All Blog Posts Tagged 'indoctrination' (18)

I read the Quran 20 years ago, though the book was entitled Koran.

It was very interesting, except I founds parts abhorrent, such as if you cannot convince a non-believer to believe in Allah, on the second time, you can remove his eyes, if after the third time he still does not believe in Allah, you can take off his head.

This is indoctrination by fear of torture and threat of death.

Hardly a humanistic, good will gesture to one's…

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It's a crime to lock your child up under the stairs. It's considered abuse. I fail to see the difference in locking a child's mind under the stairs. The psychological wounds last forever a broken bone heals in 6-8weeks.

   I myself grew up attending the JW (Jehovah's Witness) kingdom Hall. I'm in my 40's I have 2 kids 18-22. I was lucky in a way, I was born without a God spot and knew from the 2nd day everything that was said and thought  about religions was utter bullshit. And…

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Okay usually you get people that just like "historic Jesus" or think the concept is neat, or like the happy feel good hippy junk he preached about.

But no, I cannot stand Jesus, not at all.



Why is this?

Well it can be summed up as: He is an inconsistent, hypocritical, asshole.



Without getting too theologically involved, lets take the trinity, in which you believe "God" and "Jesus" (not their actual names but the most frequently used aliases the followers use when…

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While nosing about YouTube earlier today, I stumbled on a segment of The Atheist Experience, a public access show from Austin, Texas.  This show frequently features Matt Dillahunty, a former divinity student turned atheist and activist who comments on atheist-related issues and answers telephone calls and emails on the show.



As a part of a discussion regarding the indoctrination of children in this particular segment, Matt cites an email he has received from a 15-year-old. …

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Every American-raised child can relate to this morning ritual. We all stand up, mumble a few words, and then continue our daily lives. 

This act is harmless enough, or is it?

The pledge of allegiance needs to be removed from the public school setting. No child should be indoctrinated into pledging one’s self to a nation. No child should be forced to admit the existence of a god. But most importantly, no child should have to face scorn form their peers for having a different,…

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Would you like to know the religious affiliations of my parents? Well, too bad. Because, get this: I don't know.



Isn't that great!



I DON'T KNOW!



I am 29 years old, almost 30, and I have no idea if either of my parents are religious. For all the grievances I might have towards them (which, since I am using my real name here, I would rather not divulge), the single fact that I have no idea if they are religious or, if so, what religion, is the single… Continue

I may be misinformed here but my take on Islam is that it is the 'One true religion' and its followers have a duty to convert kaffirs or declare jihad on them (whatever the interpretation of that is). It is that black and white. As for apostates, I know of no other religion where some factions advocate death.



Faith schools and religious segregation are allowed and encouraged by this government and Madrasses are being set up all over the place. I have learned about fundie christian… Continue

This is my story. I think it is different than many other people's story so that's why I'm telling it in some detail. It begins in a remote part of northern California where I grew up during the early 70's. Imagine a barely developed countryside with homesteads separated by miles of woodland and connected by a winding dirt road. My nearest neighbors were my cousins who lived about a mile away. Other than my siblings they were the only kids my age I knew until I started school, but I saw them… Continue

I started compiling the list over the summer, and now it is finished. I have a list of 100 NEW Questions for Christians. Okay, so maybe someone has used these before. But they are not the usual questions atheists approach theists with (or respond to theists with) like the Problem of Pain or the immorality of hell (or genocide or having rape victims marry their rapists, etc.) These are new questions like, what does God think of abortion? What would Jesus do? and Are gay dolphins sinning when… Continue

Over at Angie the Anti-Theist I've got a lot uncommented posts. Those make me sad :( So I've done a few things to make it easier for non-Blogger members to join in the conversation. I'm using the Intense Debate comment system, allowing anonymous posters, and I've switched my blog to accept GRAvitars.



Posts that need your love (to feed my ego):



An Update on 100 Questions… Continue

How does the idea of a “Catholic child” not make you sick? The child isn’t being given a choice whatsoever in their religion. Their parents have already made a decision for them before they can even make a good decision. Young children are very impressionable and you scare the shit out of them with fear of eternal damnation, that will stick with them. Indoctrinating children is easily equivalent to brainwashing. I think its truly a form of child abuse.



“Isn’t it enough to see that a… Continue

The Spencer, Iowa school district is considering opening up its doors to religious indoctrination. According to the Des Moines Register, "Public school students in Spencer will get to study the Bible and pray at graduation if school district leaders approve a proposed "religious liberties" policy, the first of its kind in Iowa.



The plan calls for elective classes such as "Critic of Darwinism," which includes arguments against the theory of evolution, and "The Bible in History and… Continue

OK, this is my first post, but it's 1am and I'm a little tired. Need to be quick, as I'm not supposed to have PC access right now....



My family currently requires me to go to church with them twice a week: once on Sunday morning, and once on either Sunday or Wednesday night. That often interferes with my work schedule, but they don't care. They'll just kick me out of the house if I refuse (not joking, sadly).



Tonight I sat through an hour of the youth pastor explaining the… Continue

When our 3-year-old daughter was mauled by a neighborhood dog, we were distraught, as any parent would be. But, as Jehovah's Witnesses, we faced an even greater fear, beyond the trauma and scars introduced by the dog bites: What if she needed a blood transfusion? Our religious convictions mandated that we refuse. Her very life could be in danger, not from the attack, but from our beliefs.



My mother, an insanely devout woman if ever there was one, immediately called the congregation… Continue

First, a little background.

My parents are Catholic. I was raised as such and went to Catholic school from 5th grade to 8th grade (which I partially credit for my current atheism, ironically enough).

My wife and I are both atheists now, but were obviously not always so.

At one point early on my parents asked my wife, "Do you believe in God?"

To which she succinctly answered, "Not the Judeo-Christian anthropomorphic God, no."

Parents, "But you believe in… Continue

You may be a declared atheist maybe a weak atheist like me, but I am sure at times you wonder if you got it all wrong. What if a God or Gods really do exists yes I am sure at times you may wonder and lets be honest about it, its at times when we think of dying.







I often lay in bed wondering what if I got it all wrong but then the hard facts come to mind about my path to atheism which was due to reading the holy text, well at least those that originated from the Middle… Continue

I've written just a few editorials about subjects relevant to atheists for publication on Associated content but they seem to get a huge response. Some of the discussions in their comments are more entertaining than the articles themselves!



I was a little afraid to post anything that made it clear I'm an atheist for fear of getting bashed, possibly physically again but I went ahead and started doing so about a year ago on another site. I've gotten plenty of nasty pm's and emails but… Continue

One last ripple to address from last week's posts...



In emails and comments, a few readers brought up another issue that cuts close to the bone for secular parents. In the conversation with my daughters, I described our condition after death as identical to our condition before birth. Some readers threw the flag at this point -- Indoctrination, 10 yards against the parent, second down and 20! -- because I did not say… Continue