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FIVE people who stared at the sun in the hope they might be witnessing religious apparitions are being treated for serious eye damage, a top eye surgeon has revealed. Reports of pilgrims to Knock seeing the sun dance in the sky and changing colour indicate serious eye damage. And a number of people who attended the recent religious gathering at the Catholic shrine are reporting symptoms of damaged retinas, said Dr Eamonn O’Donoghue, of University College Hospital in Galway. Dr O’Donoghue revealed he is treating five patients for serious eye injuries caused by staring at the sun at recent gatherings at Knock organised by Dublin “spiritual healers” Joe Coleman and Keith Henderson.

Article continues. I hope that the five people who are now blind regain their sight. If the five are of diminished intelligence, or are very young children, then my sympathy is with them all the more. Their friends and family and society at large will now be caring for them in ways that they used to be able to care for themselves. Their lives have been made less. Having said that, I have discharged the entirety of my compassion for those five blind people. They engaged in a stupid act for a stupid reason and may be paying for it the rest of their lives. The spiritual healing prayers of every Christian on Earth offered night and day for a hundred years will do exactly nothing for them, but science may lessen their self-inflicted suffering to some degree. Perhaps they’ll recognize which team made them go blind and which team helped them see again?

Many plants have the ability to regulate how much exposure to the sun they get. So can insects. Most land animals have eyelids. People have eyelids, protruding brows and heads that can tilt. People have the ability to move into the shade. We’re inclined from the DNA level on up to limit how much sunlight goes in our eyes. Except for very young children and those with diminished intelligence, people have the sense to recognize staring at the sun is painful and causes damage to your eyes. It takes religion to go against all that and make a person stare at the sun until they go blind. So you know what? They got what they deserved. But spiritual healers like Joe Coleman and Keith Henderson deserve so very, very much more.