Originally published at: Religious vaccine exemptions are mostly bunk | Boing Boing
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I’m an atheist but I was brought up Christian and that was what I was taught. Pretty sure it’s what the leader of the sect I was brought up in publicly says about covid vaccine too.
Since in the USA there is no Constitutional way to declare some religious objections valid and others not, any religious exemption boils down to “I don’ wanna!”
In other words, it’s a blank check to exempt yourself, which effectively renders the overall mandate purely symbolic.
That’s fine. The Flying Spaghetti Monster says I don’t have to tolerate bullshit from other people’s religion.
I’m sure their deep commitment to the teachings of Christ will mean that they’ll forego dining out and travelling to sunny vacation spots. A small sacrifice in service to their flavour of Invisible Bearded Sky Man™…
Mostly bunk … except this one:
ETA I see @CarlMud beat me to it.
Mostly?
Nice Enemy Mine drop.
So other variations of Christian Scientist are okay with vaccines? I’m surprised.
My parents are very strict Jehovah’s Witnesses and even though my mam is ill and bedridden with dementia, her and my dad are vaccinated and encourage others to. Fwiw
All religious exemptions from anything are bunk.
We just as a society happen to give way too much respect to contagious neuroticism as a concept.
Some members of the Dutch Reformed Church decline vaccines because it “interferes with divine providence,” while others accept it as a gift from God, Vanderbilt research shows.
Other research points to illnesses from smallpox vaccines in the 19th century as a reason some in the religion do not want vaccines.
Denominations that believe in faith healing, or laying hands on people in order to heal their illnesses, also likely don’t believe in vaccines.
Reminds me of the joke/proverb where a man is caught in a flood and ends up stranded on top of their house with the water still rising. multiple people come by and offer to assist the man, but he refuses, saying “The Lord will provide!” The man ends up drowning, and at the gates, the man questions God saying “why did you not help me!?” God responds, “I sent all those people to help you, and yet you refused.”
No no, you don’t get it, it’s about not being subservient to The Beast.
Because we all know the Antichrist goes around trying to save lives and make the world a better place.
Really? Muslims in prison should be forced to eat pork if that is what the prison decides to feed them? Quakers should be forced to participate in warfare? I understand that one can completely discount the theological beliefs that these people hold but I’m not sure that I don’t think forcing others to abandon those beliefs is humane.
Bonus points for posting a clip for Enemy Mine, great movie
I think you can both believe that religious exemptions are dumb while also thinking compelling people to do most things things is also dumb. The state should still have to
make a compelling argument for any mandate, and the bar should be relatively high. Why would it be humane to force anyone to eat pork or go to war?
Meanwhile Texas is working on a Constitutional Amendment to prevent any limits on Religious services with SJR 27.
Divine Providence doesn’t seem to be valued so much when it comes to making laws for the nonbelievers.