I'm an escaped Catholic, non-bitter, unharmed, Kevin. Catholicism is relatively benign when it comes to breaking free. Your granny and grandad might not like it and your mum and dad will never let it drop (believe me). But no-one is going to honour-kill you and there are plenty of people in society who are on your side, and ostracism won't really bother you much. I'm describing life in a liberal western country though, aren't I. Most Catholics live in far more straitened and illiberal circumstances, and so do billions of Muslims, for example.

If you tell an untruth to children, it doesn't matter whether you know you're telling a lie or not. Actually you really should know in any case, shouldn't you. The effect is the same and you shouldn't be using your ignorance as an excuse. It really doesn't take much by way of intellectual self-examination to realise that telling children that there is a God is a lie. I'm sorry that I can't get past this rather basic notion, and I'm a bit surprised that you don't appear to be able to see it.