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| Indoctrination of Children; What are your opinions? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 28 2008, 01:21 PM (1,142 Views) | |
| chezpotato | Apr 28 2008, 01:21 PM Post #1 |
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The majority of religious people that I have met would say to me that they would never force their religious views onto someone (although I believe this to be hypocritical of some Christians when they say it's their duty to convert as many people as possible). Yet they do the exact opposite to their children, effectivly passing on their belief systems as easily as telling the child that if you're good, Santa will come down the chimney and deliver presents. I think this is an act of mental child abuse. Dawkins said it best when he talked about labeling children with their parent's religion. I agree that it is no different than saying you have a Communist child, or a Marxist child. |
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| Trav-man | Apr 28 2008, 04:32 PM Post #2 |
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That's Travtastic!
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Indoctrination is just teaching, plus the negative connotation. To call it child abuse is... well, nevermind. I can't say what I want to say how I'd like to say it without offending somebody, so, I won't. But you get the idea. |
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| chezpotato | Apr 28 2008, 05:20 PM Post #3 |
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Ever heard of Jesus Camp? |
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| Crewss | Apr 28 2008, 05:44 PM Post #4 |
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What is wrong with impressing what you believe onto your children? |
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| chezpotato | Apr 28 2008, 05:52 PM Post #5 |
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Because they're children, and they're human beings. Children are very gullible. They're too young to understand if they even want to be a part of a religion, let alone your religion. |
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| Crewss | Apr 28 2008, 05:57 PM Post #6 |
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Alright then, I suppose we should not teach children right from wrong so they can develop their own perspective between the two, yes? It's the same thing. Parents genuinely believe their religion is correct in all aspects, therefore they are going to teach their children what their religion is all about. I don't see where any problems should come into play.
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| Benjamin | Apr 28 2008, 06:01 PM Post #7 |
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It's not like the parents are trying to poison the child's mind. You say children are gullible, but the parents aren't teaching the children about their religion because they think it's funny. They believe their religion to be true, and they care about their child and want him or her to grow up with the same morals. |
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| chezpotato | Apr 28 2008, 06:03 PM Post #8 |
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You can easily teach a child morality without the use of religion. Indoctrinating children can easily make them very closed minded, intolerant, and ignorant. What about forcing children to go to church? |
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| lostforwords | Apr 28 2008, 06:17 PM Post #9 |
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i dont even
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I don't know about this. I do believe that children need to make their own decisions, but perhaps later on in life they do, and they realise that whatever religion they were brought up into just wasn't for them. I know someone who was brought up in Christianity, but then decided he didn't like it, so stopped believing. His parents didn't care, they just wanted him to be happy. But I also think that forcing the kid to go to church when he/she doesn't want to is wrong. Being in church should be something you want to do because you believe in whichever religion you're there for. Anyway, I don't really see a problem with it. As long as the parents don't really force the kids into believing, and let them make their own choices later in life, then there's nothing wrong with it.
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| Crewss | Apr 28 2008, 06:23 PM Post #10 |
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99% of the time, children do not want to go to church, not because their not interested in their religion, but because they find sitting there for an hour listening to a priest talk is boring. It really has nothing to do with their desire to learn about the religion. And lostforwords, most children are not old enough to have developed an opinion on going to church. If I had a child who was 5 years old, and he didn't want to go to church, I would still make him go because I believe he/she is not old enough, nor has had enough time, to have collected their thoughts about the religion and genuinely understood the facts and principles of the religion. And we must remember that the child is only 5. If he/she can't read or write yet, how can we expect the child to know enough about the religion to have developed their own perspective of it? |
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| chezpotato | Apr 28 2008, 06:25 PM Post #11 |
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That's the whole reason why forcing a child to follow a religion, and forcing them to go to a church, is wrong. You should keep your beliefs to yourself. |
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| Crewss | Apr 28 2008, 06:28 PM Post #12 |
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Actually, no. If the parent believes the religion is the right thing for the child, then the parent needs to take time to give the child the information he/she needs to know so that he/she can develop an opinion. The child is only 5 years old for God's sake. |
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| Melancholic | Apr 28 2008, 06:30 PM Post #13 |
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chiralism
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Parents do not have the right to make such life changing decisions for their child. If children are not old enough to understand religion then there is absolutely no reason to bring them to church other than raw indoctrination. Not everybody has the strength to just walk away from something that has been shoved down their throat since childbirth, and (obviously) not all families are open-minded enough to tolerate other beliefs. |
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| chezpotato | Apr 28 2008, 06:32 PM Post #14 |
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Exactly. |
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| lostforwords | Apr 28 2008, 06:41 PM Post #15 |
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i dont even
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Obviously if the kid is that young, then he/she won't like church. You can drag him/her there and I wouldn't see a problem with that, as like you said, they don't understand religion enough yet. It would be like dragging them to nursery. But what if the kid was older? What if they were around 12, and they knew exactly what the religion was about? I don't think you should be making such decisions for them. If they feel like your religion isn't for them, then I feel you should let them decide what one is, or if there even is one. At this time, I see forcing them to believe in what you believe in is a form of mental abuse. |
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3:00 PM Jul 11
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It's the same thing. Parents genuinely believe their religion is correct in all aspects, therefore they are going to teach their children what their religion is all about. I don't see where any problems should come into play.

3:00 PM Jul 11