[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by Chris

With the possible exception of Guardian-reading households, families do not sit round the dinner table holding dispassionate seminars on comparative religion. Kids want to know what makes the world go round; every adult has a view on the answer to that question and every adult is free to offer it. Anyone who goes round the houses saying "some believe this, some believe that" will pretty soon be pestered with the response, "but what do you believe?" Actually, it's as likely to be "what do we [i.e. we as a family] believe?".

....and at that point, the christian family tells the child what they believe and the child has that imprinted on their developing brain

---------- Post added at 22:27 ---------- Previous post was at 22:15 ----------

Originally Posted by Maggy J

You do all realise that many children reject that which their parents believe.It does not always follow that children remain 'indoctrinated' by anything their parents say or do.

I was brought up to believe and then I became an atheist because priest who was tasked with educating me before my confirmation couldn't answer my questions to my satisfaction (I was 15, ffs, how difficult could that be?)
......and yet, all that indoctrination up to that point has left its mark. I know that it's rubbish but I still have to occasionally fight its effect since it was laid down in my brain at a very young impressionable age.

---------- Post added at 22:50 ---------- Previous post was at 22:27 ----------

Originally Posted by Russ

I know of people who have lost their faith after reading his book and their lives are now miserable as a result. I have no time for the man.

I'm sad that they are miserable once the crutch of religion has been cast aside and that they can't find anything less intangable to help them back up.
I envy you your unshakeable faith. I really do.
I just know that if I was to consider believing in your god again I would have to, once again, discount all the other gods that have been; and that is a really bleak prospect.....to consider all those lives wasted believing in this or that god. All those millenia, all those lives lived in the absolute knowledge that their belief is the true belief, in the (their) true god......and it's still going on today. Yes, it gives many comfort and solace but it's also causing death and the misery that you mentioned.
So, as a man who has faith. Tell me again, or help me choose which god I should follow when I look at this list of the gods that have been considered worth believing in?