One of the issues that fires me up, as regular readers will know, is the role of religion, particularly organised religion, in society's problems. I'm an atheist, and that's a completely personal decision, based on what I consider to be the balance of the available evidence - science can't answer every last question about the world and the wider universe, not yet, at least, but my opinion is that there are internally consistent theories and natural laws, in cosmology, physics, biology, anthropology, psychology, to address all the questions religions concern themselves with. There is, for example, a logical, if still incomplete explanation, in the Big Bang Theory as to how the universe, and, by extension, the Earth came to exist, and there are rationally derived answers from evolutionary biology and psychology as to why most humans feel the need to construct and abide by a moral framework - including religious belief. To me, though, that belief, the experience of 'God' or gods, depending on the particular brand of religion an individual subscribes to, comes from within rather than without - deities are mental constructs, cultural memes, or figments of the imagination, as far as I'm concerned, rather than having any 'real', external existence.
It's the second of those elements, the development and transmission of the memes of religion, that I've been thinking about since I read the post that I linked to yesterday. Any organisation, religious or otherwise, given the unavoidable mortality of its membership, can only persist for more than one generation by recruiting new members. And, in the case of most religions, that recruitment is achieved by 'catching them young'. If a child's parents are Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or whatever, there's every chance that any such child will automatically be assumed to be a member of their familial religion, with no element of choice whatsoever. There's much play on the emotional and intellectual immaturity of children when it comes to discussion of issues such as voting rights and the age of consent, so why should it be acceptable to foist a whole belief system onto individuals before they even have the understanding of what religion is, still less whether any given religion is appropriate for them personally?
So, how to avoid such indoctrination? By way, in my opinion, of following the educative approach set out by Arian Foster in the post I found yesterday. Don't assume that your children will want to subscribe to the same beliefs as yourself, to follow your religion, or lack of religion, but help them to find the information that will allow them to make an informed decision of their own, when they're intellectually capable of doing so. Answer their questions, but don't pretend that your answers are set in stone. It's really not that difficult, it only involves saying something like 'some people believe that God did....' this, that or the other, rather than saying 'God did....' whatever. That's the approach I've always taken with my daughter - she knows I'm an atheist, and has done since she was very young, but I've never tried to cajole her into my way of thinking. I honestly have no idea whether my daughter believes in God, or not, and, frankly, it's none of my business either way. I'd be disappointed, given her intelligence, if she subscribed to some unthinkingly fundamentalist creed, but, if that was her choice, sobeit. It wouldn't change the fact that I would love and support her in any way I could.
My hope is, in the longer term, that education and information will eventually eclipse the superstition, as I see it, of religious belief, and that Homo sapiens will be able to progress as one united species to address and resolve the problems of living together on a small and relatively crowded planet. Because, as I've said before, if we can't learn to live together, there's a pretty good chance that we'll all die together.
Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B
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