From: judy@locus.com (Judy Leedom Tyrer)
Subject: Re: Teaching Superstition     was God's Family Values
Organization: Locus Computing Corporation, Los Angeles, California
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 02 Sep 1992 23:10:12 GMT

In article <1992Aug28.203355.29883@clipper.ingr.com> ald@clipper.ingr.com (Al Date) writes:
>
>I am very interested in the long term effects of teaching superstitions
>to young children.  Superstitions are not confined to religious 
>indoctrination, of course, but that is the area in which they seem to 
>find the most common expression in this culture.

Well, I have to question this assumption since I see superstition as things like
knocking on wood, never walking under a ladder, carrying a rabbit's foot in
your pocket, or my favorite, picking up found pennies and carrying them with you
all day for luck.  So, to avoid the religious flame wars bound to come
from this post, I will look at those superstitions and trust my personal knowledge
of God to be real, and NOT superstition.  You may choose to disagree, but 
that will serve no purpose for this discussion since it is not about the existance
or non-existance of one or more deities.
>
>For example, when I was growing up, I "learned" that angels were 
>watching me to make sure that I was always good, and that God
>would hold me accountable in some future judgment day for 
>everything I did.
>
>I distinctly remember a kind of gnawing guilt and fear associated with
>this belief, and related nightmares.
>

Okay, so you were taught a religious belief that caused you
nightmares.  Whether or not the belief is true is of less consequence than
the effect it had.  So if you were taught that there are sexual perverts who
sneak into unlocked windows at night and molest little children and had
nightmares from that it would have had the same impact.  Correct?

Are we still talking about teaching superstition?  Or are we talking about
teaching things which will deeply disturb and upset children?  Because reality
is, IMHO, scarier than any superstition created by man.

>An atheistic mother I know is convinced that teaching superstition
>to children really messes up their brains.  She sees it as akin to
>training them to ignore the evidence of their own senses, with
>far-reaching consequences in adulthood.  I know from personal
>experience that most people who are raised as Catholics usually "believe 
>in God" no matter how far they may stray from the Church.  
>

Well, does it harm a child to believe in the tooth fairy?  It doesn't cause
nightmares.  It's a bit of fun which helps a child adjust to having her teeth
fall out (scary stuff, having your teeth fall out - I have recurring nightmares
about that one all the time).  

So, religion aside, I don't think it "messes up children's brains" to learn
about superstitions any more than I believe it messes up their brains to 
engage in fantasy play.  After all, if you PRETEND that a rock is hamburger
when your child wants to cook you dinner, aren't you training them to ignore
the evidence of their own senses?  But who would argue that when a child brings
you a rock and says, "Here, Mommy, I made you dinner.  It's a hamburger" the
parent should say "No you didn't.  This is a rock.  Quit pretending."?  

There is great value in pretense in a child's life.  It helps the child adjust
to the complexities of the world.  The powerless child is empowered when he
fantasises himself killing evil space invaders trying to capture his parents.
And it enables the child to not have to face the stark and frightening realities
of life on this planet.

In fact, adults use the same tactics.  Only we couch it in psychological terms
like selective memory and denial mechanism.  Not thinking about the Croats
being tortured in Bosnia is not that unlike pretending that the tooth fairy
will reward you for the lost tooth.  It makes something frightening palatable.
It eases our ability to live in this world.

>But on the other hand, another friend of mine believes that children
>who are not indoctrinated in some conventional religion are easy
>pray for Moonie or Krishna cults.  
>

Well, this is patently false.  Most of the children caught up in cults were from
conventional religious backgrounds.  They were enticed into the cult because
they did not have the experience to recognize mental manipulation when they
became victim to it.  They had ideals that the cults appealed to.  And once in,
the most self assured, confident, and religiously grounded of people would
find that they easily succumb to brain washing.

>What is a parent to do?
>
This is, to me, the simplest of all questions.  The parent is to impart their
own view of the world to their child.  It would be dishonest for a parent who
did not believe in God to teach their child God.  And it would be dishonest for
a parent who does believe in God NOT to teach their child about God.

As for teaching superstition, why not?  Not all superstitions are evil.  Some
are a lot of fun.  

As for giving children nightmares, well there are a lot of very real things we
could teach our children that will far outdo any nightmares that some vague
superstition about angels could ever accomplish.  I cannot stop my children from
having nightmares.  But I can choose not to add to them either with teaching
superstition or scaring them with the uglier sides of reality. 

-- 
Judy Leedom Tyrer

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions"	- William Blake
Newsgroups: misc.kids