Dad links son's suicide to 'The God Delusion'

worldnetdaily ^ | November 20, 2008 | Bob Unruh

[Soothesayer]

A New York man is linking the suicide of his 22-year-old son, a military veteran who had bright prospects in college, to the anti-Christian book "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins after a college professor challenged the son to read it.

"Three people told us he had taken a biology class and was doing well in it, but other students and the professor were really challenging my son, his faith. They didn't like him as a Republican, as a Christian, and as a conservative who believed in intelligent design," the grief-stricken father, Keith Kilgore, told WND about his son, Jesse.

"This professor either assigned him to read or challenged him to read a book, 'The God Delusion,' by Richard Dawkins," he said.

[Soothesayer]

It may seem absurd that Jesse could commit suicide over a book but I'm going through the same thing that he is. The arguments in support of atheism are not always so easily dismissed. Jesse Kilgore wanted there to be justice in the world but nothing in creation suggested that God was real. Imagine being alive and seeing only darkness and absurdity in the world and no hope of change or salvation.

[ventana]

http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=13-01-044-i

[Ron Jeremy]

A terrible thing, suicide is. It’s too bad that WND is going to exploit this poor man’s troubles for political gain.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

So if there is no God and no ultimate justice and we are all just accidentally evolved slime, then surely there is nothing “wrong” with Jesse's father taking a baseball bat to the professor that pushed him over the edge.

[mountn man]

Jesse Kilgore wanted there to be justice in the world but nothing in creation suggested that God was real.

I look at creation and can't HELP but see God.

I read the Bible, and am watching almost daily Bible prophecies revealed.

I watch Gods principles in action.

[Clemenza]

A terrible thing, suicide is. It’s too bad that WND is going to exploit this poor man’s troubles for political gain.

Wing Nut daily will do as it always does, which is why it has all the credibility of the Weekly World News.

Blame the young man in question, NOT Dawkins or his professors. We all have to put up with a-sholes, abusers, and ideas we don't like, often on a daily basis. Its such challenges that make us stronger people to the point where we rise above the idiocy/abuse of others.

[Borges]

What a callow and spurious article.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

If the poor kid was unbalanced enough to kill himself today because of a book it would have something else in the future. These are not cultural or religious times. The analogy for today is somewhat like the Hellenistic period in the classical world. The old gods are dead.

[EyeGuy]

“I look at creation and can’t HELP but see God.”

#####

Most emphatically. Everywhere.

[Louis Foxwell]

There is a fundamental principle of philosophy especially as it relates to students, that, one must never abandon one set of beliefs until another better set of beliefs is understood and found practicable. This a priori principle was taught by classical philosophers to their students throughout the history of Western thought.
It is since the practitioners of the culture of death have established substantial authority in colleges that morality, the foundation of reason, has been rescinded.
It is imperative that a full throated, frontal attack against the amoralist beasts of education be beaten back. They are anathema to our very civilization. They are the malicious apostles of darkness.

[nmh]

Excerpts:

That relative, who had struggled with his own faith and had returned to Christianity, wrote in a later e-mail that Jesse “started to tell me about his loss of faith in everything.”

“He was pretty much an atheist, with no belief in the existence of God (in any form) or an afterlife or even in the concept of right or wrong,” the relative wrote. “I remember him telling me that he thought that murder wasn’t wrong per se, but he would never do it because of the social consequences - that was all there was - just social consequences.

---

If you think Richard Dwakins cares about anyone but himself there is truly no hope for you. The outcome of reading his book and leading to suicide won’t matter at all to him. He’s spiritually dead also.

---

“Here’s another thing,” he continued. “If my son was a professing homosexual, and a professor challenged him to read [a book called] ‘Preventing Homosexuality’… If my son was gay and [the book] made him feel bad, hopeless, and he killed himself, and that came out in the press, there would be an outcry.

“He would have been a victim of a hate crime and the professor would have been forced to undergo sensitivity training, and there may have even been a wrongful death lawsuit.

“But because he’s a Christian, I don’t even get a return telephone call,” the father told WND.

---

True, Perversion and anything that mocks God or erases Him is applauded.

Parents:

Make sure you kids have strong REASONS to believe.
If they don’t this could be your child.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Carl Sagan, an atheist, famously said, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” The problem is that the quote is great advice and valid wisdom because it serves a man good throughout his lifetime as he evaluates every input in his surroundings. If a snake oil salesman comes around or a crooked politician or a shady faith healer, you are wise to be suspicious until they can provide evidence of their claims, or you’ll soon say goodbye to your money and possibly more. Here at FR we are demanding evidence that Obama is a natural born citizen, instead of accepting it on faith. People do this sort of thing all the time.

[Judith Anne]

I suppose I disagree with the majority opinion around here. I think young people, who in many instances have a keen sense of right and wrong, who seek justice, who are idealistic, can be severely harmed in their very soul by those who seek to tear down their faith. An adolescent/young adult is just learning that there are bad endings in life, sometimes, that the good guy doesn't always win, and some of those intelligent young people turn to the faith of their childhood to help see them through the maturing process, until they can say with confidence, "Who cares what the world thinks, the Lord is my Shepherd." Someone who attacks their faith, who undermines it, who destroys it, can cause irreparable harm, and even cause such a vulnerable young person to lose all hope. I am quite certain that those people will wash their hands, like Pilate, and absolve themselves of all blame, saying the young person must have been unstable, or must have had only shallow beliefs, or must have been mentally ill. Aren't we all, at certain times in our lives? It is my belief that Almighty God will call those who harm those young souls to account before His throne.

[thesetruths]

Don’t give up. Have faith. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

[Moonman62]

So if there is no God and no ultimate justice and we are all just accidentally evolved slime,

Who's to say that God didn't also evolve out of the slime? Slime may be more interesting than you think.

[nmh]

Same here.

Rom.1:20

[20] For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Most kids don't know what He wrote. They're shallow. They're more informed on trivia than the Bible. Much of it is the parents fault. There is a window of opportunity to introduce Him to them when they are young. Most don't. They expect everyone else to do it - right on down to the cartoon caricature of the Ark with animals hanging out of it - a totally absurd picture.

[Mamzelle]

School, teachers’ names...

[Zionist Conspirator]

It may seem absurd that Jesse could commit suicide over a book but I'm going through the same thing that he is. The arguments in support of atheism are not always so easily dismissed. Jesse Kilgore wanted there to be justice in the world but nothing in creation suggested that God was real. Imagine being alive and seeing only darkness and absurdity in the world and no hope of change or salvation.

I can understand and sympathize.

What I can't understand is people whose rejection of anything metaphysical should produce the attitude you describe but instead spend their lives crusading for "social justice" (or crusading for Free Enterprise here at FR).

A word of advice: look into the Torah Codes.

[Judith Anne]

Just a comment: sometimes we don’t have the answers when we need them, or the proofs when they are vital, so we muddle on through without the hope we need so badly, and we bear spiritual scars from the battle. It is my profound belief that you are being held in prayer, to make it through this difficult time, and that in His Loving Eyes everything does indeed make sense, and there IS final justice and mercy.

[brytlea]

I believe the Bible said they would be better off to have a millstone around their neck and be tossed into the sea.