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because this is done without their informed consent. Indeed the very idea of requesting consent from a toddler is ludicrous. How could a toddler give informed consent? They very likely cannot even sign their name.

Innaiah Narisetti, chairman of the India chapter of the Center for Inquiry is leading an international effort to force changes in the present unexamined deference given parents who wish to indoctrinate their children.

"Such abuse begins with the involuntary involvement of children in religious practices from the time they are born," says Narisetti. "All religions, through ritual, preaching, and religious texts, seek to bring children into day-to-day religious practice."

"This gives holy books and scriptures, as well as those who teach them, an early grip on the developing minds of young people, leaving an indelible impression on them," said Narisetti, calling Sunday schools, madrasahs, or Jewish or Hindu temples, centers of indoctrination for children."

The charge sheet does not end there. Indoctrination is morally objectionable on these counts, it:

* fosters an attitude of superiority (only our faith is true, everyone else is going to hell)
* encourages solipsism (god loves me and created a universe just for me)
* creates enmity towards outsiders be they non-believers or members of a different faith
* plants an unrealistic, patently false view of reality (evolution and geology are often targeted)
* stifles the mind and punishes curiosity (all your questions will be answered in heaven)
* creates fear of holy retribution (god will punish you)
* creates guilt for infracting rules against unrealistic prohibitions (for example, masturbation)
* creates impossible standards (critics would say this is to drive children to confession)
* infantilizes children and implants feelings of inferiority (god is great, I am unworthy)
* creates feelings of hopelessness (there is no escape from god)
* there are no boundaries (institutions can teach whatever they want in whatever way)

Although these are gravely serious charges, leave it to a Jew to find humor in his situation. Writer Shalom Auslander's plaint that he left Orthodox Judaism behind but God came with him is humorously developed in his book "Foreskin's Lament".

David Ian Miller writing for the San Francisco Chronicle interviewed Shalom by email and here is a salient question David posed:

"At one point in the book you compare yourself to a veal calf. Can you say a bit more about that"?

Shalom responds:

"At the time I was writing

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