IMHO,
Religion it’s self isn’t abusive,
it’s how it’s taught and delivered to the child....
One of the most evil events branded in my brain as a teenager I was sitting next to a pregnant woman and her 11 year old daughter (They were trying to convert me from my ‘moderate’ church to their non-denominational-super-duper-yer-all-goin’tahell-brand).
She said “I know that if this baby is born and dies two minutes later, SNAP! it’s going straight to hell! Same with my daughter here. If she dies right now, she’s hellbound.” (all this was about a discussion of infant versus adult baptism and if you didn’t get it in time, well just too damn bad). I remember looking at that little girl and seeing real fear.
Granted, I was old enough and hardened enough to know that the only Satan in the room was that woman ;) Monsters walk and even carry babies.
So yeah, any religion can be harmful to a child if taught with an angry or hatefilled heart.
I see your point, and agree to some extent. Of course, the funny thing about Dawkins is that he would consider that woman an abuser if she had said "God is love, and he wants every person to go to Heaven and avoid Hell."
—were you taught differently? If so, lucky you.
P.S. Maybe not the infant, but if you can walk, talk and sin, game over.
Saint Augustine said: “If you wish to be a Catholic, do not believe, nor say, nor teach, that infants who die before baptism can obtain the remission of original sin.” (III de Anima). He also said in a letter to St. Jerome (no. 27): “Whoever says that even infants are vivified in Christ when they depart this life without the participation of His Sacrament [Baptism], both opposes the Apostolic preaching and condemns the whole Church which hastens to baptize infants, because it unhesitatingly believes that otherwise they cannot possibly be vivified in Christ.”
I am sure there is an elegant explanation to it all, just not for knowing in this life.