It sounds like the clergy better reassess how they are teaching religion. Perhaps develop standardize tests—for all religions—to ensure goals are being met. Is altruism a goal?
My comment above was a bit flippant, but this childhood upbringing in religion, at least the way it has been done recently, obviously doesn't surprise me since I have been ranting against it for awhile. We harm the child and society.
Hitches once wrote that "If religious instruction were not allowed until the child had attained the age of reason, we would be living in a quite different world." Yes, I imagine that we would be living a different world, but not the one that Hitchens imagines. If your theories are correct, it would result in a richer and deeper and more intriguing religion. Religion would no doubt be more attractive and, consequently, might result in a more religious world overall. To use Santayana's line about what Francis Bacon forgot, adults are certainly better able to grasp than children the "God to whom depth in philosophy brings back men's minds."
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It sounds like the clergy better reassess how they are teaching religion. Perhaps develop standardize tests—for all religions—to ensure goals are being met. Is altruism a goal?
My comment above was a bit flippant, but this childhood upbringing in religion, at least the way it has been done recently, obviously doesn't surprise me since I have been ranting against it for awhile. We harm the child and society.
Hitches once wrote that "If religious instruction were not allowed until the child had attained the age of reason, we would be living in a quite different world." Yes, I imagine that we would be living a different world, but not the one that Hitchens imagines. If your theories are correct, it would result in a richer and deeper and more intriguing religion. Religion would no doubt be more attractive and, consequently, might result in a more religious world overall. To use Santayana's line about what Francis Bacon forgot, adults are certainly better able to grasp than children the "God to whom depth in philosophy brings back men's minds."
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