Quote:
Originally Posted by idi banashapan
Chris, there is a gulf of difference between telling and guiding. Telling implies a forceful tact which requires, demands even, compliance. Guiding implies showing paths, but allowing one to choose which to take. Someone who tells demands respect and authority. Someone who guides does nothing more than advise and help.
If someone wants to believe in a god, that is fine. But to push that belief in another, no matter what their age, race, creed, whatever should be discouraged. And that goes for either side of the religious stand points. No one here is telling anyone to do anything. However, as is often the case here, a couple of people think that any religious view that differs from their own is a personal attack designed for them to abandon God. This is simply not the case and I find it increasingly sad that this happens. It is not a personal attack. You have a choice. And I think it is important that we ALL understand what makes those choices important to everyone else so we can understand the person and ultimately ourselves, better. I'f one does not understand a person, one tends to regard the as a fool' as Carl Gustav Jung once said. And I do not want to think anyone a fool because I don't understand them. However, it takes co-operation from both parties. It requires honesty, validity and questioning. When those things are denied, where does that leave us?
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For a person of faith, Idi, the existence of multiple religions is not analogous to the existence of multiple motor manufacturers. I might "guide" my son as to the best choice between a VW and a Vauxhall. I would not "guide" him as to the best path up a mountain if I knew one of those paths to end in a cliff drop.
You do not have a faith; you therefore, I suspect, simply don't understand what it entails. Doubtless you would argue that I can know empirically if a mountain path leads to doom whereas I cannot know that my God exists. Faith, however, is a certainty of the truth of something unseen. To me, it is absolutely real, due to my ongoing practice of my faith and my trust in God to act towards me as promised in the Bible, and I have no hesitation in telling my children this.
You may find that unacceptable, and you may attempt to give your argument a veneer of moral superiority by implying that instructing children in faith suggests a corrupt power relationship in the family, but given that North Korea is the only place on earth where the implications of your argument have come close to reaching their logical conclusion, I don't think you're ever likely to see the State stepping in and ruling against parents for taking their own children to church on a Sunday and requiring them to participate in Sunday school.