If you lived with someone who had done EVERYTHING, say a superstar father or mother – a famous author or adventurer or actress or athlete – how would you gain a sense of your own worth and value? How hard would it be to chart your own life course? To find and develop your own talents?

Would you live your whole life feeling inferior and lesser? Knowing that you could never do or be anything unique, that you would always live in the giant shadow of their spectacular accomplishments, that by comparison you were nothing and nobody, and always would be, would you give up even trying to write or act or adventure or compete?

If your father were a world-famous philosopher and and thinker, and you were made to believe over and over that your thoughts were juvenile and empty, that nothing you could think of on your entire best day could equal what went on in your father’s mind in one second, that all the amazing and profound and true thoughts about how to think and live and understand had already been thought, that you would be inevitably wrong in every new and different thing you tried to think, would you bother to try to think on your own? If you knew you could never match the power or understanding of this huge mind in your life, would you place any value AT ALL on your own inner voice?

It occurs to me that this is one of the hidden prices of religion.

Belief in an all-powerful supernatural superbeing might not have a definable effect on any one particular person, but as a statistical force, a steady pressure upon hundreds of generations of children and then the billions of adults they become – squeezing them down into that mindset of hopeless subservience, of creative and inventive futility – I simply can’t imagine it not having a blanket effect upon the people within it.

It would, without question, diminish and retard the progress of the entire civilization in which it took place.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/bluecollaratheist/2013/03/03/disturbing-early-morning-thought/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

FFRF Secularizes Miss. grade school’s choir concerts (Feb. 14, 2013)
FFRF helps keep prayer out of local City Council (Feb. 12, 2013)
FFRF ends bible distribution at Georgia elementary school (Feb. 12, 2013)
FFRF ends Georgia middle school teacher’s religious songs (Feb. 11, 2013)
FFRF ends coach led prayer in Texas high school (Feb. 7, 2013)
North Carolina college agrees coach’s prayers unconstitutional (Feb. 6, 2013)
FFRF springs a change on Ohio school’s Easter assembly (Feb. 7, 2013)
FFRF ends Indiana principal’s lunchtime proselytizing (Jan 28, 2013)
FFRF gives Gideons the boot in Tennessee (Jan. 8, 2013)
FFRF ensures end to Michigan school staff member’s proselytizing (Jan. 8, 2013)
FFRF forces Michigan school district to reconsider relationship with church (Jan. 3, 2013)
FFRF eliminates religious music from Illinois elementary school (Dec. 21, 2012)
FFRF removes cross from Iowa state park (Dec. 19, 2012)
FFRF prevents teachers from making students fundraise for Salvation Army (Dec. 17, 2012)
FFRF tackles coaches’ prayers at Ohio high school (Dec. 17, 2012)
FFRF helps kick church out of New York school (Dec. 17, 2012)
FFRF ends prayer at Georgia university’s events (Dec. 13, 2012)
FFRF causes religious emails at a Kansas school to be reviewed (Dec. 7, 2012)
FFRF drives away Texas 'police chaplain' (Dec. 6, 2012)
FFRF helps Florida town cradle the Constitution (Dec. 6, 2012)
FFRF kicks Christianity out of Georgia classroom (Dec. 4, 2012)
FFRF silences unconstitutional Hawaii concert (Dec. 3, 2012)
FFRF rids Kentucky school of Gideons (Nov. 30, 2012)
FFRF ends prayer at Ark. high school football game (Nov. 27, 2012)
FFRF ends Texas principal's proselytizing newsletters to staff (Nov. 15, 2012)
FFRF 'helps' Oklahoma school counselors leave religion at the door (Nov. 9, 2012)
FFRF halts bible distribution at Virginia school (Nov. 7, 2012)
FFRF finishes the chapter on Arkansas bible distributions (Nov. 5, 2012)
FFRF ends teacher led prayers and distribution of religious fliers in Kentucky grade school (Nov. 1, 2012)
FFRF tells Georgia school 'nothing fails like prayer' (Oct. 30, 2012)
FFRF's 'first priority' is to warn against religious clubs in Alabama school (Oct. 29, 2012)
FFRF directs California teacher to put an end to religious songs (Oct. 25, 2012)
FFRF takes down religious elementary school sign in Kentucky (Oct. 24, 2012)
A Mississippi high school will no longer promote religious banners at sporting events (Oct. 22, 2012)
FFRF Takes Church Sign off Michigan Elementary School Lawn (Oct. 11, 2012)
FFRF honors the Constitution, removes Mississippi Ten Commandments (October)
FFRF stops prayer at Texas school pep rallies (Sept. 26, 2012)
FFRF stops prayers at Mississippi football games (Sept. 24, 2012)
FFRF pulls the plug on religious displays in California hospital (Sept. 17, 2012)
FFRF gets faculty out of Christian clubs in Texas (Sept. 14, 2012)
FFRF stops proselytizing teacher in Arkansas (Sept. 13, 2012)
FFRF stops coaches from praying with students in Indiana (Sept. 12, 2012)
FFRF stops Mississippi restaurant’s discriminatory discount (Sept. 11, 2012)
FFRF kicks religion out of New York classroom (Sept. 11, 2012)
FFRF stops teacher’s religious promotion and bullying in New York classroom (Sept. 11, 2012)
FFRF stops school board prayer in Michigan (Sept. 10, 2012)
FFRF stops government prayer in Oklahoma (Sept. 10, 2012)
FFRF gets state-sponsored religious commercial off the air (Sept. 5, 2012)
FFRF gets religious displays out of Florida classroom (Aug. 31, 2012)
FFRF gets religious sign removed from New York public park (Aug. 29, 2012)
Florida “In God We Trust” license plate scam under investigation (Aug. 27, 2012)
Georgia football games ban prayer-giver (August 23, 2012)
Restaurant Ends Bulletin Discount (Aug. 22, 2012)
FFRF stops Community College violation (Aug. 22, 2012)
FFRF halts graduation prayer in Mogadore, Ohio (Aug. 22, 2012)
FFRF halts graduation prayers at Alabama school (Aug. 21, 2012)
FFRF complaint changes "Faith and Family Night" at Pennsylvania university (Aug. 20, 2012)
Did the ‘man in the sky’ see FFRF’s complaint coming? (Aug. 16, 2012)
God hates divorce in Missouri? (Aug. 16, 2012)
FFRF is successful in ending Milwaukee Irish Fest violation (Aug. 16, 2012)
FFRF stops pre-game prayers in South Dakota school (Aug. 14, 2012)
FFRF complaint: San Francisco Board Drops Religious Oath (Aug. 14, 2012)
Louisiana Schools End Graduation Prayers (Aug. 10, 2012)
FFRF stops prayers, bible readings at Georgia senior center (Aug. 9, 2012)
FFRF gets religious narrative out of Ohio school assembly (August 9, 2012)
Thanks to FFRF, “All Faiths Day” open to those of no faith (Aug. 9, 2012)
FFRF educates Mississippi teacher (Aug. 8, 2012)
FFRF stops coach from promoting Christian club (Aug. 8, 2012)
FFRF halts prayer at Alabama school soccer tournament (Aug. 6, 2012)
FFRF halts evangelical assembly in Tennessee (Aug. 1, 2012)
Municipal Court offers alternatives to 12-step program after FFRF complaint (Aug. 1, 2012)
FFRF gets proselytizing group out of Texas elementary schools (July 30, 2012)
FFRF erases religious voicemail recording in Missouri (July 28, 2012)
FFRF stops daily prayers in Mississippi elementary school (July 23, 2012)
FFRF ends Mercer Co., Ky., high school graduation prayer (July 20, 2012)
FFRF moves church trailer from Tenn. school (July 19, 2012)
FFRF removes cross from PS 76 Q, NYC (July 18, 2012)
FFRF tells U.S. Army to quit mowing Catholic Charities’ lawns (July 17, 2012)
FFRF stops prayer at Michigan high school graduation (July 17, 2012)
FFRF removes creche from public space in Ellwood City (July 16, 2012)
FFRF stops bible distributions in Georgia school (July 16, 2012)
FFRF stops religious emails at Alabama agency (July 13, 2012)
FFRF halts board prayer in Henrico County (July 10, 2012)
FFRF gets bible quotes out of Texas classroom (July 9, 2012)
FFRF complaint replaces Georgia restaurant’s unlawful discount (July 5, 2012)
FFRF blocks Indiana school board prayer (July 3, 2012)
U.S. Census unlinks to Catholic “research center” after FFRF complaint (July 2, 2012)
FFRF downs University of Florida religious quilt (June 29, 2012)
Indiana agrees to abide by the Constitution (June 29, 2012)
FFRF cuts bibles out of Ohio surgical unit (June 26, 2012)
FFRF stops distribution of student info to Catholic Church (June 26, 2012)
FFRF cleans up religion from South Carolina school yard (June 25, 2012)
FFRF mutes religious music at North Dakota elementary school (June 25, 2012)
North Carolina School to End “Vacation Bible School” (June 21, 2012)
FFRF ‘saves’ New Jersey students from religious service (June 19, 2012)
FFRF punishes pious Texas educators (June 18, 2012)
FFRF stamps out cross at North Carolina post office (June 12, 2012)
FFRF stops distribution of religious materials at Tennessee school (June 7, 2012)
FFRF sacks prayer at Alabama high school’s football games (June 4, 2012)
FFRF tackles Washington football coach’s prayers (June 1, 2012)

http://ffrf.org/legal/other-legal-successes