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From: holt@convex.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Religious Training (not brainwashing - (nf)
Message-ID: <45700021@convex.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Sep-84 14:29:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: convex.45700021
Posted: Fri Sep  7 14:29:00 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Sep-84 07:28:49 EDT
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Nf-ID: #R:houxm:-87800:convex:45700021:000:1703
Nf-From: convex!holt    Sep  7 13:29:00 1984

#R:houxm:-87800:convex:45700021:000:1703
convex!holt    Sep  7 13:29:00 1984



> The most important thing I'd like to stress is that children be brought up
> with consistency.
> 
> Greg Skinner (gregbo)

Greg, 
	Yours is an interesting story.  I agree with you that children 
should be brought up with consistency, but perhaps disagree with what that
consistency should consist of.  I was brought up in a very consistent,
religious environment.  I went to bible study classes each saturday,
sunday school and services on sunday morning, and young peoples meetings
on sunday nights.  The approach was consistent.  What was missing was the
acceptance of questions.  I always had questions about this or that.  About
why God would act one way in one story, and an opposite way in another.
About why, if God were so merciful, he would punish non-believers with Hell,
even if they were the most virtuous of the virtuous.  And so on.  The
problem was, and still is, that those who teach religion, are for the most
part incapable of dealing with children who ask questions.  Especially if
the questions mirror those which they themselves have.  
	I have no easy answer.  I do appreciate my religious upbringing.
I think the ethos it taught me is invaluable.  I want my children to be
brought up in such an environment, but I want them to be able to ask
questions and be rewarded for it. I think it is important in this
age of increasingly sophisticated propaganda that our children learn to
question what they are told, and decipher for themselves what is truth,
what is hypothesis, and what is falsehood.  And it is important that they
learn value and respect of others.   Where is the compromise?

				Dave Holt
				Convex Computer Corp.
				{allegra,ihnp4,uiucdcs,ctvax}!convex!holt