How to raise a child as an atheist

[Little lunch]

The weak link may have been his biological father who is deep into woo.  Disappointing.

Also, people may turn to religion during moments of strife. I may be reading too much into your comments, but this "John" thing sounds a little culty to me. Like a lion who isolates the grazer with a bum leg, many religions target people who are in so much turmoil that their mental defenses are weak against dogma.

I believe this to be true.
But then when a theist does something crazy, we tend to blame religion for turning them that way, when in reality they were probably already crazy and religion was not the answer.
Would they have been less crazy without religion?
I think they would have been more isolated, less observed and less likely to get help, so in my opinion, no.
Different story if we had better mental health systems in place.
Sorry for going off track. :-)