D&D teaches lots of good and useful things. Bookkeeping, social skills, basic math skills, even responsibility and comradeship.

It's simply make believe with some rules thrown in to aid fair evaluation of conflicts. (in game)

Some people have difficulty separating fantasy from real life, and that has nothing to do with D&D.

Was playing Candyland harmful because it depicted sweets? What is with all the censureship?

It depends on your DM

It's easy to over rationalize the impact of games like D&D. I started playing D&D in 1975, three years after it came out. I continued to play it until around 1986 (sorry I'm a nerd). We had 2 engineers, an archaeologist (me) and a geologist in our campaign. What it did for us is stimulate our creativity, challenge our design skills, and gave us an us an appreciation and practice in problem solving. This early interactive game is not to be mistaken with the video version.
To your question, I do not think that D&D (non-video version only) dies not necessarily cause children to suddenly become deified. Nothing wrong with learning about other cultures, they are real and are vibrant, even if we do not buy into their paradigm.

That's no more a valid concern than fundamentalists saying it's harmful to play because it opens you up to evil spirits or "gives place" to the devil.

I have known a couple of players, including one that does it the old fashioned way, from books (no computers). They do not believe in deities. A fundamentalist would probably say that's because they play the game.

D&D is like any other immersive role-playing game, it's harmful only if it becomes an addiction that reduces your ability to cope with Real Life.

Im 66 and used to play D&D over 30 years ago and more,1979 its fantasy, before we had computer games,,,,

My atheist nephew plays smite.

I think you're safe from belief in deities when mythology becomes a source of entertainment. I played D&D from the time I was about eleven until I was almost thirty. I didn't believe in the deities in the game any more than I did the demons, monsters, undead, or magic spells.

Come to think of it; I think putting deities in that context may benefit the development of skepticism.