Religiously Based Custody Decision

Ed Brayton over at Dispatches from the Culture Wars (another great blog) has posted on something absolutely horrible. A mother was denied custody because she would not force the children to go to church. Apparently, this isn't an isolated incident. And people wonder why atheists are afraid to come out and admit it. For a group of people who seem to think they are soooo persecuted, Christians in America sure don't have a problem persecuting others.

One would think that I shouldn't say much about this, since I agree, to an extent, with Dawkins claim that religion is child abuse. I don't go as far as he does, though. Rather than viewing religion, per se, as outright abuse, I see it more as negligence in the nurturing of a child's intellectual capacities. It's along the lines of raising children in a house devoid of books, although more damaging. Nonetheless, I would be just as outraged if custody was denied to someone because they were religious. Whether or not you have a propensity to believe things that you have no evidence for shouldn't enter into whether or not you get custody of a child. Rather, it is whether you can best care for that child. Simple as that.