A CASE CAN BE MADE against certain private religious schools — namely the biggest, most lucrative and most prestigious ones — for exercising a little-noticed form of mental child abuse. Both in the manner and content of instruction, I assert that early childhood education by organized Religions is a form of brainwashing against helpless children long before they reach the Age of Reason. In Catholic catechism classes for example, certain outrageous absurdities are solemnly trotted out as Infallible Truth. The religion textbooks in gilded places such as Ateneo de Manila or De La Salle or Marian Imaculada Schools, the Iglesia ni Cristo and Adventist schools, Muslim madrassahs, Hindu temples, etc, are full of malicious fairy tales and insipid and vapid “dogmas” such as creationist myths, fantastical gods and goddesses and impossible histories of the earth, universe and man. But are these considered “errors in textbooks”? Oh no. It’s Freedom of Religion that has inexorably led to adults worshipping stone-n-wood idols and worshipping at the beck and bell of men in funny hats and silly costumes. This mental illness of epidemic proportions affects most Filipinos, whether they labor as GROs and trike drivers, jueteng or drug lords or as newspaper publishers, extortionists and innuendo-mongers.
What does more damage, I wonder, to the Filipino youth: the absurd but seriously made claims in religion and catechism classes, or some erroneous and badly written science textbooks?
Yet we are all asked to respect and reverence this system of mental child abuse in the name of freedom of religion. In this post I ask only that we, the People, recognize the limits of religious freedom in private and public schools and strictly impose the separation of Church and State, of Morality and Theology in the Constitution. For real. For the future. For the Children.
And please see the recent marvelous discussion on secularism hosted by Benj.
Popularity: 1% [?]
what is mental child abuse in this case? why is it ‘abuse’?
what is the bad effect here? what/who is hurt here?
another use of the word abuse is, “drug abuse”
in this context, you ‘abuse’ drugs when you use them beyond the context in which they should be used. ex: when you take cough meds for the high, you are a drug abuser.
is this what you mean?
Go, DJB!!!
And to parents out there, send your kids to REEDLEY instead of La Salle or Ateneo.
GabbyD,
No that is not what I mean. Child mental abuse is taking advantage of human beings who cannot possibly know any better and programming them to believe in certain inherently absurd and wrong ideas. Even if some survive the abuse and gain a measure of sanity, the vast majority are trapped in a kind of mass hypnosis, that I believe stunts their progress and prevents the growth of a rational, open prosperous society, even more so than corruption, more than indolence, more than a lack of creativity, or historical accidents.
This is where religious domination begins: at the catechism and religion classes where false hope and fairy tales are inculcated in defenseless minds.
In truth all science textbooks are wrong…eventually. But not a single one of them, not even the worst of them all filled with all kinds of horrendous errors, proclaims hubristically that it cannot possibly be wrong, that it infallibly correct.
Only the mental abusers in cassocks and habits make than insane claim.
From my point of view, DJB, the process is a lot more democratic than the melodramatic portrait you provide.
Thousands of parents thru these years have been making the decision (and opening their wallets) to send their kindergarten and grade-school kids to La Salle, Ateneo, many such private schools.
Their money, their children, their choice.
I know UP n grad. They’ve been drinking the Kool Aid for centuries…
True to the Freemason tradition, my family has had a more than a century of tradition. None of us should be sent to Catholic school. My father never attended Catholic school. I still hold that. I don’t want my kids to attend Catholic school (not because of “religious silliness” but that the costs of Catholic school does not always equate to quality education. Also this kind of Catholic education reinforces class distinctions in our society).
DJB. This real tale should interest you. BTW only my uncle Pete attended Catholic school. He attended UST’s Faculty of Medicine and Surgery in the early 1950s. But being the pilosopo Freemason, he got into trouble with the Regent who recommended that he should not get his MD on “religious grounds”. Only a noted surgeon argued in his favour when he said that Dr Vallejo is unlikely to use religion when treating patients but MEDICAL SCIENCE. And so Dr Vallejo got his tasselled cap from the rector.
My siblings were sent to the Episcopalian Trinity College, PSHS and the University of the Philippines High School.
I never had any formal religious education when I was young except for 1 hour with a RVM nun and another with an Anglican priest.
But I am Catholic and at odds with 1) Liberals 2) Catholic traditionalists, Protestant Fundamentalists and ta dahhh 3) Opus Dei!
DJB. The so called Catholic religion textbooks you refer to used in Catholic schools are often filled with unorthodox ideas that can give Papa Ratzi headaches.
It is worse to have outdated science textbooks than heresy filled religion textbooks.
BTW one evidence that Catholic theological education ends up screwing up people’s natural intuition on the Divine is found in some graduates of that school on Katipunan Road. After surviving 24 units of Theology there, I have known people ending up atheist! I think it is with the theology professors.
But then again, the study of Catholic theology should make you a razor sharp bloke who can wield reason and will prepare you to do extremely good science. Study Aquinas!
Which parent would have the nerve to tell their kids that yes our DNA is exactly the same as 98% of the DNA of our closest relative the chimpanzee?
I think mental child abuse is the wrong choice of words…
If the news media would describe the problems in Palestine as the God of the Jews doing battle with the God of the Muslims one would see the lunacy of organized religion.
The reason why Church schools are at the top is simply an extension of the church state union during the colonial period imposed by Spain.
In Spain that union prospered till the death of Franco.
Organized religion must hold captive the minds of the faithful to perpetuate its existence. What better methodology is there than to catch them young.
ok. thanks. let me challenge you a bit in your comments @DJB on February 2nd, 2009 9:20 am
i will set aside your insistence that religion is wrong. i don’t want to convince you otherwise. needless to say, i don’t think religion aims to be ‘right’ in the sense you mean.
lets say you are correct. religious education does all you say.
where is the evidence for this: “the vast majority are trapped in a kind of mass hypnosis, that I believe stunts their progress and prevents the growth of a rational, open prosperous society, even more so than corruption, more than indolence, more than a lack of creativity, or historical accidents.”
is it true that more religous people are:
–> less rational? define rational here. if rational means “do what it takes to accomplish their goals”, then you must prove that they do not pursue their stated goals.
–> closed? that they are not open to new experiences? new philosophies?
–> less prosperous? that people who underwent religious educ are poorer? OR have growth in incomes that are slower?
–> is it true that religion (in and of itself) is more damaging than indolence, lack of creativity, etc… damaging how?
here is my point. you say that religous educ damages kids.
please prove that it does. or at least some anecdotal evidence.
here is my theory. to you, religious knowledge and faith in general is always bad. like i said, i can accept that, even tho its an erroneous understanding of religion.
but please, what is the damage?
you next say:
“This is where religious domination begins: at the catechism and religion classes where false hope and fairy tales are inculcated in defenseless minds.”
false hope? can you expound? do you mean salvation is not true? do you have any information that guarantees that salvation is not true?
fairy tales? i actually like that. fairy tales are a repository of human wisdom. jack and the beanstalk, frog and the prince… cool… thats why these stories survive and get remakes because they are wise.
however, no fairy tale has ever offered salvation…
in another post, or comment, can you outline what a superior education is? not about science and math — we all agree about that! but what do we teach kids about the relationship among men, men and the world, and men and meaning in life? what kind of syllabus would your proposed education be like? (and remember we’re talking about kids here!)
Sigh. And just like that Dick Dawkins is back. But I suppose since we afford banign0 his rant-and-rave space, we can afford DJB his as well. Mother of pearl, I’d gladly join DJB’s fight against Padre Damaso, but I often find myself defending Damaso instead. Blackshama, Bencard, and the other Catholics are willing to fight Damaso, too, but alas, DJB is alienating his would-be allies. There has to be something wrong with that technique. It’s almost benign0esque.
(I was a product of Catholic elementary and high school. Id like to think I turned out ok. ;) )
DJB, haven’t read your article but mental abuse begins at birthing. I’m sure you know about birthing trauma.
WASN’ THAT Amazing?!!
This year’s Superbowl is the roller-coaster ride to beat all roller-coaster rides. Egahd, I almost fumbled my balls. Lost a pretty sum too.
JA_G
I would tell my boy that his DNA is 70% shared with nematodes. That is science. I hope my boy will realize that he is one with the rest of nature and not above or separate from it.
Gabby_D
Since the overwhelming majority of humans on the planet believe in the Divine, it is more plausible to hypothesize that this trait confers fitness for survival.
But then I think religious people apply their faculties of reason in varying degree. What is dangerous when religious people abandon their faculties for religion. The Catholic Church was never built on this fundamentalism even if one has to subscribe to its beliefs. It should be in light of reason illuminated by faith.
But I don’t believe that Catholic religious education kills a child’s faculty for reason. On the contrary it does not. The fact that some Ateneans end up atheist is proof positive. My Atenista atheist friends say they came up to atheistic conclusion purely by reason!
It should be in light of reason illuminated by faith.
Just like Science. Hey, maybe there is something in this Science-is-Religion thing, no?
@blackshama
“Since the overwhelming majority of humans on the planet believe in the Divine, it is more plausible to hypothesize that this trait confers fitness for survival.”
yes, but this is the hurdle that DJB must overcome to prove/show what he wants.
also, he is saying something specific — religous educ, NOT faith– is abuse.
he is saying more — that this is the MOST important thing.
this is a strong statement that perhaps is testable.
i say: c’mon! lets test it!!!
i also find ur last par funny. the proof that they are logical is that they become atheists… hahaha… you, as a catholic, must be an idiot. better tender ur resignation and start counting ur thumbs!
But Gabby, maybe Blackshama’s Ateneo friends have not experienced anything that they could attribute to a communion with the divine. In that case, it is a reasonable position to take. “I have no experience with the divine, and unless I do, I won’t believe in it.” That makes sense. What doesnt make sense is, “I have no experience with the divine, therefore YOU shouldnt believe in it.”
@blackshama
oops sorry, wrong, u didn’t go to catholic school pala. mali ang hirit ko.
@jeg
yeah, i agree with what u said. being an atheist is reasonable.
but i think its funny that the sole fact that some atenistas became athiests is proof that catholic education isn’t rationality destroying.
Paano kung walang naging atheist? Irrational ang mga atenista? probably not.
but i think its funny that the sole fact that some atenistas became athiests is proof that catholic education isn’t rationality destroying.
You have to excuse blackshama. He’s a biologist. (Joke lang, professor. :) )
GK Chesterton said, ‘Without God, there wouldnt be any atheists.’ Haha.
DJB
The “mental abuse” you claim to be inflicted upon the child by “certain private religious schools” may be better understood in the light of the following constitutional provisions:
–Art. II (Declaration of Principles and State Policies)
“Section 12. The State recognizes the sanctity of family life and shall protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution. It shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception. The natural and primary right and duty of parents in the rearing of the youth for civic efficiency and the development of moral character shall receive the support of the Government.”
–Art. XV (The Family)
“Section 3. The State shall defend
(1) The right of spouses to found a family in accordance with their religious convictions and the demands of responsible parenthood.”
So, “the rearing of the youth for civic efficiency and the development of moral character” is the “natural and primary right and duty of parents” wielded “in accordance with their religious convictions.”
Government, in fact, is merely tasked to “support” the exercise of this “natural and primary right and duty.”
The fault, therefore, lies in the parents themselves, particularly “their religious convictions,” who–in exercising their “natural and primary right and duty”–send their hapless children, freely and without any compulsion whatsoever, to “private religious schools” to be openly subjected to the “mental abuse” you are concerned about.
As regards the exercise of “religious convictions,” however, “No law shall be passed …”
GabbyD
I came to the Catholic belief first by reason, secondly by faith.
BTW it seems it’s hip to be an Atenista atheist. It must give the Jesuits reason to celebrate and give fame to the Ateneo (shades of the Ateneo pro RH profs!)
However it must be dangerous to be a Thomasian atheist. You may not graduate! (Ask my uncle Dr Pete Vallejo)
It is a pure waste of time to be a UP atheist. No one cares and people routinely create their Gods! :-)
“Which parent would have the nerve to tell their kids that yes our DNA is exactly the same as 98% of the DNA of our closest relative the chimpanzee”
Why? What’s wrong with being related to chimpanzees?
Why? What’s wrong with being related to chimpanzees?
You can’t borrow money from them. And their toilet habits are atrocious!
Could it be viable, as DJB seems to suggest, to start education on the sciences only? Then perhaps later when the students’ inquisitive minds are not satisfied, then it’s time to introduce them to religion.
Good counterpoint Mr. Domingo Arong. In discussing religion and philosophies, do not ignore history. To do so, would smack of revisionist tendencies.
Fact is, the Philippine State was forged with the direction/guidance of two Christian Western civilizations: first by Spanish Catholic priests and then by the American Thomasite teachers. Although representing two branches of Christianity, both groups were evangelizing missions.
Picture the country had Islam dominated. Then our children would be learning Koran in madrasas instead of the Ten Commandments in Paco Catholic High.
But Domingo Arong, Phil Manila, what would the Muslims or the Buddhists say about your Christianist interpretation of the Constitution?
Indeed what would the American founding fathers say??
I am not questioning Freedom of Religion. I am questioning whether the act of education is validly to be considered an unrestricted ground for Religion to sow its beliefs, right or wrong?
The Truth always matters to the Constitution. That is why it defends Freedom of Religion! Any Religion. Or none.
If you believe in the Separation of Church and State, you also have to believe that Morality has been untethered from Theology by the Constitution and Theology downgraded to MERE freedom of speech and expression.
As such, there is a secular moral equivalence between religious education and pornography, or astrology, or dvd movies. Freedom of religion is mere freedom of speech and thought.
That doesn’t mean that all thoughts and speech are of equal worth. What happens in religion classes in unacceptable intellectual dishonesty, imo.
Peste,
If you wait till most Filipino human beings are older than about ten, there is no way to brainwash them about the Father Son and the Holy Ghost. That is why they must be captured young, while the neuronal connections are still plastic and susceptible to inculcation.
DJB, youre arguing that Catholic schools should stop teaching Catholicism. That’s silly, unless you believe the children belong to the State. Your beef is with the State teaching religion.
If a parent doesnt want a Catholic education then they won’t send them to Catholic school, yes?
“If the parents” I meant. Baka makita ako ni Calipjo-Go.
“If the parents dont” Dyaskeng Calipjo-Go yan. :D
Jeg,
Lots of non-Catholics actually send their kids to Catholic schools for the superior English, math and science instruction. Which you may find strange, but I think it just means that those schools could happily ditch the religion classes and still produce decent citizens.
Else what does a public school system MEAN??
Yes I do mean that Catholic schools ought to teach Catholicism at the college level. Maybe. Or earliest is high school. But not the toddlers! Please naman! I would be more impressed with even small numbers of human beings choosing to be Catholics if the Church did not have unfair advantage over them when they just didn’t know any better.
but I think it just means that those schools could happily ditch the religion classes and still produce decent citizens.
Theyre Catholic schools. Anyway, they didnt ditch their religion classes and still they produce decent citizens such as you and — cough — I.
But not the toddlers!
A ban then! A ban on Catholic parents teaching their kids the Catholic faith. See where this slippery slope leads?
DJB,
The particular Constitutional provision I cited earlier here speaks of a “natural right”–“The natural right and duty of parents”–a “right” that naturally existed long before any Philippine Constitution was ratified.
There are, of course, several other “rights,” that many regard to be “natural,” even “human”; but, for some reason, this is the only “right” the Constitution expressly recognizes as “natural”–a “natural right.”
So, if parents “in accordance with their religious convictions,” opt to wield this “natural right” and freely send their children to be subjected to “mental abuse” by the teachings of “certain private religious schools,” they should not be denied the opportunity to do so–to exercise a “right” (the divine law of) nature bestowed them with naturally.
djb,
my public school did not teach me cathechism. it was the seminarians and the nuns who went to our school during our free time and gave us instruction that there is God and that his message is compassion and love. I never consider myself being abused after receiving this instruction or “brainwashing”. Other students who were not catholics were free to skip the instruction.
It was my belief in God that made me resilient and I am quite grateful that those seminarians and nuns have imparted to us the knowledge of God, something our school or parents never did.
The Church may have some dogma that are objectionable and so any other religious sects or any other association of people but those erroneous dogmas of the Church do not dim any bit the overriding message that we must love our fellowmen.
Jeg,
I am not talking of a ban, but a recognition that a certain spade IS a spade, which ought to a lead to a degradation of the value and esteem in which Filipino parents hold religious education. With such a recognition, over time they will choose to exercise their natural right to rear their children for “civic efficiency” and good moral character in ways more enlightened than turning them over to professional experts who will indoctrinate them much as they themselves were.
Domingo,
Do you really believe that parents have a “natural right” to screw with the defenseless minds of toddlers, even if they are their own progeny?
Okay I put a new question to the thread: “Is religious education NECESSARY for a person to achieve “civic efficiency”–which is the natural duty of parents to help them achieve?
The late then education secretary – when the curriculum – has been radically changed, led to the proliferation of textbooks that have been found to be full of errors by Prof. Go of Ateneo (was it?).
Don’t children have ANY rights at all about what is fed to them before their most vital part of their brain is fully developed — the bullshit detector?
Let us not over-simplify.
Its the children’s mothers who give the first teachings on religion. A Filipina mother’s worst nightmare is to raise sons and daughters who become atheists and heretics like DJB. LOL
Remember the lyrics of the song by Crosby, Stills, Nash:
‘Teach your children well,
Their father’s hell did slowly go by.
And feed them on your dreams,
The one they pick, the one you’ll know by.’
So what now, their own parents are child abusers?
“Religious Education is a Mental Abuse” – what kind of a demented hypothesis is this? where does this “slippery slope” end up – that being born into this world is an “abuse”?
it’s a cruel, harsh world, full of dangers both to the body and the soul. one cannot just give birth to a person and leave him to his own devices. can any one think of a worst form of abuse?
if “educating” a child to help him develop his own ability to freely exercise his freedom to form a belief is abusive, then why even bother birthing him?
every parent worth his salt wants his child to grow as a useful member of the human community, with basic understanding of what is right and wrong – a moral compass of some sort. at some point, an educated child, without compulsion, would have the ability to make choices independent of what he was “indoctrinated” with.
i don’t believe basic religious instruction would make a robot out of a child.
if only that DJB is the prefect example of a Catholic-educated individual then I am inclined to disagree with him on this but rather would agree with Bencard even if Bencard should disagree with me for my reason.
“It is a pure waste of time to be a UP atheist. No one cares and people routinely create their Gods”
Blackshama, mismo!
I attended public schools from elem thru college. In highschool and elem, however, the favored religion was Catholicism (masses were held, and regular catechism/Bible classes were conducted and regular time for confessions sanctioned by school authorities) — maybe because majority of students of course were Catholic. What slightly bothered me was there was a number in my classes who were Protestants, Mormons, Iglesia ni Kristo, at least one was a Muslim, — and I remember feeling concerned for them because they would just bear with the masses and the bible classes. It was some sort of passive discrimination or forced participation.
And during confession time. What a farce it was. We would end up inventing “sins” to confess to the pari so we could ran “pure” again after repititive prayers of 5 Glory Be’s and 5 Hail Mary’s (or whatever number and prayer the pari would strike his fancy). The pari had of course didn’t care if we had been really naughty or nice. LOL
Now, as to the Bible and teaching children. The Bible is one of the greatest books ever written, in my opinion. One of the most poetic. It has to be taught with great care to children — who are not yet equipped with noting subtle nuances/symbolism in narratives. I remember reading it seriously for the first time when I was a teenager — and of course all I could notice were inconsistencies in facts and outright barbarity of Yaweh in the Old Testament. Ten years later, I would re-read it again and I finally understood (My favorite parts are Psalms, Book of Job, the New Testament (esp. the Book of John), and the Book of Revelation). Read it like a piece of literature. Ditch the literal interpretation coz you might end up like Brother Ely or Pastor C. Quiboloy. LOL.
madonna,
There is no more wicked book than the Bible. In it are the ancient warrants for the rape and murder of one’s enemies, their enslavement and destruction; in it are awful mental inventions such as the concept of Hell, in which the dead enemies of the Chosen People are tortured and burned…forever…for years that number greater than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the sea. Such things are taught in painful detail to toddlers and young minds. They are taught fear and ignorance and prejudice, along with virtues yes, but in a warped, unnatural and totally medieval way.
Again, I ask, don’t todllers have rights to be defended from the obvious falsehoods, at least?
How can we care about “error filled science textbooks” — when at least these textbooks admit of the possibility of being wrong and being corrected, whereas down the hallway , in the religion class, we have no such humble attitude. Oh no! In that class what is being taught, which if one heard it in the Science class, would be ludicrous in the extreme!
Domingo Arong,
Where the Constitution mentions the education of children, do you not believe there is imposed upon us by all of those provisions together, the admonition not to LIE to children about things like our ability to turn bits of biscuit into divine flesh, and a drop of Mompo into divine blood? Now of course, maybe if they explained in for pages and pages the way Jeg can, maybe it’s acceptable. But then again he is a damnable heretic and would never be allowed to teach at a Catholic or Islamic school.
I think most people who have been through the brainwashing, attain a certain secret stance of disbelief within themselves and just decide to act like hypocrites all their lives.
My sense of everyone here is that actually…you are all secretly atheists, otherwise you wouldn’t be conducting this commerce with someone who is clearly bound for Inferno at least according to that eater of brains, Padre Damaso. There’s two hundred here for anyone who drops me a line if you ever hear anything of his whereabouts…
Madonna, if we ditch the religious teaching of the Bible, why bother teaching it at all… because it’s great literature. It is great but it’s not open to literary interpretation like Homer and Shakespeare.
There’s a lot of the meta-textual–archeology, history and social psychology–involved.
Bert; “if only that DJB is the prefect example of a Catholic-educated individual then I am inclined to disagree with him on this but rather would agree with Bencard even if Bencard should disagree with me for my reason.”
It’s okay Bert. I learn the most from those who disagree with me. You are my whetstone, bato!
toddlers being taught the Bible? i’d like to know where, outside of djb’s head. it’s highly unlikely. maybe i’m not too bright but at my age, i still have a hard time understanding its passages and symbolism.
Does the Constitution really allow adults, to LIE to little children? To tell them that if they don’t believe and obey what Sister Marian Imaculada says, that they will go to Hell and never come back? That they will be burned for all eternity in never ending suffering and torture, if they don’t behave in the class room? That it is necessary for salvation to have their first born son’s prepuce cut off at birth, or their daughter’s pudenda hacked off–because Yahweh or Allah said so?
Madonna,
Who do you think is responsible for most of the child SEX abuse in this country? Right you are: parents or close relatives of children.
Of course most parents love and cherish their kids. But why do we think them in capable of thoughtlessly and automatically turning them over to professional mind-altering institutions?
Look, in Benign0′s case, he’s ashamed of his own children for being Filipino. What could’ve caused such a warped parental attitude, if not some kind of religious education–or an extreme reaction against it?
Where is abuse in educating a child of religion (not those man-made religious inventions and frilocracy style)? Is there any subject in there taught to children other than God-consciousness and honesty, that is everything we do either good or bad is duly recorded even without the need of an Oversee Committee, COA, Ombudsman, etc., etc., love of and service to fellowmen, righteousness and uprightness? What is wrong with that? Where is abuse in there?
A famous saying of a religious savant runs, “cane is pliable when it is still young, but it breaks rather than bends when it’s old.”
Now, then does a child have considerable moral and ethical assumptions to know which is good from which is bad as the adult does? His/her mind is still not stoked up for that purpose so that s/he easily acquires and adapts to whatever wholesome and unwholesome things s/he get from the immediate environment, and the role of parents in building basic conscience on children backed up by their religions is so crucial.
Now look at the children in the west or other secular countries which religious education is not in the menu of their primary education. They usually end up bully against their own peers, no respect for their adults, they talk to adults like of their own ages (of course, that can be their culture), engage illicit sexual relation at young age just an ordinary habit as brushing teeth, bathing, etc., and even while at home.
Then, they bring that with them when they get old. We are informed that adolescence is the most unruly age-level of children. And it is also said that adolescents are hostile to any moral/ethical injunctions other than what come from their peers. But they select peers that is accommodating to what they are. So birds of the same feather flock together. It gets even harder when unwholesome traits get cemented during adult age. So they end up cold-blood criminals. Remember the Columbine High School Massacre? And other related killings committed by youngsters in the West?
Is that what you want here DJB?