Theism is literally childish

[Whateverist]

I do think though that Christian indoctrination is specifically infantilising. God is almost always portrayed as a father figure. Sometimes as a shepherd of a flock but that's hardly any better. The Lord's prayer is not 'Our God/Creator/Supreme Being/Ultimate Power who art in Heaven ...'

Christian indoctrination pushes its god character as an ersatz father, with Jesus being the older brother that leads by example. Fellowship then becomes an extended family, or in severe cases of cult conditioning, the new family. I'm seeing questions from  my brother on his facebook feed for example to his cult leader about how to push the idea of their fellow adherents as their new family. You can see this with worshippers often referring to each other as brother and sister.

A god cannot literally be a father though without also being human and breeding (which would at least explain why God cannot be referred to as Goddess, an idea that christians seem to loathe). Being a creator is not enough to be referred to as a Father. He is referred to as that because of how he is portrayed. Just type "god is your father" into google to see the hits that come back.

There are many analogies made during indoctrination about how God is your father. The famous one being about two footprints in the sand and when there is only one set of footprints during troubled times then it's when God carries you. How can that not put anyone in mind of being on a long walk as a young child and being picked up by your dad because you became tired?

This does then explain why family values are so important to abrahamic faiths, particularly with christianity.  By pushing these values christians are also promoting the importance of accepting a position of personal subservience to an authority figure who will take responsibility for them.

But the whole idea behind having children is that you will raise them to eventually live independently in the real world. Christian indoctrination never talks of their adherents eventually becoming independent, except perhaps Mormonism where everyone gets their own planet in the end, a claim which has since been retracted by the Mormon church.

Christian indoctrination is regressive and hence infantilising, conditioning followers to become more dependent over time. This means that it then becomes harder to leave as your whole life becomes built up around your church. In the same way that narcotic drugs manipulate receptors in the brain to produce highs on demand, christian worship manipulates biological instincts that we have evolved to function as pack animals to produce a sense of subservience to a non-existent family.

To the degree that believers conceptualize themselves as an infant in God's care or a lost lamb happy to follow their shepherd Jesus, I agree that it is infantilizing.  However I don't find that all Christians (true or otherwise) comport themselves as if they were infants or lambs.  It is after all a metaphor and there are times when it can be not just comforting but functionally advantageous to take a first step even when one cannot see clearly what each successive step must be to reach a goal.  

There are xtians who seem to use belief to justify abdicating responsibility for their choices.  But not all xtians do so.