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Amazon doesn't post my comments
Hi Richard
Tried posting, but my comments didn't appear. My comments are as follows:
I believe a lot of ground has been covered. Perhaps allow me to elucidate some of my views.
1. Because of natural selection, a child's mind is quite capable of duplicating the actions of adults. This, as Dawkins had put it, boils down to survival: A child probably survives better if he can acquire survival instincts faster and younger than a child who is not adept with this duplication ability. Thus, children are very impressionable, and this, I believe, is one of the traits that have been seized by religion. You will not fail to witness hordes of religious priests of all manner of religions trying to inculcate the young with doctrines and religious idealogies (Terrorist groups, too, find it easier to send kids with bombs to eviscerate themselves and the much-hatred Jews).
2. Having established the malleability of a child's brain, the idea of indoctrinating a child with religion is detrimental because of two reasons:
i. In an age when the world is increasingly dependent on logic and reason, the idea of teaching kids that faith is necessary to understand the nature of a sky god seems like a santa claus story gone wrong. The child will, over time, be more and more susceptible to con men and religious hucksters of all creeds because no one taught the child the ability to reason. This ineptness is not only limited to religion: We know, for example, that there are scammers everywhere, such as the nigerian scam, who use exactly the same weapon to hoodwink the masses: Blind faith.
ii. Herein lies the child abuse element: How do you, the parent, explain to a child that a distant relative, a friend, or some stranger who has just died or has died a long time back is burning, or is going to burn in the bowels of hell, simply because he or she did not believe in the deity of the parent? The mental image of a searing inferno is something that can only be described as a freak show, like the elm street varieties, and I am not sure that the bible, or any religion that instigates hell fire, is suitable for children. As I have elucidated earlier, children's minds are very impressionable, and such teachings will no doubt leave a mental scar in their minds.
iii. In an age when society needs more professionals, such as engineers and doctors, the idea of faith indoctrination seems like a social step backwards: We need more professionals, not priests to advance our civilization. Hence, enforced indoctrination by parents is a social loss to a nation (Already we have seen quite a drastic drop in American education, thanks to fundies who want to teach that dinosaurs existed 4000 yrs ago).
Beast
Tried posting, but my comments didn't appear. My comments are as follows:
I believe a lot of ground has been covered. Perhaps allow me to elucidate some of my views.
1. Because of natural selection, a child's mind is quite capable of duplicating the actions of adults. This, as Dawkins had put it, boils down to survival: A child probably survives better if he can acquire survival instincts faster and younger than a child who is not adept with this duplication ability. Thus, children are very impressionable, and this, I believe, is one of the traits that have been seized by religion. You will not fail to witness hordes of religious priests of all manner of religions trying to inculcate the young with doctrines and religious idealogies (Terrorist groups, too, find it easier to send kids with bombs to eviscerate themselves and the much-hatred Jews).
2. Having established the malleability of a child's brain, the idea of indoctrinating a child with religion is detrimental because of two reasons:
i. In an age when the world is increasingly dependent on logic and reason, the idea of teaching kids that faith is necessary to understand the nature of a sky god seems like a santa claus story gone wrong. The child will, over time, be more and more susceptible to con men and religious hucksters of all creeds because no one taught the child the ability to reason. This ineptness is not only limited to religion: We know, for example, that there are scammers everywhere, such as the nigerian scam, who use exactly the same weapon to hoodwink the masses: Blind faith.
ii. Herein lies the child abuse element: How do you, the parent, explain to a child that a distant relative, a friend, or some stranger who has just died or has died a long time back is burning, or is going to burn in the bowels of hell, simply because he or she did not believe in the deity of the parent? The mental image of a searing inferno is something that can only be described as a freak show, like the elm street varieties, and I am not sure that the bible, or any religion that instigates hell fire, is suitable for children. As I have elucidated earlier, children's minds are very impressionable, and such teachings will no doubt leave a mental scar in their minds.
iii. In an age when society needs more professionals, such as engineers and doctors, the idea of faith indoctrination seems like a social step backwards: We need more professionals, not priests to advance our civilization. Hence, enforced indoctrination by parents is a social loss to a nation (Already we have seen quite a drastic drop in American education, thanks to fundies who want to teach that dinosaurs existed 4000 yrs ago).
Beast
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Richard J. Collins on -
This is a great post Beast. I can put it on the discussion forum, but I have a question. Did you register with Amazon? When you create an account you will be able to create a profile and gain access to quite a few features that non-members don't have.
If you did register and create an account then I would report the problem to their support people. I hope you can resolve this because your insight and thinking will add a lot to the discussion. As you might guess, we freethinkers are in the minority.
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Permalink Reply by Beast on -
Thanks Richard
I did register with my email, and somehow the post doesn't turn up. In fact, I posted twice.
Beast
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Permalink Reply by Richard J. Collins on
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You should see your post appear immediately at the top of the column. Posts are listed in day/time order. Their forum software is a bit bizarre, but then a lot of the parents that are posting there are bizarre also! I'll quote your post right now.
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