Is it morally irresponsible to teach childeren about religion?

reply to post by adjensen


Sad just sad.

Thats all I can say about your post/views.

Another grand slam example of how religion tarnishes and corrupts the minds of man. Backwards thinking, and complete blindness to the obvious!!

What a shame, and this mentality is forced upon children who are completely defenseless from the corruption.

Clearly is CHILD ABUSE!!

I am a pagan and teaching my kids witchcraft.

It seems like everyone here is equating religion with Christianity or the other big two. So I just thought I would mention our religion as well.

reply to post by Baloney


So, rather than answer a simple question, you "tsk tsk" and believe that something has been accomplished on your end? You demand that people respond to your questions, but run away from those of others? And this is the attitude that you find superior?

Yeah, I'd sure like my kids to feel that the way to respond to people that they don't agree with is to dismiss them with the prejudice and bigotry that you demonstrate.

We have something around here called "tolerance". It continues to amaze me how little of that is practiced by those who sing its praises so loudly. Here's a free-thinker who believes that teaching tolerance, love and tradition is "child abuse" that must be shut down at all costs, but has no credible argument to support it. You're quite a credit to your cause.

Originally posted by Baloney
reply to post by Erasurehead

 

Ok, I'll give you one of MANY examples to chew on for a while. Jesus said:

26If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:26 (King James Version)

[color=cyan]IS THIS APPROPRIATE TO TEACH CHILDREN??!!

Just one of the many gems that the pastor or preacher wont speak about in church. Theres many more!!

You cant just cherry pick the GOOD and IGNORE the BAD. If this is your Gods book, you have to ACCEPT IT ALL.

Do you accept the quote above? Will you teach your children this one??

PLEASE ANSWER, THANKS.

I can't comment on this passage that you picked because I don't know the context of it. I don't memorize the bible and I am really not interested in arguing about certain parts of it that you choose to cherry pick.

I am not part of organized religion. I left that behind many years ago. I do believe in Jesus and his teaching of being kind to others and showing love and compassion to our fellow human beings. It is that simple message that I live by and teach my children to live by. I don't really understand why you would have an issue with someone teaching peace and love to their child.

In the past 100 years some of the biggest crimes against humanity were not committed in the name of religion. They were actually committed by anti-religious zealots.

Mao, Hitler and Stalin all were responsible for millions of deaths and all of them were anti-religion. Communists and facists worship no god.

reply to post by adjensen


Dont pat yourself on the back. You simply "win" by way of insanity.

I do not have the time to waste on this level of nonsense.

Your replies defintely are an embarresment in defense of the faith. I would certainly be humiliated by your responses if I was of the faith.

Good job.

I'm happy my parents decided to not push religion on me until I was old enough to make up my own mind...and I chose to be an agnostic.

In a few 100 years, we'll look back at religion like we now look upon people stating "fire is an act of god"...it'll join the ranks of fairy tales and unicorns. People might still "use" it as a moral guideline, but they'll stop claiming to have "personal relationship" with this god creature. Want proof? Just look at the dwindling number of believers world wide

Religion is just an idea. People seem to be stupid and are following an idea that has ben given to them by their parents/culture.

Ideas come to me all the time, alot of them deal with the question of the nature of existence and reality. I would not wholly subscibe to any of them.

Organised religion is a mass control method that has been similarly used throughout the world by tptb.

Imho organised religion works well for those not interested in reality.

Originally posted by Baloney
reply to post by adjensen

 

Dont pat yourself on the back. You simply "win" by way of insanity.

I do not have the time to waste on this level of nonsense.

Your replies defintely are an embarresment in defense of the faith. I would certainly be humiliated by your responses if I was of the faith.

Good job.

You apparently do have time to cite the Bible but not understand it, to pose questions but not answer them, and to claim understanding of Christian theology while demonstrating significant ignorance. You have the time, you just don't like the question.

I "win" because you fail to respond to a simple question, though I would have preferred to have learned how you justify your bigotry.

Good job to you, as well.

I think children should be taught all religions, be shown the what is the same between them and what is not and then let them make their own minds up about if they choose what to believe or not.

All religions for me seem to date back to the same old stories that have been changed down the years to suit peoples own agenda.

Originally posted by colec156
I think children should be taught all religions, be shown the what is the same between them and what is not and then let them make their own minds up about if they choose what to believe or not.

All religions for me seem to date back to the same old stories that have been changed down the years to suit peoples own agenda.

I am all for Religious Diversity Study as an elective at high school level.

But - - children can be confused with too much information.

I think it is irresponsible, yes. It just continues the virus that is religion. Who wants to be a carrier?

My children will go up atheist, vegetarian, and intelligent. Unvaccinated as well. If I do have children, they must carry on my legacy.

Originally posted by born-indigo
It is my personally belief that organized religion is more of a detriment to society than any other organization in the world.

It is a fact that more evil has been done in the name of religion since the dawn of time and it is the source of a majority of the hatred in this world.

Is it not our responsibility as humans to try and better our society as a whole? Would the first and biggest step be to get rid of religion?

It's understandable that people do not want to feel alone so they fabricate a god but still, it's horrible what people do in the name of that god.

You do realize that there are places you can go that are "religion free", try Russia, or China... apparently it is doing wonders for their societies.

for the record, more evil/genocides have been done in the name of secular humanism in this last century than all "religious" atrocities combined. Google Stalin, Idi Amin, Hitler, Chairman Mao, Pol Pot and do the numbers.

So, you are saying that it is wrong to force religion on children, but are you not now guilty of trying to convince others of your beliefs, hence creating a religion yourself? If you are not using a standard for what "rightness" is, (ie the God of the Bible for instance), why isn't everything acceptable?

reply to post by born-indigo


Wow! My fiance have been talking about this for the last couple of days, specifically about what to do when we have kids. My six year old nephew gave the prayer at Thanksgiving last year and it was one of the creepiest things I have ever seen. Not so much because he sounded just like a televangelist, but because he obviously had no idea what he was talking about.

Anyway, it just seems wrong to put those ideas (Jebus, God, sin, Heaven, Hell, etc) into a child's mind.

[edit on 10-8-2010 by Nikolam]

reply to post by Faiol


Adolf Hitler is a great name, Just because there was one bad man named Hitler throw out a nice name?

I'm looking through the posts here and have a question, How dumb are half the people on this site? "religion, sin, etc. etc. etc is too complex for a child to understand". Were you born with half a bain?

reply to post by Baloney


So you win? What did you win? A new set of steak knives? Cash prize? A new car?

ATS must give out some really cool prizes to people who can turn intelligent discussions into verbal p*$$ing contests. I see people here so often yelling "Neener neener I'm the winner." There must be more at stake than the simple exchange of ideas that normally characterize mature rational discussion.

Look, if you think religion is so evil, don't teach it to your kid, okay? If a child is healthy, happy, secure, and loved they clearly are not being abused even if they are being taught something you vehemently disagree with. I thought ATS was about getting the government out of our faces so we could better make our own decisions instead of being led around by someone else's agenda.

And contrary to what you may think, many religious people consider themselves to be marching to the beat of their own drummer. I believe in God. I believe that same God gifted me with free will. I believe this God also guides me in using that free will in a constructive manner IF I ASK him/her to. And that's pretty much what I teach as a parent. I make it clear the decision to believe is the child's, as it is mine. I say this is what I believe, this is why, and I hope in watching how I live my life, you will choose to believe in God and let him/her guide your life, too.

God is Love
Love is God

I find it irresponsible to make claims to our children that we can not offer proof of along with the claim.

I dont find it wrong for a parent to share their own beliefs with a child...but I think its wise to only offer it as a belief and offer reasons why they place faith in that belief...even if it is the belief in no god.


I think its best to raise children allowing them to study and explore all avenues of mans history in 'faith'. It allows them to understand the evolving of beliefs and how earlier beliefs evolve into later beliefs.

I dont think there is anything wrong with faith or sharing spiritual experiences with children. But I do think its not wise to tell a child what truth is, when the only proof you have to offer them is another man's word.

I was raised in a Christian home....it was wrong to even bring up the idea that the Bible might not be totally right. Fear was placed into me, rooted deep within me, due to the idea that if I use my own reasoning to understand life and a purpose, I would be tricked or misled.

Due to my own experiences as a child and growing into an adult and having to find my spiritual birth right on this sphere....I will not tell my children things as a 'matter of fact' if all I have to go by is another man's word.

I take them to Bible school in the summer time, that offer's them a bit of the Bible. They see me study the Bible alot. They also see me be very passionate about our Earth, about how I feel all life is of the same value, they see me share our home, our food, our love...to many people in our lives. I think its things like sharing your home, your food, your love...that will lead them in the right directions of where to place 'faith'.

My son (age 13) recently came home and said he was not sure he believed in heaven. If I would of done this at his age...I would of gotten the 'oh no you didnt' look. I sat and asked him some questions....he just said it was not that he didnt believe there could be a heaven....but that he was not sure....so he was not going to say he was sure about something that he was not sure of. I found his reason, for age 13, to be sound enough.

My daughter wanted to get baptized at bible school, she is 12. She has never even read one whole book within the Bible. I told her when she has read the book of that religion...when she has studied more of what the religion is about...then that is the time for her to decide on such a decision. She later told me that the reason she wanted to get baptized at bible school was because they always asked everyone everyday who had been baptized, who was thinking about it ect....and she felt left out of the crowd.

I dont want my children to grow up thinking they are unworthy, unloved, or that they need to be 'good' for rewards later. I want them to do right, with true intent, because they have understanding of a better, more universal way of living on this world.

Over the next year or so Im hoping to collect or print out alot of different texts from different cultures so they have access around the house to different ideas, different times of man kinds past.

I want them to know, I love them and that I 'believe' God loves them...unconditionally. I dont tell them that God is a fact...but I can share spiritual experiences with them.

Wow, several people are abusing the OP for asking a simple question.

Muzzle, he never once said that people should be "forced" to learn one thing or another. He merely asked the question of whether or not education of religion is going to benefit or harm a child.

If the answer is yes, as he concluded, nobody is arguing that people should be FORCED to adopt these views. But hypothetically, if his premise were true, it would indeed be our responsibility to "convince" and "teach" others to leave religion, not "force".

There's a vast difference. One is asking. The other is demanding. The OP is asking. Stop misconstruing his words, either selfishly or unintentionally, because it's derailing the thread.

There is nothing wrong with teaching children ABOUT religion, all religions have some good things to live by.

There is everything wrong with teaching children one religion and putting it across as The Only Truth.. coz that is Indoctrination.

[edit on 10-8-2010 by Tayesin]