Signing a petition.  How can that hurt? In addition to being told to be obedient to the government, and to avoid politics, we often don’t have all the facts when presented with a petition.  Perhaps someone knocks on our doors when we’re already distracted by other things; or someone puts it under our nose when [...]

Signing a petition.  How can that hurt?

In addition to being told to be obedient to the government, and to avoid politics, we often don’t have all the facts when presented with a petition.  Perhaps someone knocks on our doors when we’re already distracted by other things; or someone puts it under our nose when waiting to pay for a purchase and it seems expedient to do so.  That doesn’t mean we should sign it.

In 2005, the following article was published to highlight the dangers of the chemical DiHydrogen MonOxide, sometimes called DHMO.

Mysterious Killer Chemical

It’s found in many different cancers, but there’s no proven causal link between its presence and the cancers in which it lurks – so far.  The figures are astonishing – DHMO has been found in over 95% of all fatal cervical cancers, and in over 85% of all cancers collected from terminal cancer patients.  Despite this, it is still used as an industrial solvent and coolant, as a fire retardant and suppressant, in the manufacture of biological and chemical weapons, in nuclear power plants – and surprisingly, by elite athletes in some endurance sports.  However, the athletes later find that withdrawal from DHMO can be difficult, and sometimes, fatal.  Medically, it is almost always involved in diseases that have sweating, vomiting and diarrhea as their symptoms.  One reason that DHMO can be so dangerous is its chameleon-like ability to not only blend in with the background, but also it can change its state.  As a solid, it causes severe tissue burns, while in its hot gaseous state, it kills hundreds of people each year.  Thousand more die each year by breathing in small quantities of liquid DHMO into their lungs.

Would you sign a petition to ban it?

In fact, DHMO is just a highfalutin name for plain water, and the article was written by the Australian science journalist Karl Kruszelnicki to show how easy it is to scare the public.  He went on to point out:  “You can give people this totally accurate (but emotionally laden, and sensationalist) information about water.  When you then survey these people, about three-quarters of them will willingly sign a petition to ban it.”  (Edzard Ernst, Trick or Treatment:  The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine, p. 267)

We need to examine our motives.  Why would we sign it?  To please others or to please God?

Bahá’u'lláh tells us:

The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. (Baha’u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words 2)

The next time someone gives me a petition to sign, I’m going to think twice and not do it.