Indoctrination

Childhood indoctrination seems to be standard practice within religious families. The parents hold a specific faith, so they decide that their offspring will as well. So the child is told the stories of the Bible, Koran, etc as if it was the unquestionable truth. It's drilled into the mind of the youth at an age
where they will accept and instruction unquestioned.

Personally, I don't like this practice. I feel like religion should be set aside until the child is of an age that they can make their own choice. At this time the parents can tell them what they believe and why, and their son or daughter can then take note of this and draw their own conclusions.

But this is how religions remain so large to this day. Get them young, and you may get them for life. In a way it's a lot like brainwashing. Convince someone of something early enough, and it will stick with them. Suppose you lived in a Coca-Cola house as a kid. Chances are you will always remain a Coke guy/gal. That's a benign example. But what about people who suffer emotional abuse from an early age. They may have been told they were no good and worthless on a regular basis. Eventually they start to believe it themselves, and can find that the mindset is very difficult to shake off.

When I was a kid, there wasn't really any choice when it came to religion. Well... More importantly, I never realized there was a choice. I went to CCD school, we were a 'Catholic family', and as far as I knew, everybody was Catholic. At that young age, I wasn't aware there were competing religions or that you didn't even have to have one. I was taught that the teaching of the Catholic church were known truths, and that's that. I would have been shocked if realized that there were even different versions of Christianity. Eventually I did, but by that time I was old enough, and immersed in it enough that I didn't question the 'superiority' of Catholicism.

Why do we do this? Why don't we allow children to draw their own conclusions? Do the parents see it as a way to validity their own beliefs? Perhaps they genuinely fear for the 'eternal sole' of their child. Whatever the reasons (and I know that in my parent's case that they meant well), I believed for a while but was lucky enough to break free from religion's hold. But what would we think of a similar situation.

Suppose a child is brought up by fans of The Beatles. They tell their child that The Beatles were, and still are the greatest band ever. If you agree, all is dandy. But if you don't, or worse yet think the Rolling Stones were the best, you are in for a bad time. Rolling Stones fans are evil and will try and lead you astray. And those who don't follow the words of The Beatles will be forever forced to listen to the Beach Boys for all eternity. So say your Our Lennon's and Hail McCartney's every night before bed. Imagine a child utterly convinced that all of this was true. What would you think of those parents? Not very highly, right?

Well, that's what families do when they indoctrinate religion as well. Sure, they don't realize it, but they get a kid to believe that the Christian God is the unquestioned truth, instead of The Beatles. They warn about Satan instead of the Rolling Stones. Threaten Hell instead of the Beach Boys. Oh you better say you prayers still. Only it's , and Our Father and Hail Mary this time around.

Please take a moment to consider this double standard. Religion is very good at convincing people to do things and accept things that they'd find someone from a different religion doing. The only difference is preference and perspective. And always remember... What if your parents belonged to a different religion? If you are religious, you'd probably belong to a different one right now. So what doe that tell you about how unquestionable these religions are?


-Brain Hulk

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