Teacher Allegedly Told Students To Cut, Burn Themselves To Get Rid Of Demons

[grandpa]

"Danielle Harkins, a 35-year-old teacher at Lealman and Asian Neighborhood Family Center in St. Petersburg, Fla., has been arrested for allegedly instructing students to cut and burn themselves to get rid of demons, NBC Miami reports.

Harkins now faces charges of aggravated child abuse and child abuse, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, who spoke with the station.

The Tampa Bay Times reports one student suffered second-degree burns after the teacher sprayed perfume on the teen's hand before lighting it on fire. Hawkins allegedly also cut another student with a broken bottle and cauterized the wound with a key she heated up with a flame."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1597350.html

Call me crazy, but this story has a religion-y undertaste to it. So, do you think religion/superstition can inspire mentally unbalanced people to do things like this? Am I being unfair?

Grandpa h.

[Dave In Canada]

I is my opinion that mentally unbalanced people gather their inspirations from a variety of different means. Unfortunately, the mentally insane tend to go to the extremes with whaterver pushes their buttons.

[finder]

Call me crazy, but this story has a religion-y undertaste to it. So, do you think religion/superstition can inspire mentally unbalanced people to do things like this? Am I being unfair?

Grandpa h.

When people have a sadistic desire within them and they decide to act on it they will use whatever they want to justify or explain their actions. Bottom line people hurt others because they want to, nothing more to it then that.

"Jeffrey Dahmer, an infamous serial killer and atheist sentenced to 900 years in prison, said “if a person doesn’t think that there is a God to be accountable to, then what’s the point of trying to modify your behavior to keep it within acceptable ranges?”. He brutally killed seventeen men and boys, dismembering them, storing their parts and indulging in cannibalism and necrophilia." http://listverse.com/2010/06/05/10-p...sm-a-bad-name/

[Dave In Canada]

When people have a sadistic desire within them and they decide to act on it they will use whatever they want to justify or explain their actions. Bottom line people hurt others because they want to, nothing more to it then that.

"Jeffrey Dahmer, an infamous serial killer and atheist sentenced to 900 years in prison, said “if a person doesn’t think that there is a God to be accountable to, then what’s the point of trying to modify your behavior to keep it within acceptable ranges?”. He brutally killed seventeen men and boys, dismembering them, storing their parts and indulging in cannibalism and necrophilia." http://listverse.com/2010/06/05/10-p...sm-a-bad-name/

Finder, why am I not surprised that you failed to post the following list from the same website...

http://listverse.com/2010/02/23/10-p...ty-a-bad-name/

[Charlatan]

When someone is confronted with demons, and they were reffered to as demons, they have very little to go on. I mean, if someone comes up to you and say they have demons, what do you do?

If there is no claim around you of exorcisms, then you want to save this person! Back in the days of old, this would have been perfectly legal and sought for as treatment, so, you could say that this person is living in the past. no harm in that.

If your parents taught you to do this to someone else when they claim to be full of demons, it is thier fault, not yours. We could observe some more of these types of things with beastiality - what if your parents taught you this was right?

[finder]

Finder, why am I not surprised that you failed to post the following list from the same website...

http://listverse.com/2010/02/23/10-p...ty-a-bad-name/

Because as usual, you failed to comprehend the point. It doesn't matter, theist or atheist, if people want to hurt others, they will.

[Dave In Canada]

Because as usual, you failed to comprehend the point. It doesn't matter, theist or atheist, if people want to hurt others, they will.

I think my post (#2) clearly indicates that I understand the situation quite well. Only providing a link to atheism when the OP was asking about religious beliefs indicates that you were simply were looking to take a cheap shot at atheism.

Dahmer's quote is another logical fallacy which theists desperately cling to in order to bash atheism.

[finder]

I think my post (#2) clearly indicates that I understand the situation quite well. Only providing a link to atheism when the OP was asking about religious beliefs indicates that you were simply were looking to take a cheap shot at atheism.

Dahmer's quote is another logical fallacy which theists desperately cling to in order to bash atheism.

Had you read my post correctly you would have seen I was answering grandpa's question concerning the "religion-y undertaste" and pointing out religion has nothing to do with people who carry out sadistic pleasures. And then offered Jeffrey Dahmer as case in point. I said essentially the same thing as you. Are you getting paranoid in your old age? (Joking)

[Jack]

When people have a sadistic desire within them and they decide to act on it they will use whatever they want to justify or explain their actions. Bottom line people hurt others because they want to, nothing more to it then that.

There sometimes is more to it than that. Religious belief provides a context in which deplorable things can be done to innocent children with the best of religious intentions.

For instance...

Magdalena Lopez murdered her two sons  Antonio (9) and Erik (2) on July 19, 2005 in Dyer, Indiana. Police reported that she beat her two sons to death with a ten-pound dumbbell because she thought they'd be better off in heaven. Both deaths were caused by massive skull fractures. Mrs. Lopez was quoted as saying, "They're in a much better place now."

Sherry Marie Delker murdered her daughter Samantha on March 29, 2002 in Austintown, Ohio. Mrs. Delker admitted to running her daughter down with her car outside a church. Police said she wanted to send her daughter to a "better place." Sherry Delker is now serving twenty years to life in prison.

Marilyn Lemak murdered her three children Nicholas (7), Emily (6) and Thomas (3)on March 4, 1999 in their Naperville, Illinois home. Mrs. Lemak feed the children peanut butter laced with antidepressants, laid them down to sleep, then smothered them with her hands. She wanted to kill the children and herself so they could be reunited in a happier place. "She perceived herself as a loving mother tenderly taking her children into another existence," stated psychiatrist Philip Resnick.

While we can't know for sure that without a reason to believe in demons or "a better place" these women wouldn't have found another excuse for killing their children, it's hard to deny that religion offered a convenient explanation for what most people, theist or atheist, would consider a supremely inhumane act. Without religious belief it's possible these women wouldn't have been tempted to do what they did.

[finder]

While we can't know for sure that without a reason to believe in demons or "a better place" these women wouldn't have found another excuse for killing their children, it's hard to deny that religion offered a convenient explanation for what most people, theist or atheist, would consider a supremely inhumane act. Without religious belief it's possible these women wouldn't have been tempted to do what they did.

But the same can be said of Jeffrey Dahmer. Only substitute religious beliefs with secular atheistic beliefs. We're back to square one. We don't have to guess or deny the possibility of knowing they are killers and would have killed anyway. We can know they would have because they did kill and many others, religious and atheist, do not kill. Obviously, like you and I presumedly have no desire for it, neither does most of the population regardless of religious preference.

[gallo]

But the same can be said of Jeffrey Dahmer.

No. It can't.

Only substitute religious beliefs with secular atheistic beliefs. We're back to square one.

But, Dahmer wasn't motivated by any sort of "secular atheistic belief". He was a sociopathic, homicidal maniac. On the other hand, Andrea Yates was motivated to drown her 5 children for religious reasons. She said so.

We don't have to guess or deny the possibility of knowing they are killers and would have killed anyway.

I doubt that Andrea Yates would have killed her children except for the constant religious crap that her husband threw at her.

We can know they would have because they did kill and many others, religious and atheist, do not kill. Obviously, like you and I presumedly [sic] have no desire for it, neither does most of the population regardless of religious preference.

Nice try to make us believe that no one ever kills in the name of Jesus. Only the stupid believe that.

[finder]

No. It can't.

Yes, it can. Dahmer's (an atheist) quote substatiates that fact.
He was motivated by atheism according to Your logic.(?)
Which I disagree. Reality is nobody would kill if they didn't have some level of desire whether it be for Christ, notions of atheism, money or love. I have no desire to kill so I won't unless provoked by an immediate threat to my family in self defense. With killing not being the goal. And definitely not for an ideology or system of belief. Get real. I thought atheism was about personal responsibility?