To whatever extent we are willing to trust science when it says it has found no evidence of the existence of a literal god, we are then, to the same extent, obligated to trust science when it says it has found no evidence that a religious upbringing is detrimental to children. To make an exception here would be to rely on personal experience instead of the scientific method. Cruelty, ignorance, and authoritarianism are a part of human potential regardless of the excuse used to exercise them.

Hi.....I don't have the answer to your question, but I was brought up in a Catholic home, sent to a Catholic school where 'brothers' from Ireland were appointed as teachers. I was beaten, humiliated and taunted by these tyrants. My spirit was broken and even into adulthood I was convinced that I was no good, I was ugly looking and not worth anything, and could never achieve anything substantial. That's what a strict religious upbringing did to me......

Depends on the religion in my experience. The few non judgemental atheist religions are fine by me. I can conceive of a way to raise a kid in Buddhism, or TST satanism without the use of mental or physical abuse for example. I very rarely if ever have seen that as the case among parents teaching their kids a fundamentalist flavor of an abrahamic religion though.

Being raised Pentecostal for an over thinking, self critical kid like myself definitely resulted in unnecessary abuse and I hear a lot of the same from Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Mormons etc if they escape. Middle eastern death cults seem to make it pretty hard to stay laid back and open minded as parents and if you’re unlucky enough to be gay or trans in those communities your mental health prospects are universally fucked. Everyone does damage to their kids but those religions are extremely excessive. This topic reminds me of a poem:

This Be The Verse
BY PHILIP LARKIN
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.

Any teaching that encourages children to disregard and be suspicious of scientific study is a blight on humanity. Any teaching that relies on magical thinking is heinous.

There's a subtle but massive damage none of us recognize because we all live in the society created by pervasive religious culture. It's a fish-and-water situation, but in the case of religion, not only do we not notice the water, we don't notice the water is poisoned.

I call church Crazy School because it literally teaches people -- children most of all -- not to depend on evidence and reason in their approach to understanding and acting in the world, but on faith and authority. Once you teach kids THAT, they have no defense against countless other lies, con jobs and authoritative commandments.

Rather than a society-wide defense against stuff like that, each individual is left to their own devices to figure out what is true and false, what to believe and do. We leave every child, every adult, to the mercy of an entire CLASS of predators.Worse, we consider the situation an issue of personal freedom.

From the other direction, we actually encourage the predators. Not just religious predators, but corporate, social, governmental ... every aspect of society welcomes predation.

Children growing up in this culture learn that it is okay to believe literally ANYTHING, and every person around them will back away and accept it as some sort of personal choice, a fiercely-defended RIGHT.

Hell yes, it's detrimental. I suspect it has killed us all. We'll see the result very dramatically within our lifetimes.

It was for me. The damage still won't seem to leave me. Since I was brought up in/indoctrinated into Christianity, I still have trouble accepting the reality of life not having meaning at face value. It is like as soon as I realize how free I am, I don't know what to do with it. I'm trying my best to move towards "you make your own meaning in life" that many nonreligious folks seem to go with.

I think you have already outlined that there are numerous factors involved in being a good parent, or otherwise. To focus on religious indoctrination alone would be to ignore all other factors. Taken in isolation, we who think we are more enlightened by being free of religious belief, would naturally think it is detrimental to children to be so brainwashed by their parents into believing anything, without questioning why. Whilst I think it is important for children to be allowed to question and use critical thought, and not to just accept what their parents tell them, there also must be a recognition that millions of children grow up in the belief system and are happy and well adjusted, without mental health issues. There are no doubt some cases, where, in extremely religiously observant families lasting harm is done to children, but in no way is this a universal truth.

It depends largely on whethr the parents view their religious beliefs as "floor values" or ceiling values" If they use their beliefs as floor values, they use them as a foundation from which to reach out or grow.That encourages the children to be open to expedrience and to contacts with others.

If they view their religious beliefs asw ceiling values, they emphasize the negatives, the "shalt nots", and the rejection of other people and groups who do not concur with their beliefs. That encourages lbeing highly judgmental, on discrimination against others who are different, and ethnocentrism. Those effects are highly negative.

Yes it is possible to ruin a person for life and then they become critics of the non believers and cause us all kinds of problems.

Being told that something is always watching you, if you do good things you'll go to heaven and if you do bad things you will go to hell is a real mind fuck. I'm not sure what the studies say about it but I think it's a great way to control the masses by brainwashing them into doing whatever you call "good".

Depends upon the religious upbringing. The children of those true fanatics who tend to lean heavily towards the more violent aspects of their religion will likely lead difficult lives because of their upbringing, where as the kids of more moderate believers who embrace the more loving and peaceful teachings of their religion will raise healthier, happier and more successful children.

A moderate religious upbringing can actually be a good thing. It gives a child a sense of purpose and a belief that they are a part of something which is larger than themselves. Religion is, of course, not the only way in which to instill this into the young, but it is one way of doing so if the lesson doesn't go overboard in to tyranny and abject fear.

I cannot remember any studies, but I have observed over my timetime, the damage done with the Christian Religion to the minds of children that grew up to be adults. If that wasn’t bad enough it was then passed to the next generation.

Hard to respond with a general answer. Religion in most cases provides a framework of accepted behavior, but how it is taught is key and that depends on the religion itself and the parents. A person can be made to feel worthless, shameful and bad with any given set of parents with or without religion.

It really depends on the leadership at developmentally crucial periods. Christians, in my experience, seem to think the teaching of religion is unchanging. However, every pastor that was hired to lead had a different take depending on what they had to justify to keep the money coming in steadily.

I might not be an atheist if I hadn't been exposed to religious teaching growing up. I'd probably be like the majority of people who just accept the title of Christian because I've never considered being anything else.

Teaching children religion is a lessor evil than teaching them that socialism is superior to capitalism.

Along that same point - isnt it wrong to fool children in believing in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, etc?

You've made the case, I can't elaborate on what you've posted!

I was mentally damaged by being raised in the Moron (oops, Mormon) religion. I have, happily, received counselling after leaving the Morons, and am now rather sound of mind.

Religion is bad for everyone. Especially children.

It can trap some of them into growing into really blind, ignorant adults. That may not qualify as mental health, but it sure ain't a good thing.

I think it depends on the KIND of religion the parents belong to. If they emphasize hell and punishment, tell their children sex is sinful etc then that's not going to be psychologically healthy for the child. If they emphasize what I call "hippie Jesus" and teach them to love their neighbor and not judge others, I think that is fine. The children may eventually grow out of the belief in the mythical figures just like they mature out of believing in Santa Claus. They may not, though. Either way, what we should be concerned about is do they turn out to be empathetic, caring people.

[psychologytoday.com]

[scientificamerican.com]

[bbc.com]

I don't think it's simple as guilt and sin. Religion can be very comforting. You're never really alone for one thing. I think it's a mixed bag from a mental health standpoint. I can think of many other positives and negatives.

I'd say it could be either way. I've known people who raised their children to be intelligent critical thinkers while also being religious, the religion mostly acting as an encouragement to treat other people well. They raised their children to be intelligent competent caring people.
I've also seen the opposite in which parents were raising their children to deny scientific evidence & avoid critical thinking if the conclusions from such would disagree with their preconceived religious views. They raise their children to be angry judgemental incompetent idiots.

The sun was rising before there was scientific proof that it rose. Just because something hasn't been scientifically proven don't mean it isn't true. If there isn't scientific proof that a religious upbringing isn't detrimental to mental health then it's still up for debate. I know I've seen an article recently about religious trauma syndrome. Some religions are detrimental to mental health, apparently.