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When you started school had your mind already picked up attitudes, beliefs or unbeliefs from your parents?

The atheist scientist Richard Dawkins campaigns against faith schools in the UK because he says that the schools indoctrinate them with mythical religious ideas that confuse factual knowledge.

My argument is that school children have already picked up the attitudes, biases religious beliefs and habits of those at home.. There can be no such thing as a child starting school with a mind that is like a blank canvas. This seems to be what Dawkins dreams of.

I say that as a scientist, Dawkins is peculiarly weak on human psychology.

Update:

To 'Discuss Religion', thank you for your sincere answer but in fact you did not keep to my question. I was making no comment on parents beliefs, only that they effect and are absorbed by the pre-school-child - an idea that seems alien to Dawkins - and him a scientist! Young children are like sponges -fact!

6 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    I was raised Catholic. I remember being shocked and appalled when I found out other kids in my class weren't Catholic. I felt so bad for them, because they were all obviously wrong and bound for Hell. That view was quickly eradicated, however, as I learned more and more about other cultures, religions, and science. I think that no matter how bright a child is, he or she will always cling to the teaching of his or her parents. At least in the beginning.

  • 1 decade ago

    Well not only your parents but also all the other attributes/characteristics you brought with you into this life (some argue its genetics some argue its your soul/past lives) but you are who you are before school even begins. You are who you are before you even come into this life !!

    But then there is peer pressure...

    Thats why we gotta be carefule those first five years to do nothing but nurture, show the children this world is a pretty cool place, encourage them to learn to make decisions on thier own, make them feel safe, not brainwash them with rubbish fear instilling religion, encourage them to get along with others in daycare/preschool, have ur own life because they will grow up to have thiers and show them this, etc and prepare them for the next 13 years they have ahead of them to have to get along with others while at the same time focusing on studies

    Then theyll be 18 and hopefully ready for college

    But yea there is no such thing as a child starting school with a "blank canvas" there were too many genetic factors and issues at home.

    So yea those first five years are very important. I feel so sorry for the kids whos parents sheltered/babied them and then try to throw them into the ocean.

    Studies show those first five years are crucial and to get them to feel safe/happy about life and around people/kids as much as possible.

  • Guess
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago

    There are many children who do not always follow what their parents ask of them. Not all children pick up the belief that is taught in the home. For that matter, many homes are dyfuncional with parents with all kinds of problems...religion or beliefs, may not be that prevalent in many, many homes. Many kids are lucky if they can receive and good teaching.

  • ?
    Lv 4
    4 years ago

    that's organic, once you have faith you have discovered the reality approximately something, to exclude issues that conflict with it. that's actually, easily organic. it would be unnatural to proceed being open to issues which you have faith are fake or conflict with the reality. as an occasion, as quickly as you learn the Pythagorean Theorem, and comprehend the glaring actuality of it, you're actually not any greater open to different factors of view on the difficulty. i think of somewhat some human beings think of that faith is unlike geometry, because of the fact geometry deals with issues in a black-and-white, applicable-or-incorrect way. yet faith, they think of, is a grey section, the place you may by no potential make certain what's applicable, so which you ought to stay constantly open-minded, even once you have faith you have discovered non secular actuality. For me, i've got faith faith is a assertion approximately actuality, and consequently that's black-and-white, applicable or incorrect, authentic or fake. there is in basic terms one actuality. So statements approximately that actuality, assuming they're unambiguous statements, which incorporate maximum religons make, ought to the two conform to actuality or conflict with it, basically as a geometrical theorem does. So for me, having discovered the reality of the Catholic faith, I now comprehend all others to be fake insofar as they conflict with it. i'm not greater open to adopting a various point of view on faith than i'm to adopting a various point of view on the Pythagorean Theorem. Now of course that's frequently achieveable that the two the Pythagorean Theorem and the Catholic faith are incorrect, and if some earth-shattering new evidence includes mild that disproves the two, of course i will ought to re-verify my perception in it. yet I not greater anticipate my faith to be disproven than I do the Pythagorean Theorem. i think of the two have already stood the attempt of time and in the event that they have been going to be disproven might have by utilizing now. I observe out of your profile which you're a Mormon. In mild of that I ask you, are you open to the possibility that different religions are authentic, and that yours is fake insofar because it conflicts with those others? If not, then why do you think of others must be? be at liberty to e mail me as i'm unable to be checking comments right here.

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  • Mr-Kay
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago

    Yes to some degree.

  • 1 decade ago

    Yes and I agree.

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