Brainwashing

• Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]

> 

> CLAIRE

> > > Do you think that ALL Christians are deluded fools?

> > >

> 

> > 

> > Yes.  If being religious DIDN'T require brainwashing then why is so

much

> > time spent teaching kids about Jesus?  Sunday school, baby bibles,

> > wallpaper (I have a friend...), summer bible school, flannel story

things,

> > after school bible studies, kid's bible music, children's sermons....

> > 

> > If one could become a Christian simply because it was the most correct

> > position, all the above wouldn't be  needed.

> > 

> > April

> > 

> > (A formerly brainwashed kid!)

> 

> April, if children would learn (or be) something "simply because it [is]

> the most correct position" then why spend a lot of time teaching them

> how to read (for example)? They'll just learn it automatically. They

> would intuitively know that reading is a good thing, and they would just

> teach themselves. The same thing should be true for other subjects. 

> 


Teaching something and total indoctrination are two different things.
Reading and doing math are concrete things, whereas believing in a deity is
not.  The only way kids become religious is by constantly convincing them
that an unseeable, unexperiencable being exists.  This is brainwashing, not
teaching.



> One reason I would want my children (if I ever have any) to be brought

> up in my faith is that I think it could help make a later attraction to

> a cult such as Scientology or the Unification Church less likely. People

> who join cults tend to be the unchurched. The sociologist Rodney Stark

> points this out in his book _The Rise of Christianity_. But I am not

> implying that the atheists on this list are about to run out and join a

> cult! I think that many of the atheists here are probably as committed

> to their atheist beliefs as fundamentalists are to their Christian

> faith. So in the sense that the atheists here are committed, they are

> not "unchurched".


Then what's your point?


> 

> I am sorry if some people have had a bad experience with religious

> education, or of religion in general. I don't think that it HAS to be

> that way. But a lot of subjects besides religion need to be taught

> better. Math would be a good example of a subject that needs to be

> taught better. I know of several people who are "math-phobic" because

> they have had bad experiences in their math classes.


It doesn't have anything to do with HOW it's taught - the point is, it's
taught at all.  I don't want my kids to BELIEVE in anything without
evidence - I want them to require factual data for any position they hold.

April

> 

> Claire O'Connor

> 

• Previous message: Brainwashing, atheists being "shut out".
• Next message: Brainwashing
• Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]