(October 10, 2012 at 2:00 pm)festive1 Wrote: I'll just throw this out there... I don't have the source, but I know I've read about this phenomenon: If you have a moving religious experience by a certain age (before the brain is fully developed, I believe towards the end of adolescence), certain areas of the brain related to critical thinking shut down. Thereby, if one doesn't have a moving religious experience early in life, one is A) less likely to have faith, and B) more open to different ideas. By having this exposure to a moving religious experience, I'd assume there would be a greater difficulty later in life of overcoming one's beliefs. Which is where you get the fundamentalists who simply won't listen to reason or accept proof or factual evidence. Thoughts?
I heard about this in a different context. Children who expirenced racism through their parents during their infancy, eaven if it`s only a bit (mother taking a tighter grip of her handbag when a black man approaches, mother or mum and dad closely observing a black man who walks by on the pavement) are more likely to releate to racist stereotyps about these people.
The early childhood years are some of the most importent in context of character-building and how one perceives the world he or she lives in.
I remember my grandma telling me at a young age, how much she hated russians and poles and how certain stereotyps followed me for a long time of my life.
.
It strenghtens the argument that teaching children not to think criticaly through religion can be considered to be childabuse.
