Indoctrination of Children into Religion Essay

As children we are shown life through rose colored glasses. Our entire world is dependent on the bias that is handed to us. For most people, what is taught in the years that they wear those jaded glasses is the backbone for their life. As a child raised in the Christian church I grew into a submissive, incompetent, and ignorant young adult. I purged myself of religion, and I quickly became a powerful, independent, and freethinking young woman.

When it comes to the education of children, there are numerous fundamental factors, to mention a few: parents, teachers, the student himself, curriculum, methodology, culture, and the Holy Spirit. Students must first take responsibility for their own education and desire to learn. Even though this key educational factor is not a prerequisite for learning, all students must eventually hunger for learning or it will never take root in their lives. Responsible teachers must use responsible materials and methodology in order for purposeful education to have a lasting impact. Teachers must use their divine calling and materials that “are not sugar-coated, censored, vacuous and dry, nor merely politically correct” (Holtrop) to challenge this current generation of students. While secular humanism views children as inherently good, we know that scripture teaches that all mankind to be innately evil, a

Brandt’s essay, Do Kids Need Religion?” is based on how someone should answer a kid’s question. When Brandt’s daughter was ten years old, her friends died in a house fire. The parents of Brandt’s daughter’s friends took the death well because they were strong and brave about what happened. They were devoted Catholics and talked about how their two little girls were in heaven. But Brandt is not religious in any way and when her daughter asked what happened to her friends, he told her something that he did not believe in because he thought that these deaths had no meaning and could not justify it. Brandt asks families if they think that their children needs religion. He also asks doctors on their point of view about religion and if kids need it. People who have a religion do not have to worry about what kinds of question their child can ask them because they have their own faith and can confidently answer their question. Brandt essay is mainly towards nonbelievers and wants to know

Children do as they see. At a young age my parents would pray before meals and bed and being involved with church was a big part of our lives which emphasized the importance of religion. My brother was born three months early only weighing two pounds. It is legal to abort a baby at twenty four weeks (in the state of Michigan) and he was born at twenty seven weeks. Just three weeks after the legal time period to abort and yet he was a baby in every sense of the word, just small and underdeveloped. They believe that all lives matter. He grew up to be just as human as anyone else, he was not just a clump of cells. Two days after my birth the Columbine massacre occurred. This made my parents realize how messed up of a society we live in and that they were bringing their daughter into it. So they made sure to teach their children the value of morality. This in turn is why I believe the government should be able to tap into suspected criminals personal means of communication with probable cause to avoid more situations such as this

To begin with, forcing children into accept a religion of any denomination can potentially lead to opposition of faith

Some people think that religion is all wrong and that they never want their kids to be a part of it at all. I say that that is okay you want your children to believe what you believe, my parents wanted me to believe what they believed and hey that worked out fine. However, parents don’t let their children form their own opinions about things anymore. We should let children when they are around the age of five go to Sunday school if they want to. They should be allowed to experience those types of things so that when something does happen to you they can have option on where to get help. They should be able to get help where ever they feel the most comfortable and the one place they feel safe talking about the tragic time in their lives. The

The older generations greatly influence what the newer generations morals are and how the world is seen through their eyes. Children inherit characteristics that are observed while they are growing up. In Murdochs essay she states, “ The unbeliever might add that religion is imbibed in childhood” (760). This shows how from a young age a person's mind can be persuaded to a way that others think and what they believe to be good or evil. Religion has a part is how a person's morals are, growing up a christian or a muslim a person's morals differ from one another, because of the way that religion has come up.

Certain religions such as Judaism and Christianity pass religion down maternally. Religions often have confirmations and rites of passage for the young, which means that parents will start instilling religion in their children from a young age. There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with raising your child with religion as a backbone. Religion often explains things that otherwise will not be explained, and provides structure and added culture to people’s lives.

What do children have as a weakness, as a result of religion playing a role in the parenting styles of how they grow up? Children are very important in the world today being that they are the next generation to lead the next kin of children, which are starting to slowly grow up. In the world, religion is a major component in the lives of many ethnic groups of people. Religion represents a large portion of the world, approximately 84% of the population (Harper, 2012). When children grow up in a religious setting or have attained a religious background, they have different views than children who do not have a religion that they conform to. Children who associate with having a religion generally are accompanied with having a parental guardian

Chapter six of Cognitive Science, Theology: From Human to Divine Minds, the author, Justin Barrett argues that there is indeed a cognitive scientific perspective that provides an explanation on why humans conceptualize the divine (Barrett, 2011, p. 96). The ways he explains this in this chapter is in various sections; Who is a God?, Why Gods?, how dead people become gods, minimal counterintuitive ideas and cultural transmission, gods and meaning making, and the reasons to doubt the existence of Gods.

Their parents are assumed to agree with their religious teachings until they complain. The children must attend their Christian ceremonies unless the parents opt them out, but less that 40% of parents knew of their legal right to do so. On behalf of the Humanist Society Scotland, YouGov carried out a survey on a thousand Scottish parents, of whom only 20% said they had been informed of this right by the school. Neglecting to let parents know this means less children will be withdrawn from religious activities, allowing the preachings to reach a much wider audience - if parents keep their children involved they can brainwash more of them, let more of them know how divine it is to be part of their

But they also teach children to put blind trust into their faith at an age that can’t truly begin to comprehend what that means.

Religion in all kinds of schools is a topic that is often discussed at all sorts

By indoctrinating a child into a religion, you are basically telling them they owe everything to a nonexistent superior being and therefore must be subservient to it and obey all of its man made rules.

That being said, the status, value and role of children as bearers of an evolving religious agency and autonomy are often negated in that many scholars of theology and