“Creationism Is Not Appropriate for Children”
I’ll admit that the title of this video kinda bothers me because I don’t necessarily think that it’s the best way to summarize what Bill is saying, but I still agree with the dialog itself because sad as it may be, it often seems like even merely harboring ideas like creationism tends to hold back society and the last thing future generations need is to find themselves held back by these stubborn beliefs of their forefathers who simply refuse to accept the factual evidence on the wall.
One of the conversations that I have with my wife a lot is how we’ll raise our future children with regards to both honoring and respecting each of our own religious beliefs – namely, she’s a Christian and I’m not. And it’s still troubling to me sometimes because although I have every faith in her that she won’t let my own views be cast to the wayside so that her own can flourish, I feel like I can’t say the same thing for other people who they’re going to eventually encounter, be it at church or school or the grocery store or whatever. An instructor at Sunday School may be less inclined to say, “Yes, what your Dad believes is different from what we believe and that’s ok…” as much as, “Anyone who doesn’t believe what we say is going to hell, blah blah blah…”
I’m all for freedom of speech to express your own beliefs, but what happens when at its core, continuing to harbor absolute, unfounded beliefs like yours is what’s holding back our society from taking another step forward in its evolutionary course?
Is it actually dangerous to have your kids around people of faith like that until they’re old enough to take things at face value and consider the other side of the coin???
Kids are pretty impressionable the younger they get, so what would be the right age to expose children to religion to ensure that they’re able to honestly consider it with an objective view instead of merely parroting what they’re being told by some who refuse to consider anything relating to science or fact in the same realm as the almighty one?