If you are born into a religion and raised in that faith where is freedom of religion, where is your choice?

Question

dewcoons: Absolutely you are correct, I was raised a Christian and I'm now an atheist, it took it's toll on me however and many years to overcome the conditioning.

Answer 1

yes, choice is there. Though there will be barriers, you have choice to overcome barriers. Lots of people convert nowadays.

Answer 2

This sounds like you're blaming everyone else for your choices. You are free at the age of 18 to do whatever you want religiously. No matter how strongly you were raised in a faith, you have the choice to stay or leave. And just because you don't have experience with any other religions does not mean any freedom was taken away from you, because you can always decide to investigate on your own. Just because you have a freedom doesn't mean the information is going to be handed to you on a silver platter. It's your responsibility to use that freedom. You have the freedom to seek and question and change. Whether you do so is your own choice.

Answer 3

Good question. Truth is, some do have a choice, but most don't. Yes everyone has free will, but this is a case of nurture, not just nature. A child is usually raised in the religion of their parents. Some parents encourage open view on other religions, but most try to keep them in line with their own beliefs.

Yes, they do have a choice later when they are educated and can choose for themselves, but his usually depends on their experience. If they were brought up a certain way, and had a good experience, they tend to stay with it. If not, they'll reject it.

Yes, there is freedom, but most don't use it.

Answer 4

Your choice is when you get old enough to think for yourself. Just because someone is raised Christian for example. Does not mean that they are forced to be that religion for the rest of their lives. At some point the child will either stop believing and just go through the motions to please their parents or stop going all together. Or continue to believe with complete faith. But at some point that person takes control of their own life and makes a choice.

Answer 5

By you question, you seem to imply that no person has ever turned against or away from the religion in which they were raised. You have only to spend an hour on this site to see that is not true. You will find "ex-whatever" answering almost every question on here.

You will also find people raised in one religion (such as myself) who now embrace another. Also people raise with no religion who become theist later in life. (Look at the population of Russia which had over 70 years of no religion. Yet within a decade of the fall of the atheist government, over 70% of the country claimed to be theist.)

Just because you are taught a religious does not take away our ability to accept or reject it. People do it all the time.

(And I will bet that you are a prime example - raised in a religion that you are now trying to reject.)

Answer 6

1. Like in the Bible, the foundation is prophets and apostles, with Jesus Christ as the Chief CornerStone. 2. Knowing that I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father helps me to love myself and love everyone else. 3. There is the Celestial, Terrestrial, and Telestial Kingdoms, and outer darkness. You can read all about them in the 76th section of the Doctrine & Covenants. 4. I was raised Methodist, but I joined the LDS church when I was 21. I "converted" because I felt that the LDS church is the most Biblical church. 5. None so far. 6. Not really, not yet. 7. I don't believe that God will allow our religious liberties to be taken away. 8. What most Christians recognize. 9. To join, you talk to the full-time missionaries, and learn what we believe and why. Then you must be baptized by someone in authority. Fortunately, most of the men 16 and older can baptise you. 10. It depends on who it is.

Answer 7

Kids do not have a choice. Parents are to raise the child..Child has no say so when it comes to being raised right. If the parents are raising the child in the wrong religion then God will deal with the parents.

Answer 8

parents do brain wash
i agree with Kevin c and i do not think in all religions that you responsible for that choice till you reach maturity
once you reach maturity then comes the questioning mind,if you were in dark ages and the only think you know is the farm and the church i (personal view) would emagine that would counts for you ,how much you serves god in that sense you were taught,then here you must thank god that he did not give you a quastioning mind
but in such open world and internet,with this sort of accumeliated knowledge,you are asked for more work to do,you will be asked for the other prophets than jesus and what they were calling for,you will be asked about god different books and if you cared to read.
finally a great thing that you i should thank god for it day and night ,that i was born for muslim parents

Answer 9

Hinduism is innately secular. Vedas say, "everyone prays to the same god, they just do it in different ways". Thus you see many deities in Hinduism. Most were the gods of one community and have been accepted as deities by other hindus. It appears polytheistic but in thought people are praying to the one god. However due to facing the threat of islam and christianity that want to convert everyone to one way of thinking some hindus have become intolerant aswell. The religious texts themselves donot support seeking converts in any way.

Answer 10

A person always has the choice to leave whatever faith they were brought up in. Some people do this when they leave home. Some people do this before then.

Answer 11

Depends on how it's approach.
My children are raised in Asatru. BUT, I take them to a UU church and my daughter even own a Bible. I will answer her questions as they come and the choice is her to make when she's old enough to make it. I hope she follows the bloodlines, but in NO way would I "make" her.