Atheist Dawkins Unjustly Abuses All the World's Catholics with This Comment

Catholic Online
December 25, 2012

http://www.catholic.org/hf/faith/story.php?id=49060

According to the infamous atheist, Richard Dawkins, growing up Catholic is a form of child abuse worse than sexual abuse. Go ahead and reread that, and let it sit for awhile.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Dawkins made his outrageous claim in an interview on Al Jazeera. His interviewer, Mehdi Hasan asked him to clarify previous comments he has made that religion equates to child abuse. Dawkins explained, "Horrible as sexual abuse no doubt was, the damage was arguably less than the long-term psychological damage inflicted by bringing the child up Catholic in the first place."

Hasan followed up, "You believe that being bought up as a Catholic is worse than being abused by a priest?"

Dawkins answered, "There are shades of being abused by a priest, and I quoted an example of a woman in America who wrote to me saying that when she was seven years old she was sexually abused by a priest in his car. At the same time a friend of hers, also seven, who was of a Protestant family, died, and she was told that because her friend was Protestant she had gone to Hell and will be roasting in Hell forever. She told me of those two abuses, she got over the physical abuse; it was yucky but she got over it. But the mental abuse of being told about Hell, she took years to get over."

Astoundingly, based on this single comment from a rightfully angry, tragically abused woman, Dawkins has concluded that being raised Catholic is worse than being sexually abused.

His colleagues as well as several British politicians and personalities have distanced themselves from Dawkins, repudiating his comments.

The greatest condemnation appears to be coming from victims of sexual abuse. Recovery from sexual abuse can last a lifetime, and some people never manage to cope with the trauma.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of people who are raised Catholic enjoy happy and fulfilling lives, and are not abused in any way.

While there is no question that Hell is a place of eternal punishment, it is a place of choice, where individuals choose to go by their actions. Specifically, by rejecting God and practicing mortal sin without repentance.

The Catholic Church offers salvation and a path to eternal life and union with God. How can this be abuse?

It isn't.

The simple fact is Richard Dawkins is a very angry man who will say anything he can to stand in the limelight. Even if his comments are abusive to the one billion plus Catholics on Earth.