There are a lot of considerations that go into a custody decision. I’d be surprised if this were the only reason.  The story itself caught my eye because, surprise! I found myself in the same situation not that long ago, the difference being that since I had agreed to the homeschooling (even though I no longer do), a judge would most likely not side with my position.

But wait, this isn’t the funny part. That was the boring typical part. Here’s where I started laughing.

I would not offend the bought and sold fascists who regulate the health industry in America by offering medical advice,

Wait for it. You just know with a lead-up like that that what he is about to do is…offer medical advice.

Further down…

Fasting is recommended to be done for a few days, during which time only juice or water should be drunk and some herbal laxatives. An appendix problem is much more serious if there has been a perforation. If there has been an infection caused by a perforated appendix, antibiotic-like herbs should be taken in very heavy doses. Purple coneflower (or echinacea, echinacea purpurea, pallida and angustifolia) and garlic (Allium sativum) are recommended. A light massage of the abdomen would help at this point, but it should only be done with great care, if there is inflammation.

This guy is actually prescribing enemas and herbs for a perforated appendix?

The mind boggles. I sincerely hope that no deluded parent is stupid enough to try these “remedies” on a sick child. That would take this from laughable to criminal.

There’s a cool aggregation of related posts over at Scientific Blogging:

Personally, I have the science community (and by extension, CD) to thank for getting me started out of fundamentalist xianity. I used to be a young-earth creationist for many years. Then I found talkorigins.org. I wanted to get an idea of what “the enemy” believed. I soon found that many of the arguments I had learned and used against evolution were based on misconceptions, misunderstandings, and sometimes good old-fasioned lies. It took me about six months to get to the point where I acknowledged to myself that what I had believed wasn’t true. In getting there, I spoke with my pastor about my doubts, and some of the specific arguments. His reply?

“Those evolutionists lie!”

That’s all. Really? All of them? By that point, I wasn’t really drinking the kool-aid anymore, and it wasn’t hard to go from, “All they’ve told me about evolution is wrong”, to “All they’ve told me is wrong.” I started finding deconversion stories on the web. I read Losing Faith in Faith, by Dan Barker. I told my wife I didn’t believe anymore. But that’s a story for another time.