"...you will be assiduously followed up all through your childhood by being force-fed doctrine and prayers in faith schools and/or your family until you can bleat the whole bloody thing out like a parrot. It's a damn sight more than just signing up, which is merely my euphemism for it. I can't understand why you can't grasp this"

Well, Steve, I can grasp what you say, but cannot see it as logic. IMO, you take an extreme stance (much like the extreme religious folks you seem to dislike) and try and generalize it to a very broad spectrum of people and cases all around the world. IMO, this puts your extreme theory more in the camp of those with conspiracy theories than logical camps.

It is not at all surprising and is logical that people who feel comforted by organized religion (I am not one of these people) would freely (with or without pressure from any church) wish to pass on the comfort they feel to their young...much the same as they and others pass on many other non-religious life lessons they have acquired. (I suspect you would do no less with your non belief in God conclusions...that you feel is right... to your young with good intent, if you had the opportunity).

To put this forward as a organized religion conspiracy is, IMO, just poorly thought out, but not at all difficult to grasp. The reason behind your ire on this topic is much more puzzling, and difficult to grasp, as you seem to be a reasoned thinker on other issues.

Please understand that no one seems to be saying here that an early exposure to religious thought does not have a profound impact on whether you believe in a God or not. I suspect such an early exposure to your non God belief would have a similar impact. However, real life shows that people do have choices, and many do abandon that belief. Many others, like me, come to the conclusion they have a personal belief, but no longer wish to be associated with organized religions.

The world and its wide spectrum of peoples should not be lumped into one category, for the convenience of the conclusion, that you could have based your theory on.