Give Me a Child Until He is Seven

Some time ago a Catholic accused me of being, as he put it, “*#ucked in the head nuts!” Of course the accusation was not made to my face, but on the internet, on a chat site where I had voiced my views on religion. Others are uncomfortable and see me as being too "militant" and trying to preach atheism.

This leads to a question I have for believers. If you were to encounter an adult sexually molesting a child, and you just happened to be holding a baseball bat, would you 1. passively retreat from the scene, or 2. consider taking the baseball bat to the perpetrator? Just how militant would you get if you encountered a screaming young boy or girl being molested by a priest or preacher or anyone else?

I hope you would strongly consider option number 2.

But what if a child’s mind is under assault? What if, as a Christian, you discovered that a Muslim living nearby had begun to tell your child that the idea she had been taught about Jesus were completely false? Would you say that the mind  of your child was being polluted?

Before you answer, remember that the brain of a child has not developed enough to think critically and rationally. Children can be made to believe anything we want them to believe. Until just recently, scientists believed that the “major wiring” of the brain was complete as early as the age of three and that by the age of 10 or 12, it had fully matured.  Now however, they are finding that the brain continues to develop far longer, even into the mid 20’s

 Like it or not, the clear and simple fact is, all babies are born as atheists. The definition of atheist is:  “somebody who does not believe in God or deities”. There is no way a baby can even be aware of a god or a deity, much less believe in one. All that nonsense has to be implanted in their brains before they reach the age where the brain is capable of critical thinking. This is why children of Muslims can be taught that Mohammed received his revelations in a cave and rode a white winged horse on a night journey to heaven, not unlike Christian children who can (and are) taught that a jolly old man in a red suit rides his reindeer powered sleigh through the night, dispensing presents to kids who have been not naughty, but nice. This is why the brains of Catholic children can be implanted with the idea that a cracker really, really is Jesus and they can eat him. This is the reason that Francis Xavier, who co-founded the Jesuit Order said, “Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man.”

 When a child’s vulnerable, undeveloped brain is indoctrinated with religion, turning them into little protestants, Catholics, Jews, Hindus or Muslims,  it amounts to a predatory assault on their minds, no less a crime than a predatory sexual assault on their bodies.

Instilling religious “faith” in the minds of innocent children is just another way of filling their heads with fear and superstition. It seems that everybody from the President of the United States on down, fall all over themselves to “honor” religious faith, no matter how disparate and contradictory the claims.

To understand how absolutely silly this is, consider this:

Every major religion, be it Mormon, Hindu, Christianity, Judaism or Islam, accuse all the others of harboring a false religion. Even Catholics and Protestants, supposedly believers in the same Jesus, accuse the other of harboring a false religion. And you know what? They are all correct.

It takes some degree of courage to admit we don’t have answers. But pretending we know when we don’t is far worse than not knowing. When we hold false beliefs, it leaves no room in our minds for the truth, even if it comes along and smacks us in the face.

The weak minded desperately need faith and miracles. Why? Because no intellectual effort is needed. Faith and miracles allow us to hold dogmatic beliefs without the need to understand the natural world we live in. Physics, mathematics, biology (especially evolutionary biology) not required. If you want to drag somebody down to your level of what I call willful ignorance, explain in your holy books that knowing and understanding things that contradict your dogma amounts to nothing less than blasphemy; a ticket to hell where you will suffer unimaginable torture for eternity. Turn things completely upside down. Let ignorance be your most valuable asset. Critical thinking and rational thought only means Satan has a grip on you and amounts to nothing less than blasphemy. Reason and logic are the devil’s way of testing your faith and therefore should be rejected out of hand. If confronted with facts, accuse your antagonist of being militant and using hate to further their blasphemy.

I can’t count the times that I have seen ignoramuses accuse non-believers of hating god. Why does it never occur to these folks that accusing a skeptic, agnostic or atheist of hating god is akin to accusing them of hating Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny?

Please jot this down somewhere because this is the last time I should have to explain it.

It is impossible to hate something for which there is zero evidence of its existence. That includes rabbits that lay big colored eggs, jolly fat men in red suits and fake beards; unicorns and dead men coming back alive after claiming to have gotten here without the help of a daddy. We don’t believe any of that and it is literally impossible to hate something one disbelieves.

The philosopher, Eric Hoffer reminded us that an empty head is not really empty. It is filled with rubbish; thus the difficulty of introducing anything new into an empty head. And he had it exactly right. Faith tends to swell up in a believer’s head like a balloon, using up all the valuable space that could well be put to better purpose. Once that happens, they  become obnoxious and arrogant because with a fully inflated balloon in their heads, there is no longer any room for rational thought. No wonder there are so many “persons of faith” out there. Since the discovery of evidence takes a tremendous amount of work and faith requires absolutely no evidence, the more evidence provided the more effortless faith can be summoned to counteract the evidence.

Ain’t that great!! Being a "believer" is ridiculously EASY!!

The faithful say that scripture was brought to us by divine revelation. I have some rather disconcerting news for them. Their scripture was not divinely revealed; it was humanly imagined. Trying to hide behind something imagined is not only asinine and childish, the bright spotlight of reason shines with laser like precision on your intellectual nakedness, exposing you for a pious parasite. If you want to peddle your Islamic, Christian, Catholic, Jewish or Hindu snake oil, wait until your victims are at least 25 years old. Then see how many 25 year olds will fall for your mindless, effortless claptrap.

Quit indoctrinating our defenseless children before they are able to reason on their own. Quit threatening them with hellfire if they don't obey the invisible man in the sky who reads their very thoughts.

If you don’t learn to leave children alone, you will keep hearing from me at: charliesitzes.blogspot.com.