I have seen the comments in news articles frequently divulge into attacks on religion - mostly snarky, no real debate involved. Kids are very impressionable to this. And it's all over the place, not just classrooms or churches or other places where debate is appropriate. All you can really do is prepare them for it, teach them the issues behind it and encourage them to discern. Otherwise they may feel compelled to identify with "science," because someone convinced them that it was cooler, or more convincing, and that you can't believe both.
There are all sorts of propaganda techniques that can make kids feel like they have to "choose" science over faith. It might be a good idea to introduce your daughter to the different types of propaganda, so she can recognize them.
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Science works.
When was the last time people healed a broken leg through prayer, flew to the other side of the country in less than half a day with faith alone or communicated with people on the other side of the world through communion?
At some point, you have to make a choice. Sure, you can believe in a god of the gaps, but when we prove something and make it work, religion has to fold and fall back a bit more.
At least deists are a bit more self-conscious about those issues.
"It might be a good idea to introduce your daughter to the different types of propaganda, so she can recognize them."
Don't forget to include religion itself in the lecture about propaganda.
I know some might not agree with me here but yes, you need to choose one: Science and living in reality or the blanket fort of religion. They are not the same and cannot be substituted one for the other. Other than that your religion is and will be attacked if it wishes to command people to do so and so and then denies them questions. Especially if you make a self-hating cult into your way of life and then demand that we not only respect it(WHY? We do not give respect for every single outlook on life and politics a person can have) but also that we live by your own self-hating laws or at least treat them like they`re some sort of default.
Yeah not gonna work, but you`ll probably scar quite a few kids for life in the process.
" It might be a good idea to introduce your daughter to the different types of propaganda, so she can recognize them."
For example you can read Southern Baptists and Catholics each explaining why the other aren't Christians.
No, y'see, science is that stuff that's true whether or not you believe in it. If god doesn't fit science, god's wrong. Your theology is what is going to force her to choose, because many scientists are Christian without that head-in-sand attitude. And if she chooses to please mom, she is really going to be pissed at you when she discovers you've been leading her the wrong direction.
Be thankful we're just being snarky. When kids are exposed to actual evidence for scientific theories vs. religion, religion gets blown out of the water. Not to mention that science just explains what is, and doesn't care whether or not you believe it. Religion demands you believe and threatens you with horrible things if you don't. If religion were true and factual, it wouldn't need to resort to threats. And finally, it's the religion adherents themselves who are pushing people away through intolerance and even violence.
I am continually grateful that I was raised by educated people who actually protected me from the psychic poison known as religion. I was ten or eleven when I got some grief from other kids about not attending church. I was out hunting with Dad and I asked him why we didn't go to church. He said; "because your mother and I decided we would never lie to our children". I was, indeed, fortunate and I miss them every day. I also still have a letter from my 3rd grade teacher asserting that I was more qualified to teach science than she was.
It might be a good idea to introduce your daughter to the different types of propaganda, so she can recognize them.
Propoganda from people such as Jack Chick, Pat Robertson, and Joel Olsteen?
"I have seen the comments in news articles frequently divulge into attacks on religion - mostly snarky, no real debate involved. Kids are very impressionable to this."
What the hell kind of kid reads new articles on a regular basis?
"therwise they may feel compelled to identify with "science," because someone convinced them that it was cooler, or more convincing, and that you can't believe both."
Again what the hell kind of kid do you know that goes around talking about how cool science is all the time?
When I was a kid I didn't spend all my time reading news articles and gushing to other kids about how cool science was. I was kind of busy being, you know, a kid.
@Mathius_dragoon
I talked about science a lot as a kid. I ran into a guy I went to school with in from 4th through 8th grade, almost 40 years later, and he recognized me as "the mad scientist of Jefferson Junior High".
I think this is kind of true. I was raised in a Christian household, went to evangelical churches, and went to Christian school all my life (until college), but because I read those science books for kids that included the Big Bang, the early solar system, the origin of life, dinosaurs/other prehistoric life, and the origin of mankind, I never really thought literal creationism as anything but a story, and part of the reason I stopped being a Christian was because I couldn't reconcile science (and later on, early history i.e. Noah's flood vs Sumer etc., Tower of Babel--I got kicked out of class my senior year for arguing the Tower of Babel made no sense linguistically and the creationist textbook was utterly, utterly laughable in trying to justify it) with the Bible because it just seemed utterly stupid and missing the point when I tried.
And I'm all the better off for it, and so would the world if they were the same. But if you want to be controlling and try your hardest to chain your kid to fundie religion, then I'd recommend you never let them get in touch with any real science. Keep it to Ken Ham and his crew.
I have seen the comments in news articles ... Kids are very impressionable to this.
It's a well known fact that kids these days become absolutely glued to the comments in news articles. Cat videos are chicken shit compared to the comments in news articles.
You want your daughter to love Jesus? Buy a cat and name it Jesus. Done.
@ Kid Cthulhu
I'd like to see that aired;
the Babble actually being Peer Reviewed.
Nye/Ham to the Nth power.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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