Children and Religion?

[roostuf]

Skip to the *star* for the question the rest is how i view my religion.

I am a Catholic I was born into a Catholic family and was fine with it until i reached 10 or so. I live in Ireland and for fellow Irish i don't need to explain why my faith has faltered, for those that don't know-Child abuse. Now this was a bit of a shock but as i dig'ed deeper into Christian past did i find that the church is not so "holy" as i once thought.

Crusades, discrimination, bribery, murder and so on. And now today i am thinking of renouncing my Catholic status because no matter how hard they try to cover up their past they are as bad as sin itself, to my eyes at least.

*But the point is this, should children be given the chose to choose their religion when they reach a certain age and enough knowledge of said religion of interest?

I personally think yes, yes they should. What about you?

 

[Valate_v1legacy]

No, their decision will be heavily influenced by their parents religion of choice, possibly leading to instances of threatening or abusing their children, or cutting off all relations with them.

That said, if the child knows enough to make an informed decision without serious consequences, then yes.

 

[CrashBang]

Of course, children are free to make their own decisions (to a degree, depending on the age)

I was christened but I've been an atheist since I was about 10 and, when I have kids, I'm not getting them christened or sending them to a Catholic school etc because I don't believe any of it. However, if they tell me that they've 'found God' then that's their choice and they can go get themselves christened or confirmed if they want to

 

[Redryhno]

And how is the child "informed" exactly?

If the parent is religious then obviously it will tell the child that religion is good, and if atheists are allowed to decide how children are "informed" then they will just tell them that religion is stupid. Its not possible to prevent bias.

Kids raised in religious families will end up religious them self's, and kids raised by atheists will end up as atheists. Why can't people just fucking accept that instead of constantly trying to force feed their believes into the other party's throats?

Well, besides the plethora of books, films, and other informational devices in the world there is this new, revolutionary device used, you're actually using it right now, the internet. And on the internet there are sites, some "force feeding" as you put it, and then there are the sites that just deal with the religion and the history of the religion, which can give a kid an idea at least of his religion, at most, cement their faith or make them decide to fuck off when it comes to religion. It's that simple, find the ACTUAL information, make a decision, a lengthy process for such a short list for some people and their religious affiliation is set, for at least a week or two or the rest of their lives, depends on the person.

And kids raised in religious families doesn't mean that the kids will be religious themselves, kind of like every kid born into a rich family will have the same mindset as their parents.

This is all exempting the fact that the most "popular" religions these days encourage the idea of "free will", and that you can choose to leave that religion for another or none.