I am persuaded that the phrase ‘child abuse’ is no exaggeration when used to describe what teachers and priests are doing to children whom they encourage to believe in something like the punishment of unshriven mortal sins in an eternal hell. — Richard Dawkins

I’ve noticed something really weird over my time as an anti-theist.

When I state that I’m disturbed about children being told about hell, more often than not, the overwhelming response from Christians is, “Why are you so upset?”

The assumption is that there is something wrong with me. If I were a rational, mentally healthy person, they seem to assume, I would look at children being taught about hell and think, “Oh, that’s just gravy.”

When I get that reaction, I’m a bit flabbergasted and confused. What I want to say is: What the hell is wrong with you, that you aren’t upset?

Look, I get that you might be “uncomfortable” about hell. I also get that many of y’all look at hell as like a buffet counter and you can kinda pick and choose what you like and don’t like about the concept. And believe me, if you’re about to give me that hands-off, “I’m not God, so I don’t know who is going there, if anyone, but it’s gonna be justice, whatever it is” line, I’ve heard it a zillion times before (and almost every time it’s from a Christian who thinks they are brilliantly reinventing the wheel — newsflash, after 20+ years in the church, to say I’ve heard this before would be somewhat of an overstatement).

Whatever. That’s all beside the point.

The point is that children are taught about a hell, terrorized about it for life, on slim to hardly any evidence, by parents they trust. And the hell doesn’t even exist.

To those who ask me why I’m upset about this….

Why aren’t you pissed off at that? Why doesn’t that make you angry?

What the hell is wrong with you? Seriously. These are kids.

Imagine if no one else in the entire United States taught children about hell as a place of torment except for one family, who said that if you don’t follow God you’ll go there forever. You read that in the news. We would all probably agree that this would be a horrendous thing to teach a child. And if you weren’t disturbed by the news story, we would wonder — what the hell is wrong with you?

So it would be bad if it were just one family. But it’s worse than that.

According to a recent survey conducted in the United States in 2013:

Against a backdrop of horrific crimes and devastating natural disasters, 56% of Americans surveyed believe in the devil, 53% believe in hell and 43% believe in hell as “a place of suffering and punishment where people go after they die,” according to a recent poll of 1,218 Americans conducted over Memorial Day Weekend.

And that’s just in the United States, where church attendance is going down. It’s growing around the world. Which means, increasingly, more and more people are teaching their children about hell.

Look, I don’t like God, and this probably makes you think I’m irrationally angry. I know this because we’ve done studies on it. Like this one, published last year. Here’s the abstract (emphasis added):

Atheists are often portrayed in the media and elsewhere as angry individuals. Although atheists disagree with the pillar of many religions, namely the existence of a God, it may not necessarily be the case that they are angry individuals. The prevalence and accuracy of angry-atheist perceptions were examined in 7 studies with 1,677 participants from multiple institutions and locations in the United States. Studies 1–3 revealed that people believe atheists are angrier than believers, people in general, and other minority groups, both explicitly and implicitly. Studies 4–7 then examined the accuracy of these beliefs. Belief in God, state anger, and trait anger were assessed in multiple ways and contexts. None of these studies supported the idea that atheists are particularly angry individuals. Rather, these results support the idea that people believe atheists are angry individuals, but they do not appear to be angrier than other individuals in reality.

So it’s no surprise that you think we’re irrationally angry. But if you think that, it seems you’re wrong. Our anger levels seem to be normal.

Which begs the question: What the hell is wrong with you? Why the heck wouldn’t you be angry that children are taught about a place of eternal torment that has no real evidence for its existence? Why, when it comes to this and other issues, are you so interested, it seems in just patching the “angry” title on me and walking away smugly? How heartless would you have to be for this not to upset you? What’s wrong with you?

I don’t get it. I don’t have the answer.

But, best as I can see it…I don’t really think I’m the one who needs an attitude adjustment here.