As to you having a comparatively lax indoctrination/parent upbringing, so did I and thats of course great for us, but then its not about individual success stories.
You have no idea what you're talking about. I had anything but a lax upbringing. Do you think being told that dancing, playing cards, going to the movies etc. are forbidden because they are sins, spending your entire Sundays in church, being told that your Catholic friends won't go to heaven unless you witness to them and help save them is a lax Christian environment? I don't believe that my parents deliberately lied to me. They were converts to a very narrow minded branch of Christianity. Interfering with a parent's right to teach their children to accept a religion as true is far more authoritarian than any harm the parents do by teaching their children what to believe, even if those beliefs are nutty. In fact, being raised in such a strict, weird household, probably helped me to think a lot more. I even attended an insane fundy college for a little while. That experience helped lead me down the road to atheism. Sometimes you need a little hardship and pain to develop into maturity. If only today's parents would realize that.
Now, if my parents beat the shit out of me, or tortured me, or constantly criticized or berated me, etc., that would be child abuse. The fact that they taught me the things that they did wasn't child abuse. It was misguided, and some of it was inappropriate, but all parents make mistakes and most parents do the best they can to raise their children. No parent is perfect regardless of their beliefs. Being less than perfect isn't child abuse. I wasn't a perfect parent either.
My father was mentally ill and suffered from PTSD, so that was also a factor in my less than lax upbring. His own parents were mentally ill. They weren't religious, but my father suffered far more harm from being raised by them, than I did being raised by him. I'll spare you the details of some of the things my grandparents did. I understood that my father had a lot of emotional issues and this helped me forgive or at least understand the cause of his inappropriate behavior. He could be a bully, but I stood up to him. That's what you do with a bully. As a result, I was his favorite child and he loved me to the day he died. My sister, who remains a Christian suffered the most from his behavior. My other sister is an apatheist. She believes in a lot of non Christian woo, but she gave up Christianity many years ago. My point being, that we don't always remain steadfast with the beliefs we were taught as children.
My mother is 92 years old and still alive, although she suffers from dementia. She is one of the most naive, innocent women I've ever known. She was easily indoctrinated into a rather extreme form of Christianity. She also had a very difficult childhood, which included an alcoholic father, a poverty stricken mother who made her go to work instead of taking a scholarship she had earned etc. I have absolutely no bad feelings toward my mother. She did what she thought was right. She has many positive traits. She wasn't perfect by any means, but she never abused me either.
Now, if you're saying that a Christian parent who uses their beliefs to actually justify things that we all would consider child abuse, that's one thing. But I think you are very wrong if you believe that teaching a child to believe certain religious or other unproven myths, is child abuse. In fact, I find such ideas deplorable. Character is far more important than beliefs and I've known plenty of Christians that had good character, and were good role models for their children.
Yes. It would be better if all parents let their children develop their own beliefs, but I doubt that will ever happen. Humans have been drawn to mythological ideology throughout history. I don't see that changing anytime soon. My one sister is a good example. Even after she threw out her Christian beliefs, she felt the need to substitute some new mythology to satisfy her needs.
There are parents that teach their children much worse things than that there is a sky daddy watching over them. Shouldn't decent people be more concerned with character than with beliefs? Judging people based on beliefs sounds so much like conservative Christianity to me. Ew.
I hope you're not serious.
