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brainiacsub -> RE: Creationism in public schools (10/4/2008 11:31:02 AM)
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ORIGINAL: rulemylife
quote:
ORIGINAL: meatcleaver
The very fact that the overwhelmingly vast majority children adopt the religion of their parents and don't question that religion and largely find it impossible to escape that religion, even when they are older and they can intellectually reject it, just shows that most children are indoctrinated and are very suseptable to indoctrination.
I assume you would not make such a broad, sweeping generalization without some facts to document it, so I truly would love to take a look at the research that led you to this conclusion.
I doubt you'll find scientific research to support this, but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence. My own story is not uncommon and I'm sure can be repeated by millions in either fact or sentiment. I for one was raised in a fundamentalist Christian home nearly my whole life. I can tell you that looking back I was absolutely brainwashed and have spent a lifetime undoing the damage. Richard Dawkins said that 'there is no such thing as a Christian child, a Muslim child, or a Hindu child...there are only children of Christian, Muslim and Hindu parents.' He couldn't have been more right. The roots of our religious beliefs are grounded in cultural and familial teachings. Fundamentalist evangelicals teach children that the Bible is the literal word of God, is not to be questioned, and if salvation through acceptance of Christ is rejected, then one will spend an eternity damned to hell. This is a horrible thing to teach a child and by definition, is brainwashing. Christopher Hitchens said that as adults we are not taught that it is okay to not only question these teachings, but reject them. It is the brainwashing component of much religious teaching that prevents otherwise rational adults from a critical examination of their own faith.
Even as a child I was very smart and curious about the world around me. I loved science, collected rocks and insects, and spent hours reading my Uncle's National Geographic collection. I really struggled with much of what I was being taught at church and at home and common sense told me that much of the Bible could not literally be true, but I was not provided with alternative explanations or information that would allow me to draw my own conclusions. Then, my senior year in high school I took an elective course in Anthropology where we studied archeological (the fossil record and evolution) and cultural anthropology. Although I absorbed it all, I felt emotionally violated that I was being asked to choose between the teachings of my faith and observations and findings in science and human behavior. This again, by definition, is brainwashing.
For the next 10 years I continued to claim that I was a Christian but held on loosely to my beliefs. I wasn't ready to reject them but I didn't have answers either. It was a period of great struggle for me in my personal and intellectual growth. Then, at 28 I started college and majored in Molecular Biology. It was a small liberal arts university and 9 hours of Theology credit was required for graduation. It was this education that finally gave me the requisite knowledge and understanding that unlocked for me the answers I had sought my whole life. Discovery of truth was both satisfying and liberating, but I harbored much resentment toward my family and church for many years for having been deceived for so long in the most cruelest of manners. What I went through is the classic process of reprogramming a brainwashed mind.
On a side note, I went to my 10 year high school reunion and discovered that my Anthropology teacher had died tragically a couple of years after I graduated. I expressed my sorrow and explained to many of my former teachers and administrators how his Anthropology course changed my life and planted the seeds that would later start me down the path toward Atheism. Ironically, the following school year the Anthropology course was removed from the curricula after more than 10 years of offering. Again, this is a classic tactic of brainwashing.
I for one am not opposed to teaching creationism in public schools as part of a greater philosophical agenda, but only if Richard Dawkins is added to the required reading list for all high schoolers.
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