People are scared and I don't blame them.

[robvalue]

When it comes to children, I feel that teaching them how to think is the most important thing. Making them aware of religions is absolutely fine in my opinion. Shielding them will probably cause more problems than it will solve. They're going to come across it eventually.

I'm never having children, but if I did, I'd explain the popular kind of beliefs, and then I'd explore them along with my child. I'd allow them to ask the questions themselves, and work through it all. I would give my opinion when asked, along with the reasons. Personally, I wouldn't beat down on religion, I'd stick to the facts as much as possible.

My parents (shit though they have been in other ways) did nurture my critical thinking when I was young. They didn't even mention religion to me, as far as I can remember. They didn't tell me it even existed, and certainly gave no opinion either way. I discovered it for myself when I encountered it in school. This was back when teachers were allowed to force everyone to pray and such in assembly.

As an unprogrammed five year old, I saw through it immediately, and that was that. I don't think I even went home and asked my parents about it. I felt no need.

[Joods]

Agreed, Rob. My children know about religion. They also know how I feel about it. My stepsons were both in an after-school program called Release Time, which I found out was a christian based program and had bible-based activities. If they were my birth sons, they never would have been in that program to begin with. I felt it was a violation of the separation between church and state - religious program offered by a public school, where the teachers who ran the program were getting their paychecks from tax payer money.

[account_inactive]

This was back when teachers were allowed to force everyone to pray and such in assembly.

I attended an officially non-denominational primary school for a couple of years before moving area. It was majority Catholic though from what I can remember. Sadly the teachers would force everyone to pray, they sung hymns in assembly and religious folk would visit the school.

Safe to say, I spent quite a bit of time in the head teachers office for refusing. What they did probably wasn't legal in the first place but meh. I didn't bother complaining to anyone as it didn't really cross my mind at the time.

[deleteduser12345]

[WinterHold]

Of course... It's all about interpretations isn't it? That's what makes religions such a shitfest, you can interpret it in many different ways so you can deceive whoever you want, doesn't take much to realise it. 

People say religions have an answer for everything (quite shitty answers), that isn't because they're god's wise words, that's because they're constructed in such a way to fill everyones needs.

Any philosophy or ideology can  mean something else; something unique depending on who you are, that is one human feature to differ and vary.


So many variables take a role in the process of interpretation; and for the brain being a "closed box" and since we can't read minds, it's just hard to give the preacher any trust or any "benefit of the doubt";  you might grasp some of the variables that led to a certain interpretation, but never would you be sure.

Maybe it is supposed to be like this, vague and misty?
Life is a test; RozKek. So it should be like this.

That's why you get the phrase "Person X had lost his way".

[robvalue]

If life is a test, the guy running it is a sick fuck and he can go impale himself on his own depravity.

Maybe it's a test, maybe not. Either way, I'll just think for myself rather than figuring out what some voyeur might want me to do.

[Cyberman]

As I've said before:

If the sweetest, kindest and most perfect woman I ever knew had to die just as some sort of test for me, then fuck that god, fuck its test and quite frankly fuck anyone suicidal enough to suggest it to my face.

[deleteduser12345]

[deleteduser12345]

As I've said before:

If the sweetest, kindest and most perfect woman I ever knew had to die just as some sort of test for me, then fuck that god, fuck its test and quite frankly fuck anyone suicidal enough to suggest it to my face.

He's so merciful that he's going to take away that perfect woman resulting in you turning away from religion then burn you in hell. 

I mean, really. Which dumb fuck would turn to religion claiming every fucked up shit done to you is god's will? But it's okay. It's just a test.

[Cyberman]

That might make a reasonable case, or at least one I might find difficult to defend against. Tragically, however, I've been an atheist from even before I found there was a word for it.