Forcing children to follow parents religion?

[micstar615]

If greed, arrogance etc are constants in society, wouldn't that also mean that religion being used for those things will also be a constant?

 

[Claire Diviner]

I'm late into the debate, and I've but skimmed the first several posts, so here is what I have to say on the subject:

Forcing a child to follow one's religion is rather cruel, as the parent(s) are essentially controlling their ability for choice, which is a natural human concept. In many cases, it will either brainwash the child into becoming an extremist of said religion (possibly the worst case), be a devout to said religion, but still accepting of those whose beliefs are non-existent or are different, or it may cause a rebellion, causing the child to grow up to either follow a different religion, hate religion, or question what religion is, where it came from, if any of these views hold merit (what makes an agnostic). It's okay to teach a child one's religion, and why, so long as you don't teach any of the things that have since been warped by man, but the parent(s) should let the child be the one to decide what they want to do with those teachings, and whether they want to follow it, or not follow it but still use the good morals they learned and apply it to their lives.

 

[Chinaux]

Technically, your parents can't force you to believe anything. Now, they can totally influence you. I was raised in a Christian household, and I'm not very religious now.

Your parents can do what they want. It's their house, you gotta listen to their rules. You can be a fedora-tipping militant atheist when you move out, but when you're under their roof, eating their food, you have to be around that. You don't have to believe it, but you're most likely going to believe it being raised into it from childhood. I don't see anything wrong with raising religion with your kids. Religion teaches some pretty good moral values, but also has some drawbacks of course, but none that are really that bad.

 

[LarsINTJ]

Technically, your parents can't force you to believe anything. Now, they can totally influence you. I was raised in a Christian household, and I'm not very religious now.

Your parents can do what they want. It's their house, you gotta listen to their rules. You can be a fedora-tipping militant atheist when you move out, but when you're under their roof, eating their food, you have to be around that. You don't have to believe it, but you're most likely going to believe it being raised into it from childhood. I don't see anything wrong with raising religion with your kids. Religion teaches some pretty good moral values, but also has some drawbacks of course, but none that are really that bad.

Parents always carry an implicit threat of abandonment over their children (regardless of intention). Young kids who are 100% dependent on their parents are forced to believe whatever they're told.

Moral values?
http://ffrf.org/news/news-releases/...als-only-02-of-prisoners-identify-as-atheists
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...ation-and-facts-about-secularism-and-religion

One of the main reasons why nonsensical mythological beliefs have persisted so long throughout human history is because dissenters were murdered for arguing otherwise. If philosophers of the past even hinted toward challenging the god(s) of the state then their persecution was guaranteed. Teaching kids to think for themselves was synonymous with "corrupting the minds of the youth". Yes, the story of Socrates left quite an impression.

Atheism is still punishable by death in large parts of the Middle East. The West was exactly the same before the age of enlightenment.