I wake up weeping. It’s the third time tonight, and the third night this week that I’ve been woken up from a hideous dream. I am only 8 years old, but already the voices of my parents are not as convincing as the voice of Satan in my dreams. I have dreams where I’m taken to hell, dreams where my parents are dying because of sins I’ve committed and dreams where I’m doomed to eternal darkness. I have nightmares where the fabric of reality falls apart in Armageddon and demons beneath the ground spring out to drag the living world down. These fears are the result of sincere fundamentalist Christian upbringing.

Christianity in America appears generally benevolent. Many food banks, homeless shelters and other charitable organizations are often affiliated with a particular church or religious organization. Religion serves communities in a variety of ways, from organizing social functions to providing safe spaces. People often cite their religion as their source of values and code of morals. However, not everything that comes out of Christianity is good, both from an individual and a societal perspective.

Depending on the direction of the faith, many harmful practices and beliefs may come along with the expected charity and community. In particular, Christian fundamentalism holds toxic expectations and promotes harmful messages, denigrating to the person practicing the religion and to society as a whole.

Fundamental Christianity refers to a religious movement that began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As the industrialization of society and rationalization of human thought continued, certain religious leaders rebelled against the metaphorical interpretations of the doctrine. Science was beginning to interpret the world and explain things in a literal way that had before not been possible. Natural selection and evolution were becoming accepted ideas.

In response, religious leaders adopted a literal interpretation of the ideas in the Bible, including several very harmful ideologies. In particular the beliefs that earth is a temporary home for humans, that most of the people on the planet as doomed to an eternity in hell and that humans are, without question, evil, rotten and desperately needing salvation from themselves create a particularly poisonous world view.

Unfortunately, these harmful ideas are presented to young children who cannot distinguish between reality and lies. Parents, pastors and teachers pass along lessons that are taken in without question by naive minds. In fundamental Christianity, earthly life is seen as a temporary pit stop on the way to eternal life. This attitude brings with it some severe complications to the way people interact with each other and the planet.

We are currently in a climate crisis. Pollution from the agricultural, transportation and construction industries has been accumulating for the past few centuries, and the effects of human climate change can no longer be ignored. Viewing the earth as a temporary place of residence rather than another complicated and living entity allows for less attention to issues like sustainable building and recycling programs. Humans have been treating the earth as if they own it, rather than being a part of it. This attitude is heated by the ideas in fundamental Christianity.

A temporary planet can easily be seen as something to exploit to its breaking point, because we will not need to rely on it forever. Christian fundamentalists wait for the unannounced second coming of Christ, where they will be delivered from their temporary home to heaven. Heaven has unlimited resources, so earthly concerns on fossil fuel usage, rainforest protection and clean water are not serious matters. Of course, not every fundamentalist feels this way. There are environmentalist fundamentalists, too. However, this attitude has seeped from the religion into our protective environmental practices.

Another highly damaging fundamentalist ideology is the concept that every single person who has ever come into existence, past and present, is doomed to suffer the unending expanse of infinity by burning in hell. The only ones to escape this fate conveniently happen to be Christians. Fundamental Christianity goes as far as to condemn other Christians to this fate as well, for not interpreting the Bible literally. Catholics, Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists, Jehovah Witnesses and other Christian groups are often condemned from the fundamentalist perspective. Only a very select number of people get to see heaven, and this creates a very “us vs. them” mentality.

Without salvation, everyone who sins, no matter how large or small the transgression, has sentenced themselves to death. This makes for a sad view of the world. If this perspective is forced onto children, they are required to believe that their unbelieving friends, family members, classmates, teachers and everyone else they know will suffer in a terrible, painful manner. Consequences of this include anxiety, depression and a general mistrust of the world. Fundamental Christianity can make it difficult to enjoy a celebratory life by continually threatening damnation as punishment and blaming Satan as a constant tempter and thwarter of God’s otherwise perfect plan.

Satan and people share joint responsibility in the downfall of the human race, according to fundamental Christianity. According to the Genesis story Adam and Eve sentenced the rest of humanity to a life requiring salvation. A serpent with arms and legs tempted Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of good and evil, and since then humans have carried within themselves original sin. This idea means that people are born bad, and they will seek to do evil unto themselves and others if left to their own devices. This expectation of badness can lead to self-shaming and denigration. Holding a negative self-image puts people at greater risk for self-harm, criminal activity, anti-social behavior and suicide. The idea that humans are inherently evil is destructive to society by creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Christianity also preaches messages of unconditional love, forgiveness and reciprocity, but these positive messages are easily drowned out by the fear of hell and the unattainable expectation of perfection. In the meantime, our planet and society are degrading due to misguided and harmful ideals represented in fundamental Christianity. Many of the negative implications of a religious upbringing get missed in the generally positive conceptions surrounding a faith filled life, but the effects of viewing the world and people on it as sinful and damned don’t outweigh the benefits.