Is forcing religion onto children like flinging crap at a wall?

Question

You know, sometimes it sticks and sometimes it slides off. It slid off in my case. I must have a Teflon coating to which crap cannot find purchase. Do you, as I do, feel sorry for all those children who are born with a surface coating that seems to absorb whatever crap is flung at them?

Answer 1

Humans need religious systems to help bond a social group together and strong social groups are good for humans. If we look at a jaguar-worshipping tribe no one calls the parents out for flinging crap and laments the fate of the youngsters, rather you reserve that honor for people closer to home. The reason being that we are the children of postmodernism, we are supposed to be smarter than the billions of humans who came before us (bloody unlikely) and terefore too smart for fairy tales and myths to mean anything deep to us. We're above such intellectual failures.

And yet humans are still the same - social animals who need organizing mythologies. And we all have universal experiences that cut across all religions and doubts - love is real, love is good. At the core, the time tested religions are preaching nothing but this ubiquitous truth by different names. And those names come with rituals and volunteer opportunities and sing-a-longs and potluck picnics and kids playing out the mythologies and so on. And our lives are enriched by them, being that we need those things and likely have been the fittest that survive because of them.

So I can go with my own experience, the billions of people who have come before me, and natural selection or I can think I am personally smarter than all those put together. Hmm, that's a tough one....

I will tell my kids there is a difefrence between faith and fact and teach them to examine things for themselves and consider things from different points of view. I'll show them where all the really juicy contradictions are in the Bible and tell them all about the Church killing so many innocent people in the name of God. And if they reject it, that doesn;t bother me. I care far more about the status of their heart and soul than about what intellectual propositions they will assent to or reject.

For whatever that's worth!

Answer 2

Forcing religion on anyone never ends well.
Forcing religion on children, in particular, is a terrible thing. Children trust the adults in their lives to teach them the way the world world - and if that instruction involves forcing something that should be a personal choice, it becomes a recipe for disaster.

That having been said, exposing children to religion is a parent's responsibility. When children are exposed rather than indoctrinated, there is a "safety net" in their mind that allows them to make decisions for themselves.

Answer 3

I think that everyone should make
their own choices as
to what they believe.
I do feel great pity
for those who have had certain
religions forced upon them.
And I am not just talking about children.
I'm talking about many cultures
that have been destroyed
over the centuries
by a huge group of "do-gooders."
Please notice,
that I have not named this bunch
because they already know
who they are
&
by mentioning their religion
will be the same as speaking to a brick wall.

That should just about stir up
a good can of worms
or
a small box of snakes.

Enjoy!

Answer 4

wow, that guy who said the common courtesy thing probably thinks he was saying something super witty. he just said common courtesy was crap. what an idiot.

anyway. i think its up to the parents to give their children all points of view and allow them to decide as they get older. just because the parents think its right doesnt mean they are correct and therefore should teach their children. that's just arrogance of your own opinion. you have to admit you could be wrong. because nothing is 100%. it bothers me severely that people would think they are completely right in something they probably have no idea of.

our founding fathers wrote slavery into the constitution. they were pro-slavery. granted this is contrary to their beliefs, but their parents had taught them that slavery was OK, and so thats what they thought. and they went with it without questioning. that's reeeally smart.

the answer to your question is yes, it is like that. they have nothing to say of an education, and if they think you might be wrong they have yet to learn how to disagree. you're their PARENTS. they wont disagree with you at such a young age. must just be a power trip for some people, i dont know. but i happen to think its wrong.

Answer 5

Funny that we hate hearing that "when you live in my house, you follow my rules". And then grow up and tell our kids the same ugly thing. Humans naturally resent being told what to do. Because we get told what to do so long when young. And forcing people to do something, is like making them not do it. How soon we forget!
We need to explain to others why we want them to do things.
Because we love them and know the world and how easy they can get hurt.

Answer 6

your info are in blunders. i will faux that I certainly have a faith that states a million+a million=3. needless to say which may well be logically disproven. maximum persons have a faith which unquestionably isn't plenty extra good to disprove. yet i will circulate away that aside for now. because of the fact the occasion isn't technically impossible, theres no reason to declare as actuality that faith can not be logically disproven.

Answer 7

I really feel sorry for you to make light of something so serious. If a person believes something to be right, teaching their children something is not forcing it on them. Did your parents teach you it was wrong to steal or kill another? Right is right and wrong is wrong and where God is right, it is not wrong to pass that on to the children. If the children choose not to follow it when they are grown up, that is their choice and they have to answer come Judgment Day but don't fault parents for teaching their children about the good things in life.

Answer 8

I dont feel sorry for them.
As an atheist, I find some people who are very religious, it brings them a lot of joy. A very very SMALL portion of those already few dont preach to others.
So, this 1% of 1% of the population it actually works for. The other ones, I dont feel sorry for because they bother me with their religion, and I just feel angry.
So angry.

Answer 9

I would be a much happier person today if my parents had never tried to force feed me Christianity. I also would have prevented myself from tying myself down to "good" Christian girls because I thought that was what everyone was supposed to do.

Answer 10

I feel sorry for you. Decency must have slid off you.

You're really full of hate, aren't you? How pathetic!
YOU might see it as "crap," as you put it, but others see it as the truth.

Don't you think it would be cool if you accepted and respected those who do not believe as you do? It's called being open-minded. Atheists are normally open-minded and respectful. You're different.