The impact of raising a child to be religious

Should children be forced/manipulated into following a certain religion? To answer this question I will focus on Christianity, which is a religion that I was a part of, but my opinion can be applied to any child that follows any religion. If you ask most religious people when did they choose to become religious, they will tell you that they don't remember. Most kids never have the freedom to choose what they want to believe in, because their parents force their beliefs on them at a young age. Think about it; parents start taking their kids to church at a young age, they start buying them toys for Christmas, and in the midst of that they tell them that Christmas is the day that they celebrate the birth of Christ. A lot of children have these beliefs forced on them without even fully understanding them. Is that fair to them?

We need to teach our children to be thinkers, and not followers. We need to teach our children to do research, instead of believing in something that they do not fully understand. I believe that parents should sit down with their children, and explain everything to them about each major religion. Then they should go online with them, and allow them to research different subjects that pertains to to those religion. They should also let them analyze the beliefs of civilizations such as the Hopi Indians, Maya, and the Sumerians. Once they have enough knowledge about these things, then parents should ask them what do they want to believe in. It should not matter what they chose to believe in, as a parent you should support them, and respect their beliefs even if they differ from yours.

Believe it or not, teaching your children to research subjects such as religion, and to form their own opinions will benefit them in a lot of different ways. Look at the people in the world today, so many of them have no clue about all of the negative things going on in the world, they have no idea of how corrupt the government really is, they have no clue that we could change the country and the world by getting rid of the monetary system, and replacing it with something like a resource based economy. The reason that they don't see the world for what it really is, is due to the fact that a lot of them were raised to be content with the way that things are, and to believe what the majority of people believe, instead of forming their own opinion. That is why I stated that the method that I suggested that would give children the freedom to choose what they want to believe in can be the same method that they can apply to everyday life as they get older. Don't believe something just because others believe it, always ask questions, always do your own research, and always form your own opinions based on what you believe is true.