(The conservative "Godless liberal pluralism -> joining the Taliban" argument is, of course, absurd; however, one wonders whether or not there may be a weaker memetic effect, in the sense of children with no exposure to religion having reduced immunity to fundamentalist religious memes; I have heard of atheist/humanist parents who deliberately went to church with their children for a year or two to "innoculate" them against getting religion and becoming fundamentalist zealots. Though, of course, one could apply this argument to other virulent belief systems, such as Marxism or Objectivism, for example.)
yeah, I live in the bible belt. My mom dreams that she will have a little girl that heals people and brings good back into the world. When I was growing up I couldn't watch Ghostbusters because it had demons in it. I also couldn't play Nintendo on Sundays. !!
Interesting. My disillusionment with the Xtian church started with my father's illness and death and was basically sealed at my first experience of uni which was being harrassed by various bible study groups while queuing to enrol as a fresher. Still, I'm sort of glad I was familiar with the whole Bible mythology, and the fundamentalist mentality, since I've got a better understanding on how these people think.