Man gouges eyes out during church service

I heard about this one last week, and since thoughtquake is back up and shaking, I had to put in my two sense. This hits me as sad, not because this man lost his ability to see, but because he lost his vision a long time ago.

A man has gouged out his own eyes in the Northern Italian town of Viareggio while attending a religious service at the local San Andrea Cathedral, local police have reported.

According to witnesses, the man, who is originally from England though he has been living in the Tuscan town for the past few years, was attending mass when he suddenly "stood up, started to shout and pulled out his eyes with his bare hands."

According to Police, the man later told staff at the nearby Versilia hospital that "a voice" had told him to "gouge out his eyes". He had been rushed to emergency services but doctors have been unable to save his sight. Source

This is a clear-cut example of how mental illness can be hidden by religion. The scriptures didn't cause this man to rip out his own eyes. It may have contributed, but I have to say that gives FAR too much credit and power to the preacher. The truth of the matter is that this man was obviously mentally ill, and as such, needed psychiatric help.

This is why it gets to me when people can call religious belief "innocuous" or "harmless." even in situations when it doesn't lead to cult-ship or bigotry. This man could have gotten help, he could have been institutionalized, and if that had been the case, he would still have the ability to see. There were probably many red flags where someone could have pointed and said, "I think this man needs help." These now obvious signs I'm sure were dismissed for the excuse of "He's just very religious." If your delusional to the point of mental damage, there is nothing worse than associating with a group of mentally healthy people who are also delusional. This man being in this church was like pouring salt on a wound. Instead of people telling him to be rational or logical, he had an entire congregation that I can only assume did nothing but unintentionally encourage his illness. This idea that religion can somehow be therapy makes me cringe. It would be like if you took a schizophrenic conspiracy theorist and put him in a group of people who look for bigfoot. It's never good to replace one delusion with another. Or I should say, Crazy should be cured, not redirected. That's a pretty good quote. I think I'll write that one down... oh wait...

I may get some flack for this post. It just frustrates me that, without the guise of religion, this man's condition would have been easily recognizable, and this whole gruesome scene could have been avoided. It truly is a tragedy.

~Zach