what religion does to children

These are Amina and Sarah Said. On 1 Jan 2008, their father, Yaser Said, shot both of them to death. He then escaped into Dar-al-Islam, the world of Islam.

Apparently the girls were becoming too Westernized. In particular, they were showing interest in non-Muslim boys. So this righteous Muslim, who had apparently abused them sexually already, decided to murder them. In Islamic circles, this is called "honor killing".

This is what religion, whether Islamic or Christian or Judaic or whatever, does to children. It circumcises them; it spanks them (which as a Christian I also did); it teaches them primitive myths as absolute truth, and warns of terrible punishment if the children do not believe; finally it teaches them to prefer faith over science or reason. Sometimes, as with the Said sisters, it even kills them outright.

Indeed, the list of religion's crimes against children is almost endless. What then is the positive value of religion for children? It can and sometimes does teach compassion and caring for the poor and sick, but these values can be taught more clearly without God in the way.

Anything religion can positively do for children, for example establishing a sense of obligation to others, can better be done by humanistic teaching. Humanism is centered on human rights, not the righteousness of a supposed God.

I repeat that there is nothing religion can do to help children, that cannot better be done by secular, humanistic teaching. Given that religion exposes children to hideous abuses, even causing their deaths, it becomes apparent that religion is often nothing more than sanctified child abuse.