Many media outlets are reporting on this, most under their "entertainment" sections, and this being the case, you may wonder, if you're not already in the know, why I'm writing about it, on the homepage of a self-confessed atheist, geek, climber, curmudgeon. How can this possibly tie back to the topic this blog is ostensibly based on?
Well, if you'll allow me to elaborate, this ties back to potential harm caused by religious dogma. Come with me on a journey into dogma unleashed.
You see, Jett Travolta, in addition to being a 16 year old kid prone to seizures and exhibiting symptoms
some have tied with autism, was the teenage son of Scientology's #2 couple, John Travolta and Kelly Preston. And furthermore, some of the key tenets of Scientology include a belief that psychological and psychiatric illness, including things like epilepsy and seizures, do not really exist as we outside Scientology know them.
Witness, for instance,
Tom Cruise lambasting Brooke Shields for her use of drugs to combat post-natal depression*, and his
additional rants against psychiatry. Or, closer to home, read of
Tim Brunero's meetings with local Scientology flack Cyrus Brooks. Aditionally there is plenty of documentary evidence of the
cult business fully respectable church's stance on medication including anti-seizure medication, ranging from personal accounts to leaked documents to direct statements from spokespeople.
So, let's talk about established facts: what we have is a kid prone to seizures, cared for by parents whose professed belief system states that the medication for these seizures is, quite literally, a product of evil and someting to be avoided at any cost.
Can anyone see where I'm going with this?
Now,
until autopsy results are revealed and investigations completed, tying Jett Travolta's tragic death to Scientology doctrine is complete speculation, but in my opinion such speculation is justified, indeed needed. If an investigation failed to explore this angle, heads really ought to roll, but again I'm prying into legal areas in which I have no standing, so back to the default stance we go. Any speculation on the Jett Travolta incident, at this time, is just that: speculation.
Still, until the facts are in, I'm using the high profile of this incident to highlight a wider problem
We already have ample documentary evidence that the doctrines of numerous "religions" cause clear medical harm. Deaths preventable by simple transfusion are recorded in great numbers from the
Jehovah's Witnesses, and deaths from neglect of even simple ilnesses are recorded in surprising numbers in the case of
Christian Science. Individual parents have been convicted of negligent manslaughter in numerous cases. This is not far-fetched. Once your dogma starts to make medical claims, death and illness are the inevitable result.
So far, I've been talking about preventable deaths from illnesses mankind already has the means to conquer. What about an even worse level of harm? What about death directly inflicted, rather than death through neglect? As with other cults/religions/groups, call them what you will, we also see murder, manslaughter and suicide manifest due to dogma, as in
this scientology-related case right here in Sydney, or
this honour killing in Jordan as just one example of an entire genre, and as a final dessert, the most famous mass suicide of them all,
Jonestown**, and this is without even mentioning September 11th 2001, possibly the most spectacular case of dogma enabling mass murder on record.
All the world's religions have cases of death or harm directly inflicted by believers on others either justified post-hoc, or caused, by dogma.
So, again, does anyone want to question why I'm opposed to religion, unreason and dogma? Would anyone now like to stand up and tell the world that these deaths are justified because doctrine must be adhered to, and that the beliefs of those causing the harm must be respected at any cost?
I thought not.
To round out this post, which I'm sure is going to cause problems one way or another, I'd like to mention that harm of the sort I'm outlining here is not restricted to minority cults and fringe religions. Death, ilness, bankruptcy and the sundering of human relationships are constant companions on the road away from reason, and for heartbreaking proof of this, please go and read
"What's The Harm", and weep.
Oh, and as a final parting note, The Church Of Scientology has a well deserved reputation for suppressing criticism. I agonised over whether to post this for over 24 hours, and I have taken care to outline exactly how this speculation hang together, but still I would not be surprised to see reaction in either official or "unofficial" forms from the organisation, and of course I will report on anything that does ensue.
*to our US cousins, post-partum depression
** Jonestown is worty of special mention. Most people who I've mentioned Jonestown to seem to believe it was some kind of fringe cult with strange beliefs not unlike Heaven's Gate. In fact, The People's Temple was a Christian Gospel church with methodist and baptist influences, among others. It would be considered mainstream, moderate, even liberal, in the modern United States.
posted @ Sunday, January 4, 2009 10:02 PM