Dawkins: 'being Raised Catholic Is Worse Than Child Abuse'

[dairygirl4u2c]

'Being raised Catholic is worse than child abuse'
 

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.

‘She told me of those two abuses,  she got over the physical abuse; it was yucky but she got over it.

‘But the mental abuse of being told about Hell, she took years to get over.’

 

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.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2251963/Being-raised-Catholic-worse-child-abuse-Latest-incendiary-claim-atheist-professor-Richard-Dawkins.html#ixzz2WEZFn8Co 

[Chestertonian]

Because indoctrinating your kids with a nihilistic worldview is far more comforting.

[stevil]

I wouldn't classify Dawkins as militant, he doesn't use weapons to hurt anyone.

 

With regards to saying that raising children as Roman Catholics is worse that child abuse, well it seems an overstatement.

But I guess given the example he has provided then in the woman's experience it was, she experienced both, so she qualifies to make a statement like that.

 

If Dawkins was generalising then it is quite a statment to make, but I assue "in context" he was talking about this woman in particular rather than stating for all children raised as Roman Catholics.

 

The idea of hell is ridiculous, a supposidly loving god sending people to hell for eternal torture... I can see why many Christians interprete hell to be something other than that. An SDA "friend" of mine said that hell is a lake of fire and at the time of judgment his god would ressurect all people's who ever walked the earth, would then tell the non believers and those that believed in the wrong god/s that they were wrong and then throw them all (billions of them) into the lake of fire where they would die a second death, witnessed by those that picked the right god to believe in. He told me not to worry, that the second death would be painless, I told him that if what he says is true then his god is a monster and he is no different to those crazy arabs that chop people's heads off on tv and scream out "God is great, long live allah".

 

I don't know what Catholics believe with regards to hell, but the concept is really problematic.

[CatholicsAreKewl]

He's exaggerating, for sure. Dawkins has another point that's more interesting. He argues against the idea of raising children into a certain faith before they are able to accept or reject these beliefs on their own. I know someone who was given 4 different religious books when he turned 16 and was asked which one he preferred. 

Edited June 15, 2013 by CatholicsAreKewl

[stevil]

He's exaggerating, for sure. Dawkins has another point that's more interesting. He argues against the idea of raising children into a certain faith before they are able to accept or reject these beliefs on their own. I know someone who was given 4 different religious books when he turned 16 and was asked which one he preferred. 

 

Yes, well, if a person believes that "free will" and the ability for people to make their own choices are important then it seems reasonable to expose dependant children to what life has to offer and let the children make their own decisions.
 

[CatholicsAreKewl]

Yes, well, if a person believes that "free will" and the ability for people to make their own choices are important then it seems reasonable to expose dependant children to what life has to offer and let the children make their own decisions.
 

 

I don't have kids. I can't really make a claim one way or the other. I have a feeling the kids will tend to adopt the parents' views on religion. 

Edited June 15, 2013 by CatholicsAreKewl

[Nihil Obstat]

He's exaggerating, for sure. Dawkins has another point that's more interesting. He argues against the idea of raising children into a certain faith before they are able to accept or reject these beliefs on their own. I know someone who was given 4 different religious books when he turned 16 and was asked which one he preferred. 

Lucky for us the Church rejects such fiddly little experiments, on which ultimately depend the soul of one's own child.

[Ice_nine]

If I have children, I'm not going to instill the value of love, I'll wait for them to get older before they decide whether love is good and real or whether it's horse manure.

 

Dawkins is an assclown. Nothing really new there.

Edited June 15, 2013 by Ice_nine

[dairygirl4u2c]

"The poena sensus, or pain of sense, consists in the torment of fire so frequently mentioned in the Holy Bible. According to the greater number of theologians the term fire denotes a material fire, and so a real fire. We hold to this teaching as absolutely true and correct."

-catholic encyclopedia

 

[CatholicsAreKewl]

 

"The poena sensus, or pain of sense, consists in the torment of fire so frequently mentioned in the Holy Bible. According to the greater number of theologians the term fire denotes a material fire, and so a real fire. We hold to this teaching as absolutely true and correct."

-catholic encyclopedia

 

 

Right, but Dawkins is going by the misconception that Catholics currently believe that protestants are all hell-bound. This woman's case is sad but I'd be hesitant to claim that her story represents the typical experience of those who are brought up Catholic. Dawkins makes some good points but this isn't one of his strongest. 

Edited June 15, 2013 by CatholicsAreKewl

[dairygirl4u2c]

a lot of good points. 

too bad the RCC cant say it never taught that about protestants. 

 

Fourth Lateran Council (1215): "There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved."

 

[HisChildForever]

Why did he choose Catholicism as akin to child abuse? What about Islamic cultures where girls' genitalia are mutilated or women are raised to see themselves as less than men...where homosexuals are stoned in the streets, and victims of raped are blamed?

 

Please note - I understand that plenty of Muslims don't adhere to these practices, but if Mr. Dawkins here is going to make such a sweeping generalization of Catholicism, why is he ignoring the practices carried out by Islamic cultures? In fact, not just Catholicism has theology on Hell, other faiths do too, so why only Catholicism?

[stevil]

Why did he choose Catholicism as akin to child abuse? What about Islamic cultures where girls' genitalia are mutilated or women are raised to see themselves as less than men...where homosexuals are stoned in the streets, and victims of raped are blamed?

 

Please note - I understand that plenty of Muslims don't adhere to these practices, but if Mr. Dawkins here is going to make such a sweeping generalization of Catholicism, why is he ignoring the practices carried out by Islamic cultures? In fact, not just Catholicism has theology on Hell, other faiths do too, so why only Catholicism?

 

Dawkin's statement was based on a story a woman told him, the story was of her experience of Catholocism, that's why he chose Catholicism and compared it to child abuse. He was conveying one person's experience.

 

Dawkins has also made many arguments against the Islamic religion.

 

If one were to rebut Dawkin's statement then one ought to address the attrocity of painfully buring people for eternity. If Catholics believe god does this then how is this justified? How can this not be seen as traumatic for a devout practicing Catholic whom cares about the fate of other humans, of their friends, of their family.

If heaven and hell exists how could a Catholic in "heaven" not spend every second of eternity, begging to their god to stop torturing people in hell.
 

[CatholicsAreKewl]

Why did he choose Catholicism as akin to child abuse? What about Islamic cultures where girls' genitalia are mutilated or women are raised to see themselves as less than men...where homosexuals are stoned in the streets, and victims of raped are blamed?

 

Please note - I understand that plenty of Muslims don't adhere to these practices, but if Mr. Dawkins here is going to make such a sweeping generalization of Catholicism, why is he ignoring the practices carried out by Islamic cultures? In fact, not just Catholicism has theology on Hell, other faiths do too, so why only Catholicism?

 

He also criticizes Islam. Some atheists are more careful when discussing Islam due to fear of death threats. I don't think that's the case with Dawkins. He just knows less about it.

[havok579257]

Dawkin's statement was based on a story a woman told him, the story was of her experience of Catholocism, that's why he chose Catholicism and compared it to child abuse. He was conveying one person's experience.

 

Dawkins has also made many arguments against the Islamic religion.

 

If one were to rebut Dawkin's statement then one ought to address the attrocity of painfully buring people for eternity. If Catholics believe god does this then how is this justified? How can this not be seen as traumatic for a devout practicing Catholic whom cares about the fate of other humans, of their friends, of their family.

If heaven and hell exists how could a Catholic in "heaven" not spend every second of eternity, begging to their god to stop torturing people in hell.
 

 

 

I've seen dawkins on msnbc before, these statements of his are about all catholics.  I mean the stuff he was saying on there made the extremely liberal host uncomfortable and the show was about religion and atheism.  if you can make an msnbc uncomfortable with your language about religion then you know your way out there.