""My point is that, agnostic as I assuredly am, I raised a child quite different from me. Did I 'brainwash' her to think as she does? I don't think so. My main virtue, to way of thinking, is that I taught her to think for herself. The fact that she doesn't think as I do makes me smile.""

You are absolutely right Ebbie.

Your daughter was taught how to think, and then made a decision at a stage in life when she was more than capable of making an "informed" decision.

That can happen in either direction and is equally acceptable, whichever path is chosen.

It is the very antithesis of the approach which tells children what to think from the day that they start to talk.

I find it strange that parents should do that, while waiting until the teens before discussing careers.

If one, why not the other. And please, nobody try to say that an understanding of right and wrong is dependent upon religious education. That wild goose got away long ago.

And it is probably a good idea at this point to re-iterate that I am NOT an atheist, lest anyone get the wrong idea.

Don T.