[jimmy28]

Didn't early Christianity start out as a Jewish cult?
Brainwashing of any sort happens as you go through life. When you sit in church a preacher will mention heaven and hell. Eternal reward or eternal damnation. If you believe in heaven or hell what are you going to go for. The man, or woman, in the pulpit is using threats of your afterlife to make you believe in the churches doctrine.

Brainwashing refers to a coercive technique

That is what a preacher is doing, same as an atheist is doing when not listening to your point of view. A hardened *insert faith here* is not going to listen to you. From what Macimo has mentioned in his posts it sounds like he attended a Jesuit school where questioning was not allowed. A case of "You will believe or suffer damnation". There are many faith schools where that does happen. Anyone who has been subjected to that will have a strong reaction to faith teachings, whether is was beaten into them, figuratively or literally, to believe. They either end up as extreme believers or extreme non-believers. Fear is the key to any coercive technique, whether it uses psychological techniques or physical. Overcome that fear and that is when you can freely choose.

On the room. Give the young wippersnapper a slap and no dessert.
Kids today, no respect for their elders and I fought the war for you