Raising kids in Religion.....?

Question

Why do people oppose it so much? It is a common misconception that kids raised with a particular religion will turn out just like their parents. I attended a Christian school, and the kids that were the LEAST tolerant of the religion, were the kids that were raised with it all their lives. They merely went through the motions. My best friend, while VERY fanatical in her teen years, as an adult as turned out to be very open minded now that she has grown up. So why should we care, if people choose to raise kids in a religion??

In my expierence, it usually works against the parents, not for them.

Answer 1

It an obligation for parents to teach their kids the right way and then they can always make their choices once they are independent adults. Just like disciplining your own kids,or else you will just raise a bunch of rude,unmanned adults who turn out to be jerks in their society.

Answer 2

Whether one believes in a religion or not does mean they will be raised any better or worse. It's all about raising a child with a sense of morals and right vs wrong. Muslim extremists are religious, but I wouldn't consider raising my child with their morals. I would also say the same with many extreme Christian groups. The lack of a church to go is rather irrelevant where I am. If you're in a small mid-west town the child may feel different than others, but teach them to be strong and confident in who they are and this shouldn't matter.

Answer 3

I would agree that overly strict parents will turn their kids away from whatever they are trying to teach, including religion. However, not all parents are overly strict about this. You will find that the overwhelming majority of the religious community is the same religion as were their parents.

I think that the truth is not afraid of scrutiny, and there should therefore be no fear to let a child grow up and decide on his own what the truth is. But, the semantics of that are difficult... it is not easy to remain completely neutral on any subject for the eighteen years it takes to raise a child.

Answer 4

Eh. I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of people in a particular religion were raised in it (with the possible exception of the now non-religious). Most people just go ahead and assume they're right without ever questioning what they were taught.

But it's a null point, as there's really no way to make parents stop teaching their kids about what they believe.

Answer 5

Parents should raise their kids as they think is best. Everyone has different experiences, different results. It's a lot more than just having "religion" in their lives.

Answer 6

As study in an upper-educational facility should teach you - case studies do not prove anything. You need to a correlational study to even show that the ideas are related.

I'm guessing that those who were raised with religion are more inclined to stay with religion. How else does the U.S. have a 75% Christianity rate?

Answer 7

I'm actually not totally opposed to this. I admit, I wish my family didn't baptize and raise me religiously, but that's a matter of family politics and things I went through. I also likely wouldn't indoctrinate my own children as I don't believe in it personally.

However, if a parent wants to raise their kid religiously, devout or not, I really don't care. It's their kids(s), not mine, who am I to say how they should raise their child? It's not my place to say, whether I agree with it or not.

Although, it's not entirely a misconception that a kid raised religiously won't turn out like their parents. I live in a small town and most of the time, that's exactly what happens. I'm admittedly one of the ones who do prove your point as I was raised Lutheran and am now atheist, but I know other people who turned out just the opposite.

I have a cousin who was raised by a very devout mother and he turned out exactly like her or worse. I personally don't care if a person becomes a missionary, that's their business after all, but he's really bad about his proselytization, as bad as his mother and worse. It's hard to have a conversation with either of them without religion popping up at some point or another. And as far as I know, my aunt was also raised quite religiously as well.

Then there's my uncle. He was raised devout Lutheran and he's a minister. Neither of my grandparents were ministers, but they were devout and he turned out the same. My other cousin, on the other hand, I imagine he's religious(I frankly can't see his family allowing anything else), but thankfully he turned out more like his father in that he might be religious, but he's not a minister, nor is he pushy like his mother and brother.

I also have friends and classmates who I knew quite well from a young age and their families. A lot of these famiies were devout religiously(most people around here are either Catholic and Lutheran, and in a town of less than 1500 people, everybody knows everybody else) and the kids were the same. I had a best friend in high school who was devout Catholic, as was her family. Turned out the same way.

Not everybody does. I didn't, my husband-to-be didn't. I have another friend whose mother is Lutheran and father is Jewish, and she's Wiccan. I'd be hard pressed to find someone from my hometown who didn't turn out like their parents, but hubby-to-be and my Wiccan friend are from states out on the east coast and in bigger cities, so it can really go either way.

I think what leads to whether or not a kid turns out just like their parents or not is their experiences, not the religion itself. I had some nasty experiences with religion and with religious members of my family that had nothing to do with religion as well. So did my Pagan friend. My husband was just too intelligent far as I know to buy into religion.

My cousin and uncle apparently didn't go through some of these things(although I have to note, my missionary cousin was treated as the "favorite" grandchild in the family, so he's a bit spoiled to boot), so they didn't associate religion with people who were cruel like I and a few other people I know did.

I don't care if a person raises a child religious on the basis of the fact that it's not my kid and I have no say. It's not something I'd do, but I can save it for my children instead of trying to stop it in others whether I agree with the practice or not. My experience may say differently than yours and I might prefer that people stop the indoctrination of children, but I stay out of it because unless it's my kids, it's not my place.

Answer 8

I don't care if someone wishes to raise their kids with a religion. But I let my kids find their own and I only tell them what I believe, not what they should or shouldn't believe.

Answer 9

I think the important point to consider is in your phrase: growing up. When kids grow up they do become open minded, so as long as the religious teachings are about being responsible and adult-like, I think it will benefit them as they get older.

Answer 10

Most people are content to take what their parents give them as truth. That is why a child born in Iraq is likely to become Muslim while a child born in Utah is more likely to become Mormon and a child born in Alabama more likely to become a protestant Christian. It’s not that the argument for Islam is any more compelling in Iraq than it is in Alabama. It’s just that we are, to a great extent, products of our environments.