(February 26, 2017 at 3:00 pm)Aroura Wrote: Oh I agree. Just like some people can learn to read even if no one teaches them. But most people won't do it. You are one of the people who would. Yes, people can learn it on their own, even as adults. But even those of us who learn this still have to actively push ourselves not to fall back into an echo chamber of our own pre-conceived notions. It's why scientists use blind studies and why the scientific method is so important, because bias creeps in unknowingly based on what they think is true, even when they are honest and don't mean to.
I think that indoctrinating kids early with religion is a way people teach their kids not to reason at all. When people are taught that some things just are and cannot be questioned, and worse, that having blind faith can be a desirable attribute, they've really harmed that child's chances of being able to question their own beliefs as adults. It can still happen, clearly, I myself was indoctrinated young but still managed to get out of it, though it took time. For some people, it never really takes hold. You hear on here about people who's parents raised them in religion, but they questioned early, by 8 or 9 and never really bought into it all.
I think it's safe to say most people aren't like that, though. The information age seems to be raising the number who can teach themselves, but most people don't seem able to do that, either.
I think it would be worth teaching critical thinking in schools. It's possible that many schools in many countries teach children about "truths" (history, sciences, etc.) but don't teach them to doubt their own thinking and to evaluate and re-evaluate what they believe. I believe students should also be taught in schools about the means of manipulation and mass manipulation so they can observe them and be more careful about them.
I can relate as far as religion goes. I got internet for the first time when I was 18-19 years old, and I was 19 when I first heard the word "atheist", if you can believe that. I was raised in a religious pentecostal family, religious environment, within a religious society. How I managed to evade faith? It surprises even myself. But I also know, it was hard, and it also took me about 1 year of torment with the conviction that I was going to burn in hell for eternity because I could no longer believe - even though, before that, I had come to the conclusion that, if God was fair, then even atheists should be able to reach heaven. And now I feel that I had been deprived of living a normal life.
Perhaps schools and churches and parents tend to teach children and adolescents to "comply" to the rules and beliefs of the society rather than challenge them. And perhaps they are likewise eager to punish those who don't fall in line.
P.S. History classes can also be a danger to a society, if it's not treated fairly. In countries who value nationalism and where children are taught history with the flavour "We have always been the good guys, brave, smart, etc." rather than also tell them the grotesque things their ancestors had done, they may grow with the conviction that "we're the good guys, the others had wronged us. we can't do evil." - and such mentality can have grave effects.
