That question is very disturbing. Even if you want to argue if it is true or not it is not criminal nor should it ever be. People live in the paradigms of their cultures. Should we seek and destroy the cultures in the South Amercian jungles if they don't meet the western developed standard for a proper civilization? You just can't impose your belief or lack there of on other people and their children. As it is we have enough interference from school and government agenda. We also like to falsely link any childhood unpleasantness with the issues we have as adults. People are only as resilient as you let them be.
Of course people can impose their belief on others and their children.
Some people think it's acceptable to beat their children badly if they misbehave, while others do not. And so in some areas, parents aren't allowed to beat their children badly, if at all.
Where do you think the line should be drawn? Do you think that having stoning be outlawed is right? Should gay marriage be outlawed? Should the killing of apostates be outlawed? At what point would you say that the evil and harm inflicted on others by members of a cult should be controlled? Should the harm inflicted on others be limited to bodily harm?
Where to draw the line is a good question, and one I've put thought into. It's admittedly a very gray area, and at least partially culturally dependent. For instance, a small part of me thinks that yes, it should be illegal to teach small children that their god tortures people or to teach them a bunch of stuff that is completely scientifically incorrect, but the rest of me says that it's simply too big of an intrusion.
For those specific questions,
-Stoning: absolutely, outlaw it
-Gay Marriage: absolutely not
-killing: absolutely, outlaw it
Any physical harm should be controlled. Other harms that should be controlled are things like abuse (telling a child they are worthless, terrible, mentally manipulating them, etc.), threats of violence, and so forth.
So if, say, a parent is constantly telling their child they deserve to go to hell and burn and be tortured or whatnot, then that would reasonably qualify under abuse in my view. But if a parent teaches that in their religion, hell exists and some people go there under certain conditions, then it's ignorant and regrettable but I don't think it's right to step in and say they can't teach that. It opens up too many potential ramifications.
We have laws in our society against harrassment. Its illegal for someone to personally tell someone that they will be harmed, be it physical or emotional harm. So why is it that when a preacher terrorizes a person with the threat of eternal hell it is tolerated?
Because people keep going back to those churches and even giving those preachers money.
Now if some guy tells me on the street that I'll be going to hell (and many preachers at my college commonly told that to people passing by), then that's their free speech. But if he decides to follow me around personally, shouting in my ears and threatening me personally and repeatedly, then that's harassment.
Im glad that stoning was outlawed. It is a barbaric law created by evil fanatics. Im glad that gay marriage is approved into law, although not everywhere yet. Gay people have been persecuted by the brainwashed religious people for long enough. Im glad that slavery was abolished, even though the South undoubtedly was using scripture to defend slavery. Our societies have stood up to a great deal of the insane evil of religions already. We shouldn't stop now. We should keep going until every kind of criminal, harmful act committed by brainwashed follwers of cults is made illegal.
I'm all for gay marriage and the illegality of slavery and such. It's because I support as much freedom as possible, and that includes people spreading untrue statements that they don't know are untrue.
But if everything that was merely "harmful" was made illegal, then basically everything would be illegal because for just about anything that exists, a bunch of people think it's bad.
