Re: [asa] Dawkins, religion, and children

It's a frightening thing to go very far down the road of the "rights of
parents *versus* the rights of children." This betrays a fundamental
misunderstanding of the *family* as a basic, foundational sphere of
sovereignty within society. Cultures that set individuals within families *
against* each other tend to be deeply ill.

This is particularly so when the state purports to define what religious
beliefs a family may properly perpetuate. The link between Dawkins' view of
the state as *parens patrie* in matters of religion and the practices
of atheistic states such as Soviet Russia, China, and North Korea, are
direct and obvious.

Certainly, the state's sovereignty may properly impinge on the family's
where a family's practices involve violence towards a family member. But
equating ordinary, historic religious beliefs and practices with violence,
and substituting the family's sovereignty with the state's in such matters,
is a long meander down the yellow brick road towards totalitarianism. The
kinds of things Dawkins suggests in this regard strike at the heart of
open democratic culture and should be despised by anyone who really cares
about justice and freedom.

>
> On 4/29/07, PvM <pvm.pandas@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > While they are wrong about teaching atheism, Dawkins supports
> > pantheism if anything, the question raised by Dawkins is a valid one:
> > rights of parents versus the rights of children.
>
>
>
>
>

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Received on Mon Apr 30 12:30:11 2007