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Religion should be illegal to teach to children. Is this a violation of religious freedom?

I personally do not feel that barring adults from teaching religion to children is a violation of religious freedom, I do not think parents have the right to push their personal belief system on their children. Rather, parents have the responsibility to equip children with knowledge and skills to think and act critically. Parents do not have the right to enslave children, children are not the property of parents, and they are not their personal "spiritual minions" or servants.

I believe children are individuals but are vulnerable to intellectual manipulation, and religion is a very insidious and harmful form of manipulation. It harms children in their ability to reason and think clearly.

Therefore, religion, religious materials should be as pornography. I think its illegal to show pornography to children, and clearly its illegal to involve children in pornography, and I feel that religious teaching is at least equally as harmful.

That said, should the police be bursting into homes of families with children and confiscating any materials that could be deemed religious as they do with child pornography? Should parents who expose children to religion be treated the same as parents who expose their children to pornography, or worse, children who are coerced to become involved in teaching religion to others, is that the same as child pornography? Why or why not?

Thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by ryan cameron on June 30, 2010 at 6:56pm

I think most people got my point that this question should be asked, and considered. I agree it's completely impractical given the context in which we live, and would likely only embolden religious parents in their delusion.

I am simply floating the idea that religion is similar to pornography in its ability to distort our perception of reality by pushing some hard wired buttons in our brains to get the ball rolling and break another icon.

For some of us, porn exploits our natural lust, and religion exploits our fear of the unknown, both for their own perpetuation. We "protect" children from porn, even though its not been shown to really be psychologically harmful. (if you know of a study..please cite) Religion, in my opinion, exploits something far more psychologically damaging than our lust, our fears and anxieties. To me that is several times worse.

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Permalink Reply by Jameer Logan on July 3, 2010 at 5:38am

In this society if you don't have a religion your chances of being ostracized are increased. It is truly shameful because why do we have to treat another just because they have no religious affiliation. Personally that parents should not push their religious affiliation on the children especially at an early age because at that age they are very impressionable. They should be given good moral guides issued by our society which should be used to make decision. Only when the person becomes old enough to decide logically for themselves should they make the decision of joining a religion. If they choose to join a religion this way instead of being forced I would be all for it. But the fear religion instills inside of young children will be there for the rest of their life, and personally I think it's not fair. Even as an Ex-Christian thoughts always come up about what if there is a "god" (pretty damn sure there is none) and "hell" does exist? It's truly unfair!

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Permalink Reply by lOS`AMIGOS on July 3, 2010 at 7:10am

For some of us, porn exploits our natural lust, and religion exploits our fear of the unknown, both for their own perpetuation

The theists theory of hell is nothing short of a bully type tactic and Dawkin was correct when he suggested it was a form of child abuse.Because if you happen to have been born to some Westbro Baptist or Jim Jones Cult or any other of the many degrees of different abusive poisonous beliefs out there, that often lead to all manner of heartbreak suffering and sometimes even suicide .Then it really is an awful alot about abuse.

So while maybe i dont see that religion should be banned .Maybe it should definatly be far more regulated.

We regulate plenty other matters of our societys already.So how come its religion that gets to pick and choose the right to become like they is the home town vigilante`s, who run around threatning people with their assortment of thoughts of hellfire and brimstone and eternal punishment and suffering for sinners.

Its little better than them being the local street gang bullys,the ones that try threatening any in the area who dare question their particular rules of the hood.

There is absolutely no observable proof that ANY of their gods even seem to honestly even exist!,add that to the fact that, their ideas of them are mean and nasty,just eactly like! a mean and nasty old ancient barbarian also was.Suggesting gods were often made in the image of,the ancient uncivilized barbarians.

It become obvious really its just fictional myth.

Yes Ryan Cameron, in my opinion some degrees of religious indoctrination thats around in our societies, are like a cacerous growth, and they are actually exremely harmful and quite dangerous. And there is no good reason why there shouldnt be some better regulation of it.

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Permalink Reply by hunter on July 3, 2010 at 9:39am

well I completely agree I think we should wait for children to think for themselves, but there is not much we can do to stop the influence of religion. (sadly) I think its best for parents to wait for the child to let them choose what they believe on there own.

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Permalink Reply by Atheist Insurgency on July 5, 2010 at 10:33am

I look at the phrase "religious freedom" and wonder what's in it for the government to allow religion? Then I'm reminded of such places as Northern Ireland and Lebanon. I wonder if forcebly banning religious practices would result in a violent backlash?

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Permalink Reply by Alex Catgirl on July 5, 2010 at 11:15am

Kiddy porn is inherently unnatural - children are not sexual creatures. Where as Pornography is as natural as it gets - sexually mature homo spaiens have sex.

So where does religion fall on the spectrum? It's defiantly not not as natural as porn(sex), but is it a corrupted form of something, like kiddy porn, something that violates the intrinsic nature of a thing?

I don't think so, it's utterly incorrect and leads to all kinds of anti-social behaviour, but then again so does racism and we do not equate it with kiddy porn, nor do we punish parents for instilling racist attitudes in their children, for the most part, there have been a few cases.

Hmmm, we have a long ways to go on multiple fronts with the whole child raising thing, including the horrid "MY child" attitude....you don't "own" your child, it's an independent entity that has been entrusted to your care.

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Permalink Reply by Atheist Insurgency on July 19, 2011 at 5:59am

Please don't take this personally, I'm just making general observations about words.

A supreme court justice defined "porn" by saying "I'll know it when I see it." I think depictions of adult consensual sexual activity is not porn. I think the word "porn" is really a redundant term for "exploitation" where one or both parties in the depiction are not consenting to the act or it's depiction.

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Permalink Reply by Richard K. Emms on July 19, 2011 at 6:44am

One of my favorite stories is of an old friend. He was Russian Jewish, and his wife Phillipine christian. They forced nothing on their daughter, but told her, "This is what we grew up with, accept either or make your own decision". Unfortunately this is certainly out of the norm. I beleive that what perpetuates the indoctrination on children is that parents are convinced that they are doing a good thing. Basically the parents are brainwashed into believing that one can't be good without god, so we can't expect them to instil secular "goodness" upon their offspring. After all, they don't want them to "grow up bad".

I find forcing religion on children scary at best, but I see no easy way to curb it.