Should religion be forced on you?

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This is an old, old question that Christians have been grappling with since the very beginning. The truth of the matter is that acceptance of religion makes your life better. Full stop. There is no life without religion that can’t be made better with religion. There is no life with religion that can’t be made better with more religion. The question isn’t whether to encourage young children to believe in God, but how.

The answer starts with an old myth made new. The tradition of Christmas is most people’s first brush with religion and belief. Kids are encouraged to believe in Santa Claus, and when they get older they just carry on the tradition.

The problem with Christmas is that it just isn’t enough. I personally think Christmas is a beautiful tradition that does its job despite the constant assault of modernity and consumerism. But learning the lessons that Christmas aims to teach, by itself, won’t make you a believer.

It’s in this vein parents often try to force religion onto children, often not even knowing they’re doing that. It’s just too easy to not want to take the next step and cultivate the Christian mindset. Perhaps they had parents that forced it onto them, and are just carrying on that awful practice.

Every parent has to become a good steward of the faith. To make religion into something that aids your personal growth, not hinders it.

It is because of this that I welcome atheism into the fold as a legitimate alternative way of life. Atheists do not fight Christianity where it really matters, in the values that people make their daily decisions off of. Wanting faith to be rational and demanding proof is a good thing, as it’s just another way of making old myths new again.

But to answer the question, there’s no escape from religion. If you try, you simply reinvent religion, becoming religious about rejecting religion.