I was raised with a religious mother and religious grandparents. It instilled a sense of community in me. It helped shape much of my life's work, giving a voice to the voiceless as a reporter, and working for several charities.
As a side note, I wasn't using anecdotal evidence to try to say this is the way it is all the time. As I said, "I think," "personal experience," in regards to my opinions, not universal facts.
But since people seem to want me to leave out my own personal beliefs in a beliefs based debate, then I will resort to using a more hardline debate. Adults, who seldom understand what their religion actually touts, introduce their children to this. When the adult doesn't even understand religious principles, how can he or she expect his or her children to? Follow the link
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1745/religious-knowledge-in-america-survey-atheists-agnostics-score-highest Hence, the argument that it may be better to let a child decide for his or herself when he or she has reached an age where he or she understands the principles of a religion is actually more sound spiritually. It makes little sense to follow a religion that embodies things you do not even believe in. The study I pointed to shows that 45% of Catholics polled didn't even realize that one of the core beliefs of the Church is that the bread and wine really become the body and blood of Christ (transubstantiation). I have long thought this was likely the case, because when I would discuss this with fellow Catholics, that this is one thing that sets us apart from other Christian religions, they would doubt that this was the stance of the Church, they themselves believing in consubstantiation.
If I wanted to, I could take my own personal experience with people who have attended Catholic school and follow them throughout their life to see whether or not they continue to attend mass into adulthood, why they do or do not, take my findings, run an Alpha Nova, or even a Chi Square, to see if the findings were significant, come back and post my findings, and even if they were significant and the study was peer reviewed, someone could take issue with it because I would be applying empirical scientific research to a subject that is a soft science. I really have no desire to do all that for a silly debate forum, so I relayed my little anecdote to try to explain the basis of my opinion. Of course, some parents raise their kids in a religion and their kids grow up to raise their kids in that religion and everything is hunky dory. Some parents raise their kids in a religion that turns out to be a sex cult, and even some of those kids grow up to raise their own kids in that same sex cult, and everything is still hunky dory until someone alerts the feds, and then years later the victims of said sex cult give a teary eyed confessional on the public airwaves and the viewers shake their head in disgust.
Religion is neither always good or always bad. Some of the good things that have come out of religion include adoption services, healthcare and other services for the poor, schools, and counseling. Some bad things? How about war, slavery, sexual abuses, and incest? Yes, sometimes the dirty deeds are done for other reasons, just as sometimes some of the good deeds are too.
I guess that is all I really have to add. I don't mean to get my fur all ruffled or ruffle anyone else's. I just wanted to clarify a few points is all.
