A six-week old baby has died in Moldova.

The culprit? Superstition mixed with a preacher blinded by religion.

Father Valentin dunked the baby in a tank of water three times, never covering its mouth. The father explains what he saw:

“He couldn’t inhale, his face turned blue and he was foaming at the mouth. He [the priest] said we should not interrupt this… ritual,” he said. “We couldn’t believe it that he just put his hand over his belly and over the head and submerged him three times in the water.”

Yet another example of “harmless” religious nonsense causing real damage. And why did it happen?

Because everyone involved believed that a magic man dunking the baby in water would make God happy. Or send the baby to Heaven. Or prevent it from going into Purgatory. Or whatever the hell people think a Baptism does.

It doesn’t matter what they think a baptism does, though, because they’re wrong in every case.

There’s no reason babies should be baptized. If people want to dunk themselves in water, let them do it when they’re older and in control of their own bodies. It’s still pointless, but at least they won’t die from it.

If there’s any silver lining to this story — if convicted, the priest could face three years’ worth of prison time. (Update: A lot of commenters are saying this is hardly a “silver lining.” You’re right. Poor choice of words on my part. But the three years in prison doesn’t seem like much of a stretch to me. This was an “accidental homicide” and I don’t think the priest intended to kill the baby. I’m not sure what the right amount of jailtime would be, but three years didn’t seem too out of line.)



