I think telling your kids “people who don’t believe in god (specifically the one I’ve just described) will go to hell” is child abuse. Not only because it makes it so hard to relate to other kids, many of whose parents are programming them with different gods, but especially because it can create enormous fear in the child, for themselves.
I recognize this is a dissenting view, so I hope awareness expands and this form of child abuse disappears.
Teach your gods through love, not through fear.
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@starbreaker Same.
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@starbreaker Yes, but, well, they can't as easily embody their gods' love if they join secular organizations, can they?
The example of Martin Luther King, Jr. is the existence proof of working through a religious establishment to embody agape, the love of universal brotherhood. His example ("I would rather die than hate you") is a high bar for anyone to meet, and alas seems conspicuously absent from religious folk today (in my experience). But it should be possible and I do look for it.