I am sure that the theistic world will try to distance itself from this young woman, by saying that they hold her actions to be extreme, misguided, and not part of mainstream theology. Just as the many theists try to distance themselves from religious terrorists etc.. Yet they created a world in which such thinking and ideas were normalized, and in which people are not encouraged to ask questions of the sort which could perhaps sometimes make them think. "Perhaps I need help, of the medical, social type." Therefore every theist has to carry some of the guilt, for every act of terrorism and insanity not stopped by mainstream society because of the buffer between that society and the extremist that the churches and temples provide.

We don’t need to see and hear these posts to know how Religion plays a big part in mental illness....these stories are always heartbreaking but the mother is a victim here too! Sending her to jail would not solve anything here, if she ever recovers her sanity she will have to live with the realisation of what she did and that will be far greater punishment.

There's a reason that religious ideation is so prominent in hallucinations of the mentally ill -- as any mental health professional will attest. Religion is a catalyst for disordered thinking. I wouldn't go so far as to say it causes mental illness, but it definitely pushes vulnerable people over the edge. I don't have a crystal ball to know what percentage of them would be pushed over the edge by something else, absent religion. But I do know that religion is no help, and for people like the one under discussion here, it's like throwing gasoline on a fire.

I do not understand people who act this way and I do not want to understand them. That poor little girl.