Dawkins goes a tad overboard, again

sportspadawan13 · Intern Joined: 27 Jul 2008 Posts: 32 Local time: 1:33 AM

Well I can't say who's right or wrong, but Dawkins can't prove anything either. He wasn't there when the universe began, and he hasn't ever seen an electron. Lot's of things with science we are estimating or theorizing with. Just as Christians believe in something they weren't there for. It goes hand in hand. And it's a bunch of BS that it's child abuse. Everyone's getting so touchy these days. When I was a kid and went to church I thought it was a bunch of shit too. I just went to church 'cause I didn't feel like not having an afterlife. Yet now I'm 19 and I'm christian. It's no more harmful then teaching math or physics at a young age. You could tell a kid that the Earth is flat, that molecules exist, that God exists, that the planet will blow up in 2 days if they don't buy a product, and they'd believe it. It's not child abuse at all, it's just that the kid will be taken and believe whatever the parents do until they mature with their own brains, like we all did.

coloringzebras · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 9:29 am Post subject:

Basilosaur · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 9:36 am Post subject:

RowanMorrison · Visitor Joined: 09 Aug 2008 Posts: 1 Local time: 6:33 PM

Naoryunosuke · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 4:05 am Post subject:

I agree with Professor Dawkins that it's child abuse. We often rightly consider the word abuse to be quite a taboo topic, but we often only associate abuse with physical abuse. Child abuse however is the physical, psychological, or sexual maltreatment of children. When a child is in a family they never feel obliged to take on their parents political beliefs, parents just simply don't talk about that kind of thing with their children. When it comes to religion we consider it ok to force choices upon children before they have the mental acuity in which to make the decision for themselves.

From experience most atheists I've met come from a family where religion was never forced upon them. Statistics show that only 1 in 12 children brought up to be religious will break away from their religion. How many of those 11 in 12 children would never have even gone near a religion if they weren't forced into it?
We consider forcing sex upon children to be wrong because they don't have the ability to discern a proper sense of right and wrong, so why is forcing religion upon them any different? If when that child reaches 18 and then they decide to become a Christian/Buddhist, etc, then I have no issue with that, but don't fool yourself into believing that psychological maltreatment is any different to physical maltreatment.

unweavetherainbow · Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 8:34 am Post subject:

I sort of half disagree with Dawkins here. I think a Christian family taking their kids to church and all that is fine. It is human nature to instill in your children the values you hold dear.

However, i think it do becomes a problem when the kids reach the age when they can start to think about religion for themselves, and the parents still force it on them. I want to raise my kids in a free-thinking way, but if they reach their teens and want to go to bible-study, I am not going to forbid them. Would I like it, no. But part of raising kids is letting them discover who they are.
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As ever when we unweave the rainbow, it will not become less wonderful.
~Richard Dawkins

HawkingDrama · Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 9:13 am Post subject:

I think you guys are looking at what Dawkins said in an incorrect manner. He wasn't saying that bringing your children to a church service is child abuse. But, telling a kid that if he doesn't do this and that, he/she will burn in eternal flame (hell obviously) and will be endlessly tortured. It is a complete rejection by God. I think what he meant is that telling a child that they will be endlessly tortured and burned in Hell forever is nothing more than mental child abuse.

ShaSha · Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 10:35 am Post subject:

Buckster · Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 2:05 pm Post subject:

While he may have gone too far in the opinion of some, he makes some good points.

Starting a child off in life by instructing them that they are a certain religion, and then enforcing that throughout their formative years, can and does make millions of humans into people with a built in bias against those who do not share that religious view with them.

In extreme cases, this can lead to violence and even murder later in life. This is something we know all too well. We call them "religious fanatics", but they get their start on that road by the label assigned to them at birth by their parents, rather than from an examination of the facts and ideals that surround the particular religion and embracing it on their own.

They are, in effect, brainwashed to believe it because of the nature of human beings to trust their parents during their formative years. The idea that Dawkins raises awareness to is that such parents who instill in their children the seeds of religion that grow into the mighty trees of intolerance, murder and even terrorism are often building ticking time bombs out of their little ones, whether they set out to do that or not.

The parents are, in some cases, with or without knowledge of it, preparing the child to eventually be willing and even embracing of such ideas as to strap on a vest of explosives, or push the button in a suicide vehicle, or shoot the abortion doctor, or show up at soldiers funerals with hate speech, or beat up gays, or any of the many other religion-based atrocities that have gone on throughout history and go on still today.

It's not such a stretch to my imagination to see that as a form a child abuse. To raise an innocent child who doesn't know any better with the seed planted that those things are okay and even righteous is no better than building bombs in the basement for use 10 or more years down the road. A child is not a bomb, nor a killer, nor an intolerant asshole, nor a Muslim, nor a Christian. A child is an innocent human being who deserves better than to be molded into the form of a weapon through religious training, which usually starts by assigning that child a particular religion stamp and saying "THIS is who and what you ARE".
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Yeah... I said that.

ShaSha · Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 9:29 am Post subject:

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