The story began in early 2017, when Abigail Piland was born without any obvious problems. But when the midwife who helped deliver her checked back the next day, Abigail didn’t look healthy. The midwife told mother Rachel Piland to take the child to a hospital because the baby “could suffer brain damage or die if not properly cared for.”

Rachel refused, insisting “God makes no mistakes.”

Days later, Abigail was dead. (Rachel and her husband Joshua then prayed for Abigail’s resurrection. Surprise: That didn’t work, either.)

A medical examiner later attributed the death to “unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia and kernicterus,” both jaundice-related problems that were treatable. Abigail never had the chance to see a doctor when blood was coming out of her mouth, or when she wasn’t eating, or when her skin became further discolored. All because her parents put more trust in God than someone who could actually help.

  • Cris
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    1412 days ago

    Man, this kinda shit always just makes me so sad :(

  • @[email protected]
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    2111 days ago

    Amazing. They believe in God, they pray for their babies health, and when He sends the midwife to save the baby, they ignore His sign.

    • Echo Dot
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      811 days ago

      Do you think God stays in heaven because humans turned out to be far too irritating and self-destructive to be worth dealing with?

      • @[email protected]
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        611 days ago

        For a more serious answer (from someone who still doesn’t believe, especially in the moronic sky daddy of christians)… sort of. God kicked humans out of the garden of eden (and his presence) because humans accepted the gift of knowledge.

        Just like how most parents aren’t going to solve all of your problems once you’re shipped off to college, God’s not going to do shit for us. We’ve been specifically told as much, so religous people constantly praying and expecting miracles is particularly hilarous and pathetic to me. Braindead fools completely ignoring their own teachings.

        • Echo Dot
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          311 days ago

          What’s the religious equivalent of taking all your laundry home on the holidays so your mother can do it for you? We need that.

          • @[email protected]
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            110 days ago

            No, that would be believing what ever “moral” BS your pastor imagines and spouts over the pulpit. We need FEWER people letting someone else do their thinking for them, not more…

  • @[email protected]
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    4612 days ago

    How liberating it must be to just dump everything single thing on “god’s will”, and have to worry about nothing, ever.

    It’s fucking depressing… This isn’t even about religion, it’s about untreated, likely even undiagnosed, mental illness.

    • @[email protected]
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      411 days ago

      yea the annoying thing is they won’t feel remorse too, they will just say it was God’s will, we will try again.

      • @[email protected]
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        711 days ago

        Read the story. That’s literally what they did. They had two more kids after they killed Abigail. And in court they said they would do exactly the same thing again.

    • Beesbeesbees
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      611 days ago

      No kidding. They’ll do something shitty then apologize to their imaginary friend in their head and move along while the rest of the world burns.

    • @[email protected]
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      111 days ago

      And it makes me wonder how lonely it must feel to try contact a being that never replies anything back.
      Or maybe they feel like it does talk back? I don’t know.

      • @[email protected]
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        311 days ago

        From experience with these sorts of folks, they take positive things as the reply, and just don’t think about negatives. The rare negative that they can’t ignore gets blamed on other people who aren’t believers, or whatever their version of ‘the devil’ is.

  • @[email protected]
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    1611 days ago

    this site should be banned. It’s posting crypto “news” aka misinformation after each of their posts. They use Murder Porn to get eyes on their site so they can push their bs crypto nonsense on to their visitors.

  • @[email protected]
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    11 days ago

    Religion is dangerous on many levels because it is make-believe taken as reality.

    This is just one rather simple example of how fucking stupid it is that people still spread and maintain that oldest of lies.

    The only good thing about religion is that all the nutjobs believing in it would likely be the ones also susceptible to other ideologies, manipulations and political groupings in oder to be “part of something greater”… and looking at the world I regard the chances of them getting sucked into something that would actually be good for them and World… as very slim.

  • @[email protected]
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    11 days ago

    The system will go easy on them, being white, Christian, and Conservative. They’ll do a few months. Then they’ll have another kid, because bible.

      • frida
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        411 days ago

        oh right they are fake christians, not all of us are like this… lmao

        • @[email protected]
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          311 days ago

          True, but from their perspective, anyone who doesn’t follow their interpretation of Christianity is a “fake Christian”.

          …but, the inverse is also true.

          The “fake Christian”'s idea of Christianity makes you their “fake Christian”.

          It’s almost like religion is based on bullshit and interpretive.

  • @[email protected]
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    10712 days ago

    “God makes no mistakes, except doctors and modern medicine.”

    A just God wouldn’t give an innocent child to people like that.

      • @[email protected]
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        1312 days ago

        Yeah, I’m reading a comment from one of them right now. Hahaha, got em!

        Oh no, in reading my own comment and now I’m God’s mistake toooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

      • @[email protected]
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        611 days ago

        What’s that old quote about the body being an example of a shitty civil engineer? Something along the lines of: “Only a new civvy puts the playground next to the sewer outflow.”

  • @[email protected]
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    1312 days ago

    Don’t talk about it too much if you don’t want it becoming such a widespread story that it gets Trump to pardon them.

  • @[email protected]
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    1511 days ago

    A lot of people find Jesus in prison. I don’t know what Jesus is in there for, but as lot of people say he is.

    • @[email protected]
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      2711 days ago

      No. There’s no ethical way to implement something like that. Even if there was, it’s ripe for abuse by the wrong administration.

    • @[email protected]
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      1911 days ago

      Not parenting licenses, but well funded child protective services. Investigations into claims. Serious monitoring of home schoolers.

      As I have been trying to get ANYONE to listen to for the past year, for example, the state of Oklahoma actively does not investigate child welfare cases (except occasionally to take away native or Black children.)

      The internal phone system at Oklahoma DHS is NOT WORKING. They have the incorrect numbers for several state agencies, and have been forwarding reports intended for the police to a very confused Hispanic man. This is absolutely insane and should be newsworthy, but no one gives a shit.

    • @[email protected]
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      4112 days ago

      Sounds like a way to prevent “undesirable” people from having children. Just so, so wide open to abuse.

      • @[email protected]
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        812 days ago

        Yea I don’t really believe in its applicability too but doesn’t prevent me from wishing it in a more “ideal” form despite being very dangerously parallel to eugenics. It is just hard to think of anything else when you read a news about a baby dying while vomiting blood.

        But about the topic of abuse, everything is open to abuse by billionaires including law, but we still have them.

        • @[email protected]
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          1411 days ago

          Honestly the eugenics issues aside the idea of the state regulating one of the most basic facets of humanity disgusts me.

          What does that look like, forced birth control, forced abstinence, forced abortions? Sounds like a dystopian hell

    • @[email protected]
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      311 days ago

      I’ve held this belief for years but have been afraid to voice it for fear of being labelled a eugenicist or something

      • @[email protected]
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        11 days ago

        I mean it is a thing which can turn into eugenics with only a little push so there must be counter weights, like life long imprisonment for anyone trying to turn this into eugenics I guess?

    • Kairos
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      712 days ago

      Good as any.

      What exactly is your plan for when someone without a license is found with a baby?

      • @[email protected]
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        12 days ago

        What exactly is your plan when parents are so stupid that a baby dies vomiting blood due to a medically preventable condition?

            • @[email protected]
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              311 days ago

              The question is what to do when the baby dies, not how to prevent it.

              I don’t know how to prevent it, but from this raises a personal grievance of mine. Having a child is easy, even idiots can do it and many do by accident. Adopting a child is mind boggling difficult. This isn’t fair for parents or children.

      • cheesymoonshadow
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        212 days ago

        I’m just spitballing here. Slap a fine on them for sure. Maybe perform an assessment for license issuance, and if found ineligible for a license for whatever reason, treat it the same as when a parent is found unfit by CPS.

        • Kairos
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          211 days ago

          In any given situation, that will make things worse for the child.

          • @[email protected]
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            112 days ago

            Yea state care isn’t great agreed (whether or not that can be fixed is another topic I guess), if the punishment is more deterrent and the rates of incidence low, reparenting would be preferred. However for that people’s mindset of parenting should be greatly changed too. People should be more sympathetic towards/used to the idea of parenting a kid who is not their genetic successor.

  • @[email protected]
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    6311 days ago

    These stupid fucks were mentioned on the Friendly Athiest blog and podcast earlier this year. Look it up. It’s a good read / listen.

    In a statement read in court, Rachel’s brother, Joel Kerr, said the Pilands “chose their beliefs over their children.” He asked for sentences “sufficiently long that (the couple) can no longer bring life into the world just to snuff it out.”

    Monsters. Religion kills. Why do you think abortion is illegal for women who have been raped? Religion.

    • FlashMobOfOne
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      1911 days ago

      sentences “sufficiently long that (the couple) can no longer bring life into the world just to snuff it out.”

      Now that sounds like justice to me.

    • Echo Dot
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      411 days ago

      Interestingly the brother isn’t fanatical which would seem to suggest that the husband was the one that got Rachel involved in it.

  • Rayquetzalcoatl
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    2412 days ago

    Why would the Lord want you to just let your kid die? Absolutely brainless.

      • @[email protected]
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        411 days ago

        “acts in mysterious ways”

        So say the same people who are very eager to tell you exactly what their God wants you to do.

    • @[email protected]
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      311 days ago

      Because if he wanted the kid to survive, he would make it better himself.

      Yeah, it’s a stupid belief.

    • @[email protected]
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      411 days ago

      You need to prove your faith* by letting god’s plan happen. By getting the human medical system involved, you’re proving that you don’t trust god (hint: I don’t).

      • but asking god to prove its existence is unacceptable
  • @[email protected]
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    16 days ago

    Hope they spend their lives (if not locked up) having that thrown in their face by every interaction they have with another human.

    Stuff like “oh man, how old is your kid now? Oh wait…”

    Or "oh man, this kid is beautiful. Having a kid you love is so wonderful. I can’t imagine ever doing anything to hurt them. What kinda jerk would I be? "

    Just constant, never letting up, never showing down. Every sentence from every person they try to speak to. Including their doctors.

    Hopefully they’ll clean themselves up pretty quick. If you know what I mean.