Children of faith

In "The God Delusion", Richard Dawkins attacks the notion of children being labeled with the faith of their parents.

"There is no such thing as a Christian child, there is only a child of Christian parents. Whenever you hear the phrase Christian child or Muslim child or Protestant child or Catholic child, the phrase should grate like fingernails on a blackboard" -- Dawkins

Dawkins is a brilliant writer, and I agree with many of his positions. But on this point, I couldn't disagree with him more.

We absolutely SHOULD refer to a child of Christian parents as a "Christian child". This is the reality of the situation, and it serves as compelling evidence that religion is a subjective cultural phenomenon and not an objective discretionary phenomenon.

In reality, an overwhelming majority of children adopt the religion of their parents for the entirety of their lives. A child may choose for himself a wide array of personal interests and goals, but he or she will almost certainly follow a religion that is not significantly distant from that in which he or she was raised. And why is that? It's because all other choices in life can be made objectively, logically and honestly. Religion is immune to such influences and we must remind people of that fact at every opportunity.

Your religion is every bit as culturally indoctrinated as the language you speak, and yet we would consider it ridiculous to claim that God would send people to hell based on the language they spoke. Why is it ANY less ridiculous to claim that God would punish people for any other cultural influence such as faith?

This is a glaring discrepancy within religion that goes right to the heart of the faulty premise that any significant understanding of our world can be obtained through faith. By removing the label of faith from our children, we only serve to support the delusion that faith is somehow largely a matter of personal choice, as if a child could choose a faith as thoughtfully as they choose their first car.

Would Mr. Dawkins also object to referring to a child of French speaking parents as a "French speaking child?" Surely not! Yet I defy anyone to show how religion and language are different in terms of relative cultural indoctrination.

I understand the desire to break the strangle hold of religious labeling, but at the same time these labels can be used to draw attention to the ridiculous reasons behind the assumptions.

My heart goes out to all children of faith in the world. Their lives will be profoundly shaped and limited by thoughts and ideas that will necessarily elude rational examination. They will be deprived of the ability to make a reasoned and objective choice of religion, and yet they will be held eternally accountable for their choice.

I will continue to refer to these children using the label of their affliction, for we should all be reminded at all times what is being done to them.