How many of you would punish religious people for being religious?

[Losty]

I don’t know… indoctrinating children is morally wrong imo. That goes for any type of indoctrination not just religion. 

Yes, granted -- but "indoctrinate" kind of has the nuance of "bad teaching" built into it. People who really believe their religion just think they're teaching the truth. 

I mean, flat-earthers would say that parents shouldn't teach the shape of the earth until a child is old enough to make up its own mind. But we who are confident find that silly.

I wouldn’t call it child abuse in most cases. I do think some people torment children with all the burning in hell shit and I do consider that to be morally child abuse but it’s hard to say it should be legally considered child abuse because it seems dangerous to set laws about what things you can and cannot teach your children.

Agreed. It's certainly possible to use religious concepts to torment children. I wish people wouldn't do that, but as you say, having authorities make them stop is a dangerous step.

It may be that if a child is abused with religion, he is somewhat more likely to grow into an adult for whom "atheist" is an important part of his self-identity. Such people might be more likely to think of a religious upbringing as harmful, just because it was in their own case. (I was raised completely without religion, but if I wrote out a page of adjectives about myself, I wouldn't include "atheist" -- it's not "who I am.") 

I don't know how we'd quantify the number of people who were raised in a religion who found it comforting, or an overall positive experience. I know some such people.

The majority of people I know are people who are raised with religion and find it comforting. I’ve done team building exercises where we use words to describe ourselves and I never choose atheist as one of my words. I have a lot of things that come to mind and that’s never one of them. I just happen to not believe it has nothing to do with who I am as a person. But I was raised in a way that religion was abusive and harmful and I certainly went through a time period where atheism played a bigger role in my life. I still don’t think it was ever important enough to be a part of my self identity. Honestly, I don’t think religion or lack of religion plays any part in whether or not a child is abused. Imo people of all types of beliefs are capable of raising stable, loved, respected and well taken care of children.

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It's important to teach children the things they need to know, but it is just as importent to teach them to question the things they are taught

Abaris is right, though, that education happens all the time, often in unintentional ways. Kids soak up a lot. 

If a kid asks you what kind of flower this is, you just say what it is. You don't say "It's a tulip but you should keep in mind that I may be wrong." You just say what you think is true.

They learn pretty quickly that people can be wrong. I knew a little girl who asked her mom "where did I come from?" and her mom said "from inside my tummy" and the little girl said, "Yeah, I don't think so." 

If people sincerely believe that their religion is true, then they just tell their kids what they think is true. If the kids later on hear good reasons to doubt, then they'll doubt.

I don’t think it’s necessary to point out to your children that you’re capable of fallacy every single time you teach them something. It’s more of an occasional reminder that even parents can be wrong sometimes and it’s important to do your own research and form your own opinions about things. There’s also a difference between fact and belief. If what you’re teaching relies on faith over science or is typically considered an opinion that’s when it becomes useful to say “I think ….. because….., what do you think?”