Teaching Your Kids About Religion

The majority of people in the world are born into a religion. Whether or not you choose to continue in it, select another to follow or just plain give up and go atheist, it is the parent's job to teach their children about their beliefs.

Religion has the benefit, even if you later reject it, of giving a child a base for his life. He can start out knowing that there is a certain way to do things and that something greater than himself is out there, keeping an eye on his actions. In some beliefs, there is a heaven and hell to keep him in line with fear motives. In others, the child must be more self-regulating, in order to achieve peace and harmony.

There are hundreds of different religions and people are constantly inventing new ones, but the majority of religions have several things in common that are beneficial to kids. One is that there is a god, or perhaps more than one, who controls things. This offers the sense of being looked after, even when a child loses someone close to them. On the other hand, kids can look at God as a wrathful being who punishes and takes away everyone they love, in which case the concept is more of a scare tactic!

Most religions also agree that death is not the end. Some offer hope of a heaven, a paradise to reward the good, others add hell to that and yet others add several dimensions between the two! Reincarnation is yet another belief that offers something besides a great nothingness when we leave our earthly bodies. Depending on how a child is taught, these can be soothing or frightening images. Threatening a small child with hell fire and brimstone is a good way to scare him into behaving, but it can also cause permanent emotional damage!

Teaching your children about religion doesn't have to be difficult. Most people grew up with a basis in their church and never changed. For example, Roman Catholics tend to stay Catholic and follow the church rituals of baptism, confirmation and such, throughout each generation. Although the parents may not attend mass every Sunday, they are well-enough steeped in the religion to teach it to their children.

Parents should also accept that there is a possibility that their children will reject their original religion. This can be a very difficult thing to accept, especially in families where their belief is more tradition and defines who they are in society. A wayward child who decides to go off and become an Evangelist or a Buddhist might even be banned from his Catholic family. The same goes for mixed religion marriages.

However, as a parent, you need to look past the basic beliefs and see that your child is happy and is making decisions as you raised him to do. If he has chosen another religion, it is time to consider the fact that perhaps not all other beliefs are wrong. The truth of the matter is that every single religion is convinced that it is the right one, but there is no proof that any of them are incorrect!