Do you wish that as a child, you would have been offered alternate belief systems?

Question

Few would deny that religion is a highly personal matter, yet most children are forced into the religion of their parents, without ever being given the opportunity to decide what THEY believe. This wouldn't be a problem except that so much of our personality is indellibly formed in childhood when religion is first impressed upon us. No doubt this explains much of the guilt, anger and bitterness people harbor towards other religions, and often the one they were raised in.

How can we expect humans grow into healthy, well adjusted people if they aren't allowed the freedom to choose this most personal and fundamental concept?

Answer 1

Luckily for me I had no formal religious up bringing. When I was little some one did give me a book called" The greatest story ever told." I was really impressed with a wizard that could walk on water and heal people. I was probably in my early teens before I realized that it was jesus the book was about. But it did not change my perception of the book or jesus for that matter. So today I am a pagan but I was not forced into any religion. I did go to a catholic church with my friend once I was really disturbed by the wine and wafer aspect of the rite.. I thought that was a little on the cannibalistic side.

Answer 2

Do you wish that as a child, you would have been offered alternate food choices?

Few would deny that eating is a highly personal matter, yet most children are forced into eating whatever their parents provide, without ever being given the opportunity to decide what THEY want to eat. This wouldn't be a problem except that so much of our body mass index is indelibly formed in childhood when eating is first impressed upon us. No doubt this explains much of the rebellion that people have when they move out and live in bachelor pads eating cold pizza for breakfast, often to their parents' horror.

How can we expect humans grow into healthy, well adjusted people if they aren't allowed the freedom to choose this most personal and fundamental concept?

Answer 3

It made no difference to me personally. My Mother was Catholic and my Father a Lutheran. Neither of which forced me into their belief system. I was just told to "be a good person and live a clean life."

"I" chose not to attend church as soon as I was responsible enough to be left at home alone. I chose my own morality, my own methods of worship and my own judgement system based on experience. I managed to turn out just fine without religious restrictions and I defy anyone to prove thet I've lived a bad life or that my life would be so much better had I chose a God fearing existence.

Like most things, religion is used as a measuring (read discrimination) stick for which to judge others by.

To believers, you're less than.... if you don't believe. You're Godless heathens and you're dam.ned to burn in hell for eternity.

To non-believers, you're less than.... if you do believe. You're brainwashed sheep believing in the omnipotent and a storybook.

I've got news for some of you, money is NOT the root of all evil, religion is, and it will always be that way until people stop judging based on whether a person believes or not, and if he does, what he chooses to believe in.

The never ending saga in the Middle east, The Iraq war, terrorism, conservative political bodies of elected governments, The Abortion issue, The death penalty, are just a few examples of what trouble religion causes.

Separation of Church and State in the United States is a joke. There isn't a politician that wasn't elected on his religious beliefs influencing his political position. If true separation of Church and State were a serious concept, the removal of all the monies donated to political candidates and parties would be a good start. Instead however, they choose to bicker over whether stone monuments and religious displays are appropriate for government facilities.

For you see,
We don't need freedom "OF" religion, we need freedom "FROM" religion. It's not a matter of which religion I should choose or indoctrinate my children in but, should I choose to have my own religion and do I have the right to choose my child's.

Only when people stop trying to ram their religious tenets down others throats by dictating to others how they are to live and worship (if they even choose to), buying political favor and basing reasons on which to go to war, will we truly have peace.

Answer 4

Sometimes, but most of the time I wouldn't change my experiences with my former religion. This is because I know personally exactly how a theist thinks, how a Christian sees the Bible, the world, and societal issues. I have both perspectives, and that is a most valuable thing to have I think.

I do think that people like me are the exception rather than the rule, meaning that I was lucky to have come out of it - most people don't. So, I would agree that children should be given all the options and should be allowed to make their own decisions once they are old enough to make them.

Answer 5

So we as parents are supposed to surrender our children to be taught someone elses beliefs and just hope that they will believe what we do? I suppose that in that same "freedom of choice" arguement that means we should let them do whatever they feel like at any given moment without correction so they can find out what good and bad is on their own? Who is going to teach them a moral code?

Heres some questions for you:

If we as parents don't teach our children how we believe, how will they know what we stand for?

Without a foundation layed, how will a child make an intelligent choice of what to believe?

If our children are not taught to believe in something, won't they just merely believe in nothing?

There are many "healthy, well adjusted people" who were raised believing in the religion of their parents, wheather that religion is Judaism, Muslim, Hindu, Budhist, Shinto, Christian ect. And there are plenty of fanatics. Ive seen many an confused ill adjusted morally bankrupt individual who was raised without good parenting (how can you be a good parent if you dont teach your child) and being raised without religion or anything else to believe in too.

Answer 6

Part of the problem may be the parents themselves. If they are closed minded, deeply involved in their religion, and/or ignorant, they will see little if any reason to tell their brood about other faiths- let alone offer them. Those parents may even see the introduction of other faiths as morally wrong. And no proper parent wants to put their offspring into the path of anything bad.
But parental attitudes will need to change on all of these fronts, no doubt, if everyone is to be happy and well-adjusted. Just because a daughter or son doesn't follow in parental footsteps, it won't make her/him a bad person.

Answer 7

No, I grew up in an atheist household and I've never seen any other position that makes sense. So I'm okay with that.

As for how people are supposed to be individuals when they get their philosophy forced on them by their parents, I agree with you that that's an issue and parents should give their kids a more objective account of the matter. But at the same time, I think anyone who really has some brains and will power should be able to think the matter over and come to a decision without basing themselves on what their parents told them.

Answer 8

I think that my parents raised me to be a smart, good, God-fearing woman. And regardless of what religion they tried to teach me, the fundamentals stuck. And really, more than anything, that is what determines a person's character.

Then, as we grow not only physically, but mentally and spritually, we can learn, research and reason for ourselves. I strongly believe that you should not feel obligated to follow your parents' choice of religious beliefs or course of life. You have to make up your own mind about things. Otherwise you will not truly believe them yourself, and your heart will not be there.

Hard subject.

Answer 9

Excellent point. I was raised a Christian - but I was raised in SE Asia, where I was exposed to other systems of beleif. This is why I am now an Atheist.

If they didnt indoctrinate their children into the faith, it would have been dead already. The only other people that turn to religion later in life are career criminals and those too weak to stop drinking or taking drugs on their own, or have some other miserable life experience that they feel was brought on by something other than their own poor choices (ie. blame the devil)

Answer 10

I don't have to wish that - my Mom encouraged me to go to various religious services with friends. So my religious exposure went FAR beyond the Methodist Church.

I went to Temple with my Jewish friends, and to Seder dinner at their houses; I went to tent revival meetings and "holy roller" stuff with another friend (now THAT was scary!); I went to RC Mass; I went to Russian Orthodox churches, and so on.

(I didn't know any Muslims as a child, but have since gone to services with friends at the Mosque, and to Buddhist meditation centers and shrines, and so on.)

I spent a lot of time at the home of a friend whose parents were both atheists.

And then there was my friend's Aunt Belinda, who "talked to spirits" and had herbal teas for pretty much anything from a cold to hurt feelings.

Maybe that's why I'm an Interfaith kind of person now? Maybe that's why I know that my spiritual path isn't the "only true" one?

Could be...and it could be that I have ended up a happy Pagan *because* Paganism doesn't claim to have all the answers for everyone.