Religion = child abuse?

Okay, so it's been a really long time since I've posted anything on here. But that is only because of the end of the school year, graduating from college, moving home and trying to get all settled in and stuff. Now I finally have the time to write because I am currently unemployed. Hopefully that will change, but hopefully I'll still have the time time to write on here because I really enjoy doing it.

Anyway, this is sort of a little rant. Earlier in the semester I read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. Great book. There's a chapter in that book where he gives his opinion on why indoctrinating children in any religion is (in his mind) considered child abuse. If I remember correctly, his main point was that no child really understands or believes in a religion. Children are not religious. Think back to your own childhood. Even if your parents took you to church with them or made you go to Sunday school, would you say that you were religious in that you tried to cultivate a relationship with God or any other divine being? I'm guessing the answer is no. At the beginning of the semester, my introductory religion class was surveyed by the professor with this exact question. All of us, currently religious or not, conceded that we would not consider ourselves religious as children. Thus, Dawkins believes, and I believe as well, that there are no Christian or Muslim or Jewish children. There are only children of Christian or Muslim or Jewish parents. Dawkins also believes that if a parent tells a child that she is a Catholic, there is a good chance that she will grow up believing in Catholic dogma and never questioning the nature of life and the world, and this brainwashing is child abuse. To teach a child that is wrong to be inquisitive and to want to learn is child abuse. I can see Dawkins' point.

Lately, I have been watching a lot of the TV show Intervention. One thing that I and a friend who was also watching have noticed, is that the addict in every episode we watched had something traumatic to some degree happen in their childhood, and mostly every parent makes the mistake of using religion as a tool to fight their child's addiction. Some parents tell their child that what they are doing is a sin, and they must turn to God so they can live a better life. This usually pushes the addict away. They tend to express feelings of being misunderstood and attacked. In one case about a cutter, the addict was sexually abused as a child and the parents simply "turned to God" and prayed that she would get through it. She ended up severely self-mutilating in her adult life.

These cases from Intervention show how people attempt to use religion to get them through difficult times in their lives. In some situation in life, it helps. But in these situations from the show, it clearly didn't. Otherwise, the families wouldn't be on Intervention in the first place. What these cases show is dangerous. People believe that God can and will fix everything, simply because they believe in Him, because they have asked it of Him, because they are good people. Because they go to church and because they pray and live their life by the Bible. However, something that does not exist cannot actually do anything to help people. In the hope that God will solve their problems, these parents leave their children to suffer in an extreme way. They ultimately end up with mental problems and at times turn to drugs and alcohol in an attempt to feel better. Many end up destroying their lives, because instead of getting their children the help that they need, the parents just sit and watch and pray and hope. This is what religion does. It can cause people to ultimately screw their children over for life. Just another reason for me to be anti-religion.