MAKING CHOICES & CREATING ONE’S SELF
Importance of religion differs from person to person. Some people choose to believe in it whereas some people choose to define it as just a creation of human mind. Even in the same family the belief in religion changes. A child can prefer to be an atheist while the parents are extremely devoted to their Jewish, Christian, Islamic etc. beliefs. Difference in the beliefs raises one crucial question: Should parents play an active role in their child’s religious beliefs?
I strongly believe that a person’s religious views shouldn’t be shaped according to what his or her parents believe. Parents forcing their child their own values about religion would be like forcing one’s own political beliefs, own opinions to another independent human being. This is extremely wrong but unfortunately many people try to raise their child according to their own opinions and beliefs, not allowing them to form their own opinions. “What is the best way to stop your child becoming an atheist? I don’t want any of my children to be punished by God.” This question was asked in yahoo answers, where yahoo members can post any questions and answer any questions. A child should be raised by learning information about all types of religion and when that child is old enough to make decisions of his or her own, that person should be the one to choose what to believe in or if he is going to believe anything at all.
The answer that was given to the question about preventing your child to become an atheist was also very interesting. This person answered by saying “Do not educate them, or expose them to critical thinking, logic or science. Lie to them constantly about how the world works. (…) Ensure that they resent anyone who is not like them in every way (…)” This makes me think if religion is for the best for people? Religion and science often contradict each other and this shows that a lot of things that religions claim are true are actually wrong. For example, the world we live in wasn’t created by “God”. There is a perfect scientific explanation for that. Because of religion people learn false information about the world around them. Does this really sound like it would benefit them the most? Also, every religion say that there is only one true religion and one true “God” but there are many religions that claim that they are the one. Doesn’t this create discrimination amongst people? Doesn’t this make people fight with each other? History is full with wars that are caused by religious differentiations, claiming that it is their religious duty to kill all the people who do not believe in the same thing as they do. Does religion really help people when it makes people fight with each other, kill each other?
I believe that religion was created by humans because everyone once in a while needs something that is greater than them to believe in so that they could feel safe. When people are desperate, scared and sad they find comfort in believing a power that is greater than them so that they can hope that everything will get better in the future.
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