If it a harmless delusion or a dangerous superstition? It can be one or the other, both or neither, but in the end it doesn't matter.
All you need to do is not to pass it to children as an absolute truth, even if you believe that it's the real deal. But what happens is that they take advantage of children's love for their parents and dependability on them to anchor their doctrine.
Later as they grow up it will be harder for those kids to challenge those beliefs because of the can of worms they could open, what else have I been led to believe?
Not to mention, they have invested a lot on that belief so it's harder to leave it behind. I mean, some dudes buy a girl a drink in a bar and they keep insisting even though they know she's no longer interested in them, just because they feel invested in that drink, so imagine if they feel invested in a religion.
In Scandinavia they opted against teaching kids religion until they grow up a bit, and how many religious people are there now?
It's like that bit from Stanhope:
"If you had just never heard of the Bible ... let's say they put it on the back of fucking Captain Crunch, how quick would you recognize that as true? Would you go, "Hey, this is exactly what I was looking for! Yeah, the fucking flood and the Ark ... this sounds incredibly true!" You'd throw it in the trash, would you not?
That's why they have to pump it in your head when you're still little, and you've got a soft spot, and you're Santa-Claus eligible ... and they cork it with fear, and you go, "Well, I'm not hardcore," and you make your own Christianity."
That being said, it was brave of you to post this, I wrote a funny piece on religion earlier today and I decided against pressing the post button. Maybe I would some time, I don't know.
Bingo... although I would argue that Scandanavians are still very religious. They just worship and serve the state instead of a deity.
I don't disagree with you there. Did you check out the Law of Jante?
You're not to think you are anything special.
You're not to think you are as good as we are.
You're not to think you are smarter than we are.
You're not to convince yourself that you are better than we are.
You're not to think you know more than we do.
You're not to think you are more important than we are.
You're not to think you are good at anything.
You're not to laugh at us.
You're not to think anyone cares about you.
You're not to think you can teach us anything.
The State is God, put in pen, paper and made into as law.