All countries around the world have a minimum age to gain the right to vote. My understanding of this rule is that young people generally are not mature enough from a decision making stand-point on crucial topics in politics and electing a candidate into the government. If this be so, then shouldn't we also set a minimum age for people to choose a religious faith to follow? Keeping aside the fact that religion is a fallacy and we'd be better off without it, I think the first step towards that would be to stop indoctrinating children in religious faith. I feel that the governments should prevent children from being brought up in a faith and instead when they grow to a certain age, they can choose to be part of a religious faith or whatever. In the meantime, as Dr. Daniel Dennett says one could teach kids "world religions" as part of the educational curriculum (the fact about the origins and workings of religion). The facts about religion along with a strong science education and the lack of indoctrination would strike a natural death blow to religion in a few of generations.
Your views and opinions?
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Just as no government should embrace a religion it should not restrict it either. People should be free to choose one way or another.
But at what point do children become "people.?" This is difficult. If a parent would indoctrinate a child into racism, would you feel that government/society had no right to intervene? Where is that line? Where or when do you say someone is unfit to be a parent?
Muslim children are taught, ( I learned here) that they are guaranteed to go to heaven if they die before the age of 15 (boys), 9 (girls). So combine this with a parent strapping explosives to their young bodies to become bombs in crowd on their way to heaven, is there not need for societal intervention? Where is that point of intervention?
Given current events, are we likely to survive if we don't draw that line?
It's a lovely thought. I don't see it becoming a reality within my generation.
One possibility may be to disallow the use of religious beliefs and practices to avoid governmental requirements like education and vaccination. That may allow for prosecution of child endangerment when it comes to early religious indoctrination.
We also need to revoke the tax exempt status of religions.
It is good thoughts but I don't think so that it is realistic way to choose region as that is person belief and I think we should respect the rights on individual's rights to choose their own religion.
I think it would be better to set a mature age for people to choose whether they want a religion or not. Until such time, people should not be expose to any religious stories and should not be imposed in school.
While I can agree with the idea in principle, as we all know how utterly terrible childhood indoctrination can be, to put it in practice would require trampling the same rights that prevent the government from telling us what to teach our kids. What if it swings the other way? What if one day they decide we HAVE to raise our children in religion? Would you ever countenance that? I wouldn't. We have the rights we do for a reason, and we should be damn careful before we tinker with them, else we might lose them entirely.
I agree (since my agree button doesn't work.... LOL!) It's a hard thing to do. We have to leave it up to the families. It's a free country and the government shouldn't be able to intrude. They intrude enough as it is. As long as nothing illegal is going on, I think we have to stay out of it. Hopefully people will learn the truth on their own.
Being an anti-indoctrination in anything especially theism, I agree with the banishing of raping kids minds.
We should push towards education rather then indoctrination.
Someone (theist) might say:
What is the difference? or Aren't they the same?
My reply:
The reason you are asking that question is the reason why you did not have education but only indoctrination. :)
Here in the U.S. We have the 1st amendment guaranteeing religious freedom and that will never change. It would be nice if parents would at least wait until their children reached the age of reason at 8 or 9 but again that's not going to happen in a free country. I would agree that more education is needed, studies have shown people with higher intelligence have less religiosity than those without. A comparative religious class showing how each ridiculous superstition that was started by primitive man came to be. The Abrahamic religions are nothing unique and were mostly plagiarized from other mythology. Hopefully when the curtain is drawn back they can see it as the absurdity it is and think for themselves.
well if your still economically dependent they well control your choices
Can one enact a law specifying a minimum age to indoctrinate children that the Moon is a piece of cheese, or God has a huge beard and is a hefty old man? Perhaps one can when it comes to public education. But who will enforce such a law in the privacy of the home? All children are passed on their superstitions mostly in the home environment. A child can then choose (struggle hard?) to discard some superstitions (hopefully the important ones!) as he grows up, and comes of adult age. The journey to atheism in a theist environment is a lone battle, fought by individual children against groups of adults.
Thanks for all your views. I understand that such a policy is very difficult to implement. My primary concern was that societies brand kids at a very early age as a Muslin, Hindu, Christian etc just because their parents belong to a certain faith. I felt that it would be better if the religious label a person wants to take on is delayed until the person is old enough to make up their own mind about it. But as pointed out by others, there are indeed practical difficulties in achieving that.
That's really the worst part of it; seeing a group of kids being referred to as "Muslim children", or "Christian children". They shouldn't be branded with a dogmatic belief that they aren't even capable of choosing foir themselves. Maybe we should just refuse to recognize children as being members of any religion.
I read Richard Dawkins Twitter feed. He said (paraphrasing) "Have you ever seen a socialist child? Or a Marxist child?".
The same goes for religion. Unbelievable that people don't see that.
The worst thing about religions is that they imposed the religious beliefs to innocent children and punished them if they can't easily understand it.
Religion should be chosen when the person is about 16 years old. Shoving ideas down kids throats is disgusting because they're so vulnerable and believe what their superiors tell them to. As someone who spent their childhood in a primary school, I can say first hand, it's hard to break free. The only reason I managed to break free was because my parents didn't shove any religious views down my throat. Others whom I attended school with, weren't so lucky. If you let people choose their faith or belief system at 16, they'll be more mature and open minded enough to choose for themselves. Who is going to believe stories about talking snakes at 16? Or agree with the idea of genocide of non-believers?
* catholic primary school.
well most people have to be financially independent before expressing their idea because they could end up in a bad situation
well we all have different rate of development and thus i dont expect one age common to all of us. I expect it to be an age gap between 21-27
21-27?? Wow, that is conservative. i like it.
but that is the moment when you are also economically independent and can make a decision without bias
While an interesting thought, this would be impossible to monitor and enforce.
I disagree.. I would rather see teaching of all the different major religions as part of the education syllabus. This will help unite the worlds people about each others culture with greater respect and tolerance. A by product of teaching of all the religions is that the person realizes the bullshit of religion.
Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and the Eastern Orthodox churches (not sure what the term is for the followers of that denomination is) baptize babies into the religion.
NECROPOST ALERT!
Minimum Age To Choose Religion ?
About 90, on your death bed.
@strongarmatheists: Create a police force that "protects" children from religious parents. Hmmm? How much bloodshed would this require? I don' t know how much killing you are prepared to do in the name of atheism but it seems you must be prepared to shed some blood. Believers will resist. Rightfully so. Perhaps you should develop your persuasion skills before you resort to Jackboot Nazi tactics.
I strongly agree with Chimp about the folley of attempting to use force against religious parentage. Education and a multi-faceted effort to make all members of society aware of both sides of the argument seems a better path. We know from both history and current headlines what happens when one group attempts to force compliance of thought on others. The misery unleashed would be unbearable. I want everyone to stop indoctinating their children, but raw force is not a satisfactory solution.
When I was a kid back in the 1950s, parents smoked around their kids all the time. Teachers smoked in the classroom. Doctors smoked while treating kids. Smoking was normal. Now smoking has become abnormal, and anyone blowing smoke all over kids would get criticized and possibly arrested in some jurisdictions.
I wonder if religious pollution of kids' minds can be denormalized in the same way. There've been plenty of horror stories about cult indoctrination and priestly child molesters. Maybe in our lifetimes we'll see "Praying can damage your mental health" signs painted on church steeples and "no admission under 20" on their doors.
I live in a society where everyone is tought that being Christian is the One best thing that somebody can be and that everyone eles is wrong ( I live in Greece ) and i agree with those who say that children shouldn't be indoctronated into a religion since they are't aware of the things that every religion says and they probably haven't read the scriptures !!! ... I think that it is the school's job to teach children about the world religions without being biast then the kids will have the nesesary knowledge to chose ! BUT this will never happen as every parent wants their children to follow on their footsteps and this means to follow their religion blindly WITCH IS WRONG!!! ... No parent should have the wright to tell to a kid that Cristianity is the one true religion or Islam is or any religion ... since they don't know either ... this can only be solved by the educational system ... the kids Must learn to question things and not just blindly follow what their parents tell them because parents are humans too and they make mistakes ( All parents do ) And understanding that you can be wrong and that your kid may be better if is follows a different path makes u a better parent ...
So yeah i think that children must know what every religion says but they must not be inplimented in their lives it is harmful to them.. espetialy the part about Hell and that they are full of sin since they were born without them doing enything -_- !!
In my opinion the parents that do teach their religion to their kids as FACT are doing a terrible thing and they should stop its not fair for them ....
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