[asa] Religious brainwashing

Some time ago, there was a discussion of Dawkins' claim that religious
teaching of small children amounts to religious brainwashing, typified
by scaring them with images of eternal torment.

Ecklund and Scheitle (2007, Social Problems 54(2):289-307) studied
religious views of U.S. scientists and found that atheist and
religious alike most frequently adhered to their parents' faith
position. Globally, the largest number of atheists probably are those
who adopted it becase a communist government said to. Unlike Dawkins,
I recognize that does not tell us anything about whether the idea is
true, nor even about how good an atheist they are; all it does is tell
us about where they got the idea.

Timothy, who will be three in November and is not yet reliably reading
words longer than "no", wanted to look at the cover for a copy of
Dante's Inferno that I was reading-medieval-style portrayal of some of
the layers visited by Dante and punishments seen. He's asked again to
look at it since, when the book was out of sight on the shelf. I
explained that the people had been bad and were being punished, but
did not specifically mention afterlife, etc. As it's of his own
initiative, brainwashing doesn't seem like an appropriate term.

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
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