Family, as a social, economic, cultural, and religious institution, indoctrinates children with all sorts of values, ideas, and ideals. Some of these values are necessary for life; some are reactionary; and some can be progressive, depending on the parents and the values of the family. From birth, children pass through different stages of indoctrination, fundamentally shaping—and often limiting—their hands, minds, and interactions with others in society. Such domestication, in the form of socialisation, is designed to create a compliant culture in which individuals operate within the boundaries drawn by the older generations of society in the name of culture and tradition. Before children reach a formative age of consciousness, they are indoctrinated into different value systems without their choosing.
Indoctrination is a central tool of domestication, producing compliant children rather than organic, inquisitive individuals who explore, think, and develop consciousness through interaction with their material and spiritual environment, rather than through socialisation by parents, family members, and often friends. It undermines children’s ability to think independently of their domesticated socialisation. Religious indoctrination in the form of socialisation is one of the most restrictive forms of socialisation, often constraining independent, secular, and scientific thinking. It becomes an early form of outsourcing, where children learn to avoid risk, seek pleasure, and remain within a comfort zone cushioned by culture, tradition, religion, and family—even when there is little room to think independently based on a scientific ethos.
The unsuspecting minds of children often find images and ideas of gods and goddesses amusing, much like their toys. However, once they are taught to worship these figures, they begin to internalise the ideas of fear and punishment. These twin pillars underpin many religious frameworks, where an unquestioning and compliant culture becomes central to seeking blessings from deities. Such an essentialist religious culture can diminish children’s ability to develop a truly humanist and spiritual outlook—one that recognises the spirit in all things, values every being and object, and respects fellow travellers in life. Children can instead learn about the history of all religions, their worldviews, and their rich, often fascinating mythologies, while growing up with a secular outlook that promotes tolerance, inclusivity, equality, diversity, and the freedom to think beyond the boundaries of fictional narratives.
Children deserve a secular and scientific education grounded in diverse cultures of reason, where dissent, disagreement, debate, and rejection are central to democratising existing knowledge and generating new knowledge and understanding of oneself and the world around them. They deserve an organic environment that encourages curiosity—where they can learn from their mistakes, make new ones, grow, and find their own paths and destinations in life. The perpetual cycle of learning, and the critical environment it requires, is undermined by religious indoctrination.
The impact of religious indoctrination on children is far-reaching. Drug abuse can often be treated with medicine and counselling, but there is very little remedy for the deeply embedded effects of religious indoctrination. Researchers suggest that children raised in strongly religious environments may find it more difficult to distinguish between fantasy and reality. Total commitment and surrender to faith-based, fictional narratives can create conditions in which patriarchy, feudalism, and capitalism more easily thrive. Moses, Muhammad, Matthew, and their many counterparts manipulate the masses in the name of salvation after death, contingent upon unconditional and unquestioning surrender. Such a framework can help create fertile ground for systems of power to sustain and reproduce themselves with minimal challenge. A religiously conditioned mind can also become a compliant and productive instrument within broader capitalist systems, where inequality and exploitation are normalised and preordained by gods and goddesses in all religions.
The ideas of hell and heaven, and of sacredness and sin within religions, can have a profound impact on children. These concepts can shape children in ways that make them vulnerable to religious and emotional abuse, and religious dependency can also produce psychological guilt that is not conducive to the development of a creative and happy mind, or a healthy body. It may also contribute to cognitive developmental delays in children’s understanding of everyday life and reality.
The ideas of gods, goddesses, and religions have no place in children’s lives beyond their mythological stories, which can be enjoyed for their narrative value like any other stories. Religions do not necessarily produce morality in children; instead, an understanding of inequalities, exploitative conditions and justice can help develop secular and moral frameworks for a better future, where scientific and secular knowledge drive human consciousness toward the greater good in society. Religions produce an amoral society in which human beings become slaves to religious dogmas and surrender critical thinking and human reason to ahistorical religious arguments that lack material and spiritual foundations.
Let children grow naturally in a safe, non-abusive, non-exploitative, secular, and egalitarian environment to realise their full potential as global citizens, unbound by territory, race, religion, caste, class, gender, or sexuality. Let science and reason guide them in their daily interactions with one another and with their natural environment, where children can learn, grow, and celebrate their innocence without war and conflict. Families, schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions of learning and governance can create these conditions for healthy children and a healthy future for the world.
Note: Views expressed in this opinion are author’s own and may not be found in accord with those of Kashmir Outlook
