Quote:
Originally posted by Starboy,+--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Starboy,)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>I was giving suburbanite the benifit of the doubt and assuming that the party that would feel betrayed were the parents, not the child. As you pointed out, a devoutly Christian child becoming an atheist because their parents are devoutly Christian is absurd. Certainly possible but I would suspect not very common if it happened at all.
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Research: Child OR Teenage AND Rebellion
The psychological concept has existed since Freud and there are massive amounts of research on the subject. The connection derived from the devotion to a set of dogmatic principles is exactly what shifts during a Child’s stage of rebellion. If a household is Atheist and has no religious dogmas, it is unlikely that out of rebellion a child will convert to Christianity, unless Christianity is condemned in the household dogmatically. Contrariwise, the dogmatic nature of religion allows for children to question religion during their two adolescent stages popular science would call “rebellious”.
Christianity has an extremely strong hold on children though and without this stage it is highly unlikely that they will ever denounce their faith void a dramatic experience of very extreme proportions. Christianity is developed after the years in which sexual identity develops, making it a lot less strong a concept in the mind as homosexuality for example, though it isn’t all that far off (only one or two years where the mind develops a higher level of understanding of language).
Don’t reply to me on the subject, because a lying backhanded theist is just lying to you right now. Instead, go to google, do a lot of research, and then come back.
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I figured it was an even more unlikely possibility that a Christian family would have the PARENTS turn athiest and "betray" the child. Either way, I don't see it as anything other than a well reasoned and usually very difficult decision on an atheists part.
Religion has such a grip on people that they will turn on their closest friends and relatives over this, trading the here and now for a promise of an afterlife later. Atheists know what they are getting into but do it anyway. Considering the likely cost to themselves I have no doubt they do NOT do it just to "rebel".
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The effort isn’t conscious. They aren’t James Deaning the whole thing; it is just a process of psychological development. If a child being raised as a Christian does not question his or her faith during this stage it is unlike they ever will, unless, as I said, they experience a dramatic experience of very extreme proportions. Children not raised particularly religious or exposed to a high level of religious diversity will come to grips with Atheism, if they take that route, relatively easily. I myself never had any problems with my faith. I was never harangued about it nor did it frighten me. I simply never adopted the notion of faith as a child, which I am thankful for, though I can expect a Christian to be equally as thankful for their position in life.