Mental abuse of a child, even when unintended, cuts deeper and is longer lasting than physical abuse. Teaching a child not to ask questions, to bow down to dogma and surrender his or her mind to self-styled "authorities" is to doom that child to a level of submissiveness inappropriate to the challenges of the modern world. "Don't think for yourself" is a slogan repeated only by those who hope to control others. The conduct that results from such teachings can be witnessed every day in the form of sectarian violence in the Middle East. In America it generates indifference to the hypocrisy of faith-based politicians who mock our nation's most basic values when they plead for compliance with their superstitions.
Reasoning, based on cause and effect, incessant curiosity instilled and nurtured by parents and teachers, and analytical thinking using elementary logical principles are the unglamorous but effective antidotes to this kind of abuse. They are also the essential keys to a healthy adulthood and a rational society.
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