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Parents have the power to end hereditary religion
Results so far:
| No | 23% | 202 votes | Total: 891 votes | |
| Yes | 77% | 689 votes |
No
by Elizabeth Vaughn
Created on: November 15, 2008
Hereditary religion suggests that children are actually born with religion, which is incorrect. Children have no belief structure quite like our religions until we have taught it to them. But, begging the actual meaning of the question of whether it is the parent's choice to bring their children into a particular religion or not, I must emphatically disagree.
The most obvious and typical reason for that line of thinking is because the parents are often not the only people in a child's life. Religion is taught even in public schools and day cares, beginning at very young ages. An example of this is my daughter, who is afraid of the devil and can paraphrase common scriptures, though I have not imposed any set religion upon her. She has grandparents, teachers, friends and extended family that also serve as mentors to her ever expanding mind. Every child has this, because that's how today's society has been structured at this time.
But, more importantly, I disagree with this 'hereditary religion' because as parents, we all want to share our knowledge with our children, even if that knowledge has absolutely no proof whatsoever. As parents, we live our lives through our own religious paradigm and set the example to our children even if we try not to. It's not so much that they happen to stumble upon you praying one day, or even that they decide they want to come with you to church, but much smaller details that we pay no attention to anymore. Such as 'God bless you' when someone sneezes or when celebrating the holidays. The biggest misconception of parents, however, is what they actually have taught the child by these minor and nearly automatic events.
When we say 'God bless you' to someone sneezing, we are doing so out of a habit from hundreds of years ago when people believed sneezing was the weakening of a man's body and that man had to be immediately blessed, lest a demon enter and possess him. But, our children do not know the back story on it, and if they did they would think it was even more strange. They see our natural responses being condemned by humanity, and a request from God to bless that action. An action we have no control over whatsoever. So, our children become confused at this action.
At Christmas we give gifts and tell our children they came from a large, old man in a red suit, but that the holiday was for baby Jesus. To them, an invisible man is giving them gifts for being good because 2000+ years ago, an important baby was born. Worse yet, most of our children aren't even being that good! So, they get gifts because Jesus was born... and then in Easter, they get candy. A white bunny rabbit bounces from house to house to give them candy on the same day celebrating when Jesus died. Not only is it morbid enough we give our children candy to pacify the gruesome death of Christ, but we don't really explain to them that he lived for many years between his birth and death. So, many children actually believe that baby Jesus was born in December and died 4 months later.
No matter what religion you proclaim to be, these holidays plague our children's minds every year. The children that are not celebrating Christmas still see it everywhere. It is the largest holiday in the world aside from New Year's. The children that do celebrate Christmas completely miss the point of it until they are too old to repair the initial paradox, and the children that do not celebrate Christmas constantly wonder why they don't get the joy of gifts every year and grow up resenting their 'hereditary religion' for all it stands for.
In the end, it doesn't matter whether you can change your child's religion from the one your whole family believed in or not, since once they reach 15, they finally have a mind of their own. That's when they will see all these problems and begin questioning your religion with or without your consent. If this never happened, then people would never convert. The Hindus understand this very well, as until recently they didn't even believe in conversion even when it meant someone came to their church instead. Once the cycle is broken, it can always heal, but it usually doesn't. The best idea instead is NOT to breed out a hereditary religion, but to help the child respect all beliefs until they are old enough to think for themselves. Especially in the cases where you as a parent cannot. The child will at least respect your beliefs once they are able to search for theirs, though sometimes it serves to strengthen the beliefs you taught them in the first place.
Learn more about this author, Elizabeth Vaughn.
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Yes
by Joseph Whalen
Created on: January 14, 2009
Our religious beliefs are the fundamental source of our moral values and behaviors. Indeed religion has been the basis for the creation of civilization as we know it today. Our governments, legal systems and social behaviors have their roots in the predominant religion of our respective regions. Despite this underlying foundation of religious belief in our everyday life, organized religion itself is at one of its lowest points in recorded history. Attendance at various religious institutions is at abysmal levels and dropping annually. This is a clear sign that parents do have the power to end hereditary religion.
To a large extent hereditary religion stands against much of what most religions represent. Having another person, parent or otherwise impose their religious beliefs on you rather you accepting your beliefs is contrary to many religious teachings. Our beliefs make up our core, to have them instilled on us rather than embraced by us without choice hardly makes the faith imbued by these beliefs reality. Forcing someone to belief in a particular religion is no more effective than forbidding someone to believe in their religion of choice. This is a form of persecution that has been railed against by most western religions since their inception.
Many people fail to equate the pressures associated with hereditary religion with the persecution of Jews by the pagan of antiquity, or the Christians by the later Roman pagans. While there are obvious fundamental differences between the examples the underlying premise remains the same. Hereditary religious practices force children to be indoctrinated into a belief system they are incapable of understanding at such an young and unable to reject due to parental pressures. While we may not be throwing our children to the lions or enslaving them into perpetual bondage should they fail to embrace our own religious beliefs we are applying unreasonable pressures on them to meet our expectations.
There are clear arguments in favor of hereditary religious practices. The vast majority of world religions serve as an example of how to conduct oneself in a manner that is honorable and appropriate. We build our core set of morals from our religious beliefs and examples set by our religious leaders. In turn we learn how to interact within the bounds of acceptable behavior established by the society we live in, learning right from wrong. All of these things are a positive effect of hereditary religion, but do they justify the imposition of our religious beliefs upon our children?
All of the things mentioned above can be conveyed to our children through good sound parenting. If we take up the mantel of educating our children on what is right and what is wrong without the overtones of religion associated with the lessons, it does not make the lessons any less valid. We can teach our children how to behave properly without the need for a pastor preaching to us or a holy scripture illustrating an example. We can easily take the moral lessons from our religious teachings and convey them in a way in which the lesson is learned without the children having to blindly follow a faith they hardly understand.
Our religious beliefs should be a personal choice. They should in fact be the most personal of choices we have the privilege of making. We should be able to objectively look at the religions available to us, determine which best suits our needs and character and choose which is best for us. Not only is your religion there for you, but you are also there for your religion in a symbiotic relationship. As a result the match must be mutually beneficial to both sides rather than a blind decision made for you by someone else on your behalf before you are capable of understanding the significance of that choice. Parents have the ability to change this, and in many cases they already are. The unfortunate side effect of this is the lack of firm parenting and conveyance of moral values in the absence of hereditary religion. Removing religion from society is only effective if there is some other re-enforcing agent at work to ensure the moral fiber of society remains intact.
Learn more about this author, Joseph Whalen.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
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