Fooling Themselves
I am not now, and have never been, a Christian. It’s not out of some sort of antipathy toward the faith, at least not initially: I wasn’t raised in a religious family, and as my father’s atheism was often a topic on long car trips, I became a skeptic quite early in life.
However, recent history has generated a lot of personal rancor toward Christians, especially the fundamentalists. For the rest, I only have… well, contempt isn’t the right word. I just feel bad for them because they delude themselves and buy into this snake oil.
Christians hold that God is omnipotent, all-powerful, all-seeing, and all-merciful. He is so powerful, he even knows what you’re thinking, if Jesus is to be believed. The most ridiculous manifestation of this delusion is when devout Christians fool themselves into thinking an incredible setback is a gift from God. You hear this from the born-again who lost his legs in a train accident, but considers it a gift from God that he’s alive. How is it a gift that god took your mobility and left you here on Earth half a person? How is it that going home to God is what all Christians aspire to, but none of them want to let anyone die? How is it that everything is a part of God’s plan, but Christians are always intervening on behalf of their faith?
Today the City Paper published a truly sad story of an illegal Nicaraguan immigrant to the United States, who left her two young children behind so she could raise the money to build a proper house back home and give them a comfortable life. Sometime after she arrived, however, the woman got cancer. Then, right before she began chemotherapy, she found out she was pregnant.
Her faith enabled her to regain her composure. Samira didn’t know if she thought God would reward her trust by saving her. But she did believe in His ability to perform miracles. And that gave her hope. She began to steel herself for her new treatment, whatever it would be.
Then, on Dec. 22, 2006, God intervened — in a very unexpected way. Samira had been using contraceptives ever since Alejandra was born. But during a visit to a doctor at the University of Pennsylvania, she learned, to her astonishment, that she was pregnant for a fourth time.
Her doctors said they couldn’t perform chemotherapy, or any treatment, on a pregnant woman, because of the damage it would do to the fetus. If Samira wanted treatment, she’d have to get an abortion. Trouble was, Samira didn’t believe in abortions — her Catholic grandmother had made sure of that. “I’m a nurse,” she told people. “I save lives, I don’t take them.” That she might not live to deliver the child made no difference.
One physician guessed that, without treatment, Samira had about five months.
“You know what this means?” he asked her.
She did.
[snip]
A few miles away, lying in an incubator in St. Luke’s Hospital, is a 3-and-a-half pound baby named Victoria Nazareth. Delivered by Caesarean section just two weeks prior, the child bears not one, but two names that carry great meaning for her mother: Nazareth, in honor of the miracle Samira believes God performed for her, and Victoria, for her triumph in delivering her child.
Excuse me, but that wasn’t a miracle God performed: that was a DEATH SENTENCE. If God is so omnipotent, all-knowing, and all-loving, why didn’t he perform a miracle that, say, got rid of the cancer? How is it a “miracle” for a woman to have to choose between an unacceptable abortion or chemotherapy? That’s not all-merciful, that’s cruel. How is it a miracle for a premature baby to grow up an orphan?
And yet, the woman in question has convinced herself that God performed a miracle, because she managed to get pregnant right about the same time she got cancer, and because the moral values she learned as a child precluded her from saving her own life in favor of carrying a clump of cells to fruition.
That is the essence of Christian self-delusion. No wonder so many fundamentalist Christians continue to support George W. Bush. People like that will believe just about ANYTHING, no matter how fabulous.
update: Upon rereading my words, I note that they’re kind of harsh. Who the fuck am I to question someone’s belief system, especially when that person is dying? I’m not questioning the woman’s personal beliefs: I’m questioning the entire belief system, which makes no sense and has no basis in objective reality. God, if there is one, does not answer prayers, certainly not if He’s got a master plan.
2 Responses to “Fooling Themselves”
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May 31st, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Very good questions. I’d like to see how a devoutly faithful person would respond to it.
June 1st, 2007 at 9:57 am
I’m an anomoly religiously - a true agnostic. As many crummy things I’ve seen from religion, I’ve also seen enough of the truly good to not write it off. I’m also pro choice. And I’m going to be 41, with a few diagnosis codes on the record that are probably a pretty big indicator that a pregnancy at my age could result in danger possibly to me and/or my child.
That being said, if I was told I had cancer and would have to delay chemo or abort, I can’t say that I would abort. It sounds like enough else is going on in this case I would, but there is a feeling that my life as a cancer patient with a grave prognosis might be difficult enough for me to risk it to have a healthy baby than to go thru chemo and maybe die anyway. And that’s without religious influence and having an above average knowledge about health and never having had another baby to compare the experience to.
So - can’t say that I would have made that decision but I think I do understand all other tugs that went with making it.