Mass murderer doubts God's existence

Fox News is not exactly known for prioritizing their facts in any rational or even sane structure. Today they are reporting on the mental health history of the teenage Omaha mall shooter. The first and most significant fact in the story, according to Fox News, is that the boy was "Satanic." The article seems to clarify in the first paragraph that "Satanic" means "he is not sure if there is a God or life after death and that when he dies, he'll probably go to hell." The remaining nineteen paragraphs detail a long history of depression, suicide attempts, broken homes and other psychological challenges that the boy dealt with. Why, I wonder, does his wavering religious faith get top billing in the first paragraph? And why does the headline amplify a mere state of doubt to Satan worship? What could motivate such wild distortions of basic factual information? Perhaps the Fox News writers are no less deranged, their minds no less trapped in a delusional world of devils and demons, than the mind of a mentally ill teenager who picks up a gun in order to make sure his suicide becomes everyone else's problem rather than just his own.

Here's the first three paragraphs of the story:

The teen gunman who killed eight people and himself in a mall this month once told social workers he was satanic and acknowledged that he often acted before thinking of the consequences, according to newly released court records.

Robert Hawkins' file includes hundreds of pages of court transcripts, drug tests and letters from caseworkers, therapists and family members. They give the clearest picture yet of a young man who told a therapist in April 2005 that "he is not sure if there is a God or life after death and that when he dies, he'll probably go to hell."

More than two years later, on Dec. 5, the 19-year-old Hawkins walked into a department store in the Westroads Mall and shot 11 people, then committed suicide.