I used to very religious, but I found a belief in religion can’t hold up to any real test. Of course, there are people out there who have been tested in ways that I can’t imagine, and I respect them greatly for going on. But, I would still argue if they actually believe in religion rather than just claim to, then their faith in that belief itself has never been tested enough. Furthermore, let’s not confuse a faith in life with a faith in religion or a faith in goodwill, etc. I can believe that some people have an indomitable will to live, I just don’t think a faith in religion and goodwill can hold up to all of life’s tests.
Nonetheless, I think faith in religion and goodwill is just fine if one can manage to hold them. My question is; when is a good idea to teach others these things? I grew up hearing that my family’s church was true and no other. I had an active imagination, but not enough of one to imagine the afterlife they described to me. Nonetheless, I would have been willing to take their word for it, but I knew there were people all over the country just like us except with a different religion. It was beyond my comprehension at the time that I would be so lucky to be born into a family that happened to have the right one.
So I grew up with no real faith. But, I did get something very significant out of all they were teaching me. While I didn’t believe them when they said, “this is the way things are”, I did believe that things had to be a certain way, and when I found it I would know because the people living by that belief would "stand outside the crowd. Imagine how wasteful 10 years of looking for buried treasure that never existed would be, and you will know how wasteful looking for objective truth is.
I believe if I was never taught religion as if it was a fact rather than only a way of life, I would never have been so delusional. My argument is that in a closed culture people can teach a religion and have some luck of keeping it, and actually having it be a positive part of their life. In an open culture it is near impossible. Those who have it good from the start can just casually keep their family’s religion like an old photo album they never look at or throw it out like a pet rat they’ve grown tired of. Most people who are raised in religion, whether they always claim to be religious, made a pretense at atheism early on or are somewhere in-between, are set up for a life of doubt, indecisiveness and guilt.
So in an open culture I don’t think it is ever a good idea to teach religion as an objective fact. Telling someone to believe in the face of the glaringly obvious inconsistencies of religion that one sees where ever they look is as bad as telling someone to play through the pain. Religion, if taught at all, should be taught based on new methods. Can you believe people are teaching religion the same way in modern society as they did in the Stone Age, where everyone had to worship the same?