Indoctrination

[Phaedrus]

I just want to chime in that while I think indoctrination is problematic in the general case, it's not as troublesome for me regarding children.  Parents have the responsibility to equip their children for functioning in the world in the best way they know how.  While opinions certainly differ on what is the best way, the simple fact is that children, until their late teens, lack the maturity to make these decisions on their own.  As a practical and ethical matter, it is appropriate to leave the job of teaching children and how to go about that up to the parents involved, excepting that doing so might infringe upon a specific right of the child.  Even uncritical teaching of religious truths should be protected in that context, in my book.  As parents, we make decisions about what aspects of life to encourage personal autonomy on in our children, and which not.  I suspect that much of the furor about parents "indoctrinating" their children stems from a bigoted dismissal of religion in general.  We don't cry horror about parents indoctrinating their children in safe sex.  It's a reflection of how we feel about religion generally.  Even if I were against religion generally, though, I would still carve out a space for parents to do as they wish concerning religious education.

Except that religious teaching is about avoiding reality. We have social services for a reason, especially in cases where parents are not doing what is in the best interest of the child. I may not work in social services, I've never been a parent, but I don't need to have experience in either situation to understand abuse. Religious parents abuse their children with religious teachings. Plain and simple. You can disagree, although you'll be doing it from a position of irrationality.

Sex is science. Sex is not some made up concept invented by religion. No, because sex is real religion has instead created sin to make sex look bad. Just another reason religion is bad.

There's a clear fucking difference between religion and science, and anyone who defends religion as being on the same level as teaching safe sex needs a serious reality check.