Churchgoer rips out eyeballs

This is what happens when you take your fairytales seriously:

Churchgoer rips out eyeballs

October 4, 2011 - 11:56AM

An Italian man reportedly ripped out his own eyeballs during Sunday Mass at a church in Viareggio, near Pisa, northern Italy, according to British news reports.

Aldo Bianchini, 46, a Briton who had lived most of his life in Italy, according to the Daily Mail, reportedly stood up during the Mass at St Andrea's and used his bare hands to tear out his eyeballs. He then collapsed on the floor in a pool of his own blood.

Bianchini's mother tried to help him as the priest called for help, The Sun reported.

He later told doctors - calmly and lucidly - that he was hearing voices, Fox News reported.

NBC Bay Area in the US translated comments the priest, Reverend Lorenzo Tanganelli, gave Italian newspaper Corriere Fiorentino.

"This man at the back of the nave started tearing at his face and I realised he was gouging out his eyes ... I called for assistance and the paramedics were quickly at the scene, and he was taken away and then I carried on celebrating Mass, but a lot of people had left because they were so shocked by what they had seen," Reverend Tanganelli told the paper.

Emergency responders picked up his eyeballs from the floor of the church, Fox reported, but surgeons were unable to save his sight.

The Sun quotes Dr Gino Barbacci as saying: "To do that requires superhuman strength."

NBC reminded readers that in the Bible's Gospel of St Matthew, Jesus says: "If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell."

Viareggio, population 64,000, is a city in northern Tuscany, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/strangebuttrue/churchgoer-rips-out-eyeb...

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Comment by Dallas the Phallus on October 4, 2011 at 2:35pm: This is what happens when you take your fairytales seriously

Generally speaking, you'll get not arguments from me, but if he's hearing voices, this may have more to do with mental illness / schizophrenia than theism (though, yeah, theism is its own form of illness).

Comment by Lewal on October 4, 2011 at 2:46pm: HA! Fantastic! This man should be given a medal for his strength and dedication. This has been my message to Christians all along: If you're going to be silly and crazy and stupid, at least have the gall to do it all the way like Muslims so we can put you in insane asylums where you belong.

I want to have a statue erected of him tearing out his own eyes. This is just beautiful. My day has been absolutely made.

Comment by Tina Springer on October 4, 2011 at 2:53pm: Where is Calpurnpiso when you need him to explain things like this? :))

Comment by Albert Bakker on October 4, 2011 at 3:52pm: You might have a valid point there Dallas Gaytheist his insane act might have more to do with psychosis than piety, but it seems reasonable to suspect it isn't entirely divorced from some religious motive either.

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on October 4, 2011 at 4:00pm: @ Albert: Yes, certainly they can influence one another. Have you ever read about temporal lobe epilepsy, and how it tends to make the sufferer experience what they perceive as highly spiritual/religious sensations?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporal_lobe_epilepsy#Temporal_Lobe_E...

Comment by Albert Bakker on October 4, 2011 at 4:24pm: Yes Dick Swaab, a Dutch neuroscientist wrote about it in his book "We Are Our Brain" And I picked up from several other sources. However I can't find anything pointing to Bianchini suffering from that particular ailment. He a fair share of other mental troubles though.

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on October 4, 2011 at 4:26pm: I'll have to check We are Our Brain out. I've not heard of that one. Also, I didn't mean to imply that Bianchini had TLE. I was just getting off on a tangent -- on how the brain can fool us.

Comment by Albert Bakker on October 4, 2011 at 4:31pm: Alright yeah I didn't mean to imply, but I was curious myself.

(I don't know if it has been translated and released in English yet, but it is a page turner in Dutch at least.)

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on October 4, 2011 at 4:33pm: I could not find it on Amazon.com. I found one review, but it does look like it is not yet avail in English.

Comment by Dustin on October 5, 2011 at 12:24am: Holy shit, that must have hurt...

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