Religion should not be imposed on children, to allow them to choose for themselves

I am not saying religion should be banned!!, but that children should not be indoctrinated from a young age to believe and accept the religion their parents choose them to. Surely it is in everyones interest that we give our children the right to choose their beliefs for themselves?

to those who are religious, religion is not IMPOSED but rather passed on as a blessing. consider the sacred christian sacrament of baptism. according to christian belief and doctrine, if you are baptized, your soul is safe if and when you die. babies are baptized so they can be protected through christ from an infant and throughout the rest of their lives. even for those of you who aren't christian/religious, surely you can see why this belief can not simply be "changed," because it is a fundamental belief of many particular religious groups.

another point is that many religions center around the family. if everyone of the family belonged to a particular religious denomination, it would ruin the foundation of many religious organizations. keep in mind that through the church, for example, what's best for the self (individualization) is not always the right way. rather what's good for the church (community) is what's important.

and again, even for those who are non-believers, you should still be able to respect and understand why people choose to raise their children to believe the same faith that they embrace. to disagree with this concept would be like saying that parents should not pass on any values at all, because someone, somewhere disagrees with them.

from a religious standpoint, not raising children to belong to a particular denomination is dangerous and obscene. it threatens institutions and can possibly weaken them. also, for believers, they would be doing their children a great injustice by keeping god out of their life. why should these peoples beliefs be comprimised? especially because like many adults, these children will someday grow up and can absolutely choose to reject the religion which they were raised to embrace, like many individuals often do.

also, kids are just kids. if they were capable of always making the 'right' decisions, we wouldn't mandate laws that require one to be "of age" to do certain things, like drive, drink, vote, etc. a child is likely to be so immature as to reject religion because religious education classes take up some valuable video game playing time.

anyway, that's it for now...

I am very sorry, but im afraid I have been too busy to post a counter argument to this debate. Excuses, excuses I know, but my exam results have recently come out, and I have been busy going through clearing, and the paper work. Im very sorry Numa, your counter argument was very persuasive, and you deserve a counter argument in return, I will be happy to resume the debate till a later date, If you want to that is! But for right now (as they say in parliament) I concede to my honorable opponent.

Apologies

i accept my opponent's gracious concession and hope that i can debate him on this interesting topic in the future. thank you to those who have read up to this point.