Why a Theistic Mindset is Dangerous: Amanda Knox Documentary

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ashley.twichell's picture
Why a Theistic Mindset is Dangerous: Amanda Knox Documentary

This is Giuliano Mignini, the chief prosecutor in the case against Amanda Knox in the murder of Meredith Kercher, which took place in Perugia, Italy nine years ago. The reason I brought it up on this forum is because I was particularly disturbed by the religious overtones in the handling of this case, particularly by the chief prosecutor Mignini. His is a dangerous ilk, and why we should all be fearful of not only theocracies, but religious thinking worming its way into secular governments and secular judicial systems. This man allowed his own personal beliefs and convictions, which were mainly influenced by Roman Catholicism, to justify accusing two people of murder. He ignored evidence, he allowed the mistreatment of witnesses, he wildly theorized, and bungled the crime scene, all whilst pursuing some ridiculous ego-inflamed idea of himself as an Italian crusader for God's justice in Satan's wilderness of the modern world where women are allowed to have sex with multiple partners outside of wedlock (for shame!)

His blatant sexism can be blamed on his religion, in my opinion. His preoccupation with sex games and sex rituals is a hallmark sign of a whacked-out religious nut job who's never formed a normal conception or relationship with sex because of all the guilt and suppression his religion associates with it.

And towards the end of the documentary, he says "if they are innocent, I hope they can come to terms with the suffering they've endured." Did you catch that? How he wrote himself out of that sentence? He doesn't take any responsibility for his own actions that actually caused them that suffering. He bears most of the blame for that, and yet his Roman Catholicism allows him to take a pass because he can just ask for forgiveness, and we all make mistakes. He literally says, "We're all caught between good and evil. That's being a human." Um, yeah, but persisting in ignorance goes beyond that.

We need to be fighting this kind of toxic religious mindset leak in all parts of the globe. Thoughts?

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bigbill's picture
do you have any concern for

do you have any concern for the women killed in this case,it was a quite a bad scene at the murder sight.you said you viewed this documentary can you tell if it was an accurate case of the proceedings.where did the prosecutor allow his roman catholic beliefs get in the way with trial.just because he persecuted a women doesn`t necessarily mean that he was sexiest,and just because it happened in italy doesn`t mean that it was his roman catholicism that got in the way of his trying the case.the americans weren`t some innocent kids caught up in the system of italian law.what they did as a life style was wrong and they payed with there lives for it.

chimp3's picture
@skepticalchristian:

@skepticalchristian:

Of course you would interpret a young woman's murder as some twisted form of divine justice. The world would be a better place without your devilish vision.

I for one think it is sexist to persecute women but the prosecutor is certainly not sexiest. (Sorry, playfully toying with your spelling )

Harry33Truman's picture
Just because one religious

Just because one religious person from one sect of Christians is a terrible person is not proof of religion being evil, because if it were I could say that atheism is evil because some atheists were, it makes no sense.

CyberLN's picture
This has been said thousands

This has been said thousands of times and will likely have to be said thousands more. There is a HUGE difference between someone behaving badly IN THE NAME of an idiology and someone behaving badly who akso identifies as rejecting an idiology.

charvakheresy's picture
@ Harry Truman - You could

@ Harry Truman - You could further your statement to include Islam.

The problem with you theists is your hypocrisy. As long as it serves your purpose you would twist any detail to suit your narrative.

ashley.twichell's picture
@skeptical christian: I do

@skeptical christian: I do have concern for the *woman* who was killed, and I believe her killer was brought to justice. From the evidence presented in the documentary, it seems pretty clear that Guede did it. There were conclusive samples of DNA all over Meredith's room, his feces were in the toilet, he admitted to being there, and he had a violent history of robbery. Of course, it's possible he didn't do it. Perhaps if the Italian authorities had been more careful around the crime scene and followed facts as leads instead of wild conjectures, then we could either be more sure that it was Guede or her real killer would be behind bars. As to the idea that their lifestyle was bad and they paid for it, I'm not sure why you think it was bad. What was bad about it? It seems like you're pulling that judgment straight from a religious text yourself. And I'm not sure what you mean by the "Americans" plural because from what I saw there was only one American--Knox. Her boyfriend Sollecito was Italian and Kercher was British.

Mignini's Roman Catholicism got in the way when he started waxing poetic about Christian ideology and his own valiant place in it. Roman Catholicism, at its core and throughout its history, has been blatantly responsible for the persecution of women, among other injustices. They invented the idea that women were the cause of original sin, that they were more susceptible to the influences of evil than men, and this idea was perpetuated throughout western history, causing great and terrible damage in its wake. Even though, thankfully, some of the more violent persecution has ended, some of the ideology remains: that sex for pleasure is bad and evil, and women who enjoy sex are she-devils and immoral. This is what Mignini clearly took from his Roman Catholicism and this is what got in the way of the investigation. Because he made judgments about Knox's behavior that stemmed from his own religious upbringing (women should be pure, gentle, and kind always and chaste until marriage), he allowed himself to believe that she was the murderer and that sweet Meredith (whose friends told Mignini she was a shy, reserved girl) must have been killed by the wanton she-devil. If you're still dubious about this being influenced by Roman Catholicism, please read up on your history and consult morality plays and courtesy books that ran rampant in medieval and Renaissance Europe, the Roman Catholic Church's greatest period of influence. Mignini's interpretation of what happened could be a plot ripped straight from one of those plays.

And as to the remark that one bad egg doesn't reflect wholly on the dozen, well that's debatable. I don't even need to mention the hundreds upon thousands of people who believe the way Mignini does, proving he's not just "one". Not to mention, as CyberLN said, acting badly in the name of an ideology is different than acting badly of one's own accord. The problem with religion is that it too frequently allows people to justify their bad behavior, to shake off responsibility for their actions in this world (as Mignini admits in the final scenes; what does he care? The final judgment is all that matters) and to view situations of human complexity in an overly simplistic manner.

I agree that it's far too hasty to say that Christianity itself is pure evil, and that all Christians are bad people. I would never presume to say that. But the kind of thinking (or non-thinking) that the religion, and that most religions, promote IS inherently dangerous, and I will maintain that until the day I die. I think the world would be a better place without religion, if people were taught to embrace humanism, and to have respect for the environment, and to live in the present and contribute their skills and efforts towards making this world a better place. Because this is all we know we have for sure. If Mignini had grown up learning that, instead of what he did, then he might have thought twice about accusing two people on a whim, about locking them up for 30 years on nothing more than speculation and wild theorizing. He might have been more concerned with justice for Meredith than with his own ego, and trying to solve the case quickly to make Italy look good, and to become some kind of local hero. He might have seen Amanda for who she was, and not the caricature that he'd been taught to see in women with characteristics like hers.

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