I was just watching an old episode of the Simpsons and I was struck by a thought worth noting. It was the episode where the homer and marge are judged unfit parents and are fostered by Flanders. Ned then learns that Bart, Lisa and Maggie were never baptised, and has an apoplexy. I noted how he immediately resolves that Homer and Marge were indeed bad parents. I know it is a cartoon, but that struck me as a perfect example of religious hypocracy of religion and the folly of it. How does being religious make one in any way a better person? Indeed, I would argue that ned is by far the worse parent, for it is he who indoctrinates his children into a strict conservative worldview, demanding they believe all kinds of fiction and refusing to let them think. From an objective standpoint, surely that counts as abuse, yet society allows people like Flanders, even praising them. That strikes me as troubling: through religion, kids are being lied to and abused, and society hypocritically allows it.