I was born in the late 1960's and in retrospect I was glad I made my debut on earth during this era. When I refer to this era, I mean a time when technology was advancing at break neck speed, attitudes were becoming more liberal and people were beginning to think more openly.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet though because closed minded spectres revered in books long from the past still had firm root in modern day societies thinking. People were still using religion to control others, channel their thinking and play on conscience en mass.
As a kid my childhood was fairly unremarkable but contented. I was a sickly child with an overbearing protective mother and a pragmatic father. We were a working class family and I remember my parents striving hard for many things and toiling long hours at a local factory. I spent a good deal of time with my grandparents on the next road who'd had an even harder working class upbringing.
My parents and grandparents didn't really do religion, occasionally my gran would show old copies of the bible she'd received from previous generations but that was about it. I suspect my mother was open minded and a little spiritual, she kept a neutral stance on it really whilst my father never really mentioned it. They were though both of the opinion that should I want to discover faith later on I was free to do so but they would not foist it upon me and have me baptised. It was to be my choice later in life, an informed choice when I better understood such issues and the gravity of it all.
My education began, the curriculum of course contained elements of religion. Most notable in those early years was the daily assembly where all the pupils gathered, sang songs and said prayer. In those formative days though I didn't understand some of the biblical words and references but I enjoyed the communal feel and the chance to sing, in my innocence I paid little attention to the bigger picture and meaning. Occasionally through those early years vicars would come in and do the preaching bit and organisations would visit yearly and give us small versions of the new testament as gifts. I tried reading it but made little sense of it.
On to middle school which was pretty much the same routine, as my thinking developed and my ethics and conscience grew it became apparent that I often thought about the consequences of things and if the big man upstairs was watching - so I began to fear him a little. To be fair I wasn't an overly bright youngster, in my infant years I could tell the time at an early age and was good at writing but I was terrible at maths and probably had dyscalculia (dyslexia with numbers) to a degree. Later at middle school I only tended to be good at subjects I was actually interested in, these mainly being history, English and ironically on joining middle school - religious education (R.E). In the first year of middle school the curriculum was set before we could choose our preferred subjects the following year and R.E was one of those set subjects, as it had lots of (as I then thought) historical elements I embraced it, plus I really liked the guy that teached it, who was also my form tutor. I recall getting 63% in the exam, more than anyone in my class and my form and R.E teacher urging me to continue with my studies but something happened around that time that made me rethink things and change my perspective.
I can't recall in detail the whole of events but most of it has stuck with me to this day. I was approached walking home from the local boy scout's group one night by a local man who'd visited the scout hall for some reason or another. He told me he was setting up a new youth group and wanted some young responsible people such as myself (yeah right!) to help out and would I be interested? Of course I was young and impressionable not to mention flattered to be asked. I was a little knowledgeable of this man, and so were my family as he lived fairly nearby and worked for the local newspaper. So, I went along with him the following week to the new youth group. In his car I pressed for details of what the group would involve and what we 'd be doing, he seemed evasive in his reply. I recall being taken to a large house on the outskirts of town and on entering found most of the group were younger than me, and all of them seemed polite and amiable, almost too accepting in a sense. We were then told we were going to watch a film on video, to much excitement, as video was the brand new media of the day. The film turned out to be a christian one, preaching morals at every turn and demanding worship and obedience to the big guy allegedly upstairs. The film tried to be subtle but soon became a blatent moralistic christian affair with little doubt regarding the message it was conveying. Elaboration would be pointless here as I am sure you can imagine what such christian films contain. I felt unnerved, awkward and didn't want to be there. Then after what seemed like the longest film ever we were asked to kneel and pray. I went along with it and mumbled wanting the whole experience to end as it didn't feel right, in fact it felt uncomfortable.
On the way home I was the last to be dropped off in the car. The man who'd organised it and asked me along stopped short of my house and wanted to chat. There's no doubt he was charismatic and very eloquent as I recall but he also seemed to be pressuring me between the nice white teeth smiles. It was coercion to say the least and even a young and impressionable mind knows when something doesn't feel right. I told him I wasn't sure I believed, something didn't feel right about it all and perhaps the group wasn't for me. He didn't like that and became more firm, playing on my emotions and mind with subtleties and word play. I wasn't an adult and probably therefore couldn't debate or argue well, I just knew it felt wrong, slightly sinister and at the earliest opportunity I made my excuses and left the car telling him I wasn't interested in attending again. I told my parents who were concerned but also proud in a sense that I'd made my own mind up on such things, they also told me to avoid the guy in future and were not best pleased about things but as nothing wrong had occurred there was no need for confrontation, just for myself to be aware next time I guess.
From that moment on began my questioning of religion albeit in a quiet personal way.
I also recall a guy in my class at school, a quiet yet witty lad by the name of Darren. His parents were Jehovah's witnesses and I remember in R.E class he wasn't allowed to participate, just to read his own JW bible, he also wasn't allowed to do some activities or attend assembly. I would often chat to him about how he felt about his faith, the fact he couldn't indulge in things at Christmas with us all etc. The answers I got were that he felt miserable but he had no choice but to follow his fathers wishes until he was older. My heart really went out to him sometimes as he sat there alone in the class with only his JW bible to read as we went and had fun doing various things. Shortly after leaving school I saw him again and he told me he'd turned his back on it all and felt he had his life back again. Hopefully he was now free to explore life without the controlling restrictions of religion.
I've had a few encounters with Jehovah's witnesses since and of course now I am an adult and can debate with clarity and conviction but what annoys me about them is they always seem to have children or young adults with them when they visit, great leverage really as nobody likes to vociferously argue whilst younger people are around. In my last encounter with them, an older man who constantly quoted from their version of the bible was accompanied by a lad of 16 or 17 years, smartly dressed and looked a bit like David Beckham. After some debate I turned from the old fool and asked the young lad with glazed eyes 'why aren't you out doing sports, chasing girls and living life to the fullest whilst you are young and in your prime?' There was no reply only a worried expression, he didn't want to step out of line obviously. I just find it all very sad that young people can be seemingly brainwashed with lies and conscience eroding stories that have little truth or historical fact at all. You can be a good person without any religious prattling.
I appreciate compared to others that may have had staunch religious upbringings at Catholic schools or similar, my experience of faith or religion hasn't been too full on, though I suspect many of those people never took things too seriously at times either and questioned things too.
As for the rest of my younger years, I decided to pay little attention to religion and live my life, enjoy what it has to offer as it is beyond doubt in my mind that this is the only life we have, as there is no proof of an afterlife, that is just wish thinking on mankind's part. It's only in these later years I feel I need to be outspoken about the wrongs of religion and that people should be free to make their own choices and be allowed free thinking without having to be subjected to dim rhetoric and fables from the insular times of the past.
The bottom line for religion and young people is that in my opinion we don't need it. Parents can instill perfectly good morals, discipline and the difference between what is right and wrong without any religious influence and doctrine, it's that simple. To threaten children that there is a big bogeyman upstairs watching their every move and they could go to hell if they don't conform to the word of others in effect in my opinion a form of sublime mental thought control and a form of child abuse that sadly is tolerated in today's society by millions.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet though because closed minded spectres revered in books long from the past still had firm root in modern day societies thinking. People were still using religion to control others, channel their thinking and play on conscience en mass.
As a kid my childhood was fairly unremarkable but contented. I was a sickly child with an overbearing protective mother and a pragmatic father. We were a working class family and I remember my parents striving hard for many things and toiling long hours at a local factory. I spent a good deal of time with my grandparents on the next road who'd had an even harder working class upbringing.
My parents and grandparents didn't really do religion, occasionally my gran would show old copies of the bible she'd received from previous generations but that was about it. I suspect my mother was open minded and a little spiritual, she kept a neutral stance on it really whilst my father never really mentioned it. They were though both of the opinion that should I want to discover faith later on I was free to do so but they would not foist it upon me and have me baptised. It was to be my choice later in life, an informed choice when I better understood such issues and the gravity of it all.
My education began, the curriculum of course contained elements of religion. Most notable in those early years was the daily assembly where all the pupils gathered, sang songs and said prayer. In those formative days though I didn't understand some of the biblical words and references but I enjoyed the communal feel and the chance to sing, in my innocence I paid little attention to the bigger picture and meaning. Occasionally through those early years vicars would come in and do the preaching bit and organisations would visit yearly and give us small versions of the new testament as gifts. I tried reading it but made little sense of it.
On to middle school which was pretty much the same routine, as my thinking developed and my ethics and conscience grew it became apparent that I often thought about the consequences of things and if the big man upstairs was watching - so I began to fear him a little. To be fair I wasn't an overly bright youngster, in my infant years I could tell the time at an early age and was good at writing but I was terrible at maths and probably had dyscalculia (dyslexia with numbers) to a degree. Later at middle school I only tended to be good at subjects I was actually interested in, these mainly being history, English and ironically on joining middle school - religious education (R.E). In the first year of middle school the curriculum was set before we could choose our preferred subjects the following year and R.E was one of those set subjects, as it had lots of (as I then thought) historical elements I embraced it, plus I really liked the guy that teached it, who was also my form tutor. I recall getting 63% in the exam, more than anyone in my class and my form and R.E teacher urging me to continue with my studies but something happened around that time that made me rethink things and change my perspective.
I can't recall in detail the whole of events but most of it has stuck with me to this day. I was approached walking home from the local boy scout's group one night by a local man who'd visited the scout hall for some reason or another. He told me he was setting up a new youth group and wanted some young responsible people such as myself (yeah right!) to help out and would I be interested? Of course I was young and impressionable not to mention flattered to be asked. I was a little knowledgeable of this man, and so were my family as he lived fairly nearby and worked for the local newspaper. So, I went along with him the following week to the new youth group. In his car I pressed for details of what the group would involve and what we 'd be doing, he seemed evasive in his reply. I recall being taken to a large house on the outskirts of town and on entering found most of the group were younger than me, and all of them seemed polite and amiable, almost too accepting in a sense. We were then told we were going to watch a film on video, to much excitement, as video was the brand new media of the day. The film turned out to be a christian one, preaching morals at every turn and demanding worship and obedience to the big guy allegedly upstairs. The film tried to be subtle but soon became a blatent moralistic christian affair with little doubt regarding the message it was conveying. Elaboration would be pointless here as I am sure you can imagine what such christian films contain. I felt unnerved, awkward and didn't want to be there. Then after what seemed like the longest film ever we were asked to kneel and pray. I went along with it and mumbled wanting the whole experience to end as it didn't feel right, in fact it felt uncomfortable.
On the way home I was the last to be dropped off in the car. The man who'd organised it and asked me along stopped short of my house and wanted to chat. There's no doubt he was charismatic and very eloquent as I recall but he also seemed to be pressuring me between the nice white teeth smiles. It was coercion to say the least and even a young and impressionable mind knows when something doesn't feel right. I told him I wasn't sure I believed, something didn't feel right about it all and perhaps the group wasn't for me. He didn't like that and became more firm, playing on my emotions and mind with subtleties and word play. I wasn't an adult and probably therefore couldn't debate or argue well, I just knew it felt wrong, slightly sinister and at the earliest opportunity I made my excuses and left the car telling him I wasn't interested in attending again. I told my parents who were concerned but also proud in a sense that I'd made my own mind up on such things, they also told me to avoid the guy in future and were not best pleased about things but as nothing wrong had occurred there was no need for confrontation, just for myself to be aware next time I guess.
From that moment on began my questioning of religion albeit in a quiet personal way.
I also recall a guy in my class at school, a quiet yet witty lad by the name of Darren. His parents were Jehovah's witnesses and I remember in R.E class he wasn't allowed to participate, just to read his own JW bible, he also wasn't allowed to do some activities or attend assembly. I would often chat to him about how he felt about his faith, the fact he couldn't indulge in things at Christmas with us all etc. The answers I got were that he felt miserable but he had no choice but to follow his fathers wishes until he was older. My heart really went out to him sometimes as he sat there alone in the class with only his JW bible to read as we went and had fun doing various things. Shortly after leaving school I saw him again and he told me he'd turned his back on it all and felt he had his life back again. Hopefully he was now free to explore life without the controlling restrictions of religion.
I've had a few encounters with Jehovah's witnesses since and of course now I am an adult and can debate with clarity and conviction but what annoys me about them is they always seem to have children or young adults with them when they visit, great leverage really as nobody likes to vociferously argue whilst younger people are around. In my last encounter with them, an older man who constantly quoted from their version of the bible was accompanied by a lad of 16 or 17 years, smartly dressed and looked a bit like David Beckham. After some debate I turned from the old fool and asked the young lad with glazed eyes 'why aren't you out doing sports, chasing girls and living life to the fullest whilst you are young and in your prime?' There was no reply only a worried expression, he didn't want to step out of line obviously. I just find it all very sad that young people can be seemingly brainwashed with lies and conscience eroding stories that have little truth or historical fact at all. You can be a good person without any religious prattling.
I appreciate compared to others that may have had staunch religious upbringings at Catholic schools or similar, my experience of faith or religion hasn't been too full on, though I suspect many of those people never took things too seriously at times either and questioned things too.
As for the rest of my younger years, I decided to pay little attention to religion and live my life, enjoy what it has to offer as it is beyond doubt in my mind that this is the only life we have, as there is no proof of an afterlife, that is just wish thinking on mankind's part. It's only in these later years I feel I need to be outspoken about the wrongs of religion and that people should be free to make their own choices and be allowed free thinking without having to be subjected to dim rhetoric and fables from the insular times of the past.
The bottom line for religion and young people is that in my opinion we don't need it. Parents can instill perfectly good morals, discipline and the difference between what is right and wrong without any religious influence and doctrine, it's that simple. To threaten children that there is a big bogeyman upstairs watching their every move and they could go to hell if they don't conform to the word of others in effect in my opinion a form of sublime mental thought control and a form of child abuse that sadly is tolerated in today's society by millions.
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