Who is talking about arresting parents or putting them in leg irons? Don't you think the Dawkins piece is a good piece for all parents to read?
http://www.fortunecity.com/emachines/e11/86/dawkins2.html --and worth discussing or even posting in schools? What is so good about indoctrination that you'd be willing to suffer and allow other kids to suffer so that you can keep people from questioning your childrearing practices. Heck, I had strangers voicing their opinions that I was nursing my kid too long.
It is weird how people step around the topic to make it into this issue where people are under arrest for taking their kids to church. Is anyone suggesting that? Let us not forget what religions do when unchecked:
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=0d8a9b8d-1862-4cea-8757-d28fabaea96a&p=2... Do you want government to stay out of peoples' religious practices if it means more young girls married off to old men and raped? Why should the government not be at least as concerned about the brain damage religions can cause as they are about head injuries by bikes? How much are you willing to protect the practices of ALL religions so that you can protect yours-- what if the Jehovah Witness kid down the street didn't get a blood transfusion because it's taboo to discuss that "not anything goes" in the name of religion. What if the Muslim kids in America are raised to see non-Muslims as enemies they must convert or kill because "faith is good" and "should not be questioned"? Isn't it sick that our troups were going to have that horrible "left behind" video game sent to them in a care charitible care package--that's a videogame where the goal is to convert non-Christians or kill them!
That's disturbing... and not talking about it or bringing our laws to bear on the topic allows the ugliness to fester.
Don't children have a freedom of religion as well? Is it freedom if they are told they will suffer forever unless they believe a certain unbelievable story? If not "scrutinizing faith" means that kids are routinely told the earth was 6000 years old, then that is wrong and immoral, isn't it? Those who protect religion at all costs imagine that religion does something great, but they never tell us what it is and they imagine people being put in leg irons for taking their kids to church which is soooooo unlikely (a strawman); whereas, the abuses above
ARE occurring... they're prevalent and growing and festering behind this "mustn't question faith" hysteria--Fundies--Jesus Camp indoctrination... kids dead because prayers or exorcisms are supposed to fix physical and mental illnesses. Kids made stupid and afraid to think because of this crap dumped in this head and society silently pretending that it's all good. If their parents are too stupid and indoctrinated to support their thinking-- isn't it good that there are adults out there willing to listen and help them out? Is this abuse all fine with you so long as you can shove your "true woo" in your kids head"? Why are you afraid of the challenge if the faith you are indoctrinating isn't harmful or is good and beneficial. Doesn't that speak for itself? Where do you draw the line with what religions allow and how? Do you think nothing should be done with religious abuses, ever? Would you have told Andrea Yates to have another kid despite her post partum psychosis because god doesn't give you more than you can handle? Is it okay to scare kids with threats of hell? Is it really okay to tell them they are saved and better because of a story they believe??
These institutions get huge tax breaks which means that tax payers pay for them. Should there not be some guidelines? The Mormon and Catholic churches (and others I'm sure) own profitable businesses... so does Sylvia Browne-- is there no oversight? Can't we at least have a public mottos, proclaimations and discussions about the value of faith, feeling, beliefs, and religion versus facts, critical thinking, the good of the whole, and truth?
Demonizing those who dare to say that many religious practices are, in essence, taking away the
freedom of religion from kids, is avoiding the topic. Do you think we shouldn't talk badly or discuss or bring to attention to racist parenting practices or those which promote bigotry or sloppy thinking or makes kids vulnerable to cults and authoritarian figures? Do you think bike helmet and car seat laws are unfair to parents? Do you think anyone is advocating jailing or putting leg irons on such parents-- or is public education the goal? The bluster of the apologists misses the entire point of the discussion-- as it always does.
If nothing else, mockery, satire, and humor are always an avenue for raising consciousness.
A society has a vested interest in it's children. The society supports the children via tax dollars in education and food and medical care when the parents cannot. We put the child in foster care when the parents are deemed abusive and aim to educate them so they can be better parents.
We need to be able to talk about the harms of faith and the whole meme that "faith is good" and "secularism is bad" without the smoke and mirrors. Neither Dawkins nor anyone else is advocating locking people in jail. It's raising public awareness and responsibility to children that we are advocating. That's what bike helmet laws do--how many people are really fined, and how harmful is it? I got fined when my dogs rand loose. Why does the mere mention of a fine cause such a strong reaction some people? What are people really afraid of? Why can't faith be scrutinized like racism, politics, or any other ideal, motto, other parenting practices, or groupthink? If nothing untoward is going on, what have religions got to fear? It is only those who teach lies as truth and hellfire and bigotry that will be questioned-- have their tax exempt status revoked--have their members educated on better childrearing practices--have their wrist slapped in an effort to force them to think.
But none of this can happen so long as the moderates rush to protect their own beliefs and thus make all religious practices off limits scrutiny-- remember, every religion thinks they are moderate, right, true, and more moral than the rest. But what you allow for one-- you must allow for all... even the ones you find abhorrent and harmful. If Christian parents can't be scrutinized then neither can Satanist parents. When it comes to belief in invisible entities, we have to make laws that apply equally to all who believe and don't believe in those entities.
