I'm not so sure Voltaire’s line is the crux of the matter, there are many aspects to society and the foremost desire from infancy is the compulsion to belong.

A child reared in a religious family will attempt to follow the beliefs of the family and will feel it as treasonous to disengage from the beliefs of the parents. This later becomes the piers, friends, associates etc. Our desire to belong never leaves and though we may change the groups we desire to belong to the desire is always there.

Another reason people have not escaped religion ages ago is because of fear, there is not a clear enough delineation between the spiritual and the physical and in addition to our desire to belong there is the inherent knowledge that there is more to it all than these physical bodies.

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To raise children as Atheists is not the answer either the only way to ensure that anyone is free is to raise them with a permission to find their own truths.

The greatest problem is, and always has been the philosophical foundation upon which people base their lives.

If the foundation is poor good people become lost and it doesn't matter whether they are raised as Atheists, Christians Jews Muslims or anything else. The three religions mentioned above do not have a solid philosophical foundation on which to base life; simply being an Atheist may be just as bad!

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Behind every excuse lies a failure, to justify a failure only compounds its magnitude.

A) Her children were free to choose their own paths. At least one chose to be an atheist. Another, the one that the lawsuit was over, chose to become a minister. Freedom of religion belongs to all religions, and despite what they may argue to the contrary, atheism can definitely become a religion if done fervently.
B) As a result of choosing to follow her into atheism, several of her family members were murdered. If a certain letter is to be believed (more on that later) her own son, the Christian minister, said that he would have abandoned her, his brother, and his own daughter. Yet his brother tried to work with the kidnappers, knowing what his fate would probably be. They believed in their non-belief enough that they were willing to die for their beliefs. It's not just Christian missionaries in Iraq that are willing to be martyrs.
C) They learned that if there is something you perceive as an injustice, you have the power and obligation to fix it. One son joined her, the other opposes her. But they both speak out.
D) And all of this aside, make no mistake. Your question sets up an impossible standard. How were they better? They weren't. Nobody is better or worse for being raised in a particular religion. You still have to brush your teeth whether you were raised Christian or Muslim. You still have to work, or at least know how to use the trust fund. And that trust fund did not come about because you were Christian. It came through someone else's hard work. The founder of Domino's pizza is a proud Christian. That doesn't mean people handed him money because of this reason alone. They gave him money because they liked his pizza. Look at the rumors that have been swirling around about Proctor and Gamble being associated with the Church of Satan (complete lie, BTW). People still buy Proctor and Gamble. You may feel that Christianity has made you better. But examine the real causes. The norm is that any religon will benefit because it gives you a purpose for existing. It is not mutually exclusive to any one religion. Let's go through a short list of my church friends, shall we. One was a deacon's daughter and had lots of friends. They all showed up at her funeral when she was driving badly down a lakeside road. One didn't have much money, but she had parents that loved her, and they got through it. One suffered from bipolar disorder and had neglectful parents. One was the son of the leader of the Southern Baptist Convention, and he made good grades and was a star athlete. None of these people's lives were made better or worse by Christianity. Their afterlife is where the real debate is, but it is also completely unanswerable.

Now to the letter. I have some serious doubts that her son wrote it since the letter can't be bothered to spell her name correctly. But let's say that it is a transcribing error by whoever put it on the web. If he wrote it, it is carrying a lot of baggage. The letter is filled with contempt, not in the sense of hating the sin and loving the sinner, but in the sense of hating the sinner as well. I do not read a man filled with the love of God in that letter. I read a man who is tired of being a cause, but doesn't know how to stop.

But if you want to be like them, you'll have to emulate. -Ayria

Thank you for an excellent post IntricateGirl.

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A forum to debunk Religion: http://www.gnosisquest.com/phpBB2/index.php

Behind every excuse lies a failure, to justify a failure only compounds its magnitude.