Do you think that if religion...

As much as it is a thing as old as history and a fundamental part of humanity, it cannot be denied that a majority of our personality and beliefs are dependent on how we were raised. Children are completely malleable, so they are subject to a conditioning to whatever their parents and family believes.

Of course when you grow up and interact with more people and learn new things you start to develop an opinion of your own, which may or may not stick to what you've been taught as a child. Some people will stick to their beliefs out of tradition, because it's been such a big part of their lives and their families.

But then again if no one exposed children to religion in their childhood, then they would only be imposing atheism. Because other than taking your children to church or making them say prayers (or other religious rituals), a majority of the teaching at that age comes from the explanations of the more difficult aspects in life, such as death and love and bad people. If you tell your children the scientific truth from the very beginning, that death is in fact death and nothing more, then they'll merely believe that there is no omniscient being and no greater truth than what the world around us presents; which is essentially atheism.

For that reason this is a difficult question, because you can either be comforting, or you can be harsh. It seems almost necessary to impose a certain religion on children, doesn't it, because you would rather tell them a blissful lie: that there is something better for them and the people they love beyond this world, rather than to make them try to grasp the terrifying emptiness of mortality.

Sorry for writing an essay but this is a really interesting question.

If a family is religious, the children will be exposed. You cannot shelter them from that reality. And they are naturally curious so they will ask questions.

If you could magically prevent kids from being exposed, of course it woul be less common. But that isn't going to happen.

No, I don't think it would be as common.

There are no atheists in foxholes.

Signed,
Knight Nigel Wellington XXI

Well, maybe not Christianity, but people have always been religious, and even if the parents did not raise their children by a religion, you will still have children finding a religion on there own. I think people would still be religious. Perhaps there would be religious by their own will. I myself am religious not because someone wants me to be, but because I have chosen faith on my own and I find it hard to believe that we are all an accident. I would believe this whether I had come from a religious family or not.

In other words, I think people would find some kind fo religion of their own. Not everyone, of course, and it may not be Christianity, but I do believe people find their own way to religion.

Adults turn to religion all the time. That is a yes.

Religion would pretty much wither and die out if this were the case, thankfully we have parent's brainwashing their children at a young age so the pope has job security.

Yes it would since mny people choose follow it later in life aswell.

Probably, yes. But I wouldn't say that upbringing is the only cause of religious belief. I was raised Jewish, but at both a young age and as I got older, I started to become attracted to Christian ideas. Now, I take values from both. Regardless of what their parents teach them, children find a way to make their own religions.

Indoctrination!