(May 18, 2017 at 11:11 pm)Aroura Wrote:(May 18, 2017 at 10:35 pm)emjay Wrote: I have no experience of Catholicism which sounds worse, given all the ritual etc that has to be learnt, but as a former Protestant, when I was about fourteen I went through weeks or months of inconsolable terror and nightmares at the prospect of hell because I thought I'd committed the unforgivable sin and blasphemed the Holy Spirit. I don't remember how I got through that but the point is it was an experience I did not need to have, and shouldn't have had, because I never truly chose Christianity in the first place... never chose it as an informed decision of adulthood.
I'm sorry emjay, that sounds truly terrible.
The sect I was brought up in, and I sometimes forget but Catholics really vary from sect to sect (Like Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominican) was not big on talking about hell, or sin, when I was a kid. I really feel lucky about that. I know a lot of people are not so lucky.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Aroura
Well I don't really remember there being much talk of hell per se in my upbringing... as opposed to how you guys describe Catholicism and that 'Good News Club'. Ie I think the above was my own imagination more than anything else, following on from conclusions I had reached about committing the unforgivable sin. But nonetheless, the ideas that led to that were in place and they didn't need to be. My upbringing was very anti-ritual/graven images... so the more a church had those aspects the less it was trusted and therefore most of the churches we went to were very simple places, most of which without their own building, just renting it from somewhere, where it was just a meeting of the minds but without so much as a crucifix on the wall. So in stark contrast to Catholicism, which sounds a hell of a lot worse in the sense of ideas drummed in, and that 'Good News Club' which sounds positively disgusting.
Anyway, I'm not faulting the intentions of my family or that community; it was/is a kind community that always had each other's backs. But nonetheless, the kids are dragged along for the ride, without informed consent and that's what I take issue with. If religions left kids out of it, and concentrated their efforts and teachings on converting adults only, I wouldn't mind so much. In practice there's perhaps not that much you could do to change that and reduce the exposure that kids have to its ideas... given that its where the parents interests, beliefs, and sense of community lie and thus to exclude kids from it would end up excluding them from pretty much all of family life which can't be good either. So it's a bit catch 22. But nonetheless, I think it would be a big step if theists would not consider it their responsibility to teach/convert their children to their religion... ie realise that children are dependent, impressionable, imaginative, and lack critical thinking skills so therefore any decisions they come to in that regard do not and cannot represent an informed decision.
