Do Christian Parents Abuse their Children?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

But the notion that religious instruction in and of itself makes it harder to cope with the world simply isn't borne out by the evidence.  Richard Dawkins himself is pretty damned successful, and seems pretty well adjusted, despite his COE upbringing.

Dawkins is off the rails with this one.

Boru

Tell me Boru is this not child abuse?

Yup, seems pretty abusive to me.  But that's not what Dawkins is talking about.  He has made - and continues to make - the blanket claim that a religious upbringing makes it harder for children to cope when they're out in the world.  This is simply not true.  The overwhelming majority of believers manage to function pretty well.

I grant you can find extreme examples such as those in the video, but that's hardly the norm.  Had Dawkins said, 'There are some cases where religious upbringing becomes flat-out brainwashing and can be inimical to the ability of individuals to function well in a modern, complex society,' we wouldn't be having this conversation.

But look at the people you meet every day - the bus driver, the girl who hands you the fizzy drink and the burger through the little window, the neighbor who works two jobs to feed her three kids, your doctor, your solicitor, the bloke who walks dogs for a living, that cop who gave you the ticket.  The odds are very, very good that the majority of the strangers you run across in a single day had a religious upbringing and still mange to cope with the world and get through life with no more than the usual amount of fuss.

Dawkins' attitude about this is also hypocritical in the extreme, since (as I pointed out earlier) he had a religious upbringing, and now he writes books and shows up on the telly, and has made real, significant additions to human knowledge.

Are there cases where religious upbringing does indeed damage children to the point where it qualifies as abuse?  Clearly.  But is this the norm?  Clearly not.

As one more example, I grew up in a Catholic household.  I attended Mass and Sunday school, I was confirmed in the Church and I even won more than one award for catechism and scripture memorization.  And yet, I stand before you, the pinnacle of the well-adjusted modern human so put that down Bingo you've already had one pie said the monkey with the wooden leg.

Boru