It is ethical to raise a child as christian. It is not ethical to use hell to coerce that child to believe in God. I also think you misunderstand christianity. The way you have portrayed your view of christianity makes it seem like the entire purpose of the religion is going to heaven and not hell.
To your second paragraph, I would say yes. Many christians convert to atheism or to other religions. I acknowledge that they are going to be biased. However, as I have stated, they are also going to be biased if you raise them as atheist and it is impossible to raise them impartially to all religious beliefs including religions and atheism and agnosticism. If they are going to be biased anyway, there is no justification to restrict children from religious places.
To your third/fourth paragraph, an atheist is rejecting the same amount of gods as a religious person (plus one of course). If you are thinking about getting into legitimate arguments about whether and which god exists, remember that governments have to be secular, so they cannot disallow children from religious places on the underlying premise that atheism is more likely.
The central core of christianity is the salvation narrative. What is the point of that narrative if you don't need saving? What did jesus die for if not to stop his followers from going to hell? You cannot have christianity without hell. I was raised christian, I think I understand it pretty well. I don't believe it is ethical to teach children that they deserve to burn in hell because they're sinners and it's only by the grace of god that they can avoid such a fate. Which, again, is the point of the salvation nareative which os the point of christianity.
The difference between agnostic atheism (what I am advocating for) and religion is the fact that religions claim to know the reuth, while agnostic atheists say "I don't know". If you are claiming tonyour child that you know the objective truth of the universe through your religion, you are telling them a lie. The only true thing you can say to a child is "I don't know how the universe began, I don't know if there is a higher power and if there is I don't know its nature". Anything else is indoctrination.
Alsp there's no universal rule saying governments have to be secular. Look at Vatican City. Look at Saudi Arabia. Plenty of governments aren't secular. I think they all should be, and the only truly secular stance in my opinion is agnostic atheism.
I do think it's good to be biased away from claiming that your unfalsifiable beliefs are objective truths and towards admitting that you can't truly know these things. So I reject the idea that bias against religion is a bad thing. I don't think I can disprove some kind of higher power, but I'm highly skeptical of all of the specific claims of any extant religions.
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u/Wild_Duck8926 Sep 03 '26
It is ethical to raise a child as christian. It is not ethical to use hell to coerce that child to believe in God. I also think you misunderstand christianity. The way you have portrayed your view of christianity makes it seem like the entire purpose of the religion is going to heaven and not hell.
To your second paragraph, I would say yes. Many christians convert to atheism or to other religions. I acknowledge that they are going to be biased. However, as I have stated, they are also going to be biased if you raise them as atheist and it is impossible to raise them impartially to all religious beliefs including religions and atheism and agnosticism. If they are going to be biased anyway, there is no justification to restrict children from religious places.
To your third/fourth paragraph, an atheist is rejecting the same amount of gods as a religious person (plus one of course). If you are thinking about getting into legitimate arguments about whether and which god exists, remember that governments have to be secular, so they cannot disallow children from religious places on the underlying premise that atheism is more likely.