(May 25, 2022 at 8:09 pm)emjay Wrote: Sorry, how does this follow from what I've said? You don't become a Christian just by being aware of the existence of Christianity... and I wouldn't have become a Christian as a child without the active influence of my parents. Ie I wouldn't have become a Christian just by what I passively picked up from society... media... school etc.. unless I was specifically curious/interested which I was not.
The thread topic, as I understood it, asks "At what age should a child be introduced to religion?"
"Introduced to" casts rather a wide net, I think. When a child asks "why do those women have their faces covered?" or "why did the new President put his hand on that book?" the answers will involve religion. Giving the child an honest and age-appropriate answer will include introducing them to religion.
Maybe you were thinking about a more targeted sort of introduction -- the sort of introduction in which there is a danger that the child will believe the religion is true.
Religious people believe their religion is true. When a Shinto priest teaches his children that the rocks and trees have kami in them, he is not, in his own view, indoctrinating them. He is teaching them what's true.
No doubt flat-earthers would like us to wait and not teach our children the earth is round until the kids are about age 12 or so, and are old enough to make up their own minds. Then the education should be given in a balanced way by neutral, government-approved education specialists. But I don't think so -- if a kid asks me what shape the earth is, I'm going to tell him what I think is true.
