I find it pretty funny...?

Question

I have countless times in here seen people say kids are brainwashed from birth to be Christians. That they have no ability to break free from it.
That they can not form their own opinions as adults because they were brainwashed...BUT then in the next question/answer
you hear about all these Christians that have found the "truth" and are now Atheists.
How does that work?

There are MANY people who chose their faith as adults. Even those who were raised in a religious home often as adults seek other options and some of them decide that what they were taught as a child is the truth for them.

People who do not believe in God, would assume that a person raised to know God, and then as adults continue to have been told a lie and continue to believe it.
Some people just truly believe it and for them it is the truth regardless of who told them of it.

Answer 1

I had just been thinking the same thing. People saying that you are brainwashed as a child and you can't overcome that. I don't know when people are going to realize that people make their own decisions. Just because I did not make the same decision as you did does not negate the fact that I looked for my own answers too.

And, I have always said. Regardless of how you believe your children are witness to your beliefs everyday and are affected by them . . .whether you are catholic, protestant, Muslim, agnostic, atheist, Christian, and so on and so on.

Answer 2

I think it can go either way. I went to a Christian school my entire life, and I never realy bought into the Christian thing. I am an atheist for all that I have learned about God, etc. That is what turned me away...my family would freak out if they knew because they would feel that they failed me as a person.


On the other hand, I went to school with people who are hard core Christians. They go to church every time the doors are open, went to Christian colleges, and never listen to any secular music. They were brainwashed from a young age, and they have never tried to break free.

I am not saying that Christianity is always bad, and that all believers are brainwashed. I just think that people should have the CHOICE to decide what they believe. If you tell someone that they are going to go to hell and that they are bad people if they do not go the RIGHT way, they are going to follow that.

Answer 3

Well, some churches are easier to leave than others. I went to a Methodist church in a large city until I went to college. I had an excuse for not showing up, and no one back home said boo.

Now, if it had been an evangelical church in an everyone-knows-your-business sized small town, matters might have been different. Guilt or fear might prevent someone with genuine objections from voicing those objections, or even thinking about them for extended periods of time. God knows what you're thinking, remember, so don't think bad thoughts for too long or He'll get you.

Answer 4

The Jesuits said - give a child until he is 6 and he will be mine forever. Some of the brainwashing techniques are not quite as thurough as the Jesuits. And unless you totally control the childs environment, which the jesuits did, you can get different ideas from anyplace and people do.

Answer 5

According to a study in the UK, about 1 in 12 people choose as adults not to follow the religion they were taught as children. These people who 'break free' as you put it, are part of the 8.3% who aren't so fully indoctrinated as to be kept in their religion for life.
That doesn't mean that indoctrination isn't a form of brainwashing. That's like saying that if you sell contaminated meat and only 91.7% of your customers get sick, the meat must not have been contaminated. Or if you fly a plane into a building and only 91.7% of the occupants die, you didn't murder anyone. You judge the immorality of an act by its victims, not by those who manage to get through unscathed.


And your assersion that adults sometimes seek other opinions then decide that what they were brought up with is correct serves only to demonstrate your complete ignorance of the concepts which you are sarcastically describing as pretty funny. If they didn't think they were making an independent choice, then it wouldn't be brainwashing it would simply be coercion. For another example, if I held a gun to your head and told me to give me your money, I would not be brainwashing you into wanting to give me money, I would be coercing you into giving me money. Huge difference.

Answer 6

Well in my case I finally got brave enough to question what I had always been taught. When the answers got so lame as "because it is so" or "because God says so" then I started doubting god. It was a long journey discovering that there was no God. I was just always afraid that I was the only one

Answer 7

I think it's been stated on here that people stick to Christianity because of how they were brought up when they were younger, and with that belief in their head that they will be tortured for eternity if they leave, they stay within Christianity.

No one said they can't form opinions, they're just pressured to stay in the system, which can cast overcloud on those opinions.

Answer 8

It is such a thin claim to argument stating that children are 'brainwashed' by Sunday school that I'm surprised the questions even get answered.

Inside every human exists the ability to make a choice.

Answer 9

The kids have no ability to break free from it. They are kids and they pretty much have to do what their parents tell them. Young adults (teens) and adults can think for themselves, and sometimes break away.

Answer 10

Yeah adult males! The ingredient is that the choice 2 adult males have paid for the gem stones and jewelery and so have already lost the money. the only with the examine will never lose his!!! The humorous tale isn't approximately receiving. that's approximately giving. stable one!