ATLANTA, Georgia: Pro wrestler Chris Benoit allegedly suffocated his 7-year-old son and placed a Bible next to the body before using an exercise machine to hang himself, authorities said on Tuesday. Law enforcement officials believe Daniel Benoit was killed on Saturday, one day after Benoit also allegedly strangled his 43-year-old wife, Nancy, in the upstairs family room of their luxury rural home. Another Bible was placed next to her lifeless body which was wrapped in a towel, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Tuesday. The three bodies were found in separate rooms of the house on Green Meadow Lane in Peachtree City in what police are calling a double-murder suicide that stretched through the weekend. “Bizarre. That’s the only way I can describe this,” Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard told the Fayette Daily News. “What’s most bizarre to me is the timing and the circumstances. Not just that a man could kill his own 7-year-old son but that he could have stayed in the same house with the bodies. “And then there’s the placement of the Bibles. I can’t understand this.”
Folks, this is not brain surgery. Religion makes one think there is life after death, and so killing is not as bad! Benoit put the Bibles there in some insane attempt to help his family in the afterlife! This is a very clear place where religion’s false promises hurt people. So many times I’ve been asked “So what if people believe what is false? It doesn’t hurt anyone!”But the fact is it DOES hurt, because it makes life LESS valuable if one thinks there is more life after death. Benoit obviously didn’t think he extinguished his family’s existance, merely pushed them into the afterlife.Remember — Religion hurts! If Benoit had been an Atheist, there’s a good possibility his family may still be alive.
What
you make a strong case for prohibition but it would need stiff penalty to make it work.that is something i don’t think americans have the will to do that. so it would have to be imposed on them.
Now all delusional americans – aka xians – can avoid the death penalty but the rational are still on the hook.
Reason
“you make a strong case for prohibition”
of drugs/alcohol or religion?
Alex, I saw this earlier. So question is, did he modify it, or was he and his family murdered? My gut feeling was he modified the entry which shows how messed up he was.
Regarding the wikipedia entry, that is kind of weird, but what’s the chance Deputy Dog wasn’t aware of a time zone difference? A lot of forums I post in use GMT.
MX,
The problem with that theory is that whoever posted the Wikipedia update was in Stamford, CT (home to WWF) which is on EST and posted the information nearly 14 hours before the police discovered the bodies!
I agree it’s a stretch that had the pop been an atheist the family would still be alive, but the placing of Bibles can’t be ignored. No one seriously questions whether a killing was sex related if the body is posed sexually, or sexually mutilated, etc. Something was in the killers mind, and he wanted to leave a message. In this case, he chose Bibles. That’s Christian.
If this was his parting excuse, that still says something about using religion as justification for murder, whether the guy was messed up or not. His mind chose to leave Bibles as a message. Still pretty messed up, religion wise.
Christians can’t claim killing isn’t done in the name of their god. Even though Abraham didn’t kill his own son – God stopped him in time – he had every intention of doing it. When a religion elevates such stories and honours the would-be murderer as holy, you’re going to get whackos who use the god told me to do it excuse to commit horror. Some, in my opinion, probably believe they are doing god’s will.
Why is it the person with the gun sends everyone to heaven first then kills themselves to meet them there? Instead of saying lets all go to heaven I’ll go first, thereby letting everyone at least have a choice. Because perhaps they know in their hearts the others are not stupid enough to kill themselves and might back out.
I am very sorry for the wife and child as well as the families.
Not,
Couldn’t you ask the same of every suicide bomber, every abortion clinic bomber, and any other person who’s ever killed for religion?
Remember, it’s not about religion. It’s about power. Religion is just the catalyst for greed for power. That’s why theistic nutsies kill others first before themselves — to make sure it happens THEIR way.
Dave
I bet Jim Jones sung My Way before he off’d himself.
If Benoit had been an Atheist, there’s a good possibility his family may still be alive.
Banal comments like this do our cause more harm than good. It’s an example of the sort of childish justification that I regularly criticize the religious right for.