religion and kids

[Just Call Me Shan]

This is how NOT to do it.

Articles like this make me really question human nature. Religion isn't everything, you know.

Discuss: Should you introduce a child to religion before they understand it?
IE: Taking your child to mass, etc when they're elementary age.

And another thing: Do they still make kids stand up and do the pledge of allegiance in elementary, "Under God" and all?

 

[Gear Bush]

I think schools are no longer allowed to include" under god" in the pledge of allegiance.. not sure if that is a federal law however.. could just be for certain areas.



...religion should be decided upon and or found by the individual not forced upon by ones peers...

Children are impressionable.. they do need to learn good morals from somewhere or they might just spoil.. those morals really do not need to come from religion..


There are religions i'm much more accepting of than others.. primarily those that do not have an elitist closed minded anti everything attitude  

[Vini-Vidi-Vici]

I was raised in a household where my parents decided not to force any religion on us. My parents are both Catholic, but they wanted my brother and I to figure out religion for ourselves. Personally, up until three years ago, I wanted nothing to do with religion. My now ex-fiance's family asked me if I'd like to go to their church one Sunday, and I agreed, because I wanted to take it in as a learning experience (I didn't know much about the bible then, and still don't really). After going with them for some time I realized how much better I felt after going. I was baptized at 18 years old as a Christian. I don't go to chuch regularly anymore, but still feel that I am a Christian through and through.

I think that parents should allow their children to feel their way into religion at their own pace. I also think it's crap that they took "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance. I understand our country was settled by people looking to escape the politics of religion, because they didn't agree with how the church was being run. But they also made it a point to keep religion alive in the way this country was to be run. No matter where you look in our country's history, religion is there. I just don't understand why people want to change the allegiances we made as a whole because it may "offend" some people.

I don't know the whole story, but I remember seeing on the news once that there was this big controversy about what to call a pine tree around the holidays. They didn't want it to be called a "Christmas" tree, they wanted to call it a "Holiday" tree. Christmas is practiced in pretty much every religion, but they celebrate it in a different way and call it different things. I think it's wrong to let the extremests decide everything, including taking "under God" out of our pledge. It's all political hoo-ha nonsense, and the two shouldn't interfere with each other.

And that's all I've gotta say about that. heart  

[Obscurus]

I was raised with generally Christian beliefs but once I was old enough to explore other faith and beliefs my parents didn't really care. I didn't try to keep it a secret that I was exploring other faiths like Buddhism, Hinduism, and neopaganism.

When religion is used to evoke good in our lives and minds there's nothing wrong with it. When it's used as a tool for control and ostracizing someone then it's not good. I think children should be given information and allowed to make a choice of their own. Otherwise we defeat the overriding principle of most belief systems: free will.