Devil's Advocate

[suspectclass]

I find it interesting that in response to my little poll so many people said that they would leave religion up to the discresion of their children. So this brings up the question of when people are capable of making significant decisions for themselves. When are you capable of choosing a faith? When are you capable of choosing to modify your body? Is it possible that there is worth in being rasied within a religious tradition for the sake of culture, ethics and tradition? Does the presence or absence of religious and/or spiritual belief add to or detract from the worth of the ethical code? If you make the choice not to raise your children with religion because you don't believe it, feeling that they will make the choice later, isn't it possible that you've already made the choice for them?

Comments

[eveandodd.livejournal.com]

If you raise the children without religion, you make a choice for them.
If you raise the children with religion, you make a choide for them.

But you're the parent,and it's something that you have to do. What is it about the religion that you like? Has it been good for you, is it the ethics, is it an important part of your family heritidge?

I was raised with lame attempts at episcopalianism; the fam didn't get to me soon enough and it never stuck. I think the option of spirituality of some sort is still available to me from MANY more places than I would have sought it if I had a church stuck on me.

I wonder, how difficult would it be to *give up* a religion if you found that it didn't suit you? Maybe it's easier to see the light than it is to shut it off and look for a new one.