Yeah my sister's 8 year old had a fun chat with me on how she wanted to save me from burning in hell for eternity. I feel like this is child abuse.
That’s because it is.
Given the trauma one endures as a result? It absolutely is.
Indoctrination is why they believe as a kid. Brainwashing is why they still do. It's pretty disturbing looking at it after deconverting.
Reminded me of something that came across my RSS feeds the other day from a dev and podcaster who I like to follow:
I grew up as a “different” kid in a fundamentalist church. As a young child I had urges and thoughts that I constantly feared would send me to hell. When I wasn’t worried about my eternal soul, I was worried about my non-Christian friends and their eternal souls. By the time I was in Middle School I was drinking and trying to cope with what amounts to a constant fight or flight response, in addition to grief.
Being neurodivergent, queer, and highly sensitive was not a good combination for me in the church I grew up in. And I was taught to put all of my value, all credit for my successes, and all forms of attachment into God, not earthly things. So when I decided the church wasn’t good for me (or, in my mind, for anyone), I had the secondary trauma of leaving. Becoming emotionally estranged from my family, losing my Christian friends, and losing a god, the one thing that I had ever believed could save me.
There's quite a bit more, but that's the relevant bit.
https://brettterpstra.com/2023/07/30/personal-update-cptsd-edition/
I wished that their story was an isolated incident, but my best friend went through some similar things. And I relate to some of that as well.
Absolutely is abuse. It is truly sickening how religion is accepted without any question of the mental status of those who practice the religion.
When the vatican got its worldl privileges from the Nazis in exchange for helping Hitler pass the Enablement Act, control of education and many university chairs was one of the ke things they wanted. You don't grow a protitable service / extortion business dor 2000 years without knowing about how to create the next generation of your customers.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichskonkordat
Some people say religion is a virus. I disagree. I think it's better described as a root kit that is installed before the age of reason, so that it is accepted as truth and the rest of the world view is constructed around it/adapting to it.
