Doesn’t that render it meaningless, if not immoral, to indoctrinate them in a religion (certainly any kind of revealed religion) before they have the ability to understand and consider what they’re doing. Teaching them about a faith is one thing but if the idea is that someone needs to consciously choose to follow God as is commonly the case, why make them blindly go through the motions?
Are we talking about making kinds just go to church every Sunday morning to go through the motions or are we talking about them actually accepting and practicing an entire faith in every aspect of their lives? I’d have at least some issue with the imposition of either but they’re very different concepts from each other.
Look, we know from scientific research that religion gives us happier, healthier, longer lives. This includes children, especially teens.
In order to adopt a religion, the best way is to be raised in a faith. There is no way to get around that.
As for teens, most teens raised in a faith adopt that faith. Some rebel, sure. You can't force them to seriously express it in their lives even if you wanted to. But there is no harm in having them i.e. attend church each week or religious instruction. My son is not religious today, although he is a good person who believes in God. As a teen, he hated services, but he went anyways, and I had him learn the traditional stuff. I always thought it went in one ear and out the other. But it's amazing how much he listened. He may not do it himself, but if he sees ME slipping he's ALL over my case, because he knows it is important to me, and because it is comforting to him to know that I am religious. The thing I'm saying, is that it didn't hurt him, nor did it deprive him of any freedom of choice.
