by Currie Jean

Created on: July 01, 2007

Children should not be 'taught religion.' They are already constructed to blindly accept what they are told by authority figures without question (usually growing out of this tendency by puberty), so they don't need to be taught to do so. On the contrary, they need to be gradually taught not to do so.

Children are natural sponges. When given the right education, this can be very valuable. Rather than taught religion, they should be taught about religion, and not just religion, but science, literature, and the arts.

I regret not having learned much about religions outside my parents' religion until late in high school. Human culture is so rich and diverse: a smorgasbord of ideas, artifacts, and philosophical meaning. As someone who identifies more as a member of the human species than as a Canadian or a Caucasian, I wish I had known more about diversity at an earlier age.

If religion is presented at all to children, it should not be presented as truth - no religion is pure truth. All are littered with falsehoods, and some more than others. "Christians believe such-and-such," "Buddhists believe this-and-that," "Muslims see the world in such-and-such-a-way," etcetera, is the style in which children should learn about religion. To stuff their heads with This Is The Ultimate Truth nonsense is nothing less than a crime, and a hindrance to future generations.

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