The doco does get better in portraying her in a more balanced light, since she’s pretty sympathetic. (On the note of people taking time to make friends, she is quite sociable and looks like she’d have no problem so it is one thing she’s being deprived of.)

And yes, the setting-up-for-probable-devastation is probably the worst aspect of what her parents are doing.

The issue is whether a child like Deborah has the opportunity to discover other ideas; whether she would be allowed to put certain books on her shelf; and how distraught as a person and a family member she might be if what her parents had been hiding from her so long appealed to her at some later stage.

What’s this “once and for all” that you refer to?

Takis — I used to be quite anti-Dawkins until I realised that he is often very misinterpreted and people seem to read into his writing (and into the writings of some of the other prominent atheists) a simplistic worldview that they don’t really have. I think a lot of people have this stereotype of this flaming atheist that they use to interpret real people like Dawkins even if it doesn’t fit. And I have seen very few examples of this stereotype actually show up in public debate or my real life.

Actually Deep Thought — if you say you over-reacted I’m keen to know why. Was there some expectation that my opposition to religion would be more simplistic than it is? From your comments on some of my other posts, you seem to interpret what I say as a lot more “shrill” than I intend it to be.

Takis — do you have a specific example where Dawkins partitions the world in this way?

I didn’t say religious people are brainwashed and I don’t think specific examples of brilliant people who were religious has anything to do with Deborah and her life.

This is precisely my “problem” too. Specifically, I know many examples of bright religious people (and, likewise, stupid nonreligious ones, say stupid atheist scientists). So, the partition of the world according to religious/nonreligious is not the same as the partition smart/stupid, contrary to what some people may want to infer by reading, e.g., Dawkins.
I am still searching for (i) an explanation and (ii) references to support my views.

I did not say she was warped — in fact the word doesn’t appear in my post and I looked for similar words in case I missed something and found none.

I didn’t say there was anything wrong about her being homeschooled per se (but in this case the fact that she is homeschooled means the knowledge she has access to is even more restrictive).

I didn’t say religious people are brainwashed and I don’t think specific examples of brilliant people who were religious has anything to do with Deborah and her life.

The reason her environment is harsh is because her parents taught her nonsense and have traumatised her emotionally by the idea that absolutely everyone is going to hell and that she’s such a terrible sinner. The fact that the family is homeschooled and isolated only makes the nonsense more harmful to her — if she had interactions with more kids her age (including those outside her faith) this would make her environment far less harsh. Similarly if they taught her whatever you teach your kids I would think the same.

Anyway of all the posts I thought you’d agree with this one the most (I assume you don’t think they’re teaching her good theology from your perspective?)