<p>I believe in God, the divine, the sense that there is something more beyond our ability to experience physically. I believe in faith, in hope. I believe in religious freedom, that people have a right to worship the divine, to revere it, to bask in its glory, to find balm and guidance through this life, to strive to be better than they are. It seems to me the fundamental tenets in all religion is to believe in something better than yourself and to strive to live up to its greatness.</p><p class="blockquote"><span><p>Neumann, who once studied to be a Pentecostal minister, testified Thursday that he believed God would heal his daughter and he never expected her to die. God promises in the Bible to heal, he said.</p> 	 			     			    <p>"If I go to the doctor, I am putting the doctor before God," Neumann testified. "I am not believing what he said he would do."</p> 	 			     			    <p>The father testified that he thought Madeline had the flu or a fever, and several relatives and family friends said they also did not realize how sick she was.</p> 	 			     			    <p>Assistant District Attorney LaMont Jacobson told jurors in closing arguments Friday that Neumann was "overwhelmed by pride" in his interpretation of the Bible and selfishly let Madeline die as a test of faith.</p> 	 			     			    <p>Neumann knew he should have taken his daughter to a doctor and minimized her illness when speaking with investigators, Jacobson said, calling Neumann no different than a drunken driver who remarks he only had a couple of beers.</p> 	 			     			    <p>Doctors testified that Madeline would have had a good chance of survival if she had received medical care, including insulin and fluids, before she stopped breathing.</p> 	 			     			    <p>Kronenwetter told the jury that Neumann sincerely believed praying would heal his daughter and he did nothing criminally wrong.</p> 	 			     			    <p>"Dale Neumann was doing what he thought would work for his daughter," Kronenwetter said. "He was administering faith healing. He thought it was working."</p></span>Dale Neumann, according to a <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,535861,00.html" target="_blank" title="Dad Who Prayed for Sick Girl Found Guilty in Her Death">Fox News article</a>,  was tried and convicted in his daughter's death because he failed to seek medical treatment when she became ill. </p><p>............</p><p>assumption 1: if children raised in churches (of any kind) are more likely to be productive, law-abiding citizens, then churches (of any kind) are good.</p><p>assumption 2: if society is a self-serving organism and if society, which is goverened by men and women of a common culture and common more, fosters a sub-culture (in this case religions), then that society benefits from that sub-culture  </p><p>assumption 3: if we benefit from the existence of religion, then religion is good</p><p>assumption 4: if religion is good, all varieties are good </p>