Religious Indoctrination and Russell’s Teapot

Tonight at my church’s youth group, which I do not attend of my own accord, we were shown a video that was supposed to show us what gives God joy.  The video was of a very young girl, maybe 5 or 6 years old, reciting Psalm 23 (and, of course, you can purchase a HD version of the video for $1.99).  As the video played, my entire youth group expressed how adorable it was and how great God must be because of a child’s “faith” .

My reaction was different.  The video make me sick.  There are people on this earth who think it is not only a good thing, but a necessity of their God-given faith to impose upon their beliefs that cannot be proven onto their children.  I cannot stand for that sort of forced indoctrination of the impressionable youth.

It’s not rocket science nor is it insane to say that children are impressionable.  They are wet clay, ready to be molded by their parents.  If you were to give that moldable mind to a religious person then they are likely to put religious ideas into the mind of the child.  I would have no issue with this if there was evidence for the existence of a supreme being.

I view God very similarly to Russell’s teapot.

Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.

-Bertrand Russell, “Is There a God?”

I ought to call myself an agnostic; but, for all practical purposes, I am an atheist. I do not think the existence of the Christian God any more probable than the existence of the Gods of Olympus or Valhalla. To take another illustration: nobody can prove that there is not between the Earth and Mars a china teapot revolving in an elliptical orbit, but nobody thinks this sufficiently likely to be taken into account in practice. I think the Christian God just as unlikely.

-Bertrand Russell

I believe that if you took that first quote of Russell’s and replaced every reference to the teapot with “God” then that would accurately describe the state of His existence.  I will not believe in God unless he can be proven to exist, just as I will not believe in the orbiting teapot unless it can be proven.  I choose not to believe because the only evidence that exists is personal stories of people I have met and a book that has a lot of issues (see EvilBible.com and The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible).  It is easier to believe ideas such as the big bang and evolution by natural selection since they have far more proof (if you disagree with the proof of these two ideas here then I would love it if you would do the follow: read the entire Holy Book of your religion, read through proofs of evolution, and read through proofs of the big bang).

It is insane to indoctrinate your child with unproven beliefs that stem from religious books with countless inconsistencies.  I’m not saying we should outlaw religion or make it illegal to teach religion to children.  Parents should have a deep evaluation of their beliefs and their religion before forcing it on their children.

TL;DR:  There is no proof for religion so don’t force it on your kids.