Arrogant and stupid.

This post doesn't reference politics, for once. Nor does it have anything to do with popular culture. No, this one was sparked by my total contempt for people of faith that claim to know the mind of God.

This family is a very good example of this. They're trying to force a private, Catholic high school to permit their son to enroll, despite their refusal to get the kid the vaccinations to protect the other students. Their justification is that, since we're all made in the image of God, introducing anything into the body (such as immunizations) is a violation of the will of God.

I've got several issues with this. First and foremost, they have no right to force a private high school to allow their son to attend. Were it a public school, I'd question their intelligence in wanting to enroll him so badly, but not their rights. Second, not getting their son vaccinated endangers all of the kids around him. Last, they've decided that they know the mind of God better than almost everyone else in the world, which contains several different problematic issues that caught my attention.

That last issue is the main one that gets me: their claim that the body is perfect as it is, and should have nothing else introduced to mar that perfection of being created in the image of God is a dangerously narrow-minded, too-literal interpretation of one single passage. Yes, we are made in the image of God--but which part of us? God is spirit: spirit does not include body. I believe it was our souls that were made in God's image.

Personally, I believe God pushed the start button on the big bang, and on evolution, and sat back to watch the show unfold until something developed that was complex enough to house the soul: homo sapiens. Like Mousie, I believe Genesis was never meant to be interpreted as literally as some ignorant individuals do: "It is impossible to look at Genesis and believe that its main intent is natural history. It makes a spectacularly bad natural history."

That entire idea that the body is perfect, and that nothing should be introduced is a very dangerous one: what about infections? Does that mean they'll not permit their kid to be treated with antibiotics? What about cancer? Will they sentence their child to a painful death, because of their belief that intervening in the body is a sin? There are verses that mention that the body is a temple to God, but that's in reference to intoxicants and sexual promiscuity, mutilation and self-harm: things that can and often do cause irreparable harm to both body and soul, not to things intended to preserve health and life. Like antibiotics. Like cancer treatments.

Like immunization vaccines.

If those idiot parents truly believe that their bodies are perfect, and that nothing should be introduced, maybe they need to be forced to follow that belief themselves, and starved to death.