http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/04/depressing_lunacy_presented_pa.php

Have fun There are some more funny blogs in that website

 

I'm not sure if I would go so far as to say it's child abuse, but I am certainly not a fan of parents who indoctrinate their children into their system of belief, and say it's absolute truth. I think the best thing to do is let your kid(s) decide on their own what they believe in.

 

The kid is quite a good orator for a kid his age in my opinion He looked like Gitler in this one: http://youtube.com/watch?v=_Q-6H4xOUrs except for the arm behind the back thing . It's funny how he declare that he isn't related to monkeys and jumps up and down like a monkey in the end.

 

LoL

Is it just me or does anyone else think the kid looks like a young Obama.
Just more spaztastic...

As too the whole raising kids with religion...

I actually agree, to a certain point.

It should be fine if you want to impart your values, but when a kid is downright against it, even when they're young, it shouldn't be forced upon them.

The kid will just end up resenting religion in the end.

It happened to a lot of people. A kid complains about not wanting to go to church, and the parents wig out and yells at them that they are going. Sometimes resorting to actual punishment...

Given sometimes the kid wont want to go cause he/she would rather watch tv or be lazy, but still, that shouldn't mean the kid should be forced into religion.

Anyone raised in a strict religious family will know what I'm talking about

 

I think religion is something you have to find or not find. Yeah, I'll teach my children about God, but I won't expect them to truly believe until they are old enough to have some sense of themselves, and that will probably be after they leave my home. I believe wholeheartedly that God is up there, but that is because of something that I actually felt not too long ago. I can't expect anyone to believe just because I tell them to. That isn't belief then, but indoctrination- which I think should go down as child abuse.

 

The Heir and Quazi pretty much summed up my thoughts, being forced into church made me resent it for a looooooooong time.

But the best thing I find about this type of article are the comments. No matter your belief there is some idiot participating in almost ritualistic flame wars. Many lulz are to be had.

 

The comments are indeed full of greatness lulz and stupidity.

How close in actuallity do you guys think, I thought he resembled a monkey.

And here's some extra material kinda disturbing the lengths some parents would go too...

 

Devil's advocate time. You're a true believer. You know with all your heart that believing in Jee-Zus is the only way to get to Heaven, and all other paths lead directly to Hell, do not pass Purgatory, do not collect your Eternal Reward. You've got a kid. Do you a) do the PC thing and let them discover religion for themselves, risking them taking any path but the true one and earning a one-way trip to the land of brimstone, or b) do everything in your power to get them on the true path to Heaven and Jee-Zus?

It's all well and good to condemn indoctrination from the comfortable positions of atheism and agnosticism, but to those that know deep inside them that God/Allah/Buddha/Krishna/Elvis is the one and only god and all other roads lead to damnation, they're going to do all within their power to get their kid on the road to the good afterlife. In their eyes, anything else would be the worst kind of neglect.

 

Ah, but I think that anyone who truly believes that they have felt God would know that they weren't a true believer before they felt him.

I'm not going to make my kids believe in Christianity purely on principle, because I am not sure if that is true belief and will get you up into heaven. So I'm not going to take any steps at all but to teach them what I know and feel and to hope that they find and feel the same thing as me.

My own twin brother is agnostic. He believes that all religion is correct at the fundamentals and that each are the creator's way to make men and women good people so that they can go be praised by our creator after death rather than punished.

I believe that he is incorrect. I also believe that God will touch him one day, and he will have the choice to accept it or not. Until then, I will simply share my beliefs when we discuss it and leave the rest in God's hands.

EDIT: I am not saying that the majority of Christians would do that though. They would, and they do. I am saying that it is not what I will do.

 

That you felt God is fine, but why do you think He was the God Christianity describes?
Your brother sounds like he spells 'God' C-R-E-A-T-O-R, and that wouldn't make him agnostic.

Anyways, I love the part where he says 'they believe this because a few little men, "all knowing" and fallacy inventors say it'.

 

Must resist urge to ...Zing!


@ Tehan; If you truly believe and lets say God is going to be the final destination. I think he would know if you actually believe in him or are just going through the motions...

If not then its pretty much the same thing as believing in another religon.

You pretty much follow the same rules, but the fundamental issue of belief isn't met, because you havent really embraced it. You only do it...

That is the difference between a believer and a follower. And would in my opinion be a key factor.

and also... you forgot about our noodley Lord and Saviour.

The Flying Spagetti Monster...

May you burn in Alfredo sauce heathen.

 

Bob will sell you all phony insurance you drone! You will all be abducted and anal probed during Rupture.

 

The Flying Spaghetti Monster: "Bob" Dobbs for the ritalin generation.

 

Definitely a touchy topic. On the whole, I feel that it is given too much weight - most people will decide for themselves. For example, I was brought up Christian and slowly drifted away to atheism.

However, there are some children - like the one in this video obviously is - who are so brainwashed/indoctrinated that they effectively don't have this choice. Moreover, the rightness or wrongness of the situation should be the same regardless of whether or not children are regularly able to "escape" their indoctrination.

Saying, "indoctrinating children to my religious beliefs is okay because most children decide for themselves eventually anyway" is about as strong an argument as saying "torturing this man is okay: he'll get over it". You're justifying an action by saying that it doesn't have a long term impact. Disregarding the fact that indoctrination does have a long term impact (just as torture does), even if the child does not stick with the religion (even as an atheist I still show the signs of my religious upbringing), this is still no defence.

So, if we are to justify the teaching of religion to children then we need some other justification than "they'll get over it".

It is a fair point that some indoctrination of children occurs whatever the case, and it would be bad parenting not to teach your children things such as "stealing is wrong", "don't lie", "be polite" and so forth. These are undoubtedly the result of our culture - in Roman times very different values would have been taught to children. So if we are already imposing our culture on children, why not religion?

It's difficult to answer. Maybe it's because pretty much everyone in our society agrees not to steal, whereas people disagree on religion. I think some empathy is required. Christians: how do you feel about Muslims teaching their children to believe Islam? Do you believe that this is right? I suspect not. Therefore, it should not be hard for you to use that very human ability of empathy to see how non-Christians feel about what you do to your kids.

That said, you of course feel that your religion is the "right" one, and this to an extent blocks your empathy in this case: since the Christianity is right and Islam is wrong, how you are raising your child is different.

But we live in a society were we agree to conform to society's rules. We agree not just to live by our own rules, but by the rules of our common, secular, society. A society where - for most of us - religion and state are separated constitutionally (ironically not for me, since I'm English, but this is the case for Americans).

And so by living in such a society, as part of the social contract we have agreed not to put our religion's rules before the state's, and if we do so, then we can be prosecuted.

For those Christians who don't like this, again I ask you to use that sense of empathy. How would you like to live in a country ruled by Sharia law? Unless you're the Archbishop of Canterbury, I doubt you'd be okay with that (lol).

So, moving this back to the original point, a compromise is needed to allow social harmony. We can't always get our way. We should try to empathise with other people in our society, and realise that we're not the only people in the world. So while a Christian may think that telling their child that Jesus is God and that God exists is okay, they should realise that, in the name of social harmony and fairness, this is not the best course of action to take.

 

There is no compromise here. To a true believer, indoctrinating their child is their duty as a parent. Fuck freedom of religion, they're busy doing all they can to make sure their kid doesn't join any other religion and get an eternity of hellfire and brimstone for it.

 

Religion will always be a extremely sensitive topic. I am undecided about what sect of Christianity I belong to, so I really can't say anything.

 

Is it against the state's rules to bring up your children to believe in God?

Indoctrination can't be supported because by definition it hinders critical judgement. However, teaching your children about religion is part of a cultural package; you are doing you children a disfavor by telling them Christianity and the question of God are not worth bothering with. Historically, it was also necessary for social acceptability to believe in God, and I suppose it still is in many places.