For many religious people, raising their children in their faith is an important part of their religious practice. They might see getting their kids into heaven as one of the most important things they can do as parent. And certainly, adults should have the right to practice their religion freely, but children are impressionable and unlikely to realize that they are being indoctrinated into one religion out of the thousands that humans practice.

And many faith traditions have beliefs that are at odds with science or support bigoted worldviews. For example, a queer person being raised in the Catholic Church would be taught that they are inherently disordered and would likely be discouraged from being involved in LGBTQ support groups.

Where do you think the line is between practicing your own religion faithfully and unethically forcing your beliefs on someone else?

  • Paid in cheese
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    04 months ago

    I think the ethics mostly come into how you raise them, religion or not. It’s ethical to teach kindness and empathy. It’s ethical to allow your kids to explore while asking them questions that help that exploration. You can do those kinds of things no matter what faith (or non-faith) you practice.

    Speaking as someone who was raised in an environment that gave lip service to kindness and empathy but was really very harsh, judgmental, and rigid, only one of my siblings kept something reasonably approximating my parents’ faith. The rest of us are mostly some variety of pagan. Each of us had a painful journey out of our parents’ faith to something. No matter how you raise your kids, they are their own people and will come to their own conclusions. You can make the path much more difficult than it needs to be or you can set them up for a much less traumatic journey.

    • andyburke
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      04 months ago

      This would be true if religion were not so often used to suppress and hurt people.

        • andyburke
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          04 months ago

          The history books are full of religions’ heinous crimes against humanity. Maybe there is some religion out there that is purely benevolent but I have never heard of it in the sea of counterexamples.

          If you are currently trapped in a religion, I am here to tell you that you can escape. Once you do, a lot becomes much more clear.

  • @TabbsTheBat@pawb.social
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    04 months ago

    Definitely think that kids should be explained different beliefs early on… plus they should be respected if they don’t want to follow the same beliefs, and be able to opt out of any traditions… though I suppose the faith I follow tends to be a lot less “damned to hecc” than some others, so to some parents if breaking a tradition means making their kid go to hell that’s probably a lot tougher of a thing than im imagining it to be

  • @peregrin5@lemm.ee
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    04 months ago

    No it’s not ethical. I say this as a queer man indoctrinated in Christianity. I was lucky to make it through childhood without killing myself. I tried several times. Religion is a cancer that should be exterminated.

    • @compostgoblin@slrpnk.netOP
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      04 months ago

      I am a trans woman who was raised Catholic, so I feel similarly. I’ve had to do so much work in therapy just to get to a place where I can accept myself for who I am. A lot of those old beliefs were baked in deeper than I realized.

      I carry a lot of resentment towards my (very devout) parents for raising me in the church, but I also recognize my experience is not emblematic of every person’s experience being raised in a religious household.

  • @Kurious84@eviltoast.org
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    4 months ago

    Regardless is it our business? You are free to raise your kids how you want. Theyll be just fine. If religion is taught and leads to a more happy or moral lifestyle that isnt so bad.

    Nothing personal but i find it facinating with people make other peoples business their own. Let other people live how they want and in turn they wont tell you how to live. Itll all be over in a flash.

    • @HenchmanNumber3@lemm.ee
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      04 months ago

      Except your own children are “other people.” They may not “be just fine.” Some religions are abusive and traumatizing. Why should adults have to deprogram themselves and recover from trauma later because their parents decided it was fine to indoctrinate their own kids? “Mind your own business” applies to parents too.

      • @wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        04 months ago

        Some parents are abusive and traumatizing, religion or not.

        What this really comes down to is “Why are bad people allowed to raise their children how they want?”

        Unless you’re trying to make the argument that all religions are abusive and traumatizing.

        • @Kurious84@eviltoast.org
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          4 months ago

          That wasnt the title. Im not for Nazis raising othrr Nazis but once YOU decide what is the right snd wrong relgions then where will that lead us? As you can see in governement. They make moves till eventually you dont control your own children. Also if you dont have kids then you shouldnt be discussing this. Do you know how strong the parental instinct is?

          Friendly argument but yall gotta think this through. You want freedom or you want someone deciding your relgion is “wrong” one.

          Im done discussing. This one is a no brainer.

  • PonyOfWar
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    04 months ago

    I’d say yes, as long as they’re tolerant of their children questioning those beliefs and developing their own later on in life. Parents will always make an impression on their kids, that’s just what being a parent is. It can get more nuanced of course. Teaching your kids homophobia is unethical, but that’s regardless of whether it’s for religious or other reasons.

    • @Zetta@mander.xyz
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      04 months ago

      There probably wouldn’t be much religion, how nice that would be. Religion would mostly cease to exists if children were not indoctrinated before they developed critical thinking skills.

      Religion relies on naive children being brought into the fold, and to a lesser degree damaged and desperate adults needing hope or something to believe in.

  • Melllvar
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    04 months ago

    Each teaching has to be evaluated on its own merits, its basis in reality, and its effect on the child and how they relate to others. Whether it’s religious in origin is ultimately beside the point.

  • @JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
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    04 months ago

    The problem with “faith” is its literal meaning: belief that is not based on evidence.

    A society based on faith can only work is everybody has the same faith (think: Ancient Rome, theocracies, communist countries). The only reason modern Western democracies work is precisely that they are not based on faith but rather on evidence, on reason, on truth-seeking. This is the amazing and historically anomalous heritage of the enlightenment and it’s looking more fragile by the day.

    Teaching kids fairytales and calling it truth is the reason religion exists. It’s the reason it’s so hard for adults to leave the religions they assimilated as children. And in a free society where we have to find a way to live together, it’s profoundly dangerous.

    So my answer is: no.

    • Libb
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      04 months ago

      think: Ancient Rome,

      As far as I know, Ancient Rome (pre-christian) welcomed many and very different faiths.

      • @JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
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        04 months ago

        That’s fair. Although I believe the Jewish minority was the only one that seriously dissented from the prevailing polytheism.

        My main point is that secular liberalism is the only political system that has been shown to protect individual freedom and rights - i.e. without the need for a shared supernatural mythology or an iron fist. And this system relies on a shared commitment to evidence, reason, facts.

        In this context, to inculcate irrational beliefs in children seems to me to be like playing with fire.

        • Libb
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          4 months ago

          Although I believe the Jewish minority was the only one that seriously dissented from the prevailing polytheism.

          Edit: There were the Christians, a little later on. But I wouldn’t know that all religions would be polytheist back then except Jews. I’m really not an expert.

          In this context, to inculcate irrational beliefs in children seems to me to be like playing with fire.

          It sure can be. But, talking irrational beliefs, wouldn’t you agree that telling a child they’re a unique and amazing person and that all they do is perfect and amazing too, that they should not have to get bad grades at school because it’s infuriating, that they should not have to do their homework because it’s tiresome, that they should be allowed to do whatever they fancy the moment they fancy doing it, is also like playing with fire? Still, despite it containing not a single mention of god, religion or spiritual beliefs it’s something hordes of parents are telling their own kids every single day.

          I do sincerely wonder what will do more harm to those kids but, once again, I’m not pro religion nor am I against it. I’m only pro taking nothing for granted—beginning with our very own certainties if they can’t be demonstrated ;)

          • @JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
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            04 months ago

            All fair points. There are definitely multiple ways of playing with fire.

            I saw that article about illiterate college kids too. Worrying.

            • Libb
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              04 months ago

              I saw that article about illiterate college kids too. Worrying.

              Indeed. We have the same issues here in France, btw. It’s an absolute failure of our educational system (and of too many parents persisting in wanting that failure to be used) that will cost dear to all those kids, and then will cost to the society as a whole: that’s our future ‘elite’ that’s being uneducated.

  • @nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 months ago

    it’s nice to have culture or whatever, but practicing a religion is inherently unethical as it is giving legitimacy to a scam and perpetuating objectively bad ideas

  • @surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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    04 months ago

    It’s not ethical to train your child’s brain to believe fairytales. It’s like foot binding, forcing an unnatural form on their growth. They grow up handicapped.

  • confuser
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    4 months ago

    Ideally when properly understood each religion usually means well and enhances oneself in some way, from my little studying into a couple popular ones they seem to be aiming for similar things so I’m less and less convinced of inherently biased religious practices and more and more convinced of sucky people.

    I think spirituality goes hand in hand with mental health and when we understand it badly we dig ourselves into deeper holes or when we understand it rightly we keep ourselves from falling in holes.

    If what you teach someone helps them, that is good, otherwise just leave them alone.

  • magnetosphere
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    04 months ago

    I think it can be done if the parents are tolerant, flexible, and understand that people are naturally curious about other worldviews. Unfortunately, that’s a stratospherically high bar for a lot of people. When the parents sincerely believe that their child’s eternal soul is in danger, ethics come second.

    Ironically, I think the people best suited to give religious guidance are agnostics, who readily admit that they don’t know squat about the afterlife or other supernatural topics. Ideally, they won’t pass on hate or bigotry whose only basis is ancient hearsay or hallucinations.