Believing on Pins and Needles
Heard this one on the radio, it’s another example of the insanity that religion brings and why we need to be done with religion once and for all. In Brazil, a 2-year old boy has been hospitalized with around 50 sewing needles lodged in his body. He was taken into surgery to remove one that pierced his heart and lung, plus three others that were most dangerous, but they’re far from getting them all out. Now some of us, at least those who have ever had small children, know that they’re prone to swallowing things that make no sense. Inserting bizarre things into their own bodies is a curious pasttime, my own sister once shoved an entire lipstick up her nose for some reason I cannot fathom to this day and it required medical attention to get it removed.
However in this particular case, it wasn’t the young boy that harmed himself, it was his religious step-father in a month-long series of black-magic rituals. 30-year old Roberto Carlos Magalhaes, a bricklayer, reportedly blessed the needles before forcing them into the boy’s body at the behest of his lover Angelina Ribeiro dos Santos. In a series of trances, she instructed him where he was to insert the needles, needles that she had blessed by a practitioner of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomble. Angelina apparently believed that these black magic rituals would allow her and Magalhaes to be together. From initial reports, these rituals were invented out of whole cloth by dos Santos, experts in the religion claim that Candomble has no ceremonies, rituals or practices involving harm to people. They fear that the case may cause harm to the image of the religions, of which Candomble is the most popular.
Sorry, okay I know that these rituals were made up, but so are all religious rituals. The idea here that practicing some ridiculous ritual and shoving needles into a helpless 2-year old boy could magically make something happen is the very core of religion. Had these religions and religious ideas never existed in the first place, I find it unlikely that she would have tried something so absurd. I certainly can’t blame Candomble for the couple’s actions, I can blame the superstitious attitudes that pervade the Brazilian people for them.
Luckily, the young boy, whose name is being withheld, seems to be improving. There are likely two more surgeries to be done before they get all of the needles removed. He’s currently being treated for an infection stemming from one needle, but he’s expected to survive without permanent injury.
This one ends up in the Religious Horror Show, hopefully some of those needles, once extracted, will skewer the superstitious nonsense that so many people embrace.
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