I hate linking to World Net Daily articles, but this one about a guy starving himself to death to be like Jesus required additional commentary:

A 73-year old Christian man trying to emulate Jesus by going without food for 40 days and 40 nights has reportedly died a month into his abstention from all nourishment.

Yeah, it turns out that when you starve yourself you die of malnourishment. It doesn’t matter how much faith you have, if you don’t eat you will die.

Khulu Reinfirst Manyuka reportedly left his Zimbabwe home on June 15 and headed into the wilderness to pray, redirecting his attention away from worldly things and instead toward God, according to Nehanda Radio. The report says Manyuka was known by his family and local community as “a very spiritual person whose faith could move mountains.”

…but not fill stomachs. It’s like a hypothetical bodybuilder who can bench press a car but who lacks the strength to bring in the newspaper.

“He was a very spiritual man. It’s unfortunate he had to die this way,” said a close relative, requesting anonymity.

That’s the thing: he didn’t have to die this way. It turns out religion can put wrong, harmful ideas in peoples head and inoculate them against contrary evidence. What’s more, the irony of somebody believing a guy rose from the dead for the same reasons criticizing the guy who thought he could starve himself for 40 days and live is not lost on me. The guy rising from the dead idea may not be as immediately self-harming, but it’s no less ridiculous and it’s there for precisely the same justifications (faith).

The WND seems to think the tragedy is limited to to him dying, but it’s not. Even if he’d somehow managed to live the 40 days without food it still would’ve been a tragedy that a healthy, otherwise sane man starved himself for 40 days because he thought god wanted it.

It’s so strange. When god speaks to people it’s never to NASA scientists or to cancer researchers. Apparently telling Abraham and countless other people to kill their children, or telling Catholics to give money to the Catholic Church to pay for their numerous lawsuits instead of to groups feeding the world or discovering cures for disease, or telling Sally P. Normal-Person to apply for that job she was going to apply for anyway, or telling people like Manyuka to starve themselves to death takes priority.

According to family members, Manyuka had no history of illness.

He didn’t need any. Religion sufficed.

Local police said Manyuka isn’t the first to die from fasting, with “numerous” other cases reported. “We have received such reports before, but we cannot stop the public from fasting,” a police spokesperson said.

There’s religion: making the world a better place again.