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Children don't belong to religion

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buffalobill90

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Viaticum, United Kingdom

#16

Jul 28, 2007 @ 14:18:47

@dumdedum Said
I was never brainwashed in my opinion.

You can't really say that with any authority, since you were brought up to believe a specific religious ideology before you could critically analyse it. In your view it isn't brainwashing, but it's obvious that you would think that. And claiming that it's what taught you 'right from wrong' is naive; all the non-religious people I know personally are completely moral people and as far as I am aware, religiosity correlates very weakly with morality, as is also illustrated in the God delusion.

mark_is_god

antrim, Ireland

#17

Jul 28, 2007 @ 14:36:25

it is unfortunate when a religious parent practically shoves a specific religon down the throat of their child.

not all religious parents do it. but is is sad when some do.

buffalobill90

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Viaticum, United Kingdom

#18

Jul 28, 2007 @ 14:41:47

It is important to note that the vast majority of the people on this forum are not from strongly religious cultures, except perhaps the USA, where it is completely normal and expected of parents to teach their children the religion of their culture and possibly send them to religious schools or other institutions, therefore you may not recognise it as a widespread thing. But it is extremely widespread, and It is one of the major reasons why religions are still around at all.

dumdedum

-, United Kingdom

#19

Jul 28, 2007 @ 16:15:31

@buffalobill90 Said
Telling children a particular ideology is true and others are completely wrong is immoral because children can't be sophisticated in their thinking. It's a betrayal of that child, to teach them something that you think is true when they are too young to understand it and will accept anything their parents teach them is right anyway.

aha! BUT religion isn't like that. It wasn't for me. I was never told Islam was wrong I was never told ANYTHING was wrong. IT DID NOT brainwash me. Infact for about 2 years I considered myself an athiest while I questioned my beliefs. It's a Goddamn comfort and I will willing yell at people who say every religion and every religious family is like that. I agree in some cases families are like this but going to a catholic school I am surrounded by a majority who's faiths arn't like this at all. Infact in our school we have muslims and athiests and protestants and we are todl to respect eacother....not to think any of our beliefs are wrong. Actually if you'd look at christian faith, and I knwo of the catechism in particular we are tiaght to embrace other ideas, to question our own faith so we are sure of ourselves.

dumdedum

-, United Kingdom

#20

Jul 28, 2007 @ 16:18:55

and before you say 'but you were told to question' no I wasn't. Alot of my friends question thier beliefs and decided it isbn't what they believe afterall. In your small mind anything I say is not valid becasue you have assumed I am a religious person who has been brainwashed. When I havn't. if I had I would believe all gay people are immoral, that abortion is wrong in every case and that priests should not be married.

dumdedum

-, United Kingdom

#21

Jul 28, 2007 @ 16:22:22

@xphile2868 Said
I'm not against religion, I'm just saying that its better for a child to talk to another person who can offer help and/or advice.

No that's not my point. but sorry I snapped. My point was......it;s like a safety net and a comfort knowing someone is there ALL the time for you. Whereas your parentls although they can advise you and help you can never always be around. Like say you were lost or something. It was just nice growing up having that whther i believe in it or not now.

hedkandi1984_21

London, United Kingdom

#22

Jul 28, 2007 @ 16:34:13

I don't think you can say it is a form of child abuse if parents tell their children what they believe. not all children take what their parents say at face value anyway. My entire family is christian, my sister and I were brought up to believe in God, but as we got older, we questioned our beliefs and now neither of us are religious. As long as parents give their kids the opportunity to form their own beliefs, I don't see a problem.

buffalobill90

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Viaticum, United Kingdom

#23

Jul 28, 2007 @ 19:43:22

This problem is seemingly non-existent in British society, which is largely secular and modern. But in countries where they have a strongly religious culture, such as in the USA or in middle-eastern countries, children are brought up to believe their family's religion.

buffalobill90

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Viaticum, United Kingdom

#24

Jul 28, 2007 @ 19:45:39

@dumdedum Said
aha! BUT religion isn't like that. It wasn't for me. I was never told Islam was wrong I was never told ANYTHING was wrong.

By definition, if you are told a particular religion is the truth, then that categorically rules out other religions because all religions are incompatible and contradict with each other. If one is correct, then the rest must be incorrect, if the scripture is to be taken literally (and in most societies, it is taken literally).

buffalobill90

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Viaticum, United Kingdom

#25

Jul 28, 2007 @ 19:47:19

@dumdedum Said
No that's not my point. but sorry I snapped. My point was......it;s like a safety net and a comfort knowing someone is there ALL the time for you. Whereas your parentls although they can advise you and help you can never always be around. Like say you were lost or something. It was just nice growing up having that whther i believe in it or not now.

Here's an important question: If religion was bad for you, it didn't provide you any comfort and it did you more harm than good, would you still follow it based on the logical reasoning that it must be the truth?

dumdedum

-, United Kingdom

#26

Jul 29, 2007 @ 11:56:42

@buffalobill90 Said
Here's an important question: If religion was bad for you, it didn't provide you any comfort and it did you more harm than good, would you still follow it based on the logical reasoning that it must be the truth?

Tbh no. If I thought it had abused me i think that thought would prove it wrong. But if I'd brainwashed I wouldn't think it was being bad until someone showed me. And I agree esp. in the US there are religions that do brainwash people. There is a site devoted to spreading hatred for Gay people and that makes me ashamed that they are christians like me. But actually to your previous point I was broguht up in a Catholic primary school too and I remember learning about other religions and how they were both similar and different to us. Specifically how Islam taught many similar things to Catholism and also different traditions that were different but had good thignd about them. Good messages such as 'love one another as you would God and yourself' Also I remember being taught that really we all worship the same God but under different names and that most religions are all just different paths to heaven. In the right circumstances religion for a child can be a very positive thing. I think the shame is that it is not always tuaght like that and there is no way anyone to monitor how it is taught.
But no religion is brainwashing I don't think. Not as it's teachings I think it's more to do with parents.

alexkidd

Captain Awesome!

Deleted

in a bog, Ireland

#27

Jul 29, 2007 @ 12:23:35

eh... i guess i kinda see what you're trying to say.

i don't believe anybody is born a christian.
you can't inherit an idea, a concept.
my parents were christian, i never was.
from an age where i was old enough to understand it, i never believed it.

a religious belief is something you choose.
its true you can be manipulated into believing and thought a varying amount of your ideology depending on various factors.

but saying parents shouldn't have the right to teach their children what they think is right is silly.

notsogallant

Brum, United Kingdom

#28

Jul 29, 2007 @ 12:29:30

An interesting opinion on what constitutes "child abuse", I think; and a very strange one too, when, if you think about it reasonably, all a parent can ever do is instill his or her own values into the child - how can you do otherwise?

Even more interesting is Professor Richard Dawkins. Here we have a person whose areas of expertise are in Ethology and Evolutionary biology, yet he somehow feels this entitles him to the "last word" on "everything". As for his book "The God Delusion", I would remind him of what "delusion" means: (psychology) an erroneous belief that is held in the face of evidence to the contrary". As the existence of God, logically, cannot be proven or disproven, I'd say it was difficult to reasonably say what constitutes "evidence to the contrary".

Here's some food for thought. Mr Dawkins has become something of a celebrity; but not on the back of his work in Ethology and Evolutionary Biology, but as the champion of the God Knockers and Bible Bashers. The limelight and attention this gives him is enough for him to spend the rest of his life churning out dubious articles and books, attacking persons and beliefs, which are after all, only an expression of our humanity.

By the way, I don't beleive in God; but I'm not so arrogant as to suppose millions of people, past and present, many of them highly intelligent, are to be seen as stupid because of the religious beliefs they hold.

6dark6dreams6

hereford, United Kingdom

#29

Jul 29, 2007 @ 13:44:13

I agree, I think it is wrong to FORCE an opinion on a child, and much more important to allow the child to form his or her own opinion and beliefs.
However;
I also think it is important that the child experiences or takes part in something that his or her parent/s feel passionate about which is usually some form of religious activity such as taking part in a mass. This is because a child needs to learn how to apply passion to something that they strongly believe, and what better way than to learn from your parent/s.
Like I said, I don?t think you should force a belief on your child, but then again, I don?t think you should bring your child up as 'neutral'...somewhere in-between is great.

dumdedum

-, United Kingdom

#30

Jul 29, 2007 @ 13:47:00

@notsogallant Said
An interesting opinion on what constitutes "child abuse", I think; and a very strange one too, when, if you think about it reasonably, all a parent can ever do is instill his or her own values into the child - how can you do otherwise?

Even more interesting is Professor Richard Dawkins. Here we have a person whose areas of expertise are in Ethology and Evolutionary biology, yet he somehow feels this entitles him to the "last word" on "everything". As for his book "The God Delusion", I would remind him of what "delusion" means: (psychology) an erroneous belief that is held in the face of evidence to the contrary". As the existence of God, logically, cannot be proven or disproven, I'd say it was difficult to reasonably say what constitutes "evidence to the contrary".

Here's some food for thought. Mr Dawkins has become something of a celebrity; but not on the back of his work in Ethology and Evolutionary Biology, but as the champion of the God Knockers and Bible Bashers. The limelight and attention this gives him is enough for him to spend the rest of his life churning out dubious articles and books, attacking persons and beliefs, which are after all, only an expression of our humanity.

By the way, I don't beleive in God; but I'm not so arrogant as to suppose millions of people, past and present, many of them highly intelligent, are to be seen as stupid because of the religious beliefs they hold.

Yep. Whether you believe for not is irrelevant. Parents pass down their ideas without even teaching it and only in few cases are children brainwashed into a religion. I think it is unfair for someone to publish such books, if they were just theories it would be ok but it's not, it's mostly just angering people by saying things such as 'it is child abuse' That is a bit extreme.

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