The Creepy Miseducation of Christian Youth

It's not that I mind religious people that have made the decision based on personal judgment and reasoning, but brainwashing is not okay in my mind.

...of course that's just an opinion, make up your own minds
siftbotsays...

Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 11:05am PDT - promote requested by kronosposeidon.

Crosswordssays...

I think one of the biggest factors early on in my life for turning away from Christianity was the notion all you needed to do was believe in God and believe that Jesus was his son and that he died for our sins. When I was a young kid I identified as Christian, but my family wasn't practicing and I didn't go to church, though I occasionally prayed. Most of my friends were church goers, and of different denominations at that. I can't count the number of times I was told I was going to hell by them, not exactly something that sits well with a 6 year old. I also noticed how they'd say my friends of the other denominations were going to hell because they didn't believe 100% what the other friend did. Even at that age it struck me odd the someone could be an exemplary human being and still get sent to hell on, in my eyes, what was a technicality. I thought about all the other denominations, I thought about Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, (assorted) pagans and figured hell must be packed with basically good people. And why? because they failed to pick the right choice in a heavenly game of pick-the-right-box.

What was more, in many cases my friends basically thought whatever they did wasn't too big a deal so long as they were repentant, and thus were often cheats and lairs, yet among them I was deemed the dishonest one, not to say I never lied but comparatively I was a light weight.

I suppose this is what got the gears turning, it wasn't until I was a teenager I more or less counted myself an atheist, by then there were a lot more issues at stake, but the notion that accepting God and Jesus was (in most cases) 39/40ths of being considered a 'good moral' person still remains at the core of my rejection of religion.

All that said, I have known some great people who identify as Christians in my time, and had they been around when I was a kid I probably would have had a tougher time coming to my atheist conclusion.

iwastheturkeysays...

I personally think this is a pretty tame "brainwashing" video. While this may screw with a kid's view of themselves, their worth, and their world, it didn't tell them to force their decision on others or to judge everyone else's sin, and, most importantly, it didn't tell them that not accepting the "gift" would end in punishment.

Truly creepy christain brainwashing uses "hell" constantly, which just scares kids into conformity and leaves little else for understanding... this one doesn't even mention it.

Really miseducating videos tell kids that science doesn't happen, that homosexuality is evil, that they must "fix" everybody else, and that anybody disagreeing with them (including themselves!) is "of Satan".

Brainwashing is hard to define, in fact a definition has never been agreed upon, but I feel like it involves forcing something, or using shame and disgust to coerce a belief. But, as creepy as it may be, this particular video actually just sums up the theology of Christianity (the religion) in it's simplest terms. It left most of the "christian" (the group of people who use the religion only when it profits them) opinions and brainwashing out.

While the "you deserve to die" part was a little much, I personally think this video is actually just trying to just encounter a kid with a theology. Whether that itself is a good idea is still debatable, but I at least have to give the creator a little credit for not forcing all the other crap on the kid too. Serisouly, a christain film that doesn't mention the fires of hell? that's rare...

rottenseedsays...

I simply define brainwashing as the exploitation of an impressionable mind to influence that mind to disavow logic, reason and skepticism and to replace those mental exercises with blind, emotional faith.

rottenseedsays...

The more we learn about the universe we live in, the more complicated we find it. Answers just bring more questions.

That "The simple explanations are probably the right explanations" mentality is awfully archaic and assuming. Religion had its purpose for explaining the unknown and keeping social order and giving hope to those that lived in a rough era. Religion still has a purpose to the person, those that need that crutch, but in these times, religion is restricting positive progress by short circuiting choice based on reason and redirect choices to be based on religion. It's the herd mentality that we must fear and shun.

Either way, it's all for naught, we live, we die, whatever happens afterwards can only be told by those that can no longer speak.

moonsammysays...

>> ^rottenseed:
That "The simple explanations are probably the right explanations" mentality is awfully archaic and assuming.

In the case of science vs religion though, it does give the edge to science. Let's take one of the big questions: how did this all get here? The universe either came from a physical process which we're growing to understand more and more as we develop better tools and tests, or an all-powerful, inscrutable, invisible supreme being magicked it all into existence. And, you know, made it look otherwise to test us or something.

Ok, that's a bit of a false dichotomy I suppose. Seems appropriate given how oversimplified the subject video is though. I don't think I'd go so far as to use the terrible tag (for the previously mentioned reasons of avoiding really inflammatory material), but creepy is apt.

Oh, and if I'm wrong and there really is an all-powerful being(s) waiting to judge us on whether we believe in him/her/it/them in spite of a complete lack of hard evidence, may they/it/her/him strike Siftbot dead. Nothing personal Sb.

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