GIMR wrote:Where would society be if everyone were encouraged to follow their own spiritual paths, insted of many being conditioned into one at an early age....
GIMR, I know your a faither so when I say this realise that you can't have your cake and eat it too. Dogmatism is inherent in faith and indoctrination starts at a young age in Mormonism and any other faith when given the chance to do so.
Pushing faith on children is how these destructive memes spread.
What other option is there? Adults can hardly believe in a religious tradition and not affect their children. The option of 'letting the children decide' is worse in my experience as a 6 year old really can't make a decision between Hinduism, Mormonism, Scientology, and the Church of the Sixth Cosmic Christ when they are that young.
Unless we have a faithless society I don't see a solution. The same holds true with ethical systems.
How about teaching your kids to think for themselves, and use reason and evidence to decide what to do? Outrageous, I know.
My 6 y/o daughter knows I don't believe in any gods, but I insist on telling her that's just what I believe, and it's up to her to think about this issue over the course of her lifetime and make her own decision on it. She tells me she doesn't believe in god, and I point out that she likely believes that because it's what I believe, and that's OK (I mean, she is only six, after all), but eventually, she'll need to justify that belief for herself.
I also teach her that being good to other people is its own reward. There doesn't have to be any eternal consequences involved. It's just common sense. Life is easier when you treat others the way you want to be treated. End of story.
Wisdom, folks. Schmo, this is in essence what I want to do when I have kids. Thank you for putting it down much better than I ever could.
Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances. -Ghandi
My own parents were non-church goers. However, they sanctioned my going with the neighbors at an early age to the LDS Church, because they viewed that as making life easier for me growing up in Utah.
Gazelam wrote:This reminds me of when I was a kid and my Dad took me up on the stand and crouched down and whispered to me what to say, I didn't hear him at one point and yell/whispered "What?"
Yes, but I think the mind set of these parents is that they are helping to prepare their child to be ready to go to the temple as an adult and be ready to accept the obsurdities that they will be spoon fed there. Particularly the regurgitation of the signs and tokens at the veil.
moksha wrote:My own parents were non-church goers. However, they sanctioned my going with the neighbors at an early age to the LDS Church, because they viewed that as making life easier for me growing up in Utah.
The Nehor wrote:What other option is there? Adults can hardly believe in a religious tradition and not affect their children. The option of 'letting the children decide' is worse in my experience as a 6 year old really can't make a decision between Hinduism, Mormonism, Scientology, and the Church of the Sixth Cosmic Christ when they are that young.
Unless we have a faithless society I don't see a solution. The same holds true with ethical systems.
What about an 8 year old?
An 8 year old can decide if they want to get baptized and get the (vital) Gift of the Holy Ghost. Baptism is fairly easy to recant when you become older if you choose to.
If it were so easy you wouldn't have nearly as many exmormon-type boards that you do.
"I think one of the great mysteries of the gospel is that anyone still believes it." Sethbag, MADB, Feb 22 2008
My own parents were non-church goers. However, they sanctioned my going with the neighbors at an early age to the LDS Church, because they viewed that as making life easier for me growing up in Utah.
That was pretty much my experience, Moksha, only instead of "sanctioning going with the neighbors," they sent me themselves for the reasons you said. Of course, I came to bridle at that: that they wanted me to attend something they themselves weren't interested in. Still, when I put my foot down about attending any more, they were OK with it...
From the Ernest L. Wilkinson Diaries: "ELW dreams he's spattered w/ grease. Hundreds steal his greasy pants."
The Nehor wrote:What other option is there? Adults can hardly believe in a religious tradition and not affect their children. The option of 'letting the children decide' is worse in my experience as a 6 year old really can't make a decision between Hinduism, Mormonism, Scientology, and the Church of the Sixth Cosmic Christ when they are that young.
Unless we have a faithless society I don't see a solution. The same holds true with ethical systems.
What about an 8 year old?
An 8 year old can decide if they want to get baptized and get the (vital) Gift of the Holy Ghost. Baptism is fairly easy to recant when you become older if you choose to.
If it were so easy you wouldn't have nearly as many exmormon-type boards that you do.
You send a letter to the Bishop and walk away. Everything else strikes me as personal drama.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
But when I realized I had come to the same conclusion that Joseph Smith did and that is that there is no Church/Religion that is true. I not only became and Xmo but also an Xchristian.
Curiously enough though, I still believe that the Universe was intellegently created and their is a purpose to life. And our life force does continue on to live on after this body dies. I sat down once and tried to reconcile all that I know about physics. the universe and the sub atomic energy that appears to be the bases of physical matter and came up a GOD theory (Grand Organized Design). Well, it works for me.... What more can I ask?
GIMR wrote:Where would society be if everyone were encouraged to follow their own spiritual paths, insted of many being conditioned into one at an early age....
GIMR, I know your a faither so when I say this realise that you can't have your cake and eat it too. Dogmatism is inherent in faith and indoctrination starts at a young age in Mormonism and any other faith when given the chance to do so.
Pushing faith on children is how these destructive memes spread.
What other option is there? Adults can hardly believe in a religious tradition and not affect their children. The option of 'letting the children decide' is worse in my experience as a 6 year old really can't make a decision between Hinduism, Mormonism, Scientology, and the Church of the Sixth Cosmic Christ when they are that young.
Unless we have a faithless society I don't see a solution. The same holds true with ethical systems.
How about teaching your kids to think for themselves, and use reason and evidence to decide what to do? Outrageous, I know.
My 6 y/o daughter knows I don't believe in any gods, but I insist on telling her that's just what I believe, and it's up to her to think about this issue over the course of her lifetime and make her own decision on it. She tells me she doesn't believe in god, and I point out that she likely believes that because it's what I believe, and that's OK (I mean, she is only six, after all), but eventually, she'll need to justify that belief for herself.
I also teach her that being good to other people is its own reward. There doesn't have to be any eternal consequences involved. It's just common sense. Life is easier when you treat others the way you want to be treated. End of story.
Sounds good, but it is a rare 6 year old that will not at that point choose the faith her friends choose. I intend to raise my kids in the LDS faith. If they choose to leave it I will not judge or estrange myself from them.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
moksha wrote:My own parents were non-church goers. However, they sanctioned my going with the neighbors at an early age to the LDS Church, because they viewed that as making life easier for me growing up in Utah.
So what were your parent's religious beliefs?
They had ceased attending any Church.
Blixa, did you find that your attendance in the LDS Church helped your relationships with your peers? Most of my friends ended up being non-LDS anyway because I smelled of smoke from my parent's cigarettes.