Will a child find religion on its own?

[DetlefK]

I know, I know, this is a famous atheist argument and there is quote by Penn Jilette. Something like:
"If you erase all religion, it will never be reinvented exactly the same."

I am more concerned about the concept of teaching children about religion. Why would that even be necessary?

If there is a God, shouldn't we all reach a point of realization in our lives where we become aware of him?

If it is about teaching how to worship God, is this most perfect, most powerful, most magnificent being really that picky that we use the correct words and gestures when praying to him?

And if we teach children about the existence of God, isn't that an admission of failure? Sending out missionaries, isn't that an admission of failure?
It means that God doesn't speak to everyone equally. It means either
1. God could have spoken to the children but he prefered to outsource that job to his favorite mortals.
OR
2. God wouldn't have spoken to those children anyway.

Of course, you could say that they have to be told the word of God to save them, but my conclusion remains the same:
If God doesn't proselytize every child personally but expects us to do this, that means that we know and accept that he doesn't operate on a 1:1-basis and that some of us will never witness God.

It means that we voluntarily accept a claim as truth, with the full knowledge that we might never be able to verify this claim. (Well, except after death.)

Or to put it more simply: "At least it provides some answers."

[rug]

1. The premise of religion is that God is revealed.

No one, child or adult, can reason his or her way there.

[DetlefK]

3. But does this revelation need mortal assistance?

[rug]

7. Technically no.

But religious tradition is all about passing on the revelation.

[gopiscrap]

2. I think they can

[cbayer]

4. I think that the assumption that religion is solely about the belief in a god or gods is faulty.

Religion is also about the stories, the lessons, the rituals and how people behave within a community. While these things can clearly be conveyed without religion, religion is the vehicle that makes the most sense to many people.

Will a child come to the conclusion that there is a god or not on their own? I believe that they will. And they may change their mind several times during their life.

Would they have an innate knowledge of the stories, etc.? Doubt it.

I don't think sharing one's personal experiences with others indicates a failure at all. I think both believers and non-believers do that. Would you also posit that atheists talking about how they came to conclude there was no god a failure?

[Lint Head]

5. Apparently human beings in diverse places discovered religion for the first time

when they first began to evolve. Maybe it took an evolved 'adult' human being to conceive it and train their children. How religion happened is an unanswerable question just as, "Who invented the wheel." But, as mankind continues to evolve and understand science and facts like; disease and mental illness is not caused by demons, there are other planets with life, there are no videos or proven instances of people with no arms and legs having them grow back through an evangelical healing the idea of omnipresent beings is threatened. You would have to raise many child in a vacuum to know if this philosophical question could be answered.

It would be interesting to see if an experiment could be performed but it appears that many more children of the future will be raised to decide for themselves. That is if mankind isn't destroyed by climate change or an errant asteroid. Maybe we will re-evolve into beings without religion.

I've always wondered how many micro universes could fit on the head of a pin.

[cbayer]

6. The argument has been made that religion provided an evolutionary advantage.

It may have instilled concepts of community, family, incentives for certain behaviors that was, in fact, a positive adaptation.

When you say "re-evolve into beings without religion", can you think of a way that a lack of religion might give an individual an evolutionary advantage?

[Lint Head]

9. Other than being a consensus that humans created, as we became tribal, to prevent murdering

each other and causing societal cooperation. I do not think of religion or non religion as an evolutionary advantage or a disadvantage or giving us the former or latter. I think of it as a tool which evolved that has been co opted by the powerful to control people using the fear of death as a psychological controlling factor. If we actually have a "God" gene or a portion of our brains carved out for considering the spiritual there has to be a reason we "evolved" that way in the first place. Reading about and seeing written and pictorial evidence on cave walls, there has apparently been spiritual ideas in the minds of humans for thousands of years. Where it started can only be 'postulated' by those who study and write it about it. An educated guess is still an educated guess unless it is proven beyond a doubt with evidence.

[cbayer]

10. Based on how you see it, I can see why you wouldn't see any evolutionary

advantage.

But for those that see some positive aspects, the view may be much different.

[Lint Head]

11. The original post asks a quesion that cannot be answered because religion is here.

Everything so far mentioned is a matter of opinion on all sides. A thousand books can be written about the subject but the same test must be applied to those books as should be applied to religious or holy books.

[cbayer]

12. Agree that the original question can't be answered.

It's rhetorical and always will be, imo.

[cleanhippie]

8. How we came to believe in religion is no mystery at all.

This is a great, and factual, book about how and why we believe.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00D9TAAB8

[rug]

13. This Michael Shermer?

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2013/08/08/what-do-you-do-when-someone-pulls-the-pin-and-hands-you-a-grenade/

[dimbear]

14. For an interesting elaboration that agrees with yes, see "Lord of the Flies."

It imagines the regrowth of primitive religious ideas in youngish Brits. If one performed the same experiment with young Americans, one would find shrines erected to "My Little Pony."
(Provided one could find bright blue pigments, rarely found in nature. )
The idea pops up in Sci-Fi reasonably often. Never seems to work out well. Always go all "Children of the Corn" for some reason.

[DetlefK]

15. "My Little Pig-head on a Stick"?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. I personally know people who were raised in non-religious homes but

who were always drawn to it somehow and joined a faith community as young adults.

[okasha]

17. Since when is a child an "it?"

n/t