Of Demonic Possession and Infanticide
Woman fatally stabs 2-year-old son, police say
NEW PORT RICHEY · A 24-year-old woman fatally stabbed her 2-year-old son and cut herself, telling officers later that she was "trying to kill the demons," authorities said.
Police in this Gulf Coast community northwest of Tampa said Jessica Warren was in the hospital Friday with non-life-threatening cuts on her arms after Thursday evening's killing.
When Warren is medically stable, she will be charged with the murder of her son, Jeremiah Oshinkanlu, who turned 2 last month, police said...
According to a Gallup poll conducted in 2005, 42% of American adults believe in demonic possession. More than half of Americans believe in angels, too. Given all of this, is there a good reason why this woman should be tried for committing murder? After all, I have seen exorcisms conducted by evangelist preachers on television. They certainly believe that possession is a possibility.
The question is, then, can these same evangelists prove that their exorcisms are any more legitimate than the one attempted by this woman in New Port Richey, FL, or, alternatively, offer some form of evidence that they are any less mentally ill than she is?
Is there some reason to conclude that those who believe that they talk with Jehovah or angels are any different from those who think they hold conversations with the ghost of Napoleon or that extraterrestrials are beaming messages into their brains?
Is there any good reason it should be held more rational to believe that an omnipresent being is watching one's every action than it is to believe that a network of CIA operatives is doing the same thing?
In our society, we endorse, and even promote, certain beliefs that would be considered a sign of paranoid schizophrenia by the very same individuals in very slightly different contexts. In a logical, empirical system of ideas, one would test these notions against observations of the world as it is. By what context does a religious system decide that some ideas are positive and some negative?
Before anyone thinks that religious beliefs are harmless, they should go back and re-read that story about the woman who murdered her child in an attempt to kill "demons." She's clearly a believer; her motive, even if incorrect, was religious. While I'm not asserting that all those who believe in demons and angels and the like are potential murderers, clearly there are some who are. Given the belief, then, how can one say that this particular believer was incorrect in either her belief or the proper course of action based upon it?
