Quote:
Originally Posted by Ramrod
I'm not saying that the parent has to even deliberately 'indoctrinate' the child. Childrens minds are incredibly malleable and children naturally look to their parents for guidance on how the world works. If the parents believe in a god, the children are very likely to believe in that god. It's the way that we are wired.
Simply talking about god (with a sense of belief) or regularly praying will probably 'indoctrinate' the child.
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Indeed. Which is why the argument that parents should not bring up children to believe in a certain faith is so dangerous. Even without active instruction from the parents, children would absorb their religious beliefs and practices in exactly the same way as they absorb everything from favoured holiday destinations to the brands in the kitchen cupboard and support for a particular football team. Once we accept Dawkins' argument that children need to be "protected" from religion, we are immediately on the road to accepting massive State intervention in child rearing within the family home.