Re: [asa] Dawkins is at it again

Hi Bernie,

"Do you think some kids can be mentally tormented by their parents, as a
form of child abuse?"

Yes. I would think that if a parent habitually mentally torments their
child, this would constitute emotional abuse. Children need the ability to
trust and *attach* to their parents in order to develop properly. If a
parent torments their child, the child will detach. And that is bad.

"If so, how is that investigated by science, as you claim?"

As I have pointed out, child abuse literally changes the brain and nervous
system of the child. As a result, when these abused children become adults,
they "are more likely to be depressed, to experience other types of
psychiatric illness, to have more physical symptoms (both medically
explained and unexplained), and to engage in more health-risk behaviors than
their nonabused counterparts." Like I said before, "if you meet or know
someone who has a low self-esteem, who has poor social skills, who battles
depression, and who suffers from a variety of ailments (migraines, skin
problems, digestive problems, anxiety issues, etc.), chances are good that
this person was abused as a child."

To cite another study:

"The stability of a child's early life has profound effects on physical and
mental health, and unstable parent-child relationships, as well as abuse,
can lead to behavioral disorders and increased mortality and morbidity from
a wide variety of common diseases later in life." (McEwen BS. 2003. Early
life influences on life-long patterns of behavior and health. Ment Retard
Dev Disabil Res Rev. 9:149-54).

BTW, to help appreciate how child abuse results in physical changes to the
brain, consider this study that just came out:

"Early-life disruption of the parent-child relationship, for example, in the
form of abuse, neglect or loss, dramatically increases risk for psychiatric,
as well as certain medical, disorders in adulthood. The neuropeptide
oxytocin (OT) plays a seminal role in mediating social affiliation,
attachment, social support, maternal behavior and trust, as well as
protection against stress and anxiety. We therefore examined central nervous
system OT activity after early-life adversity in adult women. We measured OT
concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collected from 22 medically
healthy women, aged 18-45 years, categorized into those with none-mild
versus those with moderate-severe exposure to various forms of childhood
abuse or neglect. Exposure to maltreatment was associated with decreased CSF
OT concentrations. A particularly strong effect was identified for emotional
abuse. There were inverse associations between CSF OT concentrations and the
number of exposure categories, the severity and duration of the abuse and
current anxiety ratings. If replicated, the association of lower adult CSF
OT levels with childhood trauma might indicate that alterations in central
OT function may be involved in the adverse outcomes of childhood adversity.
(Heim C, Young LJ, Newport DJ, Mletzko T, Miller AH, Nemeroff CB. 2008.
Lower CSF oxytocin concentrations in women with a history of childhood
abuse. Mol Psychiatry. 2008 Oct 28.)"

- Mike

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dehler, Bernie" <bernie.dehler@intel.com>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Saturday, November 08, 2008 4:59 PM
Subject: RE: [asa] Dawkins is at it again

> Mike said:
> " Child abuse is something that can be and
> has been investigated by science. And it does not support his claim."
>
> Do you think some kids can be mentally tormented by their parents, as a
> form of child abuse? If so, how is that investigated by science, as you
> claim?
>
> ...Bernie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
> Behalf Of Nucacids
> Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 5:51 PM
> To: asa@calvin.edu
> Subject: Re: [asa] Dawkins is at it again
>
> Hi Bernie,
>
> "Bottom line- if there's no God- it is cruel to say there's a God who will
> send you to hell if you don't accept his imaginary son."
>
> Whether it is cruel is largely a subjective judgment call. Dawkins goes
> further and labels it child abuse. Child abuse is something that can be
> and
> has been investigated by science. And it does not support his claim.
>
> -Mike
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dehler, Bernie" <bernie.dehler@intel.com>
> Cc: <asa@calvin.edu>
> Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 11:50 AM
> Subject: RE: [asa] Dawkins is at it again
>
>
>> There are a lot of people who leave Christianity and feel abused by it.
>> Many are quite bitter about it... damaged goods. You can read their
>> "falling away" testimonies here:
>>
>> http://exchristian.net/
>>
>> Bottom line- if there's no God- it is cruel to say there's a God who will
>> send you to hell if you don't accept his imaginary son. On the other
>> hand, if there is a God and the gospel is true, a person loses out on an
>> abundant life in Christ if he rejects it.
>>
>> If someone yells "FIRE" in a movie house during your favorite movie,
>> would
>> you be upset? It all depends- on whether the fire is true or not. If
>> true, you'll thank them. If false, you'll hate them for wrecking the
>> movie. Same exact thing... only different.
>>
>> ...Bernie
>>
>
>
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Received on Sat Nov 8 19:00:22 2008