Brainwashing your children...

People do it all the time... my particular personal experiences with brainwashing were half hearted, but at schools across the country parents give teachers and peers the opportunity every day to influence the beliefs of their children.

Think for a moment... if the government was payingpeople to force your children to sing Muslim religious songs and recite the prayers of those beliefs every morning the public and the papers would be up in arms about such brainwashing...

And what if they preached to your children every morning whether you liked it or not?

The thing is a lot of parents don;t really think about it... they rely on their kids brains overcoming this silliness as a matter of course, but I'll share a little experience from my childhood, maybe it'll ring a bell.

I once got given an essay or lines or something because I refused to sing hymns or recite the lords prayer in assembly. At our lovely school every assembly consisted of hyms, lords prayer the occasional reading of some nonsense meant to be a pointer to our lives and then onto actually relevant stuff like house cricket scores (Hooray for me!). See, the people from other religions didn't have to be in the room when the christian stuff was going on, but being an atheist was, and may well still be, considered tantamount to "dodging out" of part of assembly.

This concept of Atheism being somehow lesser a belief system than, say, Jews who didn't want to say the lords prayer, makes my blood boil even now when I think back. What gives some jumped up German teacher the right to assume relative value of your religious views?

It's probably a result of the authority parents give teachers - you basically say "you teach him" every time you send your kid in. Why wouldn't they think they have the right to teach you your worth, as well as how to say "Ich verstehe nicht"? I will take this opportunity to say "Screw you" to that particular teacher.

Course, I am putting my own beliefs above his. The irony is not lost, believe me.

I will say in my defence I am truly of the opinion that Atheism is the basic state of humanity. No one is born religious, no one. Religion is a result of teaching. There are few who would argue against that. So why was I treated as abnormal when simply displaying lack of successful teaching?

That particular tale of punishment was from secondary school, but almost exactly the same thing occured at my primary schools as well, children being encouraged to join in with Christian ceremonies by people in positions of not just authority but in a position of knowledge and of the teacher. Why would a lot of kids not take this as a lesson, not just a weird ritual?

It went, I recall, as far as a several day lesson in the "meaning" of the Lords prayer, line by line, presented in the same way as the blooming green cross code man!

It's a tricky area I know, because at what stage do we consider those kids capable of making a decision for themselves about this belief system they are being indoctrinated into?

Actually, lets ask that in a slightly different way; At what stage does teaching become indoctrination and at what stage does indoctrination become brainwashing?

Most theistic religions seem to display a couple of similarities

1. Our God is the only one OR Our way of worshipping god is the only one.
2. Everyone else is wrong.
3. We must change their minds

In most of those, such ideas of "required indoctrination" if you will are encouraged, if not actually required to be a "true believer".

What better time to indoctrinate people than the early years, when they are learning at a ridiculous rate... and what better way to create belief than to present it as so normal you observe it as your first thing EVERY DAY! I recall I went to Sunday school a few times to be with friends, but it didn't work out, probably because I was coming away with more questions than answers.

So when are the gaps... I'd say teaching is showing people things as they are.. natural occurences, laws of physics, languages. Indoctrination is when we are talking about "beliefs" or other constructs like Laws, agreed social niceties etc. Now, this is where it gets tricky... but my personal brainwashing threshold is at the point where "faith" enters into things, frequently contradicting the teaching...

To paraphrase an old saying, a little faith is a dangerous thing - it has provided countless years of camoflage for all sorts of atrocities and wars. Often these fly in the face of reason and sense, but who cares? We'll all go to heaven!

So what is the point of my little rant?

I believe (oops - I make no apologies for using this word) is that religions can only continue to exist through teaching. They always have done so and they always will. Who teaches them this? Usually the parents have the first shot at goal - problem is, teaching is taken out of the parents hands at an early age and placed in the hands of others whose beliefs may not be the same as the teachers. Furthermore I believe that without religious teaching being introduced only a small minority would be religious in todays society. All the questions the world posed now simply have better answers than an all powerful deity. In fact, mankinds understanding of the universe has reached a stage where we can ask questions RELIGION cannot answer, like what made God, in a scientific sense etc.

My main point can be summarised like this:

Noone is born religious. Because of young childrens vulnerability to such religious indoctrination and their desire to be "normal", the state should not allow religious teaching of any faith in primary schools. I am personally against any religious teaching for children anywhere until they are able to make their own decisions, but this is unfortunately far too difficult for one man's blog to succeed at.

I agree with Richard Dawkins' outrage at such labels as "a muslim child" or "a christian child", such titles are meaningless when used in relation to the youngest of us. Most children just want to make their parents happy, or at least stop them being upset - this leads many down the path of conformity to the eventual religious brainwashing I have described. The correct word is "child". Just that. Don't impose the parents beliefs on them as if they have no choice!

I hope when I am eventually a parent I am as open minded and supportive as my parents were.

Lets let children decide for themselves what to believe.

A