the age of reason ...

Written partially in response to David G's
"So Innocent! So Defenseless! So Gullible!."

I have considered this and similar themes almost continuously (but obviously not 'full-time') for most of my adult life.

A short summary (but necessarily not too short):

1. As a young child (aged 6 or 7 perhaps), I was *forced* to go to 'Sunday school.' This (late) forcing might have contributed to 'saving' me; I am now and have been for a looong time an (aggressive!) atheist.

2. As a sub-teen I was 'counselled' by a 'man of the cloth' - not a bad person, I thought, and he had some good ideas - but even by that stage I could hear his 'messages' about his g*d, and smile: what rubbish!

3. Skip a few years to young adult-hood, and see with great surprise and anguish, the first marriage-failures in my peer group. My then conclusion: such people have an obvious information deficit, why did they put themselves into relationships that failed, and failed so fast at that?

4. Skip a few more years (lots) to the pre-planning for our daughter's arrival.

-=*=-

Intermezzo: I agree with David G's idea of a blank slate; extended, it is in the survival interest of the child to hear and instantly react to certain critical information, like "That is a poison spider, do not touch!" Hence, David G's 'sponge,' very young children suck up info, without any critical processing *possible*. It is this 'window of *unreason*' that is exploited to corrupt the child with religion (and other shit). Religious indoctrination may be initiated with a two-step process: a) scare the child shitless "Yore gunna die!" - then b) offer the 101% guaranteed way out "Unless you believe and get saved by g*d!" The age of reason takes over when the child becomes capable of detecting lies. Corrupting a child with religion is, in my opinion, disgusting, most serious child abuse. No excuse or pardon possible; the damage so done can, most often does, last a lifetime.

-=*=-

In (4) above, my wife and I discussed all of this and more. We came to the following conclusions (trying to be brief):

a) We agreed to my proposal that before 'the age of reason' (roughly, less than aged about 5 or 6, depending on rate of child's development), that we would protect our daughter from all lies, and that means from all sources, not just no 'little whites' from us (not at all necessary anyway, and extremely silly (possibly irrevocably damage to the child and trust, both[1]) - of any parent to do it), and point out any/all lies from outside. (One may begin to understand my loathing of lies via the MSM and public broadcasters...)

b) Following on from that, of course, trying to prevent any exposure to 'supernatural' stories, and if she did 'accidentally' hear such then explaining any error.

c) 'Naturally,' quotes here because it hardly happens naturally at all in our current societies, we instilled (recall: no critical faculties) a working, fair morality. Ours is (easily!) based on "Do unto others ..." with the (redundant but reinforcing) addition "Do no harm!"

Comment (redundant but required) : Handing the teaching of morals over to any church is an (obvious!) recipe for failure.

As a last bit (for now, trying to be compact), because the 'rest of the world' is so ugly, we gave our daughter fair warning "Other children may not understand and be mean to you, if that happens then you can simply ask them not to be so mean." That briefing, plus aware teachers (made so aware if required) can go a long way to surviving growing up and the education system both.

-=*=-

One 'payoff' came unexpected; our daughter informing us one day "Xxx lied!" in a wondrous voice. Her age of reason had been reached.

-=*=-

Quick summary/extension: In general, the 'normal' education process fails in several ways, first and most grievously at the parent level (why is there no standard manual? You may well ask), and later at the formal level, where along with the disinformation needed to turn out industrial slaves, the necessary information of basic human interactions is largely ignored or - worse - deliberately distorted.

-=*=-

Fazit: The first priority is, before the child's own natural 'lie detector' turns on, i.e. before "the age of reason," tell them no lies. Then, make sure that the obvious (wi-i-ide) gaps in the education system are filled by the parents.

Hope that's of some help.

-=*end*=-

PS Just as very young children have no properly functioning filter against lies, so the human audio/visual system has no properly functioning filter against TV - at any age. (No, it's not 'just' a movie! ... or 'news' broadcast...) The implications - and proof - are both obvious[1].

-=*=-

Ref(s):

[1] The possible antidote to these, as other problems: the truth. Lots of it. Exclusively and comprehensively, one might say.

[cross-posted]