I don’t want to spam Jayper’s post so here’s my response to an interesting issue. Hopefully I’m keeping believers ‘honest’ rather than being obnoxious:), who knows .

To paraphrase…”Children in Christian families, in reality opt-out of it rather than in.” Accepted, and conceeded.

Think how big a step is it, for a normal nice child to opt out!? All those times when mummy told him with a huge smile, look how wonderful Jesus is, he gave us you, you were a gift from Allah. Remember that time we prayed in the car that granny would get better and she did, how wonderful Allah’s grace is… look at the wonder of ‘god’s’ creation etc etc Why would you ever want to reject Jesus who loves you and DIED for you!?! Mummy and daddy are bigger, older and smarter than you, and they ARE the TRUTH as far as child is concerned… and they believe all this stuff – what on earth would make a 10 year old disagree? (but I think belief in superhuman/godly happenings should ALWAYS be an opt-in… or myths and superstitions just pass down through generations)

Whilst I’ve no doubt that your kids will be ‘free’ to not believe, it’s in the same way that are ‘free’ to become a criminal. They love and respect their parents, and appreciate the love and teaching you have given them, and also church life is very nourishing and supporting…so for them to say… hmm nah I don’t really buy this stuff anymore is a massive slap in the face to Christian parents and the children know this. Much more than say supporting a different football team to dad, or even dare I say coming out as gay. My parents were reasonably liberal open minded, accepting and worldly wise people, but I swear that it would have been easier for me to tell them I was gay and loved men rather than that I didn’t love Jesus (not that i ever wanted to do either).

I’ve said on KBAE’s blog, and Jayber seems to concur that maybe there is no moment when a child of Christian parents ever gains ‘faith’ and is ‘saved’, if they have been taught jesus as fact from childhood… it’s a process of being old enough to realise what you need to do to be a ‘big boy’ and make your parents really happy… rather than a conscious decision upon weighing the evidence.

The ramifications of the opt-out rather than opt-in are huge in terms of human’s inclination to post-rationalise their decisions (especially if you are 3rd, 4th 5th, 20th generation believers!). There is no doubt that some people come to Christianity fresh, and are convinced by other believers’ experience or the evidence for Jesus. While that can’t be denied, the overwhelming majority of church going believers are people who have been brought up as children to accept (rather than believe) the Jesus story. Is this really faith? or is faith just a post-rationalised add-on to justify acceptance of unsatisfactory evidence. The what-do-we-teach-our-children issue is more of a what-did-my-parents-teach-me… and what baring had that on my openness to be convinved by the resurection (on which it all hangs).

Although christianty is much more… it flows from an intellectual decision to believe that the resurection actualy happened. Is it not fair that someone should be allowed to make that decision from a position of first not believing it… as oppossed to being indoctrinated with it (with the best of intentions). Same goes for Joesph Smith and the tablets, mohammad and the angel, Tom Cruise and the aliens etc etc.

I think perspective can sometimes be gained by non-opt-outs by analyzing other normal, intelligent, non-opt-outs in other religions, faiths, sects and cults who have been brought up accepting that environment as normal and rational – then ask yourself why they believe what they believe and compare it to why you believe what you believe – it’s a can of worms that anyone who seeks truth mustn’t be afraid to open… unless the Jesus redemption narrative is more important to them than ultimate reality.