Good morning Karen,
But I don't see why adding religious fairy stories to the list of other fairy stories traditionally told to small children is necessarily harmful. On the contrary, it seems useful to me.
Because they are flat lies. Further, they teach you to be fearful.
I.e.: Alternative to "heaven" is hell. (Or hell for the mediocre: "purgatory" ha ha ha ha ha)
If you are going to sin, sin in a big way and go to hell, there is where all the fun is !! he he he he...
Just to make sure you understand that my feelings about the Church are every bit as strong as yours, I'll tell you that I thumbed my nose at it when I was 17 under the threat of excommunication for attending my high school baccalaureate services
I beat you...
At age 14 I announced to my mother I was quitting the Catholic church, and ask her to take me to the local priest so he could give me an official paper that would show I was "excommunicated" from the Church.
The bastard refused. So I told him:
Very well, then I hereby unilaterally, renounce to your church, Ciao bambino. Then I walked out.
Never looked back.
I have told friends contemplating raising their kids Catholic (with only a touch of hyperbole) that I consider it tantamount to child abuse.
Of course it is... Several times (while I was under the influence [of the church], they scared the sh*t out of me with their damned stories of hell and their demons. Until one fine day I said, enough of your crap, if you were so kind and wonderful you would not have slaughter millions "in the name of god", during the crusades, inquisitions, and sundry religious wars.
Soon after, I began to understand that ALL churches are a mere form of mind control over the masses, nothing else.
I have become mellower now, and I will leave anyone to believe whatever bs they wish to believe. UNTIL THEY START PREACHING IT TO ME. Then, I become... let's say, more forceful. *g*
In addition, if anyone is stupid enough to believe in institutions such as the Catholic Church and its supreme king the Pope, then all I can say is that the power of self-deception of the human mind is extraordinary. [That does not mean I have to be equally moronic, my opinion of course].
If, anyone feels "spiritual" and is convinced of the existence of a "superior being" etc. then fine, go ahead. However, even then, I do not see that such ideology NEEDS the alliance to organized church, particularly in light of their DEEDS throughout history.
Nonetheless, I see some advantages to a religious education for small children, particularly in a nice rational church like maybe the Unitarians. In the first place, it is a convenient way to communicate and reinforce the teaching of right and wrong. In addition, it provides a framework for communicating difficult things to kids in an age-appropriate way, for example, telling 6 year old Elian that mama is in heaven
I simply do not agree (see above). I do not see the connection between teaching right and wrong and ANY church.
For the simple reason that... If you follow the history of most churches, (in my case the Catholic Church), at one point, [provided you have any brains], you can see that there is a lot of contradictions between their "teachings" and their own deeds throughout history.
Then, you arrive at the simple conclusion that the Church is one hell of an organized scam.
Now, don't you think that such muddles the concepts of right and wrong ?
Churches... ? I don't need no steeenking Churches !
In fact, (although I have not research this), I have been told that many of the Church festivities, have been modified, or altered festivities already celebrated by the pagans.
Did you know that the Spaniards built the main Cathedral in Mexico City on TOP of Aztec temples? They destroyed the entire city of Tenochtitlan. I mean were these guys hell-bent on domination of their new "parishioners" or what ?
They even fabricated a story about a "brown skin" virgin, so the [already fanatical] Aztec population would fall for it. These guys are real evil Karen.
And lastly, it doesn't make them seem different from their playmates. Kids can be cruel to those who are different. Let them choose to be different when they are old enough to handle it. I don't think it is hypocricy to tell kids age-appropriate fairy stories and let them grow out of them when they're ready.
Do not agree. I believe that if you explain to them that they are free to say: "You believe in what you believe, and I believe in what I believe".
I remember VERY WELL, being placed on the SPOT, because of my beliefs when I was in high school... but guess by whom?
Not by ANY of my classmates, AN ADULT. Because I refused to agree to give to some charity the guy was peddling to the class. He told me to get up in front of the class and explain why I was the only one I would refuse to assist the "brothers" of such and such religious order.
So, I responded, because you, yourself told us that we could choose to give or not. Then I sat down. The guy got p*ssed at me. [Which made me immensely happy, you know, with a slight smile in my face... he he he he].
What boggles my mind, though, is why there are so many adults don't ever grow out of it.
Read your last paragraph and you will find the answer, i.e. you have trained them since they are little not to trust in themselves, not to have strength in their beliefs. You taught them to be fearful. Therefore, they use the church as their shield, as "comfort".
Read the post that your average joe *g*, wrote to me.
Wondering that... I quote (if I remember correctly): "for those who are old, and faith is all they have, what would I suggest, Marxism"?
All I can say is to believe in oneself. It is not up to me to suggest in what they should believe. (For the record, I do not support Marxism, but you know how your average joe is, so I need not explain that part.)
Every time I hear the expression "god-fearing" my stomach turns.
A few thoughts for homework *g*
All, by Henry Louis Mencken.
____
We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.
"Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable."
Church: A place in which gentlemen who have never been to Heaven brag about it to people who will never get there.
Immorality: The morality of those who are having a better time.
Morality: The theory that every human act must either be right or wrong, and that 99% of them are wrong
"The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind."
"A man who is an agnostic by inheritance, so that he doesn't remember any time that he wasn't, has almost no hatred for the religious."
"I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind--that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking."
The fact, however, that threats of Hell have their social uses is not an argument in favor of the truth of religion; it is simply an argument against the human race. More, it is probably libelous, for the overwhelming majority of men and women are not nearly so vicious as the fancy of theologians makes them out [to be]. Very few men, if Hell were proved to be a fiction tomorrow, would take to the highroad and cut throats, and very few women would turn drabs.
The God of love that they preach invariably turns out, on examination, to be a God of harsh and arbitrary penalties and brutalities, just as the brotherhood of man that they preach, brought to the test, turns out to be only a kind of hatred. Hell is still their headquarters...
End. |
