Note: Facebook can be dangerous…very dangerous. I wrote the first draft of this rant after reading a status update one of my religious Facebook friends posted, then I waited a few days to finish it so as to calm down and be able to be a little more objective with the final draft. I’m didn’t remove anything and didn’t tone it down, but I am adding to it.

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It always amazes me when people think that their disabled children are special gifts from their asshole of a god to teach them a lesson in patience or to get them to turn back from the wayward ways. I know why people do it, why they feel the need for a god to be in control of their suffering, but that doesn’t lessen the insanity of it. They’re scared and overwhelmed and they need to feel that someone is in control. Religiosity and spiritualizing their life is just a defense mechanism, a way to cope, but when it comes down to it all their doing is taking a pile of steaming shit (the situation, NOT the child) and pouring honey on it. It’s no less shitty, it’s just stickier now.

The life of a person with disabilities is not easy, let alone that of a child. To think that some higher power caused this and then praise that being for it is absolutely crazy.

For comparison, what would you think of a government that would punish you for not being loyal enough by chopping off your child’s leg? I’m sure you wouldn’t thank the dictator for showing you the error of your ways and if it did make you more loyal, then it would only be out of fear. If you did something wrong then, ignoring the excessive nature of the punishment,  you would be the one who deserved to have your leg chopped of, not an innocent child. Brutal dictators that just beat or kill the person they’re unhappy with are bad enough, but the ones who go after dissident’s families are in a reprehensible class of their own.

If you think your god causes debilitating genetic disorders and birth defects to teach parents and families a lesson, then you worship an imaginary being that is more of a capricious, sociopathic, tyrannical bastard than Saddam Hussein.

No, Dustin, you don’t get it, God didn’t cause it, he just used it for good, they might say.

Why didn’t he just do a little more good and fix the problem in the beginning?

Well, God works in mysterious ways.

Like not at all?

No, God has to respect our freewill.

Aside from the fact that freewill is as much of a fantasy as your god, assuming those fantasies were real, then what about the freewill of the child?

You know who should be pissed off by people claiming that their god taught them a lesson by causing adversity? Christians. Yes, they should be furious at their fellow believers when they try to make their mutual imaginary friend look bad.

You know who else should be furious about it? Atheists. Every time someone does this and we let them get away with it, we let the same people who claim the moral high ground call evil good. We cannot stand for that. Although I would advise being tactful if it’s possible.

The reason children are born with disabilities are deleterious genetic mutations and abnormal embryonic and fetal development. It’s no one’s fault (unless the mother was consuming substances known to cause birth defects), and it shouldn’t be something that requires moralizing or spiritualizing. Get off your goddamn knees and focus on giving your child as normal of a life as possible. Research what new treatments and new assertive technologies are available and reach out to the scientists and engineers developing them to help them help your child. Campaign for greater accessibility in education, business establishments, and media. Stop looking back, get off your knees, and do something. If you’re already doing all that, then stop wasting what little free time you do have and spend it on yourself, you deserve it.