Religion is deeply ingrained within our society. Most children are born into religions and are "Christian babies" right from birth. This is insulting. Children are being forced to believe in absurdities against their wills and are being labelled as Christian/Jewish/etc.
Don't teach young people that religion is true or label them as religious. Teach them critical thinking skills, skepticism, science, and history. At an older age, let them choose what they will follow. There's no way that you can justify that a young child has a conclusive idea about the metaphysical nature of the universe when he/she cannot sufficiently grasp or think about those concepts. Let's be honest.
Would you call a two-year-old a republican baby? an existentialist? a nihilist? a nationalist?
(I'll blog more about children in another post)
Religion almost always starts with childbirth. I believe that this is why so many people believe. Very young children are very susceptible to information and will believe almost anything authority figures tell them.
All that religious leaders have to do to reinforce or establish religion in older people is
- promise an eternal reward to gullible people via immortality and people are hooked.
- guilt trip with the threat of an eternal punishment
- say, "Oh, it's God's will and you can't hear God"
The problem is this: no one knows God's will. Gods (at least as we know them) actually most almost certainly do not exist. It's 2009: there's no solid, concrete evidence to prove any of the gods we had throughout human history. There are also many problems such as the existence of evil, the errors in every holy book, a horrible standard of morality from an all-loving being, no words from the future in an "eternal book," "scientific nonsense" in holy books, etc.
Believers even reject, without a thought, every other god except for their own. I just go one god further.
It is so hard, though, to relinquish beliefs you had for almost two decades (or more) of your life.
Why do people believe these promises?
- People fear death
- People think gods are the only way to moral thinking
- They believe that religious authority figures are correct and should be listened to
- They believe that they know the answers and are content with God being the answer for everything we don't know.
- They are ignorant of scientific explanations and thus accept the supernatural
- Family members all believe and they are afraid to rebel or are not able to
- Our world seems like it was designed and is so complex that *only* God could have made it.
- People are afraid that they'd go to Hell if they stopped believing (ironic, isn't it?)
- Religion has been a part of their entire life so they just believe it
- They haven't heard objections from non-believers
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe indoctornation at birth is the only way for monothiestic religions to sustain itself. Religion has to hit the children at birth because children learn at a fast rate. The nagging three year old that keeps saying "but why, but why" is not something that is annoying, but helps the child learn what is going on. If left alone, and nurtured, the child would easly grasp everything that comes along. The indoctornation is meant to stop that process and quickly create a circle think pattern to where everything the child learns is attrubited to a god(S). Natural couriousity is therefore destroyed. If implemented correctly the child will never be able to think any other way but circularly. Thus a the religion sustains itself. All the while another child is left behind.
ReplyDelete