Richard Dawkins says being raised a Catholic is worse than child abuse.

[John ''True Grit'' Wayne]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...d-Dawkins.html
I am pretty sure being raped by a priest is worse than being made to go to church and being brainwashed into feeling guilt.Or is this atheist aggressive warrior right?

Raising your children as Roman Catholics is worse than child abuse, according to militant atheist Richard Dawkins.
In typically incendiary style, Professor Dawkins said the mental torment inflicted by the religion’s teachings is worse in the long-term than any sexual abuse carried out by priests.
He said he had been told by a woman that while being abused by a priest was a ‘yucky’ experience, being told as a child that a Protestant friend who died would ‘roast in Hell’ was more distressing.
Last night politicians and charities condemned the former Oxford professor’s views as attention-seeking and unhelpful.
The remarks are due to be broadcast tonight by Qatar-based TV network Al Jazeera.
Interviewer Mehdi Hasan asked Professor Dawkins about previous comments he made, when he said: ‘Horrible as sexual abuse no doubt was, the damage was arguably less than the long-term psychological damage inflicted by bringing the child up Catholic in the first place.’
Mr Hasan asked: ‘You believe that being bought up as a Catholic is worse than being abused by a priest?’. Professor Dawkins replied: ‘There are shades of being abused by a priest, and I quoted an example of a woman in America who wrote to me saying that when she was seven years old she was sexually abused by a priest in his car.
‘At the same time a friend of hers, also seven, who was of a Protestant family, died, and she was told that because her friend was Protestant she had gone to Hell and will be roasting in Hell forever.
Professor Dawkins, a biologist who revolutionised the theory of evolution with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, added: ‘It seems to me that telling children that they really, really believe that people who sin are going to go to Hell and roast forever – that your skin grows again when it peels off with burning – it seems to me to be intuitively entirely reasonable that that is a worse form of child abuse, that will give more nightmares, that will give more genuine distress because they really believe.’
The comments were condemned by Peter Saunders, the chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood.
He said: ‘At NAPAC we know that recovery from sexual abuse can take a lifetime. People never get over it. It is entirely unhelpful to make such comparisons.’
Roman Catholic former Tory MP Ann Widdecombe said: ‘Dawkins doesn’t know what to say next to get attention. No sane person would believe that being brought up in a force for good, in the Ten Commandments, in the Beatitudes, and in the Gospels can be worse than child abuse.’

[Lazarus]

This isn't news. He's said this time and time again. I watched a video of him on Q&A last night in fact dated about 2010 where he used this phrase.

He's wrong and right, in a way. It's really all about how you apply "raised Roman Catholic". If a child is taught about the Jesus and the good things about the Jesus and even praises the Jesus, there's nothing inherently toxic about that. Though when you tell the child that if they disobey the Jesus they will go to hell - a place that lasts forever and is terrifying and horrible and everything you don't want to happen to you then yes. That's child abuse. If we're going to measure which one takes longer to get over as was said in the article - recovery from sexual abuse can take a lifetime. True, but so does recovery from a fear of hell.

I don't know. I really just want to give this article my stamp of "contents are stupid - pay no attention" and file it away.

[The Despondent Mind]

I agree with R.D .

[Treize]

I agree with R.D .

[Loger]

I thought child abuse was part of the catholic experience?

In all seriousness, I think religiously brainwashing children is just as bad as sexually harassing them - Both will scar them for life.

[Knight of Heaven]

I thought child abuse was part of the catholic experience?

In all seriousness, I think religiously brainwashing children is just as bad as sexually harassing them - Both will scar them for life.

To be honest i never liked the whole confession thing that they made me do it when i was a child. mainly because like most children, felt i wasnt guilty of anything, i even remember making up sins so i could get over with. But the dam nuns had to make all children to confess.
Otherwise, to be honest i have no complains about my catholic education on those schools, quite the contrary, besides that litle episode when i was like 10 or 11, i have very good memories, with all the freedom and the education was quite good.

While i think the whole thing of beinng raised catholic is most used as a culprit to many things. I think its probably an exageration though. As if people realy needed a reason to be what they are later in life when there is so many variables.

[John ''True Grit'' Wayne]

If a child is taught about the Jesus and the good things about the Jesus and even praises the Jesus, there's nothing inherently toxic about that. Though when you tell the child that if they disobey the Jesus they will go to hell - a place that lasts forever and is terrifying and horrible and everything you don't want to happen to you then yes. That's child abuse.

I was told all these things above so can I sue them for abuse??The burning in hell part do people here believe that will happen??

[Lazarus]

Unfortunately my opinion is not law. If you want to TRY and sue them for child abuse go ahead - talk to a lawyer about the psychological damage a belief in hell has done to you and he'll tell you if you have a case or not. Probably don't want a Catholic lawyer though.

[Ummagumma]

Storm in a teacup. While what he said holds a degree of merit: In that psychological 'abuse' is still abuse. Indeed, it can be or in some cases is a deeper mark on some folks' minds. However, it is a traditional Daily Mail selective quote-ridden piece of tripe designed to make their usual audience spit their tea over their breakfast between bouts of racism. When what he said was filtered through 2 different 'news' agencies it is quite easy to twist what he said into something else.

It was a delicious touch getting Widdecombe to comment though. Her, jumping on a flustered bandwagon and saying he 'doesn’t know what to say next to get attention.' Maybe he should take a leaf from her book and do some dumbass 'celebrity' dancing on ice get me out of here thing.....

And yes, some folks believe, utterly, that hell exists. It is all part of the thing. God will save you - from himself. Think also on the spread of AIDS in Africa from their ridiculous fear of condoms. ~That~ is abuse, right there. All those little infected babies thanks to the 'Goodness' of the church.

In all this piece is nothing more than a shallow pro-Catholic counter blow to the Pope's latest insane dribblings. Got to keep the PR machine rolling.

[Larkin]

I agree, in a way. Considering Catholicism teaches that this life is just a test for eternity (although that in itself is incoherant), a lifetime of living with abuse is nothing compared to living with the belief you will burn for eternity.

Of course, when you die you just rot in the ground. So in reality it obviously isn't worse than child abuse. But if you believe it, I can see where he's coming from.

Why not let kids make their own minds up about religion? Oh yeah, right, because if they get educated as a blank slate none of them will be religious. How curious.

[The Dude]

It's child abuse in the strictest literary definition: the misuse of a child's sovereignty as an individual. A lot of children get raised as no more than pets. Do this. Do that. Believe this. Believe that. Of course in many ways children and pets don't differ that much, because a child needs time to grow and develop before it becomes a self-asserting individual. But by the time most children get to that age, they've been so thoroughly indoctrinated into religion by parents that really all choice has been taken from them. They wouldn't dare abandon their faith for fear of, well, whatever sort of medieval idiocy religion makes you fear. Some are strong enough to break through this, just as some are strong enough to survive a physically abusive childhood and not come out a mental wreck. Most, however, are forever affected.

I remember seeing an image on imgur the other day where a teacher posted the christmas letter of a 'muslim student'. Adorable though the letter was, wishing her fellow classmates merry christmas even when by her own admission she didn't celebrate it, this was an elementary school teacher and this muslim student was six years old. Six year old children are not muslim. They are children. The teacher posting this image made a very common mistake. We really have to stop thinking about kids as christian kids, muslim kids, jewish kids, hindu kids. They are none of that. They are kids and they parrot whatever they get told. It's how a child's mind works. While religious indoctrination may happen with the best of intentions, it's still indoctrination. It's still giving a child an intellectual false start.

[Ummagumma]

While religious indoctrination may happen with the best of intentions, it's still indoctrination. It's still giving a child an intellectual false start.

But these parents really believe in this stuff. 'Indoctrinating' their child into Religion is, to them, more a statement of fact. The sky is blue (or grey). The grass is green (or mud). You'll burn in hell (probably). It is probably not even a matter of intent, it is a 'duty'.

Just remember: *sings* "I'm a Roman Catholic, and I have been since before I was born.."

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Biggieboy]

I have never been of Dawkins to start with, at least as a debater. I mean, claiming being raised as a Roman Catholic being worse than being molested/raped is just plain absurd. It depends greatly on how serious the parents are about teaching their beliefs to their children. Yes, saying you will burn forever if you do X or don't do Y is despicable, but worse than being raped? That's just preposterous.

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of practices in religions that I find appalling, but it isn't as black and white as Dawkins portrays it.

[John ''True Grit'' Wayne]

Telling your kids they will burn in hell is a duty Ummagumma?

[Ummagumma]

~If~ I believed in the Catholic dogma, yes.

[Enzo]

I don't think Catholics generally believe other Christians are going to roast in hell, they may spend some more time in purgatory than a proper Roman Catholic would perhaps.

[Himster]

I was raised catholic and it was fine. The only traumatic experience was being told that a protestant friend of mine who'd been killed by a car "deserves to be and certainly is in hell", but I was told that by a creepy De La Salle brother, not a priest or even a teacher. But it's still traumatic to be told something like that as if it were fact by a figure of authority, especially to a 9 year old.

[Denny Crane!]

Yeah I agree with him, not with selective quoting but the substance of his thoughts yes. Children should be raised with the knowledge and capability to decide for themselves.

[frozenprince]

Critical thinking is the most valuable thing a child can learn. Religion stifles critical thinking, in most cases. Ergo, religious upbringing and discouragement of critical thinking can be construed as a form of abuse, considering that without the ability to think about the world critically, that child will be hobbled for the rest of their life.

[motiv-8]

a child's sovereignty

LOL, what? This doesn't exist. Children don't have sovereignty, they're children.

Typical militancy and hyperbole by Dawkins, useful for his supporters to nod together and share around the community, useless for generating useful discussion. The only thing you have to worry about at Catholic Mass is being too bored. Abuse? Get the out of here. That's an insult to children who actually are subject to abuse.