Should children be encouraged into a religion?

Question

I think it's unfair to take kids to church/synagogue/mosque and bring them up with the parents' religious views, as they subconciously accept the religion without question. Why not allow them exposure to many faiths and let them decide when they are ready?

Answer 1

I think they should be introduced to all religions and be allowed a choice of any or none.

Answer 2

What they should be told is the truth, and that is religion is man made, ALL the holy books are written by man, the bible has not been correctly translated from Hebrew, and man has used the voice of God though religion to control, and to scare the people of the world, having been told this they need to be told about God, and and that he his known by Lot's of names, told of Jesus, and then let them decide on their own, but explain to them that God gave us free will, and that we have messed things up, and that most of the non believers don't believe because God does not come and help sort out the world, but then why should he it was our choice that the world has ended up this way. Tell the kids that some of these so called religions take your money after brainwashing you, and give you very little in return.
Tell them the truth, all they need is faith in God, and themselves, and they will find the way.

Love & Peace

Answer 3

There are two fairly good reasons to bring your children up in your faith - or any faith.

The first is if they die and are not believers, then they will go to hell. Why would you wish that on your child? Of course any athiest would say that won't happen, but if you are of a denomination that believes this, then it makes the best possible sense to bring up your child within that religious framework.

The second point is that if you don't expose them to religious teachings, they won't have any information at all to make an informed decision later on in life. How will they be able to decide they want to worship God or Allah or Krishna or any God if they don't know anything about it. Better to let them attend a place of worship to get a feel for it early on when they are more open minded to teachings.

I am an athiest myself and this is just my opinion :)

Answer 4

Excellent question. Religious parents are so cruel to their children – God is just a monster.

Nothing could possibly be more mentally damaging to children than telling them over and over again from birth there exists an invisible person (God or whatever) who is unwilling to prove he exists watching them every second of every day, reading their thoughts, and if they don't believe in this invisible person they will be tortured for eternity. Yet we tell the same children that monsters don't exist so it's silly to be scared of monsters.

Our innocent children are subjected to so much abuse. Religion today, irrespective of which religion you belong to, is such a disgrace and a sad reflection on humanity, surely there must be a way to convince our children to walk away from this man-made nonsense and look for a better way.

History and statistics clearly show that religion has miserably failed humanity, and in fact, it’s as close to evil as anyone could imagine. Religion hurts everyone who unfortunately stumbles in its path, especially the minds of young innocent children.

Surely there must be a better way than religion. Humanity has made great progress technologically, surely we at least owe it to our children to find a better answer than religion, and more importantly, do it quickly before we permanently stuff up our world. Our children deserve better.

In my view, churches are major instigators for promoting wrong doing in our societies, and so many so-called preachers sexually abuse young children nowadays. Lots of people have had problems at church, but are just too scared to surface due to the emotional damage and brainwashing they have been subjected to.

Answer 5

I went to church with my parents until I was 12, from 12 to 16, I was allowed to go to any church, any denomination, at 16 I was allowed to decide if I wanted to go to church at all. I got a lot of experience, in a lot of denominations. Why shouldn't parents be allowed to bring their kids up with their views? It doesn't mean that they will KEEP them. When is that "exposure" going to begin otherwise? Should someone else raise the kids?

Answer 6

I completely agree.

Let them find their own source.

We are in the new millenium and truthfully, there isn't one good faith or religion because each and every one of them has something good and it is up to the human to find one's place in the midst of all of that.

I was unofficially raised a catholic. I say unofficially because I was baptised and I went to church for a while, but my parents never forced me into anything and when I proclaimed not to be entirely satisfied with what one religion had to offer, they accepted that and moved on.

I am a believer in all religions, which is the exact opposite of being atheist. We can retrieve what works for us from all religions and belief systems until we are able to craft our own personal way of life and philosophy.

That, in my opinion is true freedom in every sense of the word.
This, is what I strongly wish and recommend for all children.

If we don't let them choose from themselves, they will do it anyway sooner or later. Faith and one's beliefs is the strongest thing in this world after love. We shoud not try to influence or encourage anyone into any faith. Let them find themselves.

That's beautiful.

Thanks for posting that question. You are one of the rare open-minded people I have seen on this forum. Good for you.

Answer 7

No they should not. They should be encouraged to weigh up the evidence and make up their own minds. That's where religion has the advantage. It scares the crap out of children while they are very young and while they have neither the understanding or confidence to challenge what they are being told. By the time they've worked out what's going on it's too late, they're already scared out of their minds.

Answer 8

I was born into a very religious Jewish family and from the age of 12 I followed my mother became less and less religious, i hated the religion and now slowly I am growing stronger in it. My friend has no religion, she celebrates Hanukkah, Christmas an everything as has no idea where she belongs. I think that children should be shown and taught the religion they are born into but not to be forced. whether they want to follow should be their own decision...

Answer 9

You know, that question is so ridiculous that I hesitate to answer. It is like, why make your kids take a bath or brush their teeth or go to school. Let them grow up and make up their own minds as to whether they want to do these things.The bible says "train up a child in which way to go and he will not depart from it". When kids come up against all kinds of obstacles in school like drugs, sex, etc, they don't have anything "up there" as an alternative way to go. Of course, it all depends on the parents. If they have nothing, they won't be able to give their children any spiritual training and they will end up being bankrupt spiritually unless God intervenes and sends someone to them. But if the parents are believers, they definitely have to give their children exposure to the church and biblical teachings.

Answer 10

Children should be made aware of all religions, and should be allowed to choose. I was the only member of my family that was never christened, baptised or blessed, and I am so grateful for it. It was my decision to become Wiccan, and came to that decision from long research and experience. My children will not be christened, unless they choose it themselves when they are old enough to understand the religion they wish to follow, if any at all.

Answer 11

I agree. Children are hard-wired to trust and rely on parents and authority figures. During their early years, children are essentially being programmed. To fill their heads with the myths, superstitions and fantastical delusions of an ignorant bunch of Bronze Age fishermen and wandering goat herders, and cement the idea that such nonsense represents the cosmic 'truth' about existence and reality, is child abuse. It should be criminalized.