Indoctrinating Children in Religion

[Dystopia]

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?

In my opinion parents are legally and ethically entitled to educate children according to their beliefs, whether it's religious, political, ideological, social, economical or moral. That being said, I think it's desirable that parents try to be as impartial as possible - Sure, it's impossible to avoid a minimal of indoctrination - In theory, if I ever have kids and teach them my morality I am indoctrinating them into thinking my morality is right - But families should try, after considering limitations, to not force kids into believing something is right. When you are little your brain is underdeveloped and it's incredibly easy to make you think something is right since the brain is very vulnerable.

To me, anything like "You are going to hell if you don't believe in god" is too much, but something like "Here's the reasons why daddy believes in god" is ok.

For a 16 year old I think autonomy should prevail - 16 year old kids, depending on the country, may be able to drive, buy alcohol (and maybe cigarettes), go to jail, etc - So I don't think it is reasonable to impose your religion.

Personally I won't allow my kids to have any religious education, I'm still considering if I'll baptise them just because it's tradition and I can throw a big party after - But my love for priests is so high that I'm considering not even doing that.