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I still have good friends who are committed to doing whatever they can to protect their own kids from exposure to the "evil theory" of evolution, but they are good people in spite of this. They have three of their own kids, and somehow have managed to find the time and the reservoirs of love to give to three more very seriously challenged foster kids. They are better parents than I think I ever will be, despite their own ignorance. You forget, Cheese, that most parents who indoctrinate their children do so out of a sincere but naive desire to protect them. While I harbour a small amount of resentment for how I was raised, my own fundamentalist upbringing was mostly positive. Of course there are exceptions in every situation, but honestly, for the most part "child abuse" is the furthest thing from what occurs in an evangelical household.
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Thank you for your history, its good insight, I've often wondered how your faith evolved away from evangelical zeal.
I would say that good intentions don't excuse bad behavior, and I do agree the vast majority of people who teach that hellfire is real and to be feared, teach science is the enemy and to fight against evolution; that these people do truly feel they are doing the right thing for their children.
But obviously if we are to move forward into the future, we need to change awareness to parents that turning them against science would be bad for their future life, teaching fear of hellfire can be traumatic to children, teaching any for of absolutism can lead to a citizen that sees only in black and white.
Its a difficult issue, like Photon said there are parents raising their children racist, homophobic, etc.. I'm sure even in those instances they are loving parents and those children at adult age would usually I'm sure even if they realized the hate was wrong, that they would still love their parents.
I don't know how you stop the cycle, I know some of the fiercest debate is 'should we' even try, but obviously there needs to be debate about it and Religion has to be held fully in account for its actions, its behaviors, and be fully critically analyzed in our modern discourse.
Thats why I think these discussions are so key, because if nothing for the few religious that don't avoid our threads like the plague, there is hope that something can be learned and that awareness is raised.
Maybe someone will bring up their child christian like they were, but they'll teach them of other religions, tell them that science is wondrous and important in understanding the world and key to understand in your future employment no matter what field.
I'll give an example of 'awareness raising' by the king of intellectual debate, Christopher Hitchens, when debating a Rabbi on the topic of "Why do good things happen to bad people."
Its about a topic that still amazes me, circumcision. The Rabbi makes a flip joke about circumcision of his son and Christopher Hitchens goes off on him
You can start at 3:25 of the video for the specific part of the discussion, its well worth watching:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx_ov2NiNo4