This post is from Ebbie. -Joe Offer-

"No child raised from birth as a Christian, Muslim or whatever religion was around them by sheer chance of birth was ever left alone to believe what they wanted. "Steve Shaw

I don't agree with you, Steve S. Unless you mean it in the sense that parents teach their children not to steal or break in or burgle or torture another living being, or to be a person of one's word, or honoring the ethics of commitment or of supporting one's family, whether financially or otherwise.

We all teach our children, both overtly and below the level of conscious thought. Surely that is not a bad thing. I fail to see why a parent's views on religion or their own version of it should be so damaging to a child. I know that in my own case, my own brand of unconsciously transmitted religious undoubtedly presented the Protestant view rather than Roman Catholic or Muslim or Hindu or that of the Jew, but consciously i taught respect for one's right to make their own decisions.