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A bit young for religion?

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posted on Jul, 19 2007 @ 06:44 PM
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Kids being brainwashed with religion from age 3 in schools/playgroups e.t.c sounds to me like the church wanting to make sure that people 'believe' blindly by the time they reach adulthood. Wouldn't it be fairer to let our kids reach at least say...10yrs old before they're taught the bible e.t.c? At this age (10) at least they can think for themselves more and it would be giving them a choice as to whether to believe or not.

It just seems wrong to me yet it's so widely accepted that no one seems to question it. How can it be justified? (I don't ask in malice)



posted on Jul, 19 2007 @ 06:47 PM
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Every parent must make the decision about how much religious instruction their children are to receive and when, though I do think if I were not taught religiously until I was 10, I think I would have been a wild child for that first decade!

[edit on 19-7-2007 by uberarcanist]



posted on Jul, 19 2007 @ 06:56 PM
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i don't teach my son about that stuff.
i don't like to tell him lies. pretty simple really



posted on Jul, 19 2007 @ 07:04 PM
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Doesn't your Son get religious education lessons in his school though, Boondock? Here in the U.K virtually EVERY school has these lessons, they learn about it from around 3 years old.



posted on Jul, 19 2007 @ 07:06 PM
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Originally posted by Corum
Doesn't your Son get religious education lessons in his school though, Boondock? Here in the U.K virtually EVERY school has these lessons, they learn about it from around 3 years old.


it's not really like that here.
it is common knowledge though since the crosses and crucifixes are everywhere



posted on Jul, 19 2007 @ 07:07 PM
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I think that's shameful, Corum. As a staunch Christian, I want the government OUT of religion!!!



posted on Jul, 19 2007 @ 07:12 PM
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It's really what some people call programming, conditioning or brain-washing, and one reason why religion has been such a powerful tool for so long, because it digs it's hooks in nice and early.

The kind of ideas that are conveyed in religion to very young children, mold and shape a psyche, and because they are put across at such a young age, they are very powerful, and make lasting impressions, sometimes life-long, often regardless of any other belief systems or ideas that might be adopted later on in life.

Children are interested in complex subjects from a very early age - they will ask all kinds of questions about sex, death and life with free abandon - I think we should give honest answers to their questions, not confuse them with half-baked fairy-tales and lies that will retard their inquisitive minds.

I would like to think if a child of mine asked me 'What happens when we die'.... I'd say 'Well, nobody knows for sure, but a lot of people have lots of different ideas'.



posted on Jul, 19 2007 @ 07:13 PM
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Hehe, uberarcanist, start with www.onlinepetition.com



Boondock, if your Son's school started to teach him religious education would you intervene?



posted on Jul, 19 2007 @ 07:15 PM
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Originally posted by VelvetSplash
It's really what some people call programming, conditioning or brain-washing, and one reason why religion has been such a powerful tool for so long, because it digs it's hooks in nice and early.

The kind of ideas that are conveyed in religion to very young children, mold and shape a psyche, and because they are put across at such a young age, they are very powerful, and make lasting impressions, sometimes life-long, often regardless of any other belief systems or ideas that might be adopted later on in life.

Children are interested in complex subjects from a very early age - they will ask all kinds of questions about sex, death and life with free abandon - I think we should give honest answers to their questions, not confuse them with half-baked fairy-tales and lies that will retard their inquisitive minds.

I would like to think if a child of mine asked me 'What happens when we die'.... I'd say 'Well, nobody knows for sure, but a lot of people have lots of different ideas'.


Like it or not, intense neural conditioning will be going on at the childhood stage regardless of whether or not they are going to sunday school. I think our only concern should be "is the conditioning they are receiving having a positive effect?"



posted on Jul, 19 2007 @ 07:16 PM
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Originally posted by Corum
Doesn't your Son get religious education lessons in his school though, Boondock?


What? You can't even say God in the schools here without someone wanting to file some sort of a lawsuit.



posted on Jul, 19 2007 @ 07:19 PM
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Originally posted by SpeakerofTruth

Originally posted by Corum
Doesn't your Son get religious education lessons in his school though, Boondock?


What? You can't even say God in the schools here without someone wanting to file some sort of a lawsuit.


That's mostly true. However, there are many public schools around where I live that one can attend noncompulsory religious classes.



posted on Jul, 19 2007 @ 07:24 PM
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Few people here are probably even aware of what the original schools did... There were bible lessons in the old schools..

Should there be now? Well, I tell you what, take a good look at society and you tell me.



posted on Jul, 19 2007 @ 07:26 PM
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Originally posted by SpeakerofTruth
Few people here are probably even aware of what the original schools did... There were bible lessons in the old schools..

Should there be now? Well, I tell you what, take a good look at society and you tell me.


I just do not trust our government enough to be the mouthpiece of what religion is and is not!



posted on Jul, 19 2007 @ 07:28 PM
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I don't want my children exposed to religion before they can think and choose for themselves. I think it's abusive, because when they are small, they operate on magical thinking. If they see adults doing this "stuff" every week, and talking to an invisible friend, and all that stuff, they'll grow up thinking that is the only way they can be.

Once kids hit the age of reason, around 7 to 9, then they're capable of thinking it out for themselves more. I was raised secularly, went seeking on my own with my family's permission at around age 8, and figured out pretty quick it was contradictory, often cruel in the messages, and nonsensical.

My ex knows how I feel about this, and so he's started talking to my daughter about heaven and getting her DVDs with religious messages on them even though he's a lapsed Catholic and hasn't set foot in a church or prayed the entire 11 years I've known him. He's abusing my kid to get to me, using religion to do it.

Kids shouldn't be exposed to it until they're older. My two cents.



posted on Jul, 19 2007 @ 07:32 PM
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Originally posted by MajorMalfunction
I don't want my children exposed to religion before they can think and choose for themselves. I think it's abusive, because when they are small, they operate on magical thinking. If they see adults doing this "stuff" every week, and talking to an invisible friend, and all that stuff, they'll grow up thinking that is the only way they can be.

Once kids hit the age of reason, around 7 to 9, then they're capable of thinking it out for themselves more. I was raised secularly, went seeking on my own with my family's permission at around age 8, and figured out pretty quick it was contradictory, often cruel in the messages, and nonsensical.

My ex knows how I feel about this, and so he's started talking to my daughter about heaven and getting her DVDs with religious messages on them even though he's a lapsed Catholic and hasn't set foot in a church or prayed the entire 11 years I've known him. He's abusing my kid to get to me, using religion to do it.

Kids shouldn't be exposed to it until they're older. My two cents.


Then again, there are many of us who thinks that the thesis that the universe came about by accident is unsound and thus the beliefs that many children are exposed to at a very young age are not unusual or illogical at all.

Though, everyone is free to have her/his own opinions.

[edit on 19-7-2007 by uberarcanist]



posted on Jul, 19 2007 @ 07:34 PM
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Originally posted by MajorMalfunction



My ex knows how I feel about this, and so he's started talking to my daughter about heaven and getting her DVDs with religious messages on them even though he's a lapsed Catholic and hasn't set foot in a church or prayed the entire 11 years I've known him. He's abusing my kid to get to me, using religion to do it.



"Abusing?"
Okay, I can appreciate you not wanting your kid to have any hope in life, or whatever, but I think to consider spiritual beliefs as a form of "abuse" is rather absurd.



posted on Jul, 19 2007 @ 07:36 PM
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Originally posted by SpeakerofTruth

Originally posted by MajorMalfunction



My ex knows how I feel about this, and so he's started talking to my daughter about heaven and getting her DVDs with religious messages on them even though he's a lapsed Catholic and hasn't set foot in a church or prayed the entire 11 years I've known him. He's abusing my kid to get to me, using religion to do it.



"Abusing?"
Okay, I can appreciate you not wanting your kid to have any hope in life, or whatever, but I think to consider spiritual beliefs as a form of "abuse" is rather absurd.



Though I agree with you on principle, Speaker, let's not turn this into the typical dreary atheist-theist mudfight.

[edit on 19-7-2007 by uberarcanist]



posted on Jul, 19 2007 @ 07:38 PM
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Major, knows I am not like that,Uber, at least I hope she does.
I mean, people are free to think or believe as they wish. I just don't see how instilling some sort of belief in your child is "abuse."

Now, granted, brain washing a person to the point where they accept the status quo without question, yeah, I suppose that could be labeled abuse. However, I don't know how many parents do that.



posted on Jul, 20 2007 @ 12:42 AM
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Give them Happy Meals when they are young,
And they will eat McDonalds for Life.

Or something like that anyway.



posted on Jul, 20 2007 @ 10:16 AM
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Just keep hammering away at Christians!

Isn't it funny how Atheists have this overwhelming preoccupation with Christians and proving something to us or telling us how stupid we are or calling us abusive for raising our children with a sense of love, spirituality and morality?

That's one long run on question but I got a bit carried away.

Most kids have no problem with decision making once they are of age. We all went to church until the age of 10 and then were given the choice if we wanted to continue or not. We all chose not to continue but we all came back to God as adults.

With all the pain and real abuse in the world and you guys are talking about this being abusive? How about the liberals wonderful choice of Barac Obama and his idea that children should start being taught sex education in kindergarten?

Yea, lets just keep pounding on those horrible Christians because after all, what's a world without anarchy?




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