Comments on: Prevalent belief, no surprise http://www.iamanatheist.com/blog/2008/08/05/878/ Discussions of religion and ethics from an atheist perspective Mon, 06 May 2013 16:01:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Akane http://www.iamanatheist.com/blog/2008/08/05/878/comment-page-1/#comment-2621 Akane Sat, 14 May 2011 17:15:11 +0000 http://www.iamanatheist.com/blog/?p=878#comment-2621 What depresses me most is the way schools brainwash kids. I mean, I was brought up in a CoE school and they basically spend their entire time going “This is a true story from the Bible which is a magic book from God himself. Isn’t that ever so wonderful?” Problem is when you’re in Reception (don’t know if Americans have Reception? It’s the year before Year One, so four and five year old children) you believe everything your teacher tells you. And by the time you’re older and your brain is developed enough to think for itself and question adults, you’ve spent too long with your beliefs to imagine believing otherwise.
It is brainwashing, and pure evil. If people want to believe in Christianity, go ahead. You can believe what you like- so long as you don’t enforce it on others. The problem is that far too many people think ‘you can’t enforce it on others’ means ‘you can’t pin people against a wall and put a gun to their head and threaten to fire unless they convert to your religion’. They don’t realise that telling kids about their religion when they are that young is just as forceful, if not more, than threats. And it should be just as illegal.

Believe what you want, but don’t tell it to kids until they’re old enough to think for themselves, and make their own decision based on what they themselves think and have experienced.

I was brought up in CoE and I was Christian for years. I am ashamed of that now, even though I know it wasn’t my fault. And when I changed away from Christianity, I was bullied for my choice, and had to change schools twice. I’m in Year Eight now but I still can’t look back without fury and that is what spurs me on so strongly to get into politics and outlaw stuff like that.
So in a way, I have the Christians to thank for giving me my ambition. I want to be a politician when I’m older so I can change things, and that started when I decided I wanted to outlaw converting little kids. I want to give other kids the chance that I eventually had to give myself; the chance to think freely, for yourself. And that way, nobody else will ever have to go through looking back with hurt and pain and fury because of some stupid religion that thought imposing its beliefs on others was OK.

]]> By: Anon http://www.iamanatheist.com/blog/2008/08/05/878/comment-page-1/#comment-116 Anon Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:19:20 +0000 http://www.iamanatheist.com/blog/?p=878#comment-116 Agreed. Schools should teach logic, and how to find answers, rather than supplying those answers (to a point, of course).

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