Should Religion be allowed before the Age of Consent?

Should Religion be allowed before the Age of Consent?

 

Author’s note – The following is totally my from my perspective and should be taken very seriously

 

One thing that I think that society has always underestimated is the intricate beauty and wonderful potential that can be found in the mind of a child. Very early in child development, they don’t know much, so they put their attention on the adults around them that do know, those who keep them safe, those who take care of them. Adults then proceed to impress their opinions upon the mind of the child, both consciously and unconsciously drawing lines between what is acceptable and not acceptable. It is really not the fault of the parents. They are simply replicating the process that they experienced when being raised by their parents. The child makes an unspoken agreement of belief concerning the opinion being passed along by the adult. This is repeated with social mores, cultural taboos, prejudices, and religion. Society propagates itself in this manner. I won’t go as far as to say that the mind is programmed, but, it is most certainly pushed very hard to accept reality from the point of view of the adult that the child find themselves most near and dear to. ‘Good’ deeds and right thoughts and actions are met with reward, while ‘bad’ thoughts or deeds are met with punishment. All of this social conditioning takes place with or without religion to establish the parameters. Some might call it brainwashing. I prefer to term it as the domestication of the human spirit.

Religion is the single most damaging force in history. Do the math, investigate the root causes, add up the war dead, and look at the repressive effect that it has had on society, and you will find glaring information that the amount of human suffering generated by religion is so great and far-reaching that it could almost never be measured.

I can speak from a bit of personal experience here. I was raised a Pentecostal Christian. As a child, I was very, very devout. I hung on every word that came out of the pulpit. Later, when I realized that something was fishy, around the age of 14-16, it was almost too late. Now, at 27, I still struggle daily with the haunting echoes that remain in my mind. The experience has cost me psychotherapy, it has cost me medication, and it has most likely cost me a few relationships along the way when I was still a zealous hardliner. This experience is certainly not unique to me. I know of at least one good friend who was raised Jehovah’s Witness, who has experienced the same trauma and had to deal with it the same way. One of the biggest threats to a child with religious upbringing is that if they do not conduct themselves in the proper manner in this life, they will be pay for their ‘sins’ later by not being reunited with the family and friends that they care about in the afterlife. What a horrible thing to threaten a child with, and that threat sticks in the back of your mind for a lifetime.

I cannot quote you empirical evidence, and I don’t think that I ever could, since doing study in this field is something no sane man who wants grant money would touch with a ten-foot pole.

I totally understand the need for stories to help teach children morals. Mythology can be an incredibly instructive and productive tool. Some social mores are universal. Do not steal, do not rape, do not kill… these are tenants that every man from any society can embrace. But do we need a guilt inducing pantheon and the threat of an afterlife to keep our society underpinned? Absolutely not. And as a matter of fact, doing so has provided for us a terrible social situation for the world.

Doing good, being altruistic, taking care of your fellow man – all in all I’d rather my children have those initial impressions handled by fairy tales that convey these ideals, combined with the actual actions that they see me take. And they should always be told that those fairy tales are just that, fairy tales, stories with a moral inside to help learn how to conduct yourself in a society. If fairy tales are not enough, then I can easily find examples in history and make them interesting. There are absolutely no religious undertones needed. No threats, just simple explanations of how such ideals are mutually beneficial for everyone.

Society doesn’t need religion to prop itself up. Should religious teaching be allowed before the age of consent? ABSOULTELY NOT. Those are things that should be left to the individual to decide, after being given enough information to make an informed decision. ‘Right’ and ‘wrong’ are totally subjective terms. Hitler went to heaven. When people understand this, they will understand so much more about life.