If you can still convince boys and girls at sixteen to believe in your God, and follow your doctrines, then you deserve to be taken seriously.
But I am pretty confident in saying that religion would essentially die out in a generation.
Monday, October 20, 2014
This is essentially how I see Fundamentalism.
If you can still convince boys and girls at sixteen to believe in your God, and follow your doctrines, then you deserve to be taken seriously.
But I am pretty confident in saying that religion would essentially die out in a generation.
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Plato essentially said the same thing. Religion should not be introduced until a child is an adult (he said 15, but that was more than 2,000 years ago). Plato also thought that you should introduce the child to all religions, not just your religion.
ReplyDeleteYeah, well, King, you know what?
ReplyDeleteI'd ask you to take it a step further and ban "Christian" schools, too.
No more Catholic "schools" or Lutheran "schools" or any of that crap: school is where children are taught what we KNOW. Church is where children are taught COMPLETE AND UTTER NONSENSE.
I think 25 years of age as a minimum,give them a chance to experience life and multiple opinions before formal introduction to religious dogma. Religion and belief in supernatural entites is a disease the sooner they die the better
ReplyDeleteThe world is a scary place and it is tough to know what the right answer is to things.
ReplyDeleteIt's so much easier if you throw up your hands and say it's all in one book, regardless of whether the answers you find there make any sense.
So yeah, should we wait to do that to our kids until they've developed critical thinking skills? Of course we should!
The two worst offenders in this are Jews and Catholics, the first, who mutilate their sons at a very early age in the name of religion, the second who baptise shortly after birth and then claim that infant a member of their religion ever after. What other contract or membership, signed without our consent is allowed to exist for life? Ever wonder what the numbers would be if we required adult affirmation?
ReplyDeletemy favorite bumper sticker:
ReplyDeletepolytheist...why have just one imaginary friend?
On topic:
ReplyDeleteThis is Tim Minchin's brilliant "nine minute beat poem" called
Storm
in animated form
(huh! That rhymes! Apparently poetry is not as difficult as one might imagine...)
Guaranteed to be the best 9 minutes of your day today. Sadly. But still, you won't regret watching this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U
1960s, early 1970s, I grew up far north USA state Catholic. I was a cynic starting at a fairly young age. Gave it up in my teens. Also, I wasn't abused.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I didn't grow up in any conservative Protestant or otherwise southern USA Protestant fundamentalist cult. I look at my friends who grew up in conservative Protestant households and shudder at the baggage they carry compared to me. At least my family is Democrats, union members, though Catholic.
Though I wouldn't have minded being a liberal Unitarian, United Church of Christ, Episcopalian, etc. They have less baggage than Catholics and especially conservative Protestants.
Now I'm not interested in religion. Though there are people who do damage in the name of Jesus and other people who do more community service oriented work. I admire the latter.
My family was Catholic and Democrat too (white collar, though, so no union members), relatively liberal overall. I was sent to Catholic schools and my education was also pretty liberal, all things considered... some of my teachers were VERY liberal. So my situation was kind of the reverse of what Gryphen is suggesting. I was raised Catholic, but was actually taught to think for myself, and I started losing my religion at 15. By the time I graduated from my Catholic high school, it was gone.
DeleteBut it's not a system I recommend. It just does too much damage in the meantime.
Agree. Those religions that press the women to undergo as many pregnancies as physically possible KNOW their best bet to ensure future members is to start indoctrination from BIRTH and not to wait and present their belief systems to a mature individual.
ReplyDeleteGod is Vanilla Ice Cream and Religions are flavors of it...
ReplyDeleteChoose your flavor but don't expect me to like yours...
And I won't expect you to like mine...we will get along fine..
Being able to say "Hey, I didn't choose this religion; I had no say in the matter." helped with the final break. I began to question in second grade; by the end of high school, I knew it was over. The guilt, however, was a real toughie. Nothing like a group of frustated women in weird habits to mess with your mind. Thinking independently was not encouraged.
ReplyDeleteMy mother is the odd case of a person born in a non-religious household who chose religion once an adult. But, in her time not being religious carried its own social stigma... I undersatnd her conversion as both her trying to fit in more and her trying to find a cure for the worthlessness she felt. Caused by trauma that she didn't dare talk about in her own family.
ReplyDeleteSo, yes for religion only once one is an adult, but also yes for easy access to non-religious psychological care.
As for 16... Plenty of 16-years-old can be convinced to start smoking, despite knowing half of them will sooner or later die from it, so don't expect to much from teenagers, Gryphen.
That's exactly how we raised our kids. We gave no permission for genital mutilation for our son (circumcision) and we didn't indoctrinate them to any religion. It's their body, their brain, and their decision. They did dabble and educate themselves about the tenants and dogma of different religions, and they still check the "none" box.
ReplyDeleteCause if you circumcise a baby boy he might magically become Jewish or something. Yeah, that makes sense.
DeleteThe post said Fundamentalism with a capital F, but most of the comments seem to indicate religious intolerance across the board.
ReplyDelete