Religion Under 10 Should religion...

[hanorotu 0]

Should religion be taught to children under the age of 10. And if so, how do you make sure that the children do not become "Zealously Brainwashed".I think no religon should not be taught at that age, religon goes far beyond the "Social Aspect" of things. In fact religon is personal and spiritual, very few children understand that at that age. those that claim to have only been force fed what they are being taught. "mommy and daddy said so, so it must be right."I believe that children should be allowed to study whatever religon they chose, and not just what the family wishes them to know..."for acceptance reasons"What do you think?

[rob86 2]

I had this very discussion with a friend of mine, a catholic mother of a teenage daughter. She was forcing her child to go to church and study the bible from a young age. I thought that wasn't right. The daughter didn't even want to learn about it. I'm a person who loves meeting people from different cultures and I've met many people of different religions. I'm not a real believer in religious stuff, but for arguments sake let's the stuff in one of the holy books is completely true. The thing about religion is, someone has to be wrong. All the religions in the world can't be right, and true can they? That wouldn't make sense, because I know Christians think muslims have weird beliefs and muslims think catholics have weird beliefs etc etc. So I think, from a completely neutral and and unbaised standpoint, if there is a God and whatever else, that all religions have a chance at being the 'right' one. Could be Christianity, could be Hinduism, could be Islam, who knows? I sure don't. When a child is taught something at a young age, they're very very impressionable, and their whole life it's quite possible they'll keep beliefs or fears even if they're irrational or wrong. In the case of religion, you're pretty much cementing your views in their heads and let's say they're taught Christianity. Most likely, except for the rare individual, that person will shun all other religions because it's not what they were taught. What if Islam is the true one? They just taught their child the wrong stuff and they're probably going to hell or whatever. I see many, many people who claim to be strong Christians, yet have never read the bible, who literally haven't a clue what's in it. I see something wrong with that. I think if you're going to be religious, you should atleast put some effort into choosing what you believe in. Even I've read a little of the bible, the torah, the koran even literature on hinduism, buddhism and sikhism (recommendation of a friend), and then even rastafarianism (bob marley fan!). It just seems strange to be a believer in something you know nothing about when there's such a huge amount of choices out there. And in my opinion that's whats happening as a result of teaching children religion at a young age. You're telling them what's right, instead of letting them choose for themselves when they're old enough to understand. That stuff will stick with you your entire life. It's like people being abusive and violent because their parents are. Most people would agree beating up your spouse and children is wrong, yet people do it, some even go to counseling, I think in some (not all) cases, it's ingrained into their sub conscious brain or something.If a person chooses or feels they should be religious, they should atleast choose the religion. There are so many different beliefs, it just seems wrong to force something on anyone and to believe it because as hanoratu put it, "Mommy and daddy said so". I think a lot of people who are raised with religious beliefs don't ever stop to think that they have a choice. My parents never really forced religion on me, they sent me to church a few times when I was younger, but they are not religious people. This allowed me to read about the religions of the world myself, none of them really appealed to me, but that's besides the point.The confusing thing is, if a person believes in a religion, then I assume they really BELIEVE it, and want to help their children by teaching it. So while it may be an outsiders opinion that they're doing something wrong by teaching lies, I'm sure the parent feels they're doing the right thing by teaching the child how to avoid going to hell (or whatever).I don't think anybody truly knows for certain if what they believe in is true, so I think it's best to let young people decide for themselves, it just seems best. I believe in freedom of choice.

[HDuffRules 0]

This strangely reminds me of this...

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

Cheap laughs aside, religion can be very important and influential to some people, but may be relatively insignificant to others. With that being said, I really believe that it is improper to attempt to indoctrinate people into religious beliefs before they are old enough or mature enough to decide for themselves what it is that they believe. I understand that many religious parents fear for their child's soul, and this is a strong motivator behind taking the child to church and teaching him/her about the Bible, but any benevolent creator would accept his children regardless of if they believed in him since they were 3 or if they did not begin practicing (is that the right term?) religion until they were older.

[abby 0]

I think that children should be presented with a broad range of religious beliefs, in the sort of frame of "these people think this, these people think this, and mommy and daddy think this," but without putting a bad tone to other religious beliefs. Religion is a fact of life just like everything else - even if you don't actively engage with it, you still exist in a world of people who do.I was lucky enough that when my parents realized after three weeks that I was miserable in Sunday school at their church, they let me stop going, because they believed that I was an innately spiritual individual and they didn't want to ruin it with my bad feelings toward one particular church. They let me explore several other local churches, and when I was older, several other religions. Even though I never became a particularly religious person, I'm still thankful that I had some religious education from a young age, mostly for the fact that there are numerous religious references throughout popular literature and so I was able to understand texts much more deeply.That said, my sister did continue through Sunday school at the church that I disliked, and it always struck me a bit like brainwashing. My parents made sure to discuss sermons and Sunday school material with her at home, always asked "why," and always brought the material back to things like being nice, honesty, etc. that are important for anyone of anyone religion.

[dre 0]

I think that children should be presented with a broad range of religious beliefs, in the sort of frame of "these people think this, these people think this, and mommy and daddy think this,"

I think it's much more difficult when put in practice. I suspect either choosing to indoctrinate or not presenting anything at all would be the easiest to implement. It's up to the family to decide, nobody is going to create any sort of regulation on this matter.

[Www.AnthonyLazaroni.Com 0]

Children should be taught the differences and similarities in religion, not one concrete religion.

[dangerdan 0]

Completely agree with the previous post. Children should definitely be given religious education from a young age. Ignorance of other religions only breeds fear. Religion has a lot of good morals and guidelines which I would think we all agree we want children to follow. The most obvious example is the ten commandments. They are a way of teaching children morality without even having to touch on the subject of legality and/or punishment. The deterrent becomes the morality associated with "not killing" or "not committing adultery".