Initiating Children as members of Religion is Wrong
The good parent does not act like the child's superior but the child's equal.
Superiority damages the child. Thus the parent rather than enrolling the child
in a religion will help the child freely and without prejudice find her or his
own answers.
If a child is awakened so that he or she instead of resisting the suffering and
pains of the present moment says, "I accept this for I can do nothing else," he or she will never need to
be part of a religion. When things change and maybe something can be done even a
bit then say, "I accept what is bigger than me and deal with what I can deal
with". To say anything else is refusing to feel more in control.
It is nice to feel that by accepting suffering you make it easier and you feel
free. To not accept is to judge and judging makes painful situations stay
painful longer and perhaps even more painful. Needing that is a sign of failure
and missing the point of life. As for suffering caused by mental perception, the
child needs to see that he or she is having a negative reaction to so-called bad
events and that it is the reaction not the events that is causing the
unhappiness.
A child needs to see that what matters is now. Don't see the present moment as a means to an end. See it as an end in itself. That matters. Prayer does not. Prayer only denies
A person can be selfish as a person. There is such a thing as collective selfishness. It is hard for many selfish people to be selfish and they get sick of it or frightened. So they join a group and this becomes a group that is out mainly or solely for itself. This strengthens their selfishness. They are in cahoots with people who are as selfish as themselves and they enjoy this group selfishness and find it more fun that individualistic selfishness. They need to be right so they insist they have the true beliefs. They need enemies to make themselves feel superior and to enjoy plotting against. It is harder to be dangerous to others on your own. It is easier and more enjoyable and therefore more selfish if you are in a group that is dangerous to others. Religion is notorious for tendencies to collective selfishness and thus is it is not fair for parents to involve children in this.
A religion that turns potential members away to do more research is at least taking steps to avoid all that. Religions that initiate children as members and are too anxious for box ticking that x is now a member are clearly showing signs of collective selfishness. There is something to hide.
People can be part of a group that makes them miserable. If those people are free to go but don't, then they actually want to be unhappy. This desire is fed by their negative thoughts and feelings and experiences and they often like to draw others into this unhappiness too. Don't think that just because somebody lives a grim and austere life that they must be unselfish! They enjoy their misery.
That is what religions are based on. The collective ego is so what religions are
for. Let children be children and end baptisms into the Church. End school
indoctrination.