A South African pastor, Alfred Ndlovu has died of malnutrition after going without food for 30 days when he tried to emulate Jesus Christ and fast for 40 days and 40 nights.
Buzz South Africa reports that the 44-year-old pastor left home on June 17 for a nearby bush to have prayers, just like Jesus did. Attempting to equal or break Jesus Christ record of fasting for 40 days, Mr Alfred Ndlovu died just a month despite having no history of illness. He was alone in the wilderness and his body was found by a stranger who then called the police. He was known by his family and community at large as a very spiritual person whose faith could move mountains and his death surprised everyone, even church members.
18 comments
Sorry Alfie, and my condolences to your family, but did you never hear of the "3 X 3" survival rule?
A healthy human can, as a rule of thumb, expect to survive:
Or is it that you thought this didn't apply to you, because God?
Regards & all,
Thomas L. Nielsen
Survivalist Bear Grylls states that the human body can survive up to three weeks without food, but cannot without water for three days .
Al learned the hard way.
Or he could have bought a clue for a Zimbabwean Dollar and watched his TV programmes.
Because when a Christian like Grylls can openly contradict the very same J-boy you belie ved in, welcome to Planet Reality , Al.
...oh wait.
There's reconciling one's faith with proven medical science fact, and there's idiots such as the OP.
And unless he thought he was Tony Stark and could build a robot with more than just an advanced AI: and Ultron moved entire cities , so much for 'Faith'.
This is not just a few isolated nutters, it is a bigger problem among Christians than you think.
Once in conversation with a priest (I shit you not, I was having a conversation with a priest) the priest mentioned that people he knew were often telling him how they were fasting for long periods. When he gently tried to discourage them, they would plead "But Jesus did it for 40 days and nights!" The priest's stock response was something along the lines of "Well, he was Jesus" but this approach was not always successful.
Muslims fast during daylight hours when it's Ramadan - I don't even consider that to be healthy. In the UK a third of the industry in which I work (security) is Muslim and you can tell when Ramadan's on because it gives them bad breath - a side effect of the body using up its own energy.
Now this is the kinda news I like; dead pastors.
This is just Darwin at work. I think of this as natural eugenics, letting nature weed out the idiots. Anything that improves humanity gets my approval, & the less pastors & religious halfwits there are mucking up the gene pool the better.
The death of anyone for no reason is sad. Death because of easily avoidable stupidity is no less sad. It's still fucking stupid though.
and his death surprised everyone, even church members.
Not doctors though. They could have predicted this outcome a mile away.
40 days and nights is just Biblical parlance for a long time, at least according to my Jewish history professors. It's just an exaggeration, not the real time frame, you moron.
I concur; Darwin Award.
@Citizen Justin"Muslims fast during daylight hours when it's Ramadan - I don't even consider that to be healthy. In the UK a third of the industry in which I work (security) is Muslim and you can tell when Ramadan's on because it gives them bad breath - a side effect of the body using up its own energy."
Besides, they get really cranky in the afternoons, when their sugar-levels go down.
As far as Muslim fasting during Ramadan, the vast majority of Muslims only apply that to people who are healthy enough to do so. Most families won't even allow their teenage children to do it, none of the younger children at all, and encourage the elderly not to participate. Also if there's any kind of metabolic issue or illness that is known to, or even suspected to, impact how their body processes calories, it's highly recommended that they don't. If an otherwise healthy young or middle aged adult starts having problems, their doctors and their Imams tell them they should not fast all day.
So, yes, all day fasting can be problematic, but that vast majority of Muslims deal with those problems by eating something midday if they are having those problems, and even not engaging in even partial fasting if they are children, elderly, diabetic, or other obvious issues.
@K'Zad Bhat, I saw that when I lived in Kuwait. A recurring problem was that some of the elderly or diabetics were firm in their faith and fasted anyway. When they landed in the hospital, their imam was called in to persuade them to stop.
And there were public service announcements reminding everyone that Muslims were excused from fasting if they had medical issues.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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