Kids and Religion

**Yosei** · 12-14-2007, 11:05 PM

This is going to be a very touchy subject, but I cannot stress it enough, please, PLEASE, please.. respect others religious views and morals, and if it turns into a flame war, I will just have this closed.
But yes... onto the subject...

Am I the only person who finds exposing kids younger than 12 to religion, wrong? It just doesn't seem right to me. My nephew came home today and my dad does the daily "What did you learn today?" routine, and my nephew said he learned one of the most controversial subjects to enter the schools, the theory of evolution.
Since my dad is an extremely devout Christian, it set him off. He started lecturing my nephew, telling him the theory of evolution is wrong, and that anyone who says its right is stupid. Everything has to have been created by someone, things don't just evolve. He told my nephew if any atheists were to ever come to him and tell them their views on such things, to walk away and to not listen to them, because if he does, he's going to go to hell.
I dare not speak up to him, because he'll start lecturing me, telling me the same stuff, and then it'll tick me off, and I will probably at some point during the lecture, start yelling back at him, and then just get up and walk away, thus pissing him off more. And no one wants to piss my dad off.
About a month ago I watched a special on one of the news shows, forgot which one, I think it was 20/20. It was about this little boy who was preaching Christianity and protesting abortion. The lady interviewing him asked him what abortion was, and he said that his dad had told him it was when a lady kills her baby because she doesn't want to keep it. While, yes, it is kind of that, its not that simple and immoral.

I just think telling kids that at such a young age is wrong. In my opinion, it seems like it would teach intolerance and a closed mind.

**Valentines** · 12-15-2007, 12:08 AM

I never understood religion.

And no, the factor of me not caring about it doesn't count, I really just never got it.

**viasta** · 12-15-2007, 01:31 AM

I think religions should be only given to older people, no, not seniors D:, com'on, teaching kids misleading things are stupid :/. Imo, I think atheist is the best religion there is, no restriction of anything

Esen · 12-15-2007, 02:13 AM

Hmmm... Can't really say anything from a personal experience considering Buddhism is basically about peace and harmony, but for my family, with the exception of my grandma, most of us are not really... that devoted so... Nothing was ever really imposed on me. It was just kind of there... I don't really remember if they tried to explain anything to me when I was little or not...

As for the topic in general, yeah, it probably shouldn't be taught unless the person can decide for themselves if that's what they actually believe in or not. I know a few people who became interested in religion during high school, but before that, never really cared.

**Enraya** · 12-15-2007, 10:09 AM

I don't have a religion, and believe in evolution.
Yes, maybe all those other religions DO preach the right things.
But I think that children should be allowed to develop their own thoughts and ways and choose their own religion. Religion most likely developed because some random guy wanted to create something so that he could look forward to doing something each day. Smaller children should probably have a choice in deciding what they would want to believe in - maybe for the rest of their lives.

**Hyper** · 12-15-2007, 10:18 AM

I don't think its right at all.

They grow up to become completely ignorant, and so their children, and their children's children. (Though people do break away sometimes.)

Its the never-ending cycle of ignorance.

Don't think so? At my cousin's school, they say that all the fossils were planted by science centers and Universities for funding, and to keep your attention off of God. The "Lucy" skeleton was fake, along with the millions of other fossils, apparently.

No, I'm not joking.

I'd also like to point out that she knows NOTHING about any other cultures. "Inca? Were they like... Ink makers...?"

Who was Attila the Hun?
"Uh... A king of... Russ- ...No... China...?"

**Hessah** · 12-15-2007, 10:34 AM

I'm not religous, and i find that some of the things religous people believe in are... rather hard to understand... in terms of 'logic' to me...

but anyway...

Ideally, it would be best to let the kid/individual choose wat they like to believe... but if the parent, or caregivers, believe in somethign so strongly, it's understandable that they'd want the kids that they're looking after think the same way...

just like how u teach them wat's moral, wat u believe is right or wrong...

turning the table, we'd almost want to convince your nephew that ur dad is not 100% correct.. and want him to believe in evolution.. or that evolution actually probably exist and ppl are not dumb in thinking that way... but who's to say wat really happened billions of years ago?

I think what you can do is, if your nephew is upset about how wat he learnt at school is contradicting wat he's learning at home, you could probably be the middle person and tell him, these are called believes, there's no right answer, and he can choose wat he thinks is "real"....

**Hyper** · 12-15-2007, 10:40 AM

Scientology = Insta-win.

**Blaaaaaaaah** · 12-15-2007, 10:40 AM

I don't mind this - to a certain extent.

If I was religious, I would want my children to think the same way as me too. I mean, I'd hate it if my children won't agree with me all the time.

However, I disagree to this when parents teach their kids to hate or ignore other people who have different views. I don't really mind if parents tell their kids about it so the kids will follow them, but those who force their kids to and teach them to look down on those with a different view is annoying.

I guess it's okay generally, but there's a limit to it. If my child, for some reason, chooses not to believe with me, then I'll let it be. Not that this will happen for me anyway, since I'm an Atheist.

Xylem · 12-18-2007, 11:12 AM

It's a simple matter really. In my school, my biology teacher told us at the VERY first lesson:

"What I'm teaching you now are just THEORIES, and you DO NOT have to believe in them. This however does not mean you can go into the exam room and write 'I don't believe in evolution'."

Matter solved. There is no problem in teaching kids of any age about religion. I went to church school since I was five, yet, I'm going to chose Biology as my major in University (If i make it. My results come out tomorow). People need to realise that things like these are just theories, taught to us by other people, sharing their knowledge with us. They are not forcing us to believe it. It's like the same with maths. What percentage of the population use trigonometry in their everyday lives? And yet, we still learn it in school.

I think you should talk to your dad, and get him to understand that the school is not forcing him to believe in what they teach. They are simply, 1. Teaching whatever is in the syllabus, 2. Sharing knowledge. And IMO, there is nothing wrong with teaching kids about religion. As I said before, I'm planning to go Biology all the way, and I'm kind of religious. Never missed a Sunday mass, and I've been to church school since I was five.