’t do any harm, they need only to look to stories like this in order to understand that that isn’t true. Religion isn’t always harmful, but insofar as it prevents people from accurately understanding reality, it creates an impediment acting correctly — both in an empirical and a moral sense.

Read More:

• Religion 101
• Theism 101
• Does God Exist?