(March 10, 2015 at 2:35 am)Irrational Wrote:(March 9, 2015 at 10:09 pm)Zenith Wrote: For children, indoctrination is, basically, teaching someone the truth you believe in. You cannot say that X forced his beliefs upon his 6 years old child. The child simply believes whatever he's being told. If you say "There's a guy living in the sky" he will believe. By the time he grew older, he won't even need to be "forced" to go to church or do ritual A or B.
Actually, I know parents who literally forced their beliefs on their children, and not just simply teach. But maybe it's just the culture I come from.
To be fair, just saying "There's a guy living in the sky" seems harmless. But it would still be way better to say that you believe there's a guy living in the sky but that it is possible you could be wrong. It's more in how you say things to the child rather than what you actually believe.
Regarding Christians sincerely believing in a hell, even so, it is still abuse to instill in children's minds that there is such a thing as hell, especially when you know there's no evidence for such a place. Intentions don't always have to matter. Abuse is still abuse.
And to Lek, if foreskins are such a bad thing to humanity, why did God create a subset of humans with foreskins in the first place?
I was born in a religious christian family. I particularly have not been taught of "the perils of hell" at a young age. I was forced to go to the church when I was young, yes. I did live in a religious environment and had been indoctrinated, yes. It took a lot of time and it was not easy to forsake the faith I grew in (and yes, I used to fear going to hell for no longer believing in God).
What I'm trying to say is that there are ways in which a child can be grown in a christian family without becoming a psychopathic / ruined adult. There are many ways in which one can believe in God, and there are many ways in which one can treat / educate his child. Since we're talking about theists now, and there's no way we can force them not to teach their children about God, we should consider some guidelines that even theists can keep and can come to agree to, so that their christian children, which most of them will remain christian, will have the best treatment possible, within the limits.
Besides, there are things similarly evil to a kid as indoctrinating him: not educating him quite at all. And there are trends and ideologies that come and go and the children & youth are vulnerable to them, and depending on case, can equally destroy their lives. So perhaps we should not look at it as if Christianity / religion is the only great peril that can happen to a child, or that, if somehow religion disappeared over night, all children would start to be educated properly.
