Quote:
|
Originally Posted by kcchiefsfanGoLJ
I definetely believe in God and that he sent his son to die on the cross for our sins. I have grown up in a christian home (independant baptist meaning we dont have to answer to a mother church or are not governed by a mother church). I was saved when I was 5 years old and my dad teaches Sunday School he is the Head of the Deacons and leads our youth program of about 70 kids at our church (i am the game director lol). But there is something after death its called heaven and hell. People who dont know pretty much dont wanna know they just want to live the way they are living if they wanted to know they would seek answers. I would hate to be at the Gates of Heaven and not be in the Book of Life because it will be a long hot eternity. And saying religion is mans way of controlling man is pretty invalid. Goverment is a mans way of controlling man.
|
Let me explain why, when it comes to children, I think of religion as a dangerous virus. It’s a virus which is transmitted partly through teachers and clergy, but also down the generations from parent to child to grandchild. Children are especially vulnerable to infection by the virus of religion.
A child is genetically pre-programmed to accumulate knowledge from figures of authority. The child brain, for very good Darwinian reasons, has to be set up in such a way that it believes what it’s told by its elders, because there just isn’t time for the child to experiment with warnings like “Don’t go too near the cliff edge!” or “Don’t swim in the river, there are crocodiles!” Any child who applied a scientific sceptical questioning attitude to that, would be dead.
No wonder the Jesuits said, “Give me the child for his first seven years and I’ll give you the man.”
The child brain will automatically believe what it’s told even if what it’s told is nonsense. And then when the child grows up it will tend to pass on that same nonsense to its children.
And so religion goes on from generation to generation.
For many people, part of growing up is killing off the virus of faith with a good strong dose of rational thinking. But if an individual doesn’t succeed in shaking it off, his mind is stuck in a permanent state of infancy. And there is a real danger that he will infect the next generation.
—Richard Dawkins, “Root of All Evil? part 2: The Virus of Faith