HelenM

I believe she did it most fundamentally because of a) the poor judgement which typifies mental illness b) the lack of awareness of her husband and her medical professionals (and others) that she was in no fit condition to be alone with five young children.

Religion could not have been the direct cause of either of these.

I'm disappointed though, that if anything, it seemed to have worsened Andrea Yates situation and increased the likelihood of this unfortunate result, rather than making it better.

Given the claims that Christians make I hope they are rather shocked and humbled to know that this happened in a Christian family.

love
Helen

MzNeko

I hope so too, but what will probably be said by many instead is "Oh, well they weren't real Christians, or that never would have happened."

Sigh... <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

Kaina

Of course religion played a part in this tragedy. After their fourth child, when Mrs. Yates was depressed to the point of attempting suicide, their doctor strongly advised against having any more children. They decided instead to have as many children as god gave to them. The church that glorifies uninterrupted breeding and the husband who couldn't keep his sperm to himself are as much to blame for this tragedy as poor Andrea.

HelenM

...which can hardly be said to be a problem that is confined to Christian men only!

HelenM

Another common one is to say it's not Christianity's fault but the sinners that believe in it.

Mike Rosoft

&gt;If you read it the point is that Babylon dashed the babies of other nations against the rocks

Or committed other cruelties against the Jews. I see your point.

&gt;and they deserve to have it done back to them.

Agreed. And since I consider murder of children an unjustifiable crime against humanity, I have no option but to reject what the Bible says.

&gt;there's nothing about this text that says killing babies per se is a good thing.

Apparently, the Bible says that it would be an appropriate punishment for what the Babylonians have done.


Mike Rosoft

Alonzo Fyfe

Probably.

Her mental illness was such that she would have likely substituted some other threat -- space aliens or rogue government forces.

To hold that, if everybody were atheists then mental illness would cease to exist is as absurd as holding that if there were no theists then cancer would cease to exist.

Kaina

I don't think anyone is claiming that atheism is the cure for mental illness, Alonzo. I do think that in this case there are several aspects of the case where the Yates' religion played a negative role. Why was Andrea depressed enough to listen to the voices telling her to save her children from Satan?

1. She had 5 children in 7 years. Large families like this are overwhelmingly religious, because their religion glorifies procreation. It's stressful enough and depressing enough to have even one baby, I can't even imagine how this woman coped with so many. Well, obviously, she didn't.

2. She homeschooled. Again, an overwhelmingly Christian activity. I'm not saying that homeschoolers will kill their children, but it obviously had to increase her stress.

3. When urged by their doctor to have no more children, the Yates ignored this -- very likely because their Church stigmatizes birth control. I find it ironic that Mr. Yates is now blaming the medical establishment for the atrocity.

I argue that the circumstances leading to Andrea's psychotic behaviour were at least partially the fault of their religion. An atheist, or anybody, in those exact same circumstances may have also acted psychotically, but an atheist would be much less likely to be in those circumstances in the first place.

Matt

Here's another case in Cincinnati that hasn't received anywhere near as much media attention as the Yates case even though it happened a couple of months earlier. Is it just me, or do you all sense a bit of racial bias in the news media on this particular story?


<a href="http://enquirer.com/editions/2001/04/08/loc_young_children.html" target="_blank">Young children killed </a>

<a href="http://www.cincypost.com/2001/may/03/drown050301.html" target="_blank">Mom of drowned kids tried 'to get devil out'</a>

Beelzebub

I believe that religion was the framework that Andrea hung her insanity on. I also don't see atheism as a cure for insanity. I did have an a discussion with my wife on this subject and wnat to hear your thoughts.
Say I was to tell everyone I know that The Lord of the Rings was inerrant. I then started dressing in a suit with a waistcoat (no shoes) and converted my home into a turf house, complete with round door. I would carry a small sword and a vial that I claimed "sheds light into the darkness". If I annoyed enough people I could probably be judged schizophrenic and committed. However, if I do the same things only predicated on the Bible, I would be exercising my right to religion, and could cry persecution if people tried to get me committed. So, who is insane?
By the way, my wife is a "strong agnostic" and told me not to pursue this line of reasoning.