Is giving religious knowledge to our children a case of child abuse?
 
Atheists often argue that at h eism is the default position , because everyone is born an ath eist (e.g. without knowledge of God ). They argue that religion is something artificially imposed on us from family, society etc. as we grow up. Rich ard Dawkins uses this argument in his book The God Delusion, and he goes so far as to call it child abuse if children are called Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus etc.
 
But are athe ists justified in postulating that we are all born atheists and atheism is therefore the default position and religion is something artificially imposed on us? In order to provide evidence for this belief, ath eists would h ave to demon strate that humans do not h ave an inborn religious or spiritual nature or that there's no reason to believe that they h ave. Can they do that? I have never seen any scientific or logical evidence to support their cl aim. In fact I've seen a lot of evidence that supports the opposite, for example, the idea that humans cannot be reduced to matter alone, but th ey appear to have a religious or spiritual nature. There is, for example, strong evidence for concepts such as reincarnation a n d out of body experiences. And last year, a new book came out which argues from a neuroscientific perspective that human beings must have a soul. The book is call ed The Spiritual Brain : A Neuroscientist Case for Existence of the Soul. It's written by Ph.d. Mario Beauregard and Denyse O'Leary. I invite you to investigate the scientific aspect of this discussion for yourself.
 
If we take a closer look at huma n nature it's quite clear that humans in general have a strong urge towa rds something divine. This becomes evident when we look at human beh av ior through out history. We will thus observe the urge towards something divine in every culture and society. Also consid er ing the above me ntioned science, it seems to me that this urge tow ards the divine is best explained as evidence that religiosity is an intrinsic part of Our human nature.
 
Now, consider the fact that many of our inborn abilities have to be trained and nourished systematically in order to d evelop properly. Take for example our ability to learn language, mathematics or musical skills. These abilities have to be trained and nourished carefull y. Otherwise they will not develop properly. Parents who deny their children the opportunity to develop these inborn abilities are actually abusing the ir children and t hey will , obviously, be considered evil by most people .
 
Now, as we have seen , there seems to be absolutely no reason why we should think that humans do not have an inborn religious nature and there are too many reasons why we should think they have. If humans actually have a religious nature the atheistic argument that religion is something artificial imposed on us becomes useless.
 
In fact, in such a scenario atheism would be something artificial imposed on us from outside, and religiosity would be the default position and therefore something that has to be systematically and carefully trained and nourished so that it will develop properly. In fact, in such a scenario, it would be abuse to stigmatize a child as irreligious and not let it develop its inborn religious nature as it is considered child abuse to deny a child the opportunity to develop its inborn abilities to learn things like language, math ematics, and musical skills.
 
As theists we know from God's revelation, pe rsona experience, science and philosophy that we in fact do all have an inborn religious and spiritual nature and that this is indeed the most important part of our human nature. Therefore we also know that it is in fact an extreme form of child abuse not to train and nourish that inborn religious nature in our children. A person who hasn't developed his or her in born rel igious nature has no possibility to see the world as it is namely as the product of divine design and given to us as a gift from God. Such a person will be left to suffer with no objective value, purpose or meaning in life and thus with no hope of becoming really happy. But not only that. Such a person will also be morally crippled because without knowledge of God one can't know universal moral rules but only cling to moral relativism and subjectivism. Therefore atheism is dangerous both for the individual and soc iety in general. As believers in God we should therefore nor just sit idly and look on while the atheists dictate what is good and bad for our children and how they should, or should not be educated.
 
Ajita Krsna Dasa, a disciple of Mahavisnu Goswami, lives in Denmark and is engaged in different preaching activities. He does a lot of internet preaching. He has been serving in ISCKON for 9 years and is a schoolteacher by profession.