Dawkins says - indoctrinating your children in your faith constitutes child abuse - what do you think?

Never a truer word was spoken. To take an innocent child an fill its head with primitive superstition and fantasy should be a criminal offense.

In some EXTREME cases religious indoctrination may constitute child abuse, but I do not think the state should interfere with a parent's NATURAL right to rear one's children in one's own tradition unless the case is extreme and actual harm to the child can be proven. The burden of proof should be on the state with the bar set reasonably high. The state does not have the right to dictate what faith (if any) children should be.

I'm not religious, but as a Humanist I would be willing to die to protect this right.

I am agnostic and attend no religious institution nor do I have children. If I did, I would not, obviously, indoctrinate them into any form of theism, and I would hope that I would not attempt to influence them either for or against any belief-systems they might adopt. Having said the preceding, I was taken to Church/Sunday School by my mother as a child (and she was the least abusive person one could ever know); I think that I was not adversely affected by my attending a liberal Protestant Christian church. I attended public schools and learned to think for myself and to question religion. I was never "indoctrinated", never devout, and never a person of faith. (The male members of my immediate family, father and paternal grandfather, were either agnostic or atheistic.) If children are exposed to religious beliefs which are based upon fear and punishment or engage in mind control through threats, then I would consider that kind of indoctrination to be abusive. In my opinion the greatest gift a parent can bestow upon a child is the freedom to think for himself or herself.

Oh, so THAT'S where all these questions have come from.

To answer your question, no, I don't agree that it's child abuse.

I explain why in a question I asked that was inspired by questions like yours. Here is the link:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ap2rA...

Here's a sample:

...SOME atheists seem to think it's okay to tell religious people how to raise their children. Is it okay for religious people to do the same? No?

...I really am tired of people trying to say that children shouldn't be taught their parents' religion. *I* don't feel it's ANYONE'S business what a parent teaches their child, so long as they're taught the difference between right and wrong, and they're not abused. If atheists want to raise their children as atheists, that's THEIR business, isn't it?

To continue along that line, let's turn your question around.

Would YOU agree that it's child abuse to NOT teach a child about God?

I think it could definitely become that.

The Call, a Fundamentalist Christian gathering in Nashville actually included these statements.

Learn to WAR in a new way

A DREAM: The Call to Protect a Generation and Teach Them How to War!

Yes, I would say that definitely falls under the category of child abuse.

It is certainly easy to see how people might think so. However, unlike evil theists, I believe that they should have the right to decide for themselves how to run their lives, even if I am not happy about what they do to their poor children. I would appreciate it if theists would be so benevolent as to allow others to make up their own minds, instead of trying to push their tooth fairy stories down other's throats.

I think forcing a religion on a child isn't right. Parents have a right to teach their children about their faith though, but they shouldn't force it down their throats. If my child asked about another faith or if God really existed I would try to answer their questions.

indoctrinating, yes, i think that's a form of abuse. just teaching them about religion doesn't necessarily qualify though i think - this is probably not what dawkins is saying, but it seems to be what some people of faith are hearing.

One of these days....Whoever "Dawkins" is--I've never heard of him; I'm probably better off, judging from these comments, I don't have to take the lid off a sewer to know it stinks.

Mr. Dawkins will one day stand before a Holy God and give an account of his actions. I will do the same. Mr. Dawkins is free to raise his children any way he sees fit within the confines of the law, and I am free to do the same.

Deu 11:19 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

Personally, it sounds like Mr. Dawkins IS child abuse.

I dont think it is child abuse but I think it is important to raise children to KNOW about different religions and also KNOW about science and for them to make their own decision when they are no longer children. Children are very vulnerable and able to be influenced easily.