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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (90127)	11/30/2004 2:39:38 PM
From: J. C. Dithers	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Actually I have thought a lot about the "foisting", long before now. I did not at all mean to limit it to atheism. You are right, all parents do it, Jews and Christians no less the atheists. I don't know whether there are any statistics, but I would guess that 95% of all adults practice the religion (or non) of their parents. They in turn indoctrinate their own children in the same way. There is nothing much to be done about that right of parental discretion. However, to refer to a child as "Christian" or "Atheist" is not valid. Children have not come to the belief they practice through any process of spiritual or intellectual discovery. They are simply acting out what they have been programmed to do. In many cases it is what they are forced to do, such as a Catholic taking CCD classes. Therefore, when we start talking about an "atheist child" being discomforted by a Christian display, we are simply projecting on the child emotions that are highly unlikely to exist. It is the parents who are discomforted and disgruntled by the thought that their brain-washing might somehow be undone. If we left this to the children to work out, they would work it out just fine without all the emotional baggage, just as they do on the playground. Then some of our older traditions could be observed for the majority of the kids, no one would take offense, and everyone would just get along. Kids are usually much smarter than parents. (And then, unfortunately, they turn into adults).