Rosaline Gilbert, 34, of Gloucester England, had begun a 40 day fast on March 19 in which she consumed only water. Apparently she had been doing this for Lent, but her family is not exactly sure. Rosaline had found God 10 years ago and devoted herself completely to the man. She often referred to herself as, "a child of God." Well after 23 days on April 12, just days before Easter, Rosaline got her chance to meet with God as she died of malnutrition.
One has to wonder what was going through this girl’s head. Her friends and family had described her as, "intelligent, bubbly and fashionable." I’d like to add ignorant, naive, and selfish to the list as well. Killing yourself in the name of the Lord is insane, no matter how devout you are. It is also a very selfish act that to me is inexcusable. If life is such a precious gift from God, than why would one disrespect that gift by endangering oneself?
I have seen many stories about people fasting for various reasons and would like someone to please help me understand it.
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What devotion! All the religious should follow her example.
However, the last thing this was was “selfish”. I wish people would observe the roots of that word more often. Clearly the word describes that which promotes the self, “promote” here meaning the opposite of “kill”. Harming oneself is not a self-oriented act, and is certainly not conducive to one’s life.
This is a “selfless” act. Selfless acts, or acts which do not recognize the requirements of one’s own life, attempting to regard something else as a primary motive, are always detrimental to oneself.
[...] [Scotsman News via Religious Freaks] [...]
eyp, when you’re talking about someone who truly believes that her spiritual life is immortal and that she can escape the torment of this world to be with God in heaven by dying — I’d think that the word “selfish” would still apply.
She could have stayed here and done God’s work on earth rather than doing something so stupid and risky that it would kill her. She did the selfish thing.
On a related topic: What about this whole notion that Jesus sacrificed himself for our sins? I never understood that one. Why would Jesus — who purported to know of his own divinity and be in communion with God — be portrayed as making some big sacrifice? He was slumming it here on earth, living a dreary human life… why wouldn’t death and resurrection have been more of a reward than anything?
If I knew that I had someplace with the characteristics of heaven awaiting me, I’d go into my closed garage and start the car tonight. HERE I COME, GOD!
You’d have to regard the world as a subjective construct of the mind to believe such a thing. Killing oneself is never a rewarding act, regardless of one’s delusions to the contrary.
> You’d have to regard the world as a subjective construct of the mind to believe such a thing.
I’m not quite sure why this would be the case. You just need to regard the world as inferior to your afterlife, in order for suicide to be a selfish act.
> Killing oneself is never a rewarding act, regardless of one’s delusions to the contrary.
From her perspective (which is really how you have to consider these things when talking about “selfishness”), death would bring about a reward. Granted, I think the only real reward is for our gene pool that I’m hoping she didn’t add to… but that doesn’t speak against the intentional selfishness of her act.
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