Religion : Learn or Burn

My grandad is round my house at the moment and he keeps bringing up the rather morbid subject of death. Rather antithetically he is at the same time talking to Siri on his Iphone.

He seems to think that the fact I am an atheist is purely down to the fact that my 'dad instilled the idea in my head'. Of course what our parents tell us will have some sort of effect on our views in the future, whether it be directly or indirectly. However: in quite the reverse I would say my interest in Philosophy and an acknowledgement of science has resulted in my atheism. In fact I would say that my atheism has influenced my dad's views in recent times, not the other way round! 

Anyway this got me thinking about whether children should be told anything about religion at a young age. Should it be taught in school at all? I thought I would post a piece of work I wrote a while back that discusses the issue. 

Learn or Burn

I remember being a child. You are vulnerable. You will pretty much believe anything and if your mummy and daddy says there is a man in the sky, I promise you there is a man in the sky.  Children naturally look up to their parents as role models for guidance and advice. To think of all the wonderful facts and knowledge that are obtainable and readily accessible to be presented to them, it is rather sickening to know that the susceptible imagination of young children is being frequently manipulated. 

A huge lingering question that is debated in the world is the question “Should religion be taught in school?” There are some positive aspects of religion that I feel children should be able to enjoy, such as the bringing together of a family. However, I believe these aspects of religion fall into more the categories of culture and tradition. It is evident that the world we live in is culturally relative, with countless amounts of ways of life that people choose to follow. These views should be celebrated and respected- I do not dispute this. However, the point of education is to best inform the children of society. I feel mentioning anything to do with “God” or a supernatural being is going against this purpose. Education should inform children of factual and intellectual knowledge in the world that they can take and pass onto their children. This is the way to create a better society, not by confusing children by eventually telling them Santa Claus is not real, but “God” is.  Santa Claus is actually not such an unbelievable idea in the bewildering world we live in. If there is someone capable of creating the whole human race, why shouldn't a fat bearded man not be capable of carrying a few presents? Okay- yeah it is a ridiculous idea, just like God. I suggest “religious studies” at school should be taught to some extent, but instead being labelled as “cultures and tradition”. God should not be mentioned in any circumstances as fact, but as an absolute leap of faith and uncertainty. I also believe that atheism should be fairly represented in schools, to best inform children that there is more than one option. 

Unfortunately, I highly doubt that religion will ever be erased from any school syllabus. This is because of the sheer amount of pressure on the world to “represent people’s views”. Who cares? Yeah it is interesting to learn about how other people live- I know this; but ultimately, how someone lives is up to them. This is not my problem. These people can live how the hell they want to, but until they can come up with any concrete evidence of why I or anyone should live like them, then I suggest schools refrain from educating us all on anything of the matter. Religion acts nothing more as a cloud of deception, it merely shields the scared and labels the rest of us as blinded from the apparent truth and beauty of God. In a religious person’s eyes, atheists are those of us whom are filled with pessimism, and have no hope for humanity. I feel these people have got pessimism confused with realism. Really, all we want is, to turn and rely on empirical beings, rather than turn to a God that has remained silent for far too long. Everything is written in stone for religious people; their paths in life are pre-determined and those whom do not believe in a God are lost in the immoral and chaotic world of atheism.  Obviously religious people feel that God has directly told them their path in life but once again these people feel they are more important than they actually are. This would be absolutely fine if they kept these views to themselves, but to inflict them on the young is in my eyes categorically wrong. Teach your children what is right and wrong but do not base morality on what a book says, that was supposedly written thousands of years ago. If people are really so naive to believe everything that is written in a book, I fear the worst for future generations that think the messiah is Harry Potter and Hogwarts is heaven.