Age of consent for participation in religion

[mawilson 2,133]

We, as a society, protect children from pornography, alcohol, politics, smoking, drugs,

marriage, and sex, as we deem them too young and lacking in emotional development

to make rational judgments or to be in control of such situations themselves.

At the same time, we offer no protection to children from being force-fed the religion

of their parents from birth.

Should a legal age of consent be introduced for participation in religion, at which point

young adults would be sufficiently educated to make a free choice as to whether their

inherited religion, or any religion, is right for them?

Your thoughts, please.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Did you get the idea from a "Calvin And Hobbes" daily strip (where Calvin complains to Hobbes that math "is a religion")?

[Scott & Lai 12]

Should there be an age of consent for going to school?

[mawilson 2,133]

Should there be an age of consent for going to school?

How is school even remotely similar to religion?

[Mags 112]

I am a STRONG believer in children making up their own minds re religion. Let them get to the age of 18 and decide what they wish to follow, if anything at all. I was brought up with no religion. If you have to put me into any "faith" it would be agnostic... I am not Christened and neither is my son. If he wishes to be christened/baptised at 18 then that's up to him. I will not sway his choice at all. It is his life, not mine. I will instill a good set of manners and morals into him, but on the spiritual side, that is for HIM to decide, not me. MY parents let me decide and I grew up just fine thankyou.

I have a feeling that if children were left to make their own decisions many Churches would have ever decreasing numbers of attendees...

Just my $0.02.

Edited March 8, 2007 by mags

[Addie_Goodvibes 0]

Too many people do not differentiate between Spirituality, Moral Values and Religion.

I think Parent should be the primary influence for their children when it comes to Spirituality & Religion.

How ever when children become old enough to understand and think independently parents should allow them the freedom to explore what options there are.

Children Learn from their surroundings. One can be raised in a spritua Moral environment without a great deal of "religious"pressure, as in our home. My wife was raised Shinto, I was raised Christian.

However organised religion can do more harm than good in some cases, it creates cliques and stereo types one order of faith will condem all others, who is to say which religion is the "right one"

the answer is , there is no right or wrong religion, as long as the person of faith finds a way to worship and finds guidance to enrich their life through spiritual connection. if it makes them a better person and doesn't hurt others than any Religion can be the "right one"

Spirituality is more important than what denomination or religion one follows.

How a person lives through those he/she influences or connects with others is determined by their parents and other adults' influence.

[Arazia 0]

There really isn't an answer that fits what I would say. I think it would be along the lines of 'No, they should be exposed to it but not forced to follow it'.

I agree with the fact that parents are responsible for the moral upbringing of their children. They should be teaching right from wrong. I think it's okay to expose children to different forms of spirituality and religion, but forcing a religion on them specifically just doesn't seem right. I think baptism/christening in any religion should be saved until the child comes of age and can chose for themselves, the same goes for many other religion based sacriments.

For instance, I can remember my first communion and reconciliation, but I had no idea what it meant. I used to make up things to tell the priest like... 'I tease my dog' and stuff like that. The same goes for communion, you may get the jist of what is going on, but really understanding it and taking it to heart? I don't think you can do that as a seven year old.

Still, there are many people who religion is a core of their existance. That means if their child were to not chose to follow that religion, they'd disown them. I've known people this has happened to, so it isn't as far-fetched as it sounds.

[rebeccajo 14]

They want to legislate everything else. Why not this too?

Ooooo....you'd really see the hounds at bay then!

[LaL 418]

Parents are made to be the guides of their children. I have no problem with parents sharing their faiths with their children at all. That being said, my parents are non-religious, I never went to church, I was never baptized. my parents taught me to seek what made sense to me. I found that remaining non-religious made sense to me, basically atheist. I am glad my parents gave me the space to learn about different ways to be spiritual without bias.

[PlatyPius 5]

Religion should be illegal.

[mawilson 2,133]

Religion should be illegal.

Organized religion should be illegal. People shouldn't be told what to believe.

Edited March 8, 2007 by mawilson

[Dan J 277]

I woudlnt go as far as to say relgion should be illegal, but the wall between government and relgion is alot more transparent in some places than it should be.

Alot of the terms when talking about faith, relgion, spirtuality and belief tend to get interchanged when they mean distictly diffrent things.

The argument has been made that morals come from relegion. But when all the major religions share similar morals is that really the case? Couldnt morals be something more unique to mankind as a whole rather than through a relgion?

Even aethists have some touch with spirtuality. Maybe not in the sense that those who follow a relgion may have. But there are questions that can only be answered by beliving an answer. Some belive in God, others just believe we just are. But it still belief.

I'm not a fan of relgion (aetheist), but I'm not cynical about it either. Spirtuality in all of its forms is part of the human experience.

That being said, if and when we have kids, we will encourage them to decide for themselves. But still keep an open mind and understand that everyone has thier own unqiue experience.

[Nessa 23]

It's only natural for them to share the same religion as their parents. I think it's wrong to force a child to have the same religion, but usually they'll follow their parents beliefs and if they don't agree with that nothing and noone should stop them to choose another religion or none at all.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

No.

Religion isn't to adults what it is to children. To children, or at least to me when I was a child, religion was an excuse to get together with the other kids and play in the temple backyard while the adults were inside doing whatever it is that praying Hindus do. Religion to me was a social event, it was fun and something I looked forward to. It stopped being that when the adults started asking me to participate in the rituals..... that's when I gave up and decided I didn't wanna be religious anymore

Edited March 8, 2007 by Gupt

[DeadPoolX 9]

Religion should be illegal.

Organized religion should be illegal. People shouldn't be told what to believe.

Wouldn't that be doing the very thing you're setting out to prevent? If religion were made illegal, it'd be the government telling you what to believe; in other words, the government would be saying, "do not believe in religion under any circumstances and at any cost!"