If kids were not taught religion, and they had no exposure to religion, what religion would they be as adults?

Question

Please support your claim with evidence or logical conclusions.

Thanks.

The two answers (so far) related to repentance & missionaries are not responding to the question.

The question assumes no exposure to religious teachings of any kind. If they were taught to be Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, whatever, that would negate the question since it specifically states "had NO exposure to religion."

For those claiming "no religion," who invented religions in the first place?

Or, are my atheist friends implying that "God did it" (invented religions).


:-)

Example:

Try to imagine a child who is born & raised in isolation without any human influence. Such as on a deserted island with no other humans around. (ignoring the survival aspects)

To mamad:

No apology necessary. Your English is as good as, if not better than, most people on Y!A's.

Answer 1

They would make their own god and make up their own worship rituals. That's how many world religions have started. I think everyone has internal questions about life. How they got here, why they are here, where did all the animal species come from, what is out in the skies, etc. People seek guidance and if they aren't told about what others believe, they will make up their own beliefs. Like Egyptians, African tribes, and islanders. They feel comfort in worshiping a god and feel that there is a reason for their own existence. We look for self-worth and meaning. This has been done for centuries.

Answer 2

Hypothetically spoken that this is possible, most people without religious indoctrinations, will become humanists. This is what you see in most countries that have larger amounts of non-religious people.
Humanism encloses all human naturally inherited morals like "don't do to other people, what you wouldn't like them to do to you" and insists on peaceful solutions for problems and differences. I think in the end this is what almost everybody wants.
Unfortunately I don't think science will ever, during human existence, come up with the answer that can replace the concept of a god or creator. Maybe the next intelligent species will, but who knows?
But as long the final questions about life and the universe are not answered, and even long after that, there will be people that will never accept that, because of their indoctrinations that will survive for generations, or just make up this god idea again.

Answer 3

I can tell you only about myself. I was not taught any religion as a child and still today do not belong to any church. I accepted Jesus and God though my own thought processes and my friends that were Christians. I do not know for sure when that belief came to pass only that I became a believer sometime in my early teens. And, by the way, none of my friends ever pushed me to believe anything and in fact we seldom spoke about religion. I think that most believers need hope. and religion gives one that hope. Hope that there is something there after this life.

But, your question asks: what religion would they be and I can not answer that except to say that they would come be believe something, sometime I guess. Sooner or later all people are exposed to some form of belief. Maybe they would be Sun worshippers, Moon worshippers, etc.

So...why is it that some people are bought up in a religion and at sometime become non-believers in that same religion? Don't know the answer to that one either.

Answer 4

None. If a child is not exposed to religion, he is much more likely to grow up free from it.
What you learn as a child stays with you for the rest of your life. Christians know this; in the Bible it says,"Bring a child up in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it". If a child is brought up with no exposure to religion but instead is thought to think for himself and be morally accountable to himself, chances are he will choose not to bind himself with any religious chains.
Adults are better able to reason than children; if you hand an adult a Bible for the first time and tell him it is true, chances are he won't believe it. There's too much that is contradictory and obviously mythological.
That's why Christians are so anxious to get people as kids. If you tell a child that he is bad person who can't be good except through God; if you make a child afraid of going to hell; if you teach a child that God sees every wrong thing and will punish him or those he loves--chances are, that will stay with him for the rest of his life. If you don't, what adult would willingly come to accept that despite all evidence to the contrary?

Answer 5

They would wonder about how they got here and draw their own conclusions. Some would conclude there was a Creator, some would not. Some would pray to a being they knew couldn't be like what is on earth, i.e. to an unseen Creator. Some would just start praying to cows, statues, or whatever they thought was amazing, to give them "strength", comfort and to answer their requests/prayers.

Those who concluded that there was an intelligent Creator, might wonder why God never sent any instructions on how best to live.

So, basically it would be the way it is now, but nothing would be in writing, so, believe it or not, that would probably lead to a whole lot more bickering about what God's instructions or desire for mankind was! Instead of Jews, Christians and Muslims occasionally fighting, there could be hundreds of major divisions in beliefs.

Answer 6

It would be nearly impossible to raise kids without exposure to religion or any moral truths that a society considers absolute. Yet, religion started somewhere. Some say it came from God, and others say that it developed spontaneously. then it seems likely that religion would develop again in one generation or another. I can't imagine anyone testing this hypothesis so I can't offer any evidence, only deductive reasoning based on history.

Regarding your desert island scenario, one possible description could be found in William Golding's book, "Lord of the Flies." It's a bleak (revealing?) look at the basic nature of humans.

Answer 7

If they had absolutely no exposure to religion and not taight religion as kids I believe they might be more swayed towards religion.

It depends on the parents and why religion was never exposed to them. If the kid as an adult believes that you did the best thing by not exposing him to religion then I'm sure he will stay away from it.
However, as most kids when they form into an adult, begin the hardest times of thier life the transformation. How many kids turned adults do you know that they agree totally with something thier parents did for them growing up, as far as taking something away from them that they could have really wanted. Maybe this kid was never asked several times if he wanted to be religious. Maybe he just didnt understand it and niether did his parents.

Its really a 50/50 thing, but most likely as young adults swing toward thier thirties and want a normal, steady and free of the emotional rollercoaster of growing up then religion can definately be a possibility.

Its really depends on what kindof friends they have and what kind of upbringing they had, so its 50/50 to me. It's really something unpredictable and really happens only when this person needs religion for unexplained emotions that he cant talk to anyone about or cant understand. Its a need, so if he needs it hell be a religious man,

Answer 8

With no science either - desert island no contact with the outside world type thing - they might develop some typ wonder about the unknown - that something unseen was influencing things. Then the sounds in the night, maybe hear a voice or see a mist - the things some of us contribute to ghosts and spirits but Atheists say are our imagination - they could very well start believing there are things like spirits.

Answer 9

I'm Muslim. I was born Muslim, but I don't have such believe in Islam. Anyway in Islamic studies they told us praying god or gods is an instinct in human being, as you can see in any culture (I'm not sure of it but telling you what they told us) there is some kind of supreme being that people believe in and when they are in trouble they pray for the help from it (maybe in new made culture there isn't any and this because they are thinking and if you think maybe you even do not believe in god).
As you can see if they are right about that instinct thing child would be grow up as an religious in some kind.
Sorry for my English.

Answer 10

This is a trick question in my opinion dear Sir.

An old quote from Benito Mussolini (from my high school History years) springs to mind

"The fate of nations is intimately bound up with their powers of reproduction. All nations and all empires first felt decadence gnawing at them when their birth rate fell off”.

For the purposes of this argument I will remove any kind of separation from church and state (for in my mind the churches act as a state so I am not convinced they are separate for the purposes of this argument)

Logically, without kids getting taught religion there would be no religion, indoctrination needs to occur when the minds are fragile and empty vessels needing moral guidance, religion provides this framework.

As adults, we would not consider religion if we heard about it for the first time, If I may be so bold as to venture an opinion, there would be no religion, it would be replaced by the modern phenomena of Consumerism and Indifference -The Selfish Gene manifesting itself in society!

To qualify this (maybe), I would also hypothesize that the entire atheist rebuke that has happened throughout history and philosophy can be considered to be a reaction by adults who having gained insight and intellect through wisdom challenge the perceived and received wisdom of others they gained as a child when they did not know any better.