it also features insights from child psychologists

I am glad Prof. Dawkins is wheeling the big guns of science into this political debate. The more science is used to inform policy the better.

Comment 11 by pollracker :

So whereas I don't think Children should be indoctrinated, It might be a blessing to all of us in the Atheist community if there was some sort of some philosophical after school program for teens that taught many different belief systems. This would included of course the main religions, and may be some ancient non believed ones, and than also lack of religion and the beliefs on it.

There is a distinction between "religious indoctrination" and "religious education". The former is telling a child one religion is the truth. The latter is educating a child about what people of different religions believe. It it could be regarded as a sub-discipline of history or sociology, or even geography. Richard Dawkins has himself argued that the bible should be taught in schools as part of English literature because bible references permeate the culture of the West. We cannot understand our (Western) culture and history without knowing about classical and christian legends.

Comment 15 by Kagami :

I think you don't understand. Religion (especially christianity)is a dangerous meme, a mental virus, which seeks to disempower and weaken the person, whom it attaches to. By indoctrinating the victim with these ideas like "compassion", "caring", "love", "eternal life" and other stuff like that, the result is, that stronger, healthier individuals (without the virus)will take advantage of the person.

Oh look, a "concern troll".

25 million years of human evolution in cooperating groups have produced "compassion", "caring", "love". Educators only need to hone it in children, and control the 1% of psychopaths. "eternal life" is a lie used by the 1% of psychopaths to con suckers out of money in exchange for rewards that can never be delivered.

(EDIT: The Moral Life of Babies gives a good discussion about the inate morality of humans.)

So, we must teach the masses in our schools, that we are all evolutionary beings, animals, whose sole purpose is to get ourselves what we want.

A naive interpretation of Darwinism. It is only applicable to solitary species, and even then they need to co-operate with a partner when they match up to mate. It does not apply to species which live in groups, such as humans.

Maynard Smith, John. Evolution and the Theory of Games. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982, might be of help here.

So who taught you "compassion", "caring", "love" and "honesty" Kagami? Was it a Christian? Are you lying for Jebus?