Man in India marries dog as atonement

I love these wacky stories I find in Odd News of Yahoo and other places. It boggles my mind that nutty and absurd religious beliefs of all kinds still abound in the year 2007.

Some Hindus think that by marrying a dog this man is going to undo the horrible act of stoning two other dogs to death. He married the dog in order to save himself from a lifelong curse he believes was placed on him by his imaginary friends as punishment for those actions. It’s just like others who think that by simply believing and saying some magic words that all the bad they ever do is forgiven by some invisible man who never, ever shows himself except in their own minds.

Religion relieves guilt, and that is not a good thing, as far as I am concerned. If one believes that no matter what they do, that their imaginary friend will still love them and forgive them, they will keep on doing those things with the assumption that they can perform a magical ritual, utter some magic words to some magical being and all the bad things they have done, all the poor choices, all the hurtful deeds they have done are simply “washed away.”

There are just some things we do in life that might be so awful that we can never forgive ourselves. That doesn’t mean that life can’t go on or that we should beat ourselves up every day for those errors in judgment or spontaneous acts we commit in heated moments. We can admit we did a bad or cruel thing and feel remorseful, but we can’t undo whatever has already been said or done. We can only realize our mistakes and bad choices and correct our behavior and never allow ourselves to make those choices or do those bad things again. Magical rituals, wishful prayers and believing in a magical being who forgives every bad thing we do is silly superstitious thinking.

This is just another example of how religion messes people up psychologically.Maybe this dude is truly remorseful, but it appears to me that the only reason this man wants “atonement” is to help rid HIMSELF of a curse he believes his supernatural overlords put on him because of his cruel actions. If he really wants to “atone” for his crime, it would be better to build shelters for stray animals, help to feed them, have them neutered, or something that would actually do some good.

I feel sorry for the dog.

I feel sorry for the dog.

NEW DELHI - A man in southern India married a female dog in a traditional Hindu ceremony as an attempt to atone for stoning two other dogs to death — an act he believes cursed him — a newspaper reported Tuesday.

P. Selvakumar married the sari-draped former stray named Selvi, chosen by family members and then bathed and clothed for the ceremony Sunday at a Hindu temple in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, the Hindustan Times newspaper said.

Selvakumar, 33, told the paper he had been suffering since he stoned two dogs to death and hung their bodies from a tree 15 years ago.

"After that my legs and hands got paralyzed and I lost hearing in one ear," he said in the report.

The paper said an astrologer had told Selvakumar the wedding was the only way he could cure the maladies. It did not say whether his situation had improved.

Deeply superstitious people in rural India sometimes organize weddings to dogs and other animals, believing it can ward off certain curses.

The paper showed a picture of Selvakumar sitting next to the dog, which was wearing an orange sari and a flower garland.

The paper said the groom and his family then had a feast, while the dog got a bun.