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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So you started this thread to confront people who used to be atheists and are now religious? Okaaaayyyy…. No wonder nobody is engaging with you. [/quote]

OP needs to get a life. [/quote]

Apparently the only person who listened to the podcast is the second poster—OP won’t deign to do so.

OP doesn’t want to listen, she only wants to criticize. I’ve seen [b]several recent posts by people who said they used to be atheists and had recently returned to synagogue or church [/b]for spiritual reasons, but they obviously aren’t posting on this thread—that checks out, why bother. [/quote]

So what?  There are lots of people who become religious and lots who drop religion.  It's a choice, like many other things in life.   A difference with religion, is that it's forced on many as children, and even as adults, people can feel pressured to be (or at least [i]act[/i]) religious, or be censured.

Luckily, that is changing, as more non-believers make themselves known.[/quote]

Parents don’t “force” religion on their children. Do you take umbrage with parents “forcing” their kids to go to school, do their homework, get vaccinations, eat healthy meals, read books instead of watching cartoons, etc? Do you think children are not supposed to abide by the rules their parents set for them?

Children are part of a family, and many families have religious faith and traditions. Children are not being abused or indoctrinated by participating in their family of origin’s faith tradition.

Children can choose to continue that faith, or discard it, when they are adults. I think it’s problematic, extremely unrealistic, and flat out wrong to pretend you have any right or business to try to pretend you can tell parents what to do with their children. Parents do as they think is best for their children. Unless a child is being neglected or abused, your opinion about their childhood is meaningless.

People always ask for examples of how religion is forced upon adults in America, and I’ve never seen any examples posted here that concern me. A neighbor asking you to come to church with them isn’t an example of forced religion. Attending a friend’s church service in the evening that features a band is not forced religion. Hearing a person or people at your voluntarily attended wine and book club say unkind comments about a mutual friend is not forced religion. Having your single mom leave the state, and because the only family that would assume responsibility for your needs and well-being by caring for you in their home were religious, and you attended  youth group with their child is not forced religion.

If you don’t want to raise your kids in a faith tradition, that’s your choice. However, labeling patents/families as bad because they choose to raise their kids in a faith tradition is honestly terrible. That’s scary and invasive crap that doesn’t belong in America.[/quote]

As someone who experienced “forced religion” as a child, yes it’s a thing, and it’s a disgusting ploy to force nonsense on children before they’re old enough to know better. My parents thought they were doing right by me by forcing me to go to church. Lucky for me my dad was a closet atheist, so I did my time in CCD which is all they required and opted out as soon as I left the house. Many of my peers were more thoroughly embedded in the faith, Church schools, sports, etc during the “covering up systematic abuse” and “pray the gay away” years, and the damage has been long lasting and is still with them, if they are still alive and not dead from overdose.

I am proudly raising my children in a secular lifestyle, with an eye toward the greater good instead of tribalism. If they gravitate towards religion I won’t stop them or hide it from them. But it’s amazing - they’ve never shown any interest in an all-knowing deity who will punish them for their sins or offer love only under certain circumstances. Kids will never come up with this on their own unless they are indoctrinated, which is a fact most religious clerics and parents recognize. The whole system is built up to indoctrinate kids as much as possible and isolate them so they have no other choice but to continue. That’s facts, and it’s the reason America continues to fall behind the rest of the world while being convinced of its own superiority. Indoctrination makes peoples brains soft. And any more it’s Christian indoctrination that is being pushed by an increasingly emboldened Supreme Court. [/quote]

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