For the real cowards, the best of Dawkins.

[backscatter712]

69. I suppose I get to do my debating opponents' work for them.

So let me throw this out there. Dawkins did indeed say that being raised Catholic is worse than child abuse in a specific case.

Source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2251963/Being-raised-Catholic-worse-child-abuse-Latest-incendiary-claim-atheist-professor-Richard-Dawkins.html

Aaaaand, I'm gonna put a big target on my back and say that in the particular case he was talking about, HE'S RIGHT!

Why?

Because the doctrines taught to children by the priesthood and others working for the RCC constitute a form of emotional abuse. This abuse has left psychological scars in countless people that last a lifetime.

From the Daily Mail article:

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.

Dawkins addresses what he said in his own article:

http://www.richarddawkins.net/foundation_articles/2012/12/22/physical-versus-mental-child-abuse

Once, in the question time after a lecture in Dublin, I was asked what I thought about the widely publicized cases of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Ireland. I replied that, 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. It was an off-the-cuff remark made in the heat of the moment, and I was surprised that it earned a round of enthusiastic applause from that Irish audience (composed, admittedly, of Dublin intellectuals and presumably not representative of the country at large). But I was reminded of the incident later when I received a letter from an American woman in her forties who had been brought up Roman Catholic. At the age of seven, she told me, two unpleasant things had happened to her. She was sexually abused by her parish priest in his car. And, around the same time, a little schoolfriend of hers, who had tragically died, went to hell because she was a Protestant. Or so my correspondent had been led to believe by the then official doctrine of her parents’ church. Her view as a mature adult was that, of these two examples of Roman Catholic child abuse, the one physical and the other mental, the second was by far the worst. She wrote

"Being fondled by the priest simply left the impression (from the mind of a 7 year old) as ‘yucky’ while the memory of my friend going to hell was one of cold, immeasurable fear. I never lost sleep because of the priest – but I spent many a night being terrified that the people I loved would go to Hell. It gave me nightmares."

Many Christian teachings (and not just Catholic teachings) are highly emotionally abusive, especially when taught to children. And when children are immersed in such emotional abuse for years of their lives, the results can be devastating.

The whole concept of Hell, as commonly used to scare children into compliance, is fucking despicable. As is the concept of original sin - like I said in other threads, the concept REQUIRES Christians that adhere to it to have no self-esteem. They MUST believe that they are evil, unworthy, deserving of death, and completely irredeemable. The only esteem allowed to them is that which is granted to them by religious figures.

Then in my other thread, there's the teachings of the Good News Clubs (yes, I know, different flavor of Christianity, but in most cases, only a slightly different take from the Catholic version). And they're also extremely psychologically abusive towards the children they teach. Kids are repeatedly taught about Hell, to scare them, taught that they are horrible people, taught that only Jesus can save them, and that they can't do anything good enough by themselves. They're taught that they must absolutely OBEY the orders from religious figures, even if they're orders to commit genocide (Israel vs the Amalekites, 1 Sam 15.) They're taught misogyny and homophobia. Girls are taught that they must submit to males. Homosexuality is to be regarded as disgusting and sinful.

From the other thread, I mentioned Erik Cernyar, the attorney who was onstage with Richard Dawkins. There's a reason why he's fighting hard against the Good News Clubs. He attended a Good News Club when he was a kid, and he was threatened with Hell, and he was taught the "you are evil scum" lessons. He said onstage that later in his life, he attempted suicide because of mental anguish caused by those teachings.

He attempted suicide. Thankfully, he did not succeed.

How can I put it more plainly? The teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, and other Christian churches, are emotionally abusive, and cause serious psychological damage to children.

They kill.

I rest my case.