there are a very vocal lot here who would like nothing more than to see religious expression and even belief made into a capital crime and would willing strip children away from their parents if they so much as dare to share their belief structure with them.

it's not everyone here... but most of the religious sorts keep down for fear of being mocked and ridiculed by those who are supposed to be liberals.

sP

So many frightening posts about stripping away your children!

Run!!

post about people wanting to execute others over religious belief.

Funny thing is it is ALWAYS about a country dominated by religious ideology.

But I suppose wanting a more secular country is tantamount to asking for the slaughter of believers.
Imagine the horror of challenging religious superstition! And oh, the humanity!

The atheists here might be unusually aggressive in proselytizing their lack of faith and often dicks to believers (the smug supercilliousness is frequent) but I've only seen one who actually wants religion outright banned and none that would support removing kids from their families.

and then got the conclusion he was looking for. If you construct a study the right way, you can make it prove virtually anything.

...or even the author of the BBC article.

It was just some blogger quoted in the article, Hemant Mehta, who I've never heard of before.

Religious beliefs are fantasy. Tell children those stories really happened long enough, on what basis can they judge something else a fantasy?

People should always be allowed to teach their kids what they want, but they also need to be understanding and open when the kids start to question it.

I was "raised" Catholic and when I was little, I wholeheartedly believed in Santa. At one point, I started to figure the Santa thing out, and it was pretty much the same with the God/Jesus story. That was hard for my mom, but I think she accepted it.
I "exposed" my kids to religion and let them figure it out for themselves. A lot of "what do you think" and "some people think".

I do think that my sister and I both struggle still with the whole "we are all sinners" and all of that. Those are not good ideas for anyone to grow up with.

Social Identity Theory shows that we instinctively divide ourselves into groups, instinctively favour our ingroup (those like us or who we aspire to be) and discriminate against our outgroup (everyone else). That's been shown to operate even in very young children and even when assignment to groups was explicitly random.

Thankfully, it has an easy cure. As we become familiar with more kinds of people, we gradually learn to incorporate that kind of person into our ingroup.

I always said that if I had kids, once they got to an age where they asked about religion, I'd present them with copies of the Oxford Encyclopaedia of World Religions and Bullfinch's Mythology, tell them a little about what mum and dad believe and tell them they can pick any religion in either book. Or pick none. Or make one up for themselves. And we'll love you no matter which you choose.

Is not to knock religion-
I could care less if you are a religious person, an atheist, whatever- what do I care?

is not to condemn fantasy-
fantasy has its place.

The point is that we have a LARGE segment of the population who cannot distinguish fact from fiction. Hence, climate denial. Hence something like 40% of the pop. believes the sun revolves around the earth. A large % believe dinosaurs cohabited the earth with humans.

When I saw this article it helps me understand why.
I am reflecting on this article in terms of the question I am always examining: the extreme right-wing and irrational bent of a large segment of the American population.
(by the way, most other Western countries find our religiosity a thing of wonderment!)
I am reflecting on this article in terms of epistemology which I find a fascinating subject: why do people think the way they, believe the way they believe? Why do Americans (many- the mass culture) think the way they do?

IMPORTANT-- religious people please read this before you get pissed off--

A little logic lesson: To say that some religious people believe that the sun revolves around the earth is NOT the same as saying that ALL religious people think this way. Yeah? OK?

===
So- how you dear readers interpret this article is entirely up to you.
it's a free country... sorta.
at least it's a free DU, right?

but that is why I find it interesting.
sorry if it offends you.

Is that 40% of people in the USA, or in the world?

I'd like to know your source for this statement.

Here's a cite: http://www.gallup.com/poll/3742/new-poll-gauges-americans-general-knowledge-levels.aspx

That think the sub orbits the earth. That's from a study the NY Times did a few years back.