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Indoctrinating Children in Religion
March 9, 2015 at 10:10 am
Parents are responsible for making a lot of important choices for their children. Religion can sometimes be part of the culture of a certain region that parents might want to pass on to their children. At the same time, adolescents should be allowed to reject their parents' religion without having to fear that they will be thrown out of the house. I have known families that spend every weekend, Sunday morning and evening in church and also take part in their church's various celebrations. A lot of these parents have the mindset that their children will attend their religious functions if they live under their parents' roof. That means that their children are forced to spend a lot of time in church.
I thought it would be interesting to have a thread dedicated to the indoctrination of children in religion. How far is too far? If you are a theist, would you force your sixteen year old to attend church if they disagreed with your religious views?
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RE: Indoctrinating Children in Religion
March 9, 2015 at 10:13 am
It didn't work very well i was only a christian for such a short time and when ever i had a question about god i was told to read the bible so after reading it so many times trying to figure it out and already having feeling iffy about it i pretty much figured out its a bunch of bullshit.
Atheism is a non-prophet organization join today.
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RE: Indoctrinating Children in Religion
March 9, 2015 at 10:54 am
(This post was last modified: March 9, 2015 at 10:55 am by robvalue.)
I think religious education is absolutely fine, although there's really no need to begin it at an early age. Kids do not need to know about all that. If you can't parent them without using religion, then you just suck.
Sadly, I doubt many parents would be capable of even realizing the difference between education and indoctrination.
I say, if you're so sure of your stuff, let the kid grow up free from it all, then explain it to them when they're 16. It's then up to them whether they accept it or not. And if you treat them any differently for rejecting your beliefs, you are a horrible person. If you must mention it earlier then that, own up that these are your beliefs and not simply facts. Again, difficult for many theists to understand that distinction I know.
Is there any religious theist on the board with children, who has not indoctrinated them at an early age?
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RE: Indoctrinating Children in Religion
March 9, 2015 at 10:56 am
Keep your silly superstition to yourself and leave the fucking kids alone.
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RE: Indoctrinating Children in Religion
March 9, 2015 at 10:58 am
(This post was last modified: March 9, 2015 at 10:58 am by robvalue.)
That would certainly be ideal!
If only that would happen.
See how they get on without all that crap in their heads, and you'll find out that they don't need it.
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RE: Indoctrinating Children in Religion
March 9, 2015 at 12:28 pm
(This post was last modified: March 9, 2015 at 12:29 pm by robvalue.)
I have the right to force my kid to believe whatever I want regardless of the long term effects on it.
It's another form of silent harm, like feeding your kid so much that it gets really fat at an early age and has health problems. Some forms of damage are socially acceptable, whereas a good whack round the head now and again would probably be less damaging overall but will get your kids taken away.
Not that I support whacks round the head either.
Also, smoking all around your kids and giving them an increased risk of lung cancer... acceptable yet demonstrable harm apparently.
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RE: Indoctrinating Children in Religion
March 9, 2015 at 12:34 pm
Indoctrination and circumcision should be against the law.
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RE: Indoctrinating Children in Religion
March 9, 2015 at 12:40 pm
(This post was last modified: March 9, 2015 at 12:44 pm by Crossless2.0.)
Teach your kids how to think, not what to think. Encourage questions. Provide them with good source material so they can learn to look up things themselves. And if you must bombard them with religious instruction at a young age, then respect them enough to expose them to a variety of religious and non-religious traditions and let them come to their own conclusions. Your children are people in their own right -- not your property and not clay you get to mold into your own misshapen image.
I know, I know . . . it's pie in the sky, at least as far as most religious households are concerned. The last thing they want is a real marketplace of ideas where their bullshit competes on an even footing with other points of view. But I can dream.
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RE: Indoctrinating Children in Religion
March 9, 2015 at 12:44 pm
In the US, it might help if schools taught all the facts, philosophy, and critical thinking skills that would protect them from the inevitable indoctrination at home.
