General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Kick if you agree with this assessment about the influence of religion on people. [View all]Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)Look at all the former fundamentalists on DU. Look at all the former Catholics.
I was raised Lutheran and became Episcopalian. I know Episcopalians who embraced Buddhism or Judaism, Baptists who became Eastern Orthodox, Lutherans who became Muslims or Hutterites, Jews who became Hindus or Unitarians--if you live long enough, you'll see all kinds of transitions, some of them quite startling.
I also know people who were raised non-religious and became religious in later life.
However, I'm a firm believer in raising children within SOME ethical and moral framework. It doesn't have to be religion. It can be environmentalism, socialism, vegetarianism, pacifism, whatever, as long as it offers a challenge to the commercial, corporate culture.
It is GOOD for a child to be able to say, "I'm not going to do that because it's against my family's beliefs."
The alternative--"Let them decide when they grow up"--is an open invitation to the corporate pop culture to occupy their brains entirely, unless the parents are diligent in cultivating the children's intellectual curiosity and tendencies toward non-conformity with the herd.
The result is young people who don't know anything and don't want to know anything that is not either in recent pop culture or useful for their job, who are incapable of saying or doing anything unless "everyone else" is doing it, who accept whatever entertainment, products, or politics that the mass media are pushing.